Skip to main content

Missionary struggles: lifestyle

Death to self.

We don't mind death to self.  We feel honored to share just a tiny bit in Christ's suffering.

But chocolate cookies and lasagna... now that would be nice.

A quick meal and a dishwasher... running water and electricity.  Running to the store and knowing that you'll find a desired ingredient.  Fast food for those days on the road.  A straight answer and a fair price. Somewhere to buy your food that doesn't involve fly-covered meat, open stares, haggling, and harassment... No animals wandering through the house, no snakes lurking in the tall grass... medical care available for your family, vaccines, quick answers, thorough tests...

On a good day, these things mean nothing.  Just conveniences, luxuries!

But on a stressful day, on a bone-weary day, on that day where all the children are falling apart at the same time... during that night when the house is finally quiet... but is too quiet...

On those days, the missionary lifestyle can be a struggle.  I just want a box of brownies - I don't want to spend another hour in the kitchen making something else from scratch.  I just want to know that I can count on having running water tomorrow to do the laundry.  I just want to know that I can count on going to the store and finding cheese.  The missionaries in the village might long to not have to chop the wood to fire up the wood stove to bake cookies.  Or have water piped right into their home.

These are tiny struggles - in fact, many missionaries are a bit embarrassed to have those thoughts cross their minds.  Our neighbors live in huts and fetch their water from a well a mile away and I'm pining after chocolate?! My pastor's wife has struggled with health problems for years with no real answers and I wish I could not be Dr. Mom for once and that someone else could decide if my kid is sick or not?!

But, these struggles are real, nonetheless.

The answer is not the package in the mail full of chocolate chips and M&Ms.  The answer is Christ.  Is he all that I need? Do I rely on satisfying my cravings for my joy or is Christ more than that? Am I "contending for the faith" daily by preaching the Gospel to myself daily, praying, keeping myself in the love of God, waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life? (read the book of Jude)

Pray that your missionaries would indeed rest in Christ and fix their eyes on eternity.  Perhaps your luxuries will also fade in allure as you do the same!


Comments

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...

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!

Check out this progress!

A year ago, my friend Rachel http://josiecomehome.blogspot.com/ emailed a photo of her beautiful son standing on his own... I've since dreamed of having a photo to post of Gracie doing the same thing. It was always one of those wild-don't-think-it'll-ever-happen kind of dreams, a romantic, fairy tale type of dream. But this week, Gracie made another leap in development and muscle tone. It started when I leaned her up against the wall and planted her feet a shoulder-width apart. For the first time, she didn't lunge for the safety of my arms or hands, but rather, she allowed herself to stand steadily on her own two feet and she kept her center of gravity centered over her feet instead of wildly in front of her or to one side or the other. She even quickly figured out that she couldn't lurch around in excitement while standing on her own two feet with no support but a wall behind her back, but rather had to express her excitement over this new development with a gentl...