Boomerang Pete

Flung Back to Malaysia - Dec 2010 

Christmas came early on the job front this year.

On Monday, December 20 I received word that the ELCA has decided to 'go forward' with me for a position in Global Mission. While I'm still waiting for the requisite background check and psychological evaluation to be completed before the assignment is made official, all signs point to me heading back to Malaysia to serve as the Country Coordinator for the ELCA's Young Adults in Global Mission program in the not-so-distant future.

Initially based in Kota Kinabalu in the East Malaysian state of Sabah, I'll be working with our local partners (the Basel Christian Church of Malaysia in this case) to help Young Adult Volunteers from the U.S. connect, build relationships, and work side-by-side with their brothers and sisters of faith in this corner of Borneo during their year of service. Because it is still a fairly new program in this region (the initial YAGM volunteers in KK coincided with my year in KL), the position will also involve considerable creativity as it grows, develops, and potentially expands to other parts of the country.

While the commitment on the volunteers' end is for 11-12 months, for me this will be long-term - with an initial assignment of at least 4 years.

Personally and professionally this is huge.

The timing of this development made the holidays and time spent with my immediate family all the more poignant. Although both grandmothers have been fond of reminding me that I had said my plan was to 'settle down in the U.S. for a while and get a family started' after my internship abroad, nobody has since questioned whether or not this was the 'right' next move for me.

If one's Vocation, as Frederick Buechner states, "is where your greatest passion meets the world's greatest need," there is little doubt in my mind (or anyone else's for that matter) that this is the work to which I am called and for which I have been training these past six years.

I still find myself in a state of awed humility.

In just a few short months (following the completion of my STM at Yale Divinity), I'll find myself flying back to Southeast Asia, a place that I love, to do work that I love in partnership with people that I love - a turn of events that I couldn't have imagined when I came back to the States in August. Again I see the workings of the Spirit playing out in unexpectedly incredible ways.

Zoom indeed!