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The Anglican Church in Tasmania Search |
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a healthy church...transformingLIFE |
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April 2006 |
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About Andrew LakeAs well as being the Rector of Sorell, Richmond and Tasman, Andrew is also the Mission Support Officer for the South Eastern parishes from Swansea to Brighton. He comes with a wealth of overseas mission experience in India and Indonesia which came about as a result of making 'open offers' to the Church Missionary Society. An open offer is when you say you are prepared to serve anywhere in the world doing anything, as opposed to a closed offer where you specify the country and the role to which you believe God is leading you. The first was in 1980 as a single high school teacher and the second time was in 1996 as a married clergyman with four school-aged children. Both times Andrew ended up in Asia. The first time was a two year stint as a teacher at the Woodstock International Christian International School in the Indian Himalayas. One claim to fame for the school was that the Indian music teacher at the school had taught George Harrison to play the sitar in nearby Rishikesh. One of Andrew's happy memories is taking some students deep into the Himalayas by bus, then truck and finally hiking up a pilgrim route to the hot springs at the source of the Jamuna River. Being winter and outside the pilgrimage season, they were the only visitors and had a happy encounter with a friendly Hindu hermit who cooked them a delicious meal in his tiny hut which he shared with a pious rat. An unexpected and very pleasant outcome of Andrew's Indian adventure was to meet Pam, a young Melbourne missionary nurse, whom he later married. The second time Andrew made an offer to CMS he was surprised to find himself the Vicar of all Saints Church in Jakarta and 'Honorary Chaplain to Her Britannic Majesty's Ambassador to Indonesia', which positions he held for eight years There he and his family had a myriad of unforgettable experiences ranging from terrorist bombings to elegant embassy dinners. Even public holidays were extraordinary like Id-ul-Adha the annual 'Day of Sacrifice' when the local Muslims filled the shopping centre car park for mass prayers, followed by feasting. It's rather disconcerting to see in a neighbour's front yard a huge water buffalo being decapitated and dismembered. Andrew and Pam have found that missionary service is seldom dull and are open to further missionary work in the future.
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