I’ve been agonizing for quite a while on what to write. I love writing stuff. Love it! But I feel to make it worthy of being read that it should be something entertaining for the heroic few who actually click on the Facebook link to read the article or who stumbled on my blog while looking for information on small African deer. (That video is essentially how me and my little brother fought as kids.)
To have worthy material to write about, I think that I need to have some cool unique happenings (see Mexico – driving to) or just a unique perspective on a current topic. The only things I am current on are episodes of The Simpsons, 30 Rock, Chuck, How I Met Your Mother, NCIS and Big Bang Theory (uh oh, I watch too much TV), and I don’t have a super cool life like my brother and his wife and their reality-tv-like life in Northern Saskatchewan. I’m not kidding when I say that either. The highlights of their past week include my brother shoveling their mile long driveway and a frozen chicken falling on his head. (I’m pretty sure it wasn’t at the same time). Their life is so unique that they turned my calm, normal parents into the picture on the right. Needless to say, my kids can’t wait to get back to Saskatchewan! (I feel dirty for saying that.)
Some days I am convinced, whether it is a true fact or not is unimportant, that those people who have partnered with us in prayer and finances believe our daily schedule looks like this:
Prayer (visions of the future optional) Feeding orphans Leading a village of headhunters to Christ Breakfast (unless fasting for 40 days, then substitute another pagan village coming to Christ) Teaching local pastors about the bible Leading a church service Building a church (or school if there is already a church building) Flying my airplane into a remote village, leading them to Christ Fighting off hostile natives (possibly wearing loin cloths and/or masks. Them, not me.), then preaching to them Translating the Gospel of Matthew into a new language Lunch (again, if fasting, substitute a village full of salvations)And it goes on from there…
But when faced with the reality of my typical day, I am easily dissuaded from writing because if those people who are generous enough to help with finances actually realized what my “job” entails, well, they may decide to go find someone with a schedule like the one above.
But just for kicks, here’s what my day tends to look like:
So where does the missionary work happen? Well, honestly, my job is dedicated to helping the organization run and grow. So it’s a lot of computer time and meetings. Lots of vision talking and strategy making. And many other “boring” things that people with “real” jobs do. (I consider it a real job, but I understand others don’t)
But, but, what about all the big talk about telling people from all over the world about Jesus? The speeches where we proclaim that we’ve moved to Houston to reach the unreached?
That’s not our job. That’s just what we do in between our jobs here.
Huh?
To clarify, Michelle and I have learned a lot in the last six months. And one of the key things we have learned is the need to stop viewing the teaching of the Bible and telling others about Christ as our job, and to embrace it as our life. Those things are just what we do. Anywhere we need to do it. So it’s outside our apartment as we walk around praying for our friends, it’s at the mailbox or the Wal-Mart, it’s inside a church building or mosque, it’s anywhere the opportunity presents itself. We have neighbours (or neighbors for those in the USA) over for tea and supper. We serve halal meat to our Muslim friends and turkey or vegetarian meals for the Hindus. Inside our conversations we speak of God and who He is. We extol the virtues of Jesus and the things He did and taught. And above all, we just let God do God things. This is not the missionary job, it’s the Christian lifestyle.
One of my good friends likes to remind us that this work is “a marathon, not a sprint”. I tell people that it’s organic, meaning it’s slow and meticulous. Nothing happens around here without a lot of time and prayer invested. And the big things we expect from God won’t happen overnight. So we just have to obey and be patient and keep slogging through the “boring” stuff to get to the “exciting” stuff. (although, I honestly LOVE doing the websites, meetings and promotions too)
So there we go. Somehow inside all that whining and lamenting the boring life, we got 900+ words typed! Don’t misunderstand me, I wouldn’t trade this life for ANYTHING. The miracles we see vary from minor to major, but we see them every day. The more we desire God, and the more that we understand how much we NEED Him; the more He shows up. We’ve always had enough food, our bills have always been paid, we have made so many friends in the last six months, there is just so much we have seen and heard!
So thank you all for reading this. If you are one of those who think of us once in a while and pray for us, or if you are one of those who sacrifices and sends financial help, thank you.
Thank you.
THANK YOU.
Your support allows us to live this apparently boring life, and love it.
/RD
Thanks for the plug, bro 🙂 Truth be told, though, most of our days are at least as boring as yours…we only write about the interesting bits…