Still crazy after all these years

The most extraordinary set of friends was a legacy of three years in Tonga, now a full three decades ago. Those of us who formed a tight-knit group of church and aid workers have kept in touch ever since, found opportunities to meet and marvelled at the enrichment that time gave us. Sunday brought five of us together. I was preaching at Quenbeyan Uniting Church. An interesting service: two infant thanksgivings (anointing with oil + giving of candle], a rather chatty communion and numerous hymns about the Australian landscape. I shared the service with the local minister. I was the one not wearing shorts and open-necked shirt! As well as my hosts, Leigh and Corina, the congregation also included Peter and Bonni Maywald. Peter had been manager of the Friendly Islands Bookshop (making sure we could read the Booker prize nominations each year) as well as business manager of the Free Wesleyan church of Tonga (minister of finance for Greece would be a good contemporary comparison). He's about 6 years older than me - thirty years ago that made him seem seriously senior. Bonni, among many other things, helped produce the fruit salad when Diane and I were married. She has a half-completed PhD on women in early Tongan christianity. Peter's just retired afer leading the administration of Norfolk Island for several years (many of the residents are apparently descendents of the Bounty mutineers) while Bonni works in disaster management. Not having seen them since December 1981, there was plenty to catch up on. Sharing communion with them all was very special indeed. Over the lunch the five of us must have sounded like a regimental re-union and I felt sorry for the minister and his wife who had to sit there while we recalled long-forgotten events, names and Tongan expressions. As you can see from the photo, there's a common look about ex-missionaries of a certain age! There was plenty of joyful news in the conversation, but also sadness as I heard that our friend and former colleague, Sally Chipman, had died last August only a few weeks after her retirement from ministry in the United Methodist Church, USA.

"We few, we happy few, we band of brothers (and sisters)"