The Life of a Missionary

Good morning everyone,

Here is a glimpse into the day of a missionary... :-)  Yesterday, Friday morning started out as a typical morning, but shortly before arriving at the compound where the office is located, the electricity went out.  While we're on power rationing (which is unusual for this time of year since it's their 'winter' and the air conditioners, etc aren't in use) (our days for power rationing are Saturday and Monday) today wasn't our day for the outage, plus it usually goes off like clockwork - at 8:30 AM.  Well, anyways, praise God for a back-up generator at the compound so the work could go on.  The only problem is that the house where we're staying at doesn't have a generator so they went the whole day without electricity.  This is fine, but since it was unexpected, we weren't prepared for it - it was the intern's laundry day.  So, the laundry didn't get done which is sorely needed.

Then, after the language workshop was over we returned home to an exciting evening.  Another family had planned to have a date night, so their kids were spending the night at our place.  So, we got to play with them while Emily  fixed dinner -- praise God she has a gas range.  We waited for a little while, expecting the power to come back on by 6:30, the usual time, but it didn't come on.  So, we ate dinner in candle light - the kids at one table and the adults (Emily and Chris-who have been our host family, and us interns - Kailyn, Matt and I) at another.  The topic at the adult's table is Chris and Emily's housing situation -- unless they're willing to pay almost double what they've been paying in rent they have to move - by Tuesday!  After dinner, we sat down for a movie - praise God we were able to find a laptop that was charged.  We got about 95% of the way through the movie before the laptop lost power.  Then it was time for the kids to go to bed... which was another exciting adventure.

The girl got to sleep with Kailyn, but the three boys got to sleep in the living room - we pushed the two chairs together for one of the boys, took the cushions off a couch which was on the porch for the second and the third got to sleep on the couch.  Then when we went to stretch the mosquito nets over the kids, we discovered that somehow the nets had collected a bug or two - gigantic cockroaches and a couple small spiders.  It jumped on Emily, she just shook it off which sent it my way, so I followed her lead and shook it off.  Matt was trying to get me to kill it, but not with the flashlight!  But I wasn't going to step on it with my bare feet!!! So he came over and by that time we figured we lost it under the cushions (one of the beds).  But alas, it was on Matt's leg (or is this a second one?).  He tried killing it, but it was alluding the death pinchers of Matt and instead flew to the shelf above the main doorway - which went back 6 feet.  But, it didn't stay there.  Soon it was sitting on the edge of the shelf watching what was going on with its bird's eye perch.  Well, by that time Matt had grabbed the bug-zapper -- a tennis racket that is geared with an electrical charge that will zap any bug near it, and went after it.  With Chris's help the boys have a successful hunt -- the bug got zapped and what a zapping it was!  Now we just had to calm everyone down, assure them that a herd of cockroaches wasn't waiting to get them nor would Matt with his amazing bug-zapper.  We were able to get everyone settled down for a good night's sleep and went to our own beds. And while we awoke this morning with power, there may be a chance that in an hour from now we'll loose it for the day.  Guess the laundry might not get done until Monday, but that's one day in the life of a missionary.
:-)

Praise God this is not the story everyday!

I've been studying the fruits of the Spirit and decided to do a word study on 'joy.' The first passage I looked up was Deut. 28:47-48 which follows the description of curses that God would pour out on the people if they didn't serve God with joy and a glad heart for the abundance of all things.  Praise God that we do have many things.  We were able to continue to serve Him even when the electricity is out.  In fact, electricity isn't necessarily needed to do ministry. Praise God that we do have clothes to wear.  Praise God for the wonderful prayer partners that God has surrounded us with.