A Week Alone with the Father

The school year opened well. Philip took the children to a neighbouring island for a Voortrekker-style camp, and at a sports gathering the tiny Moken school stunned everyone by winning race after race — Khay Dam, a pre-school boy, running against children years older and kicking dust in the giants' eyes. Every one of his pupils passed the government reading exam, the weakest scoring 75%, and a representative of the education minister came to inspect the little school and thanked Philip publicly for the work.

But the term also brought grief. Four Moken foster children fled the children's home in Ranong and hid on the island. When Philip urged them to go back, men came and took some of them away by force, threatening large debts if they did not return. The episode reopened an old wound — rumours that the Moken had been "tricked into becoming Christians" with gifts of houses and boats. Philip grieves that believers can still imagine God's love must be forced through pressure and intimidation, while admitting that everyone on the mission field, himself included, makes mistakes.

Weary and undone, he withdrew alone for a week simply to wait on God. He describes it as the most frightening road he has ever walked with the Father: accusers rising around him like a storm sea of twenty-metre waves until he cried out that there was no hope left in himself — and then being lifted onto the rock, the storm turned solid beneath his feet. God offered him a choice: return to South Africa, or stay with the Moken. Told both would grow their relationship equally, Philip asked where God's name would be most glorified. The answer came back: "Go back to the Moken, and be who you are."