Vacation Stories: OM Australia

In this and the next few blogs, I will tell some stories from our recent trip to Australia. We flew to Melbourne to visit Nevin and Ali, our son and his wife, who have recently taken positions there at the Australian Catholic University.

We spent three weeks in Melbourne, arriving on Tuesday morning, 16 July, and leaving on Tuesday morning, 6 August. On the first Friday there, Lois and I were fairly well acclimated. On our second Friday there, we [I] decided to go on an excursion. For the past 20 years (or just under), I have been on the board of OM Canada. Operation Mobilization (OM) is a worldwide organization that focusses on five primary goals: evangelism, church planting, relief and development, justice, and mentoring and discipleship. I have seen how OM Canada works in these areas and have relied often on OM to keep me in touch with the subjects I teach.

With this appreciation in mind, I wanted to see the head office of OM Australia, which is in a suburb of Melbourne. A quick Internet search showed that we could take the 906 bus 30 minutes east of Nevin and Ali’s apartment, and then walk for 10 minutes to the office. The weather promised rain, but we decided to head off to Blackburn, Victoria and find the office.

About 40 minutes later, we reached the office, just as the rain began to come down. My watch read 1 pm, which in Australia means lunch time. We ducked under the roof and tried the door. Locked. I thought we might go for lunch in a nearby café, but first we rang the doorbell. After a short delay, someone came to the door. She opened the door and looked at us doubtfully. “I’m sorry, we’re not actually open today. The Australian OM Board is meeting today and they’re at lunch.”

That piqued my interest for several reasons. One, my connection to OM is through the Canadian Board. Two, OM is divided into several administrative layers – from the International Director to Area Directors (in charge of administrative areas) to Country Directors, and so on. Australia and Canada happen to be in the same administrative area, so I asked, “Is the area director here?” She replied that he was, so I asked if I could greet him. She took us in to the room where the board had just sat down to eat, with the administrative staff of OM Australia.

When Harvey saw us, he was (I think) surprised. “Daryl and Lois! What are you doing here?” “Visiting our son and his wife,” I replied. “Well, join us for lunch!” Which we did, gratefully. We enjoyed the Nando’s peri-peri chicken with fries, and we enjoyed the chance meeting even more. Then Harvey said, “I fly back to Canada tomorrow, but I’m free this evening. Would you like to join me for supper?” So it was that Nevin and Alison and Lois and I joined Harvey that evening at an Indian restaurant named Ish in East Melbourne.

When the board returned to their meeting, Lois and I spent another hour talking with some of the staff over a cup of coffee, a delicious cappuccino. It was good to see a bit of what God is doing in and through OM Australia. The staff wondered how we knew that Harvey would be there. I told them that we had no such idea; we had come by the office because we were visiting our son and his wife. Coming to the office was a bonus, with no idea of who might be there. God’s arrangement, not ours!

That evening, Harv hosted us at Ish. My farewell dinner to the OM Board. I have finished my team with the board because I’m ready to release various responsibilities, especially those that conflict with acting as the associate pastor at Steinbach Mennonite, our home church. Travel to Ontario for Saturday board meetings come into that category.

I leave the board with real regret, since OM Canada has been so valuable to my own spiritual and intellectual development, so I appreciated Harv’s gesture. Our May board meeting was my last. Sometimes (not always) we go out for supper after a board meeting, especially to say goodbye to someone. Thanks to God’s timing, Harv was able to give me (and Lois and Nevin and Ali) a farewell dinner for my time on the OM board. A special twist to a trip taken to visit family.