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TechnoratiCP: You were not only a missionary kid but I heard that you also wanted to be a missionary as an adult until something happened to your son that prevented you from fulfilling this dream. Do you feel comfortable sharing about this?
Datema: That is one of the continuously more defining things in my life. My first child was born four months prematurely and he was in ICU for four months. He just barely made it. It is a miracle that he is alive today. He has severe disabilities: cerebral palsy, he’s blind, doesn’t talk.
So if I would have my way I wouldn’t be here, I would be somewhere else. But taking care of him and the extent of his needs are great enough that we don’t imagine being in too many other places. So there was anger there. There was real wrestling with all of that.
CP: Wrestling with “Why did this happen to my son?”
Datema: Yeah, well that was probably a higher thought than what I really had. It wasn’t really about my son. It was about me. Why God did you give me this real interest in frontier mission and I can’t do anything? I can’t go do it. And just the whole idea of what I wanted to do and having circumstance make that impossible. And that is something that you don’t get over in a week or two. I think it was a period of months, it could have been years really to accept the fact that my plans weren’t going to happen and to begin to accept the possibility of different avenues and different ways. That was what led me out here (USCWM) to begin with.
CP: So what year did you come on staff at the USCWM?
Datema: 1999
CP: What will your immediate focus be as Frontier Mission Fellowship’s general director?
Datema: We find ourselves in waters that are un-navigated. We have a founder who was in some ways the center of gravity in this organization and now he is gone. So it is really a period of transition – not just on paper, it really is. It is something that is felt. It is felt by all of us.
My focus has been to get our leaders together and humble ourselves before God and each other and seek God. We are in a time of really seeking God during these days. We have our staff conference coming up in a few weeks where many of our staffs, from Pasadena and otherwise, will come here. So that is an opportunity to go through this moment of Dr. Winter passing away together. It is a long moment that will span some months and to be able to live through that together is going to be important to us.
CP: From what I’m hearing, it seems like everyone is still trying to grapple with Dr. Winter’s passing away. It might be premature for me to ask this, but have you thought about any long term goals yet?
Datema: The thing that I think energizes us is that we recognize that Dr. Winter’s vision is really God’s vision. Dr. Winter was able to look at God’s work in the world and cast it in a very compelling way, but it is still God’s vision. As long as there is an unfinished task, there is still unfinished work for us to do. Dr. Winter’s death does not change any of that reality.
CP: What do you think will be the hardest thing to replace about Dr. Winter for the organization? Continue »
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