Transitions in 2015, part 4: Why now?

As I mentioned in an earlier post, we returned to Papua New Guinea in July 2012 assuming we would continue working here for many years. Why do we now see 2015 as the right time to move back to America? The first question is whether any time would be a good time to leave. The work we do in PNG, with ethnomusicology and high school education, is never finished. There won't be a day where we say, "Now we're done; let's go home." Thus there was always going to be some point at which we just decided it was time to go back to the US. I’ve been blessed with many opportunities and have enjoyed more immediate success stories than a lot of missionaries do. But there won’t be a definite end point, even if I stay here the rest of my life. When we first came to PNG, I dreamed of gathering more ethnomusicologists here and leading a team of people with similar interests and skills. Despite my recruitment efforts, that hasn’t happened—though there is someone who may be coming to PNG to carry on the work in the next couple of years, and a couple of people already in PNG who are interested in taking on some music work. Part of my interest in teaching at GIAL is the fulfillment of that dream of mentoring others in the work of ethnomusicology and missions. And it’s certainly possible that some of the students I train at GIAL will in fact go on to PNG and continue—and improve!—the work that I pioneered here over the last decade.

First day of school, 2014

Other factors also make 2015 a good point for this transition. In the 2015 school year, our oldest son, James, will be entering 9th grade. That begins 11 consecutive years that we will have kids in high school. We would really like to give each of our kids a stable four years of high school to prepare them for adulthood. So the time for a major relocation would be either 2015, or 2026. God would provide for our children’s education no matter where we are, but we are comfortable with the idea of them finishing their education in their home country. Their early growing-up years in PNG have been an excellent foundation for them, and we're so grateful for the upbringing they've had here.

Presenting at a linguistics and ethnomusicology conference in Madang, September 2014 (photo by Don Niles)

This sense that the time has come for a transition has coincided with the invitation to join the Center for Excellence in World Arts. We can see that God has prepared me through these years in PNG to now move into a training role in which I can guide more people to the field. The Director of GIAL's Center for Excellence in World Arts, in a letter written in my behalf (which those of you on our mailing list will be receiving a copy of in our Christmas letter), writes:

Neil's experience as an ethnomusicologist and Senior Consultant in Ethnomusicology make him an ideal fit for service here.

We need Neil's service as a World Arts professor urgently, as the MA in World Arts is experiencing a surge in applicants. In just two years, the MA in World Arts program has progressed from its beginning as a fully accredited degree-granting program to having over 30 currently enrolled students. Four graduates have completed their master's degrees and are serving the Lord in various locations. With the recent launching of the Center for Excellence in World Arts, we expect this growth trend to continue. Without Neil, our future is unimaginable, as the workload will soon be more than our small staff can handle.

As I mentioned in a previous post this week, there are not many job openings for ethnomusicologists. To see that at just this moment there is an invitation to a job that I would enjoy and have been prepared for by our years of experience in PNG is extremely encouraging.

A major relocation is never easy, but we have peace about the decision to move back to America next year, and we're all looking forward to it. In tomorrow's post, I'll write about how you can be a part of our team in the transition and at GIAL's Center for Excellence in World Arts.