Couple call mission trip 'the fulfillment of a calling'

When Doug Roland announced his retirement plans to colleagues at his downtown Tampa law firm, he got a lot of blank stares.

When he told family members and friends, some got angry. They felt abandoned and perplexed.

"You're leaving here to do what?" they responded. "Are you crazy?"

Few people really understand what Roland and his wife, Cheri, who left her nursing job at Hillsborough County Jail in May, are doing for the next few years.

The Davis Islands couple accepts that.

But the reaction hasn't tempered their enthusiasm.

"We've always loved adventure," says Doug Roland, 67.

Next week, the Rolands move out of their house of 24 years, making way for a military family who will rent it for three years. After staying in a friend's backyard cottage, they'll depart in late July for South Africa to volunteer at the new Seth Mokitimi Methodist Seminary in Pietermaritzburg, about 350 miles from Johannesburg.

Officially, they will manage the school's field education department, which sets up real-world experience for the seminarians in AIDS clinics, schools, community outreach and hospitals. Since it's a new program, there's no job description. Doug Roland knows only that his administrative skills - honed on the job for 34 years as an attorney - will come in handy.

Cheri, 59, will also put her skills to use as the seminary's nurse.

"As a little girl, I used to read National Geographic and dream of being a missionary doctor in a faraway country," she says. "So really, this is something that's been on my mind my whole life."

For Doug, the seed was planted in 2007 when he made his first trip to South Africa with a mission group from their church, Hyde Park United Methodist. In a casual conversation with an acquaintance in charge of setting up the new seminary, Doug said, "When you get it built, can I come back to work there?"

He was thinking along the lines of sweeping the floors, he says with a laugh.

"When I get the call about helping develop an entire program, that wasn't what I had in mind. But the more I thought about it, the more excited I got. We have an opportunity to shape young lives who will be a big influence in their communities for years to come. Who couldn't pass that up?"

Spoken like a teacher, which is what Doug did for four years in Ohio before attending law school.

Beauty and squalor

After Cheri joined her husband on a trip to the country in 2008, she fell in love as well. With Doug's retirement coming up, they had talked about a stint in the Peace Corps. But this opportunity to be on the ground floor of the only Methodist seminary in six African countries was irresistible.

"The country will stun you with its beauty, and shock you with its poverty and squalor," Doug says. "We're excited, we're thrilled. This is the fulfillment of a calling that's been gnawing at me for quite some time."

The Rolands will be given a rent-free apartment with no heat or air conditioning for the duration of their stay, which will be two to three years. Since they won't be paid for their work, they'll depend on their own savings, Social Security and donations earmarked for their support to Hyde Park United Methodist.

The hardest part? Being separated from their son, Nat, a Tampa attorney, and his wife, Samantha, an ophthalmologist resident. They're the parents of 8-month-old granddaughter Clara.

The elder Rolands hope to make a yearly trek home and keep in regular contact through e-mail, Skype (voice and video calling over the Internet) and a new digital movie camera that will allow them to post and archive footage on the Internet.

For an ongoing account of their experience, Doug started a blog that he's nicknamed "big, hairy, audacious goal." Its official title is Out of the Box.

"It's one thing to think outside the box," he says. "And it's another thing to actually get out of it and take action."

To read more, go to http:// behaghitstheroad.blogspot.com.

Departure is bittersweet

The Rolands also will miss their church family. Both sing in the choir and have had several leadership roles at the church.

"Doug and Cheri consistently model what it looks like to live our mission of making God's love real. On top of that, they are fun," says Jim Harnish, senior pastor at Hyde Park. While the church will feel the loss of the active couple, Harnish says their departure is bittersweet.

"The only thing that compensates for the loss of their presence among us is the joy that comes from knowing that they are where God is calling them, and that their lives will be a beautiful gift to others," he says.

In these final days before embarking on the next adventure in their lives, the Rolands are throwing out and packing up. Emptying their house, where they've lived for more than two decades, has been an arduous task.

"You don't realize how much stuff you accumulate until you have to put it in boxes," he says. "This has been an eye-opening experience and forces us to re-examine what we really need in life."

They can take only two suitcases each, a backpack and a carry-on. Cheri says lightening their load in life is a freeing experience, giving them a clean slate to pursue a new, exhilarating challenge. How many people get to do that at their age?

One of the last things to be packed away at their house is a wooden angel that hung above their doorway for 24 years. Cheri has a thing for angels. Not the winged celestial beings, but the human ones who walk among us.

"It could be a neighbor, a church member, a mentor, a stranger you meet in another country," she says. "I believe angels come into our lives and guide us. That's how we're able to make this move, and I know they will help us during our stay in South Africa. There's something so comforting to that."