Change is here to stay

‘“Forget the former things;
    do not dwell on the past.
See, I am doing a new thing!
    Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?”’ (Isaiah 43:18-19)

Change is never easy. Not many people like it: we get rather attached to the way things are and it can be uncomfortable when ‘the way things are’ becomes different. But change can be a good thing, even an excellent thing. In her Earthseed novels, Octavia Butler suggests that God himself is change. We wouldn’t go that far. But we do believe that God can be – and often is – in change

We don’t change for the sake of change itself. But times change, circumstances change and we must move with the times. We must keep in step with what we sense God is doing. So, we innovate. BCT develops and adapts. And sometimes, even adaptations that felt forced upon us turn out to be (literally) a godsend.

During lockdown, Wukwashi were unable to carry on with support groups and home visits in the format they were used to, and had to improvise a new way to keep offering support to parents of disabled children. Their solution was a mentoring programme – weekly phone conversations with parents in their network – and the impact was extraordinary. Relationships between volunteers and families grew and developed in ways we could never have predicted. Parents felt able to share struggles openly like never before. One man even came to Christ as a result of these conversations.

BCT is adapting as an organisation, too. Following the review of our operations last year, we are refining our focus, recognising that, although our vision and mission remain constant, our approach must evolve to meet the needs of marginalised children in a changing world. In particular, we are searching for a new Director and a new Project Development Coordinator. These roles are absolutely pivotal in shaping BCT’s direction and strategy, and we fully expect that the individuals God is sending to take up these roles will make changes to how we operate. We are looking forward to an exciting new chapter for BCT: not denying or devaluing where we have come from, but celebrating it and building on it.

We rejoice in the ‘former things’ God has done, but we turn our eyes towards what he is doing now and what he will do next. And we pledge to follow where he leads.