The Irwins

Tyler sits down with Philip and Ashley Irwin, student strategists with Asia Pacific Rim for the IMB. The Irwins reflect on the challenges of missionary work such as always being flexible and navigating living in a foreign environment, as well as the joys of missionary work like how they are able to use their spiritual giftings in ways that complement their mission work.

Listeners can get involved in mission work in many ways! Through prayer, financial support, or participating in short-term trips! Check out imb.org/students to view what programs are currently being offered!

Creators and Guests

Host

Tyler Sanders

Tyler is director of communications at Gateway Seminary.

Producer

Courtney McCaa

What is 10 Questions with 10 Pastors?

10 Questions with 10 Pastors is an interview podcast on preaching, ministry challenges, and more.

Host Tyler Sanders speaks with pastors about sermon strategy and preparation, the ups-and-downs of serving a church, and controversial topics like: Who has the best burger? In-n-Out or Five Guys?

Tyler Sanders 0:00
Okay, here's my first question. I'm worried this one may be a complete failure of a question for this special season of 10 Questions with 10 Missionaries, but I'm going to keep trying it until I just absolutely am positively sure it's not going to work. In N Out or Five Guys?

Ashley Irwin 0:18
Five Guys all the way.

Phillip Irwin 0:20
Yeah, I'm sorry. We've heard In N Out a lot from our fellow missionaries, but...Five Guys.

Tyler Sanders 0:27
Have you ever tried In N Out, or is it just...?

Ashley Irwin 0:30
We have, but we had a layover in California. And there was a Chick-fil-A and a Five Guys and-

Phillip Irwin 0:36
Chick-fil-A and In N Out.

Ashley Irwin 0:37
And an In N Out, and we had to walk past the Chick-fil-A to get to the In N Out. It must have taken us like four or five tries to get all the way past the Chick-fil-A to the In N Out.

Tyler Sanders 0:49
Wow. Well, okay, I'll accept that.

INTRO 0:57
Welcome to the bonus season of 10 Questions with 10 Pastors. This is 10 Questions with 10 Missionaries. Brought to you by Gateway Seminary. With your host, Tyler Sanders.

Tyler Sanders 1:13
I'm here with Philip and Ashley Irwin, who are student strategist with Asia Pacific Rim for IMB. I was wondering if you could tell me a little about the work you guys do?

Phillip Irwin 1:22
Yeah, sure. So we've been with the IMB for the last 11 years. And pretty much all of that, we've been working with student ministries in some capacity. And so we joined the student strategy team back in 2019. And it's really about helping young adults, so 18 to 29 year olds, find out how the Lord may be calling them into missions. And so we have programs ranging from about two weeks up to a year. And we help work with BCM's, colleges, churches and ministries to help get those young adults overseas.

Phillip Irwin 1:39
Could you give me the highlights of your story, from Salvation, call to missions, to where you guys are now?

Ashley Irwin 2:12
Yeah, absolutely. So, I became a follower at a really young age. And I also felt called to missions at a young age. But really, that became a reality in college. When I felt the Lord just stirring in my heart to go. And so in college, I signed up for a six month Semester Abroad studying in East Asia. And that's actually where I met Philip.

Phillip Irwin 2:38
Yeah, we met in the airport, on our way to a six month trip. Ironically, that six month program was called "Hands On". And we help facilitate that program now. So it's pretty funny to come full circle, leading the program that we met through. But I was similar, around 13 I felt first called to work in East Asia specifically, and went on my first trip in college and absolutely loved it and felt like that's where the Lord had me. And so I immediately signed up for the Hands On program for the semester. And yeah, I met Ashley in the airport, and the rest is history.

Tyler Sanders 3:20
What was your first big, like, culture shock moment on the field?

Phillip Irwin 3:29
So I mean, personally, I think the very first time...so I was living in a place with subzero temperatures. There was snow everywhere on the ground, and I couldn't figure out how to turn the heat on in my room. And no one in the building spoke any English. And so we tried like doing charades a couple times of getting the people to understand that we wanted the heat on and they didn't get it. And so my roommate and I, who was also in the program, he and I both put on every piece of clothing that we had, and just huddled together for warmth till morning, till we could get our supervisors to come turn the heat on. But yeah, it was pretty funny.

Ashley Irwin 4:13
I'm gonna say it's a toss up between the snot rockets and the split pants.

Tyler Sanders 4:19
Wow. Is that two separate things?

Ashley Irwin 4:23
Yeah. So snot rockets, you know, you close one hole of your nose and just let the snot fly.

Phillip Irwin 4:29
It's really common.

Ashley Irwin 4:30
Yeah. And then the other would be, babies didn't wear diapers, they had just a hole in their pants. So they could just squat and with the split in their pants, just go to the bathroom when they need to go.

Phillip Irwin 4:42
You know, parents there, they train their kids to go on a whistle. And so if they're really polite, they'd hold them over a trash can before they whistle.

Ashley Irwin 4:51
Yeah, so we have two girls and they grew up in East Asia and their first time coming back to the States, our youngest was three and she was not-she was really scared of the automatic toilets in America. Every time they flush automatically, it would make her afraid. And she really just didn't understand why she couldn't just go to the bathroom outside whenever she wanted. So that was a big adjustment for us.

Tyler Sanders 5:15
Yeah, yeah, that's a change. How do you guys prepare day to day for your mission work?

Phillip Irwin 5:23
Yeah, so I think flexibility is key overseas. No plan usually ever goes exactly like you thought it would. And so you kind of have to hold everything pretty loosely, where you have a rough idea of what you want to do. But between your friends and the Spirit, you kind of course correct a little bit. But doing University ministry like we do, we keep pretty strange hours. And so even our kids from really young ages, we'd nap in the day sometimes, and stay out really late with students. And weekends are always very busy, when the students have free time, so spend a lot of time all day, out on the weekend.

Tyler Sanders 6:09
Well, this might be a related question. And my next question is, what's a consistent challenge in your missionary work?

Phillip Irwin 6:21
I think it shifts maybe like as time goes on. So language barrier was huge when we first got there. And we had lots of moments where we had to learn to laugh at ourselves, because we had language faux pas and mistakes. But then, I think after that, the first eight years or 11 [years], we were in a closed country. And so finding that balance between being bold, but also keeping access and not having to leave where we are, was probably the hardest. Anything for you?

Ashley Irwin 6:54
Yeah, I would say maybe like, because you're more aware of like the big ministry challenges. I think, sometimes, the things that ended up being hardest are just the day to day living things that just wear on you over time. Just really simple things like using public transportation all the time, or living in a five story walk up and having to carry all your groceries up. I feel like maybe those were more of...kind of snuck up on you.

Tyler Sanders 7:26
What part of your spiritual giftings matches up well, with the work you guys do?

Phillip Irwin 7:33
Oh, that's a good one.

Ashley Irwin 7:35
Well, Philip is really gifted in hospitality. And so he's really good at just welcoming people into our home and making them feel really comfortable. And I feel like, I've seen that gift being used all the time.

Phillip Irwin 7:51
Yeah, I mean, I think it's funny how God provides and gives you someone in your life that balances your strengths and weaknesses. So for me, I'm definitely more of the big dreamer. And like, Ashley has the plans. She studied accounting in college, she very much knows where to...how to make it all work. And so I'll come to her with these big ideas and then she can help me logistically think through like, Okay, well, this is how this can actually happen. And she's just really gifted in that way of taking these big dreams and making them happen from day to day and bringing them to fruition a little bit more.

Tyler Sanders 8:33
Can you tell me swing and a miss you guys have had on the mission field?

Phillip Irwin 8:38
Oh.

Ashley Irwin 8:41
Yeah, for sure.

Phillip Irwin 8:44
There's a lot. I think I said earlier, I think one of the things we learn quickest on the field is learning to laugh at yourself, because they're definitely gonna laugh at you. And so you might as well join in.

Ashley Irwin 8:59
Yeah, I think, a really simple example. We had a weekly seeker study for people who are interested in learning more about the Bible, and we had plans and it was raining. And our friend was like, I think we should cancel tonight because it's going to rain. And we were like, well, we're going to be inside so it shouldn't matter, like, I think you'll be okay to still go forward. And we planned the study and I cooked a bunch of food and then no one showed up. Like absolutely no one because it was raining.

Phillip Irwin 9:30
And culturally, you don't go out in the rain. I had all sorts of funny [things]-I was just thinking of, I had a training that I did with some local house church leaders. And at Christmas time, we were finishing up the training and we thought it'd be really fun and great to invite them all over for Christmas dinner. And so Ashley was like, Well, you know, we should make them something they've never had before. And so she decided to make fajitas. And she was like, oh, this will be fun, we'll make fajitas and then it's Christmas time, let's do like a DIY cookie station. And so she made this big bowl of green icing and this big bowl of red icing and all these cookies that they could decorate. And I ended up-

Ashley Irwin 10:16
I got caught up with something, got called out of the room and-

Phillip Irwin 10:19
Me being the nonplanar, I didn't tell anybody how to eat the food. And so these local house church leaders came through, and they're serving themselves these fajitas, and the cookie station is immediately after that. Well the green and red icing, look like green and red pepper paste. So they start heaping icing all over their fajitas. And they're all eating it and they're being so sweet. They're like, "Oh, this is really good." We can promise you from experience that cookie fajitas are not a way to go.

Tyler Sanders 10:59
That's a really good one. What are you guys reading right now? Do you have any books you're into?

Phillip Irwin 11:05
Yeah, I just finished a good one recently. It's by Daryl E Hall. It's called Speaking Across Generations. And it's talking about how, it goes through everything from the silent generation, boomers, up through Gen Z. And it talks about how to contextualize your sermons. It's written more for pastors. But how to contextualize your sermons and your gospel presentation so that each generation can hear you and how to go about making like intergenerational preaching in worship. That was really good.

Tyler Sanders 11:41
That's cool.

Ashley Irwin 11:43
Well, my answer sounds really silly after that. I probably should have come up with something more academic, but I'm reading Hunger Games.

Tyler Sanders 11:54
Nice. This is my last serious question. I guess the one after that, the bonus question is kind of serious. But this is a good one. If you could go back, what advice would you give yourself as a first year missionary?

Phillip Irwin 12:11
Ooh. I think it's one of those things that you're like told over and over, before you go out on the field, to like not have any expectations, to not come at it with anything in particular. And I think, subconsciously, you do anyway. And since we both served for a short time as singles before we came over as a married couple, I think there were a lot of things I would have just said to like, come over more with a clean slate. Like give yourself that grace to discover it new again.

Ashley Irwin 12:51
Hmm, I think for me, just to trust God more fully. I feel like Phil mentioned earlier how quickly plans have changed. But I feel like we've never made it to the end of the year where it looked exactly like the expectations we had going into that year. And so just trusting that God's plans for us are so much bigger and better than what we've planned. But it takes time to get to that place. You go through some lows before you can have that hindsight.

Tyler Sanders 13:29
That's really good, I think. Here's my bonus question. If there's anyone listening, and they're just sitting there thinking, these are my people, how can I get involved? How can I get my church involved supporting this kind of work? What's the best way for a church to do that?

Ashley Irwin 13:46
Yeah, absolutely. There are so many ways to get involved. And we recognize that like, for some people, that's going to mean praying and giving and being in touch with missionaries, sending encouragement, all of those kinds of ways make such an impact. They seem small and insignificant, but I assure you, they're not. And then for others, like we get the privilege of helping young people actually go to the mission field. And it's so cool, because we've just seen, when someone's removed from all of their norms, and all of the normal expectations of how they've built their life, like we've seen God do amazing things and show them giftings they never knew they had and ways God could use them in ways they just never expected. And it's really neat to see God do that.

Phillip Irwin 14:35
Yeah, I mean, kind of like Ashley was saying, we've had people that have come over, and for some of them maybe they don't feel called to full time missions after they come on the trip, but I feel like it's pretty rare for someone to come on a trip and not be changed in some way. Whether it's just being open to the need for the gospel worldwide and just a better understanding of the Great Commission or culturally. Or a lot of people even that we've worked with, they come back and they realize the nations are in their own backyards. And so it just opens their hearts and minds up for those people groups back where they are. And so yeah, I think if you ever get an opportunity to go, I think more than anything, even if it's just for two weeks that opportunity to see God at work, and His heart for the nation's can be really life changing.

Tyler Sanders 15:25
Perfect, that sounds great. Thank you guys so much for your time.

Ashley Irwin 15:27
Yeah. Thanks for having us. Our kids think we're so cool now, being on a podcast.

Tyler Sanders 15:33
Podcasters!

Phillip Irwin 15:33
We appreciate it. And if anybody wants to look at any of the programs that we offer, they can go to imb.org/students. And there's lots of breakdowns and it has opportunities for anything from two weeks to a year.

Tyler Sanders 15:49
Perfect. That sounds awesome.

Phillip Irwin 15:50
Yeah, thanks so much.