Aid Workers Need Such Strong Positive and Encouraging Leadership - Remember Their Families Back Home

Eight aid workers have just been killed in northern Afghanistan.

How can anyone kill and murder those who have come to help your people with eye and other medical problems?

There are wicked and violent leaders, as well as leaders who wish to serve and help and improve the conditions of the poor and suffering.

Being involved with one Aid Organisation for over thirty years this shakes me and makes me consider the families of those who are away overseas on the front line and where their lives are in great danger.

Now, I am writing as a committed disciple of Jesus Christ, and the workers I know of, are doing whatever they can to improve the environment and ease the burdens of those thousands and millions in various nations.

We are called to pray for the various individuals who are serving in areas which are often insecure and remote. There can be limited access to the necessary facilities for their work, such as electricity and clean water and telecommunications.

Strong leadership is so needed.

Even transport networks and road conditions are fairly basic.

Aid workers sometimes have to take their own generators, even to purify water and this takes time and effort. We need to remember such team members who are responsible for such essential logistics.

Front line workers also need the co-operation and good favour of governments and local authorities, and the surrounding community too.

Visas and permission to travel can throw up unexpected problems, and these need the talents of skilled staff with diplomatic talents.

There can be the danger or even temptation to compromise on professional excellence and spiritual passion, particularly where the safety of the team may be under threat.

And, what about the health of these front line workers? Medical help is seldom readily available and they have to exercise great care.

I know how I was taught to be so careful when it came to eating and drinking in Uganda and Kenya, particularly when I was away out in the bush and jungle, being some miles from the nearest assistance. I was only out in these countries for three or four weeks at a time but those working with Aid agencies can be away for two or three or more years.

We need to pray for safety and protection and basic common sense, as they travel across dangerous and terrain to reach rural communities.

These teams of men and women are seeking to reach the most vulnerable people on earth and sometimes they are also exceedingly isolated.

There is another matter which needs our attention too.

Teams can experience tensions and stresses when working together for months on end under the most arduous conditions. Sound solid wise understanding leadership is so crucial.

They are seeking to improve people's environments and deal with catastrophes, and that can raise all kinds of emotions.

Wherever you are reading this, pray for these teams, and for any individuals whom you may know who have left home and home comforts, to serve those who are struggling to survive.

Sandy Shaw

Sandy Shaw is Pastor of Nairn Christian Fellowship, Chaplain at Inverness Prison, and Nairn Academy, and serves on The Children's Panel in Scotland, and has travelled extensively over these past years teaching, speaking, in America, Canada, South Africa, Australia, making 12 visits to Israel conducting Tours and Pilgrimages, and most recently in Uganda and Kenya, ministering at Pastors and Leaders Seminars, in the poor areas surrounding Kampala, Nairobi, Mombasa and Kisumu.
He broadcasts regularly on WSHO radio out of New Orleans, and writes a weekly commentary at studylight.org studylight.org entitled "Word from Scotland" on various biblical themes, as well as a weekly newspaper column.
His M.A. and B.D. degrees are from The University of Edinburgh, and he continues to run and exercise regularly to maintain a level of physical fitness.