Last week Rowan was away speaking on a conference for the uni ministry. It is the biggest week of the year for him and he leaves tired and gets home wrecked. If anyone looks at a speaker at a convention and thinks that it is very glamourous, it's far from it. Behind the scenes are weeks/months of agonising reading and preparation.
In 17 years of marriage, I've rarely seen Rowan go off to work feeling happy with what he's prepared for a talk. There are always concerns like, 'I could have said more if I had more time' or 'Is what I've prepared going to be easy to understand?' or 'Have I covered every aspect?'. At one level I don't think this is a bad thing - it always motivates him to work harder on what the Bible actually says and think carefully about the people he is speaking to.
I'm often asked what my 'role' in the ministry is. The way I see my role is that I keep the show on the road at home (admittedly with a lot of help from my mum who came and stayed with us last week). I helped Rowan buy clothes for the conference so that he looked presentable up the front and didn't scare any of the uni students! I cut his hair and bought shoes without holes. I know - pretty exciting stuff hey? And I just kept telling him that I thought he was great when he was freaking out when he doubted himself.
I went up for one night of the conference with our eldest child. He loved it and thought it was very cool (650 uni students and great music) and seemed to even follow what Rowan was speaking on. I felt excited being there. It is easy in para church ministry (especially in a ministry like this one that is quite large) to become a bit disconnected because it's not like rocking up to church each week and catching up with everyone. It was nice to be refreshed about what we're doing with our lives.
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