Fresh Perspective

As many missionaries here are thinking of end of the school year and summer plans.  My mind is already skipping to the end of summer furlough and what awaits me 5 days upon our return.  Usually 5 days after we return from a half way around the globe transit I have just about got my feet on the ground and beginning to feel a sense of normalcy.   Jet lag is real and so is grocery shopping in a 3rd world.  5 days after we return, we are expecting approximately 25 short term missionaries to arrive.  It will be my job to host them and feed them.  Now if I were to simply feed them from my kitchen, that in itself, would be an impressive task.  However, the group plans to split, half of them going into a remote mountain location and half to a remote sea side place.  One group accessible by plane, the other by boat.  They need fed in those locations too.  So take away the stove, electricity, refrigerator and FEED MY SHEEP.  Thanks!...

  I’m not sure what it is about tropical heat, lunch in the tummy and feeling sleepy in the early afternoon hour……but they all fit together in a nice sentence.  And they all are part of life here.  In fact, a few businesses shut down over the lunch hour.  Many people take a rest (national and foreigner).  If you want to drive when the roads are quiet, head out in the blazing heat around noon to 3 p.m. and traffic is usually at a lull.  The motivation drops during this time, as sweat drips down our backs and legs.  It’s a hard time to commit to doing something weekly.  Yet 2:00 every Tuesday is the time that works.  Accountability helps.  Knowing that friends are waiting, helps also.  Most Tuesdays I have to push myself to go.  It’s a battle.  And yet I can’t slough it off, cross it off, ignore it, wish it away, or rest.  I and others have been called.  I don’t write to toot our horn, but to describe what has ha...

Culture shock is not pleasant.  When one first arrives in field they usually hum along fine for a few weeks and even months and THEN, wham oh, a sharp spike down, into culture shock.  Anything can throw someone into this state of despair.  It could be noise, isolation from familiar comforting things, cleanliness or more like the LACK thereof, food,sickness, personalities, language and more endless possibilities.  The good news for any foreigner is “usually” over time, those low spikes become less frequent and less severe.  However, culture shock still happens, even to very seasoned people. I wouldn’t call us “very seasoned” yet.  Though we are weeks away from our 4 year anniversary of signing that “missionary” contract that would change our lives forever and hopefully impact others for Christ too.  You may feel like four years is a long time, but we feel that we are only now beginning to understand the culture in part and there are still layers of und...