You know Christmas is just around the corner when Samaritan’s Purse start reminding you to put together some shoeboxes for children living in the majority world.

Operation Christmas Child they call it.

I love how it’s got an operation name. I enjoy giving things operation names.

Operation Get up. Operation Vacuum. Operation Get to Work on Time.

So I fully endorse their title and also the project itself, as I’ve been doing it every year for as long as I can recall.

I used to go to Kmart and pick things up to physically put into a shoebox. These days I do online shoeboxes which are much faster and get packed in the warehouse for you. An option that is one of those good things that managed to come out of the terrible pandemic.

If you’ve never given to Operation Christmas Child before, can I encourage you to look up Samaritan’s Purse in your country or region. They’re a great organisation.

In Sydney the last two years I’ve gone along to their OCC launch dinner in August. I’ve found them both really encouraging and complete with great one liners.

The Quality of Our Work is the Platform of Our Witness.

That’s what the coordinator of the SP Australian Disaster Relief projects said when he shared about their work.

I love it when someone articulates something so perfectly. I know that in my workplace I’m there for the benefit of society generally, but I’m also there as someone who wants to share the gospel. And sure, I’d love to be able to just speak freely, but I know that I live in a society that needs convincing of my validity first.

The Quality of Our Work is the Platform of Our Witness.

I loved the line so much that I typed it up, laminated it and stuck it to the side of my desk in my study.

I’m a teacher. You don’t need to ask me twice to use my laminator.

But one thing I really loved about the line was the validity it also places on my vocational work. The church often focuses on mission without the necessary focus on the means to doing so. I think plenty of people would look at my schedule and “extra-curricular activities” in the workplace and think that I’m doing it all for the career advancement.

Marking NAPLAN. Coordinating an inter-school network. Presenting at Professional Association Conferences. HSC Marking (just around the corner).

In the church you can feel judged for working hard in the secular workforce, when in reality, you know exactly why you’re doing it:

The Quality of Our Work is the Platform of Our Witness.

If that’s your motivation, that’s great.

For me it felt like a long-delayed nod from God that he understood, even if others didn’t.

Working for the Lord in all things, doesn’t mean we just drift about aimlessly. We have strategy.

We work by faith, but this doesn’t mean we work by accident.

That was the one liner this year, from a project director visiting from Cambodia and I wholeheartedly agree.

The ongoing tension of us doing our part and God doing his. That’s how we work for the Lord. We forge ahead but grip our plans loosely.

Considering all this and considering that there’s another school term about to start imminently, it’s perhaps a helpful time for me to reflect on these things and get my head back in the game.

Perhaps I should even get myself an operation name.

Yours constructing a platform,

Alison