Redcliffe Greats - Majors Philip and Deslea Maxwell
HIS GRACE IS ENOUGH
Pipeline’s SCOTT SIMPSON caught up with Australian officers Majors Phil and Deslea Maxwell in London, when they were settling into new roles at The Salvation Army’s International Headquarters after four years serving in Papua New Guinea.
Among the treasured possessions of Phil and Deslea Maxwell is a letter from their youngest son. It was written a few years ago and ends with the words, “You have no idea, Mum and Dad, how proud I am of you”. Phil keeps the letter in his travel wallet, an appropriate place given the context in which it was written. They get it out occasionally – particularly during the tougher times of their Salvation Army officership – and read it for encouragement. They cherish those six words, “... how proud I am of you”. To them, they are validation that despite the pain of being separated from their children in recent years, God is blessing their family in ways they could never have foreseen or imagined.
Phil and Deslea, who now serve with the rank of major, have been officers for more than 30 years. They entered The Salvation Army’s training college in Sydney, as part of the Heralds of Hope session, in 1982. They have three children – Kylie, Chris and Nathanael. Kylie is also a Salvation Army officer and with her husband, Nathan Hodges, serves as a corps officer at Panania in Sydney. They have a six-month-old son, Caleb, Phil and Deslea’s only grandchild.
Chris, with his wife, Nichole, is currently in his second year at the Army’s School for Officer Training, while Nathanael, married to Rachel, is in the Royal Australian Navy and is the bandmaster at Parramatta Corps in Sydney.
God’s blessing
For much of their officership, and while they were raising their family, the Maxwells served in a variety of roles in the Army’s Australia Eastern Territory. Then, just over four years ago, they were appointed to Papua New Guinea; Phil as Territorial Secretary for Business Administration, and Deslea as Director of Schools.
Their children, despite still all living at home, were by now adults with intentions of moving out. That, says Phil, made the decision to go to PNG fairly straightforward.
Very quickly, though, it all began to unravel, particularly when their two sons were confronted with some deeply significant personal issues. Suddenly, for Phil and Deslea, the thought of living in another country while desperate to be a close support to their children, was a daunting prospect. That’s when, they say, God stepped into the gap and poured out his blessing.
“There is no denying we have paid a price in what we have done,” says Phil. “We have paid a price for our obedience, but the blessings that we have received have been disproportionate and so we don’t begrudge it.
“Personally, we would love to be the type of parents and grandparents who are always around for their kids and grandkids, but we believe that wasn’t God’s plan for us and that wasn’t God’s plan for our kids. And he has stepped into that gap and he’s made some amazing things happen in their lives and he’s made some amazing things happen in our lives.”
To listen to Deslea reflect on the past four years, and in particular the family upheaval that marked their early days in PNG, the pain of separation, and the awareness of God’s provision, seem even more acute.
“To this very day I still feel like I deserted my boys,” says Deslea. “But God has just done some incredible things in their lives during the time we’ve been away that I can only think, ‘God, you are a much better parent than I could ever have been’.
“When you get a letter from your then 21-year-old son to say, ‘you have no idea, Mum and Dad, how proud I am of you’ ... we will never part with that letter.
“And even today, four years later, he still won’t hang up the phone without saying how proud he is of Phil and I. And have we done anything? No, we haven’t. All we’ve done is try to be obedient to God’s call on our lives.”
New roles
Like most Australian Salvation Army officers who serve in PNG, the Maxwells have been deeply impacted by their time in the country. “Some of the trappings that we get familiar with in our comfortable Christian journey in Australia, they’re just not there in PNG,” says Phil. “So, there’s a depth and a strength to your own relationship with God that develops while you’re there, that otherwise would not occur.”
A year into their appointment to PNG, Deslea was asked if she would add the titles of editor of Tokaut (the Army’s magazine in PNG) and literary secretary to her responsibilities. She happily accepted, she says, adding, with a hint of irony, that the 12 months she spent as a secretary in the Army’s editorial department at Territorial Headquarters in Sydney prior to entering officer training, prepared her well.
That decision, however, has subsequently had a much deeper influence on her officership journey than she could have foreseen.
Earlier this year, when their time in PNG came to an end, instead of an expected return to Australia and a reunion with their growing family, the Maxwells were appointed to the Army’s International Headquarters (IHQ) in London.
Deslea’s new role is as editor of the Army’s global women’s magazine, Revive, and the International Year Book. It’s an appointment, she says candidly, that ”isn’t really a ‘me’ thing”, but she is determined to give herself wholeheartedly to the ministry while she’s been asked to do it.
“My officership, as far as the different appointments I’ve had, seems to have zigzagged all over the place, but I don’t have an issue with that because I believe that every experience I’ve had God is going to use,” she says.
“I’ve had many experiences in my officership where at the time I wasn’t sure why it was happening, yet a few years later I’ve been able to look back and understand why God had placed me there.
“And to be honest, that’s how I feel about my editorial appointments, that in time I’ll be able to look back and see why God has given me this experience.”
Phil’s new job is as part of a team of seven international auditors based at IHQ, a role, he acknowledges, that probably begs the question of Pipeline readers: “What on earth do you do?”
“Well, once they get over the excitement that the job title obviously generates,” jokes Phil, “I would explain that we go into a Salvation Army territory for two weeks and do a financial audit, but we also do a further business appraisal and business audit as well to make sure all their processes are correct.
“Our responsibility, really, is opening their eyes to best practice, taking them from the point where they’re at, to a point where they’re doing things better.”
It’s a job that obviously involves a lot of travel. In his first seven months in the role, Phil estimates that he’ll be away for more than half that time with trips to the United States, Pakistan, Austria, Switzerland, Hungary, South America, Tanzania and South Africa.
“I have to admit that audit was not something that resonated within me when the Army told me that’s what I was appointed to, so my prayer life was, ‘Lord, you’ll have to give me a vision and a hunger so that I will see that I am making a valid contribution’. And he has. On that basis I can sit comfortably with what I’m doing.
“I believe God’s better at pulling these things together than I am and so I’ve just allowed him to guide and direct me. For all of us, there are certain skills and abilities that God sees within us that he will use for his Kingdom. God’s just utilised all the circumstances and all my learning along the way to prepare me for what I’m doing now.”
Family journey
The Maxwells have been appointed to IHQ until early 2017. By then, including their stint in PNG, they will have been away from Australia for seven years.
Since they’ve been absent, all three of their children have married (Phil and Deslea were able to return to Australia for the weddings) and a grandchild has been born. Naturally, they would dearly love to be intimately involved with
their family during this time. That longing, however, is overshadowed by a resolve to remain obedient to God’s call on their lives.
“We have experienced so much of God’s grace and lived in the glow of his glory so much over the last four to five years, that even though our heart would have us back in Australia we wouldn’t want to rob ourselves, or God, of what he wants to do in our lives,” says Phil.
“Where we have a comfort is that our journey hasn’t been our journey alone. Our kids have journeyed with us, they know our heart and they know our calling and because of that they’ve got a willingness to let us go.
“They often say we wish you were closer, we wish you were home, but in the next sentence they’re saying that we understand you are where God wants you right now. So, that makes it a lot easier for us.
“It’s nothing super-spiritual,” he adds, “It’s just the way that God uses circumstances to shape us into the people he wants us to be.”
By Scott Simpson
This article first appeared in The Salvation Army's Pipeline magazine.
