During the last few days there was a specific event where he was involved with the repair of a generator which is absolutely essential to the operation of the business. He was deeply involved inside the generator box and realized he couldn't do the repair. On getting out of the box he heard an amazing noise which he discovered was the sound of the women enjoying themselves. Of this experience he says, "I realized that while I might have achieved something while I was there, this was my mission. This was something I could do using the talents God had given me to share, help and assist. That was a distinct call of God on my life. So, we want to go back and fulfil that call."

Mairi's desire to serve God overseas began at a young age. As a child she went with her mother to missionary meetings and loved hearing about what the missionaries did, especially in East Pakistan. She entered nursing, and also trained in midwifery, with a view to going overseas, and, one day, while working as a district nurse in Rotorua, she picked up a NZBMS advertisement for nurses in Bangladesh and decided to apply. Following acceptance, two terms in Baptist College and deputation throughout New Zealand she flew to Bangladesh in October 1979 to begin language study at Barisal. In her second year she moved to Dhaka, then to Brahmanbaria where she was primarily involved in the hospital and also in village family planning clinics. Mairi was there less than a year when she became severely ill with a local form of hepatitis and, after two months, the mission flew her home to recover. It was agreed that she should resign. "It was very difficult to come to terms with. I had a long term vision and two years later I'm on the sickness benefit as a 28 year old," she says. Gradually she recovered and returned to full time work but never lost the desire to return to work amongst the Bengali people.

Last year, then, there was an excitement in her when she realized that Ian was experiencing the same thing. She says, "It was just like a reward of all the years that I had spent really believing that one day I'd go back." She has had a very full life in the years between the time when she was a young woman working overseas and now. She married, and she and Ian have grown three children into young adults. She recognizes that she has done a lot of growing as a person over this time and in the Lord, "just knowing who I am in God and discovering it's not about what I do but who I am." Her work skills have also grown broader than medical and she has gained a lot of experience in administration and the setting up of structures around not for profit businesses. She says, "Those intermediate years have not been wasted and I've come to accept that it is God's timing not mine."

Mairi is expecting to work alongside Kerry putting feet on dreams and visions, looking at other opportunities to set up businesses to give women opportunities to train and gain skills outside of the sex trade that they're currently in. She says, "Looking back over the years one of the things I have most learnt is God's faithfulness. He planted a dream in my heart many years ago and I now see that coming to fruition and that speaks to me about God's faithfulness. When God lays something on your heart you just need to follow it."

Ian will be involved in infrastructure management. He says that when you have an event like his short term trip experience you realize that you've been on track with God for a long time towards something. "The talents that I've been able to learn and use have all led up to this project. From that experience with the generator you realize that Christ walks alongside you all the time. You don't know he's there but he is there and he's teaching you and training you and preparing you for things in the future and now I have this opportunity of having this big adventure with Christ in another country doing something that is significant in that area."

Their initial plan is to go for three years and they say that anything beyond that is in God's hands.

tranzsend is the overseas mission agency of the Baptist churches of New Zealand.