I have long known that the story of missionaries wives, largely unknown or unheard, is one of huge personal sacrifice, often unto to death in far away places.  The romantic tales of derring-do (however that is meant to be spelled) of Dr Livingstone, Mr Carey and others overshadow the often tragic reality faced by the wives they took with them and the children they fathered.

This morning, digging a little deeper into the story of the first BMS missionary to Sri Lanka, James Chater, whose wife, Anne gets passing mention in BMS's necessarily brief history on their website, I came across two obituaries to her.  She ran a school on Sri Lanka and had already given birth to ten children and was again pregnant at the time physicians ordered her to return to the UK for the sake of her health.  Two of her sons had already died on their journey to the UK to be educated at boarding school, and seven children travelled with her towards the UK (I don't know what happened to the tenth child).  During the journey it became clear she would give birith imminently, so she was landed, with her two youngest children, gave birth to twins and died a dew days later.  Her surviving children ranged from nine years old downwards - the poor woman must have permanently pregant, no wonder she died from exhaustion.

I haven't found an obituary for Rev Chalmers, all I know is that when he left Sri Lanka to return to the UK a few years alter, he too died en route.  Of their children I know nothing.

In 2013 there is an established Baptist work in Sri Lanka, and the one remaining Baptist school appears to be highly regarded - this is the 'good treasure' handed on to our generation by those who went to take the Good news to Sri Lanka.

I am glad that there are extended obituaries for Anne Chater (here and here) which give us just the tiniest glimspe into the reality of what it meant to be a missionary wife.  Having just last week remidned ourselves of the call to sacrificial living, there stories are epseically challenging to our lives of middle class ease.

Among my favourite hymns is Frances Ridley Havergal's 'Take my life', which is simultaneously holistic, referring to the whole of life, and challenging – I can never sing it and feel comfortable afterwards!

The lines "take my intellect, and use every power as Thou shalt choose" resonate with the theme 'mission of the mind' – God gave us minds, intellects, brains for one good reason – to employ them!  In my experience, all too often Christians downplay the role of the mind in favour of a skewed understanding of the Spirit, confusing emotional response with authenticity, and being suspicious of inquiry or questioning.  In my twenties, in order to 'belong', I stopped questioning and suppressed views that did not seem to fit with the version of Christianity I was experiencing.  It was only after God's call to ordained ministry that I discovered the liberating potential of theological thinking – and that my questions and ideas were valid within the spread of orthodoxy (rats, I always liked being a heretic!).

I remain grateful to Scripture Union Bible reading notes for a little (maybe slightly trite) rhyme that has stayed with me through the years:

If we are all mind, we dry up,

If we are all spirit, we blow up,

If we are mind and spirit, we grow up.

It is not an 'either/or' but a 'both/and'.  To mature as Christians we need to employ our intellects properly, to engage with topics that discomfit us, to ponder possibilities that seem alien to the comfortable version of Christianity we experience week in, week out (whatever label we choose to use for ourselves).  The prospect of 'Catalyst Live' really excites me and I booked my ticket months ago!  The chance to feast on the ideas of some great theologians, the opportunity to stretch my intellect and wrestle with ideas, the gift of listening for God's still small voice amidst the clamour of church life…. Yes please!

One day, a few years back, one of my church folk commented on my continued study, "surely you know all there is to know by now".  The quest for understanding, the desire to learn and grow, the need to stretch my mind, is part of my discipleship, my spirituality, my call – "take myself, and I will be ever, only, all for Thee."  Holistic discipleship, heart and mind, body and spirit – I want to be part of that.

‘Mission of the Mind’ is the theme of Catalyst Live, a day of engaging speakers from the worlds of apologetics, theology, science and culture, organised by BMS World Mission. To book tickets for Manchester (27 November) or Reading (28 November) go to http://www.bmscatalystlive.com/

Yesterday and today I have been doing background work for Sunday's harvest thanksgiving, which is supporting both Operation Agri and Glasgow City Mission (GCM).  As part of my research I looked at the BMS website to find out the history of their mission links to Sri Lanka (going back over 200 years) and both GCM and LCM (1826 and 1835 respectively.  Perversely I learned more about GCM's pioneering work from LCM's website than from it's own, go figure; you can read about Naismith, Scot and founder of LCM here).

I really enjoyed what I read, sketchy as it was, and was reminded of the import of reading history which not only informs our present but has potential shape our future.

Good fun.  Why not go and read some church, denominational or mission history yourselves?

'Catalyst' as the name for a day conference is popular in Baptist circles just now.

In Scotland there is a day conference on human sexuality bearing the title 'Catalyst Scotland' and in England there are two one-day conferences (in Manchester and Reading) organsied by BMS called 'Catalyst Live' which will explore a whole range of topics with some top international theologians - Jurgen Moltmann for one.

I won't be going to the Scottish one, I am sure many people will, and will find it helpful, but it's not for me.  It's a topic I've wrestled with on and off for at least 15 years and eventually reached a place where I wasn't going to wait for my head to catch up with my heart.  If that makes me a heretic or doomed, well I'm in incredibly good company.

I am going to the BMS one, and I really excited about it.  Can't say more today, as I am one of five Baptist bloggers who have been invited to post about it, and my day is tomorrow.  Finding the links to the blogs on the Catalyst site demands a lot of digging, but you can find them here.  One blog a day for a week - so look out for mine tomorrow, here and there.

You can find out more about BMS Catalyst Live here.

Today has been a pretty busy day, with never a dull moment.  I have made reasonable progress in researching aspects of our Harvest Thanksgiving service for Sunday - hope everyone who attends finds it enjoyable and meaningful.  I have taken in a consignment of refuse sacks and waved off a baptistry on its journey back to Yorkshire!  In between I've enjoyed a home visit, written up some notes and answered a few emails.  None of this makes for entertaining reading but it is afterall the stuff of routine that we all face.

It's good to be back in harness, and good to have a more 'ordinary' week this week after the busyness and excitement of last week.

New working patterns that will be a bit more sensible and a little less kn*ckerating are being developed, so things are looking good.  (Just wish they'd bring back the spell checker on this blog platform!!)