Two By 2

BACKGROUND

A Brief History of 'Two by 2'


by Judy Kay:

During the 1990’s, I had two trips to Pakistan.  The first was to visit Mike and Sarah Raiter and work in a crèche set up for the children of workers learning the Pakistani (Urdu) language.  I traveled on my own.  The second was with Belinda from Melbourne, just one year later.  Belinda had heard that I had been to Pakistan before and that I was a Christian.  She asked me to travel with her and I accepted.  This time we helped run the crèche at a Convention for long term workers in Pakistan.  

During and after the second trip, I could see the benefits of traveling in pairs…company, safety, accountability, prayer support, encouragement.  As well as this, there were benefits for the receiving community.  They didn’t have to work as hard at looking after the short termer because they were able to do much for themselves (eg:  able to cook and eat meals together, walk to the markets/restaurants together, negotiate public transport together, etc).

Jesus sent out the first short term workers in pairs.  They went Two by 2 and they went for short periods of time.  So, this concept is biblical - initiated and instigated by the Lord Jesus himself.  

…hence Two by 2 was born.  

I am inordinately grateful to my home church St Philips for supporting me in this vision for Two by 2.  For a couple of years, nothing much seemed to be happening and yet Two by 2 still appeared on the St Phils prayer pages and people continued to pray and ask me how it was all going.  That was such an encouragement.  And, God was at work.  

Two by 2 has been involved in encouraging many short termers.  About 10% have been overseas more than once.  The role of encouragement has taken many forms:
  •  organizing short term placement directly with overseas field.
  • helping applicants to think and pray through where it is that God may want them to go, and then directing them to a mission agency which works in that area.
  • organizing and leading short term mission trips.
  • helping in training and debriefing individuals and teams. 
  • praying for short termers before, during and after their short term mission.

Short termers have been to many countries – Nepal, Russia, China, South Africa, Tanzania, Rwanda, Indonesia, Egypt, Ethiopia, Outback Australia, Bangladesh, Europe, Hong Kong, USA, Spain, Lebanon, Malawi, Philippines, Peru, Thailand, Canada, Czech Republic, Honduras, with many agencies.  
There are many benefits of traveling and working in pairs. How does two by 2 help you?