Skip to main content

Carte blanche: "the student"

"I'm just a student." 

Oh the beauty of that statement! You'll never know until that season is over... but the carte blanche that comes with the title "student" is truly once in a lifetime.  You can go, experience, taste, see.  As a student you are clearly there to learn.  No other expectations are placed on you.  Everyone knows that students are poor, have little influence, and are nomadic in nature.

When you cease to be a "student" (by title), expectations and hopes are raised by your presence.  Cultural blunders change from being funny learning opportunities to dangerous offenses.

This has become increasingly clear to us as our opportunities for learning are curtailed by our roles and responsibilities within our organization.  When we go somewhere, regardless of OUR motivation, we are viewed as ambassadors of Action International Ministries.

We are so grateful that we had the opportunity as students to sleep in Masaai huts 'on the goat skins,' get bitten by scorpions in the bush without having to worry about orphaning a small herd of children by our impending deaths, watch funerals and weddings wide-eyed without wondering when we would be called upon to give a speech on behalf of the entire mission board, hop into matatus (crowded taxis) without concern for how to get our daughter and her wheelchair from point A to point B.......

Student, don't miss out on a great time of life.  Travel.  Learn.  Encourage others with your humble learner's attitude.  You won't change the world on your summer missions' trip, nor should you try to.  Come under the leadership of missionaries on the ground and just focus on learning and being a humble, quiet, gentle blessing.  Swallow your fears and ask to go on every possible outing.  Discreetly take your pepto bismo and eat that rat, swallow that wiggling insect, drink that horchata.  Ask questions of your hosts and (...brace yourself...) LISTEN to the answers.  When at all possible, put yourself under the leadership of trusted national leaders - those who have the endorsement of your missionaries.

Students, go!


This is your chance. 
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Family of Three!

We are in Liberia - the electricity goes in and out because the generator is having trouble keeping up these days! So hopefully it will stay on long enough to post and the internet connection will allow me this luxury! We were united with precious Gracie on Thanksgiving day - I will write more about this later. But, oh! is Gracie a joy! She is so beautiful, so joyfilled, and a bit mischievious. Her physical limitations do not permit her to accomplish much mischief, but we can tell that she is trying to push some limits already. If we were not in love with her already, she is irresitable and such a treasure and blessing from God. In our two days together, she has not cried once. She spends most of her days smiling, she loves to snuggle (good match for us!), and has the most contagious laugh! Life takes more effort for her - her cerebral palsy is moderate and every activity is a challenge and is clearly tiring for her. Meal times (which she loves) take a long time and much patience and d...
6 comments
Read more

New Stage of Life

Gracie has entered a new developmental stage. She now is active and has been rolling all over the floor. We cleared out a little living room so that she would have room to roll around - she's rolling front to back, both directions. She also has been much easier to get up on all fours - it used to take 3-4 adults to cram her into the crawling position due to her resistance. She now even spontaneously gets into a semi-crawling position on her own. In the crawling position she's been weight bearing even on her right arm (but always in combination with her left arm). She also has been rocking a little in the crawling position as if she gets it that this is a way that you can move! It's been so exciting. But it also makes her much more eager to be down with other kids and moving around. She's in a very active active stage, always moving, and wanting to move. She's also taken, not just a huge interest in other kids, but also interest in toys a bit more. She's so fun!
4 comments
Read more

The Foolishness of God's Calling

A friend shared with me how "strange" (and scary) our decisions appear to those observing our lives. Most people are barely surviving residency and then for me to decide to adopt, to decide to adopt a child with special needs, to decide to adopt this child from the uncertainty of Liberia, to decide to start my Master's of Public Health during residency... it all seems crazy and overwhelming to the observer. But what my friend did not take into account is that God's calling on our lives will not always appear sane. Our choices are neither noble nor insane if they are what God has called us to. These choices are simply obedience to sovereign God! We are not living for life in this world, we are in fact aliens to this world and shouldn't settle down and get too comfortable because our joy is in heaven. God calls each of us to "not waste our lives" but live each day with an eternal focus. With an eternal focus, we should not only adopt a child with disabil...
4 comments
Read more