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funny_girl -> missionary (5/13/2008 1:31:01 PM)

What kind of everyday life would you expect from a missionary?



Ellie-Mae -> RE: missionary (5/13/2008 2:50:42 PM)

Do you mean while they are on the field?



crownlaurel -> RE: missionary (5/13/2008 3:12:16 PM)

I guess it would depend on where they are missionaries and what kind of mission they have. Dh and I are missionaries, but we are language missionaries in the US. Our daily life involves answering phone calls and visiting members, but it also involves living as normal a life as we can. Dh has a full time job outside the church. His FT job involves ministering to hundreds of employees of a company. But we are also planting a mission church within a mother church and I homeschool our four children. My first ministry is to my husband and children and then to the women of our church and the responsibilities I have within the church (making bulletins and doing powerpoints and being part of the worship team and helping Sunday School leaders and teaching Bible Studies or finding others to teach). I do a lot of translating or helping people find resources for their needs. We visit homes, hospitals and jails. Our everyday life is a mix of the struggles of everyone else's everyday life and ministry. We also have to deal with the fact that most people don't consider us missionaries and that our mother church talks about foreign and travelling missions and often overlooks us completely.

I receive emails from a missionary who lives in a country in the middle east where the gospel can't be openly shared. The emails have to be routed through other people. Their daily lives are way different from ours and they have faced dangers and problems we don't, so their daily life involves fitting into their surroundings and helping people from within their culture.

There are missionaries whose daily life involves teaching English or ministering to the sick or feeding the hungry. It might involve building schools or hospitals or advocacy for the downtrodden or oppressed.

The common thread in our daily lives should be prayer and communion with our Father and seeking to do His will, reading His Word and reaching out to the lost...but we should do those things whether we are called missionaries or not.



rcjames -> RE: missionary (5/13/2008 4:06:32 PM)

quote:

ORIGINAL: funny_girl

What kind of everyday life would you expect from a missionary?


Are you asking about the everday ministry actifities that are expected by missionaries, or are you talking about how the missionaries should live theri lives from a moral perspective?

Thsnks
RC



pickin4Him -> RE: missionary (5/13/2008 6:40:28 PM)

I was an MK in Honduras from 1967 till 1976. Everyday life pretty much mirrors the locals as far as the day to day chores, getting clean drinking water, fishing, firewood chores, etc. The big difference is that you live in a glass house so to speak. MKs are "supposed to be" perfect. News of any little thing I did wrong usually beat me back home!



funny_girl -> RE: missionary (5/13/2008 8:23:08 PM)

junglebill,

Thank you for answering my question so appropriately. Thank goodness, I don't know any missionary kids or pastor's kids for that matter that are 'suppose to be' perfect.

Our first 3 years on foreign field were very fulfilling and I feel that we met my expectations of a missionary but it came at a high price. I feel that we worked so hard that now we are trying so hard to live a 'normal' life in this life that's so different. That's ok, isn't it junglebill, even if our life really isn't so normal? I will witness as the Lord opens the doors. I'm in the process now of going to a women's prison as I was contacted by a non believer to visit an American there held on drug charges.



pickin4Him -> RE: missionary (5/13/2008 9:14:20 PM)

I think you have to be yourselves. The people there need to see you are a sinner, saved by grace; that you have the same struggles they do, BUT, you deal with those struggles much differently because you rely on God's strength, His wisdom, His mercy and His Grace. That is what I think gives them pause and the initial desire to learn more about Jesus.

I'll probably draw some "fire" for this but here goes....

In addition to living your witness, being a walking, talking Gospel, I think you have to keep your priorities straight. Many a missionary has run into trouble for getting this messed up.

God first.....Family second...Mission third

By family I mean; see to your spouse and children's needs. You are separated from "normal" life. You need each other more than you may know. When they feel less important to you than the mission planning session, or the grumbling Sunday school teacher....watch out. Satan will pounce on such an opportunity to cause confusion and distention. Once family trouble starts, it will spill over and taint your work.

What country are you serving in?



funny_girl -> RE: missionary (5/13/2008 9:59:00 PM)

We are way down south in Mexico. I'm happy to say that you are exactly right! God first and my highest priority right now and main focus is my home and family. During our first 3 years here, I got to live my 'dream ministry' with my family! Now, I'm just focusing on my family. The reason why I started the post was because I want so much to live normal right now and this is probably the closest I'm going get to what kind of normal life feels like in a foreign country. Until last September we had nationals in our home at least 3-6 days a week and I got really burned out.

I even paid to go to a women's conference in Acapulco and didn't go yesterday. I would have been the only American or missionary there but I just don't like to travel without my family.

I'm busy with ministry things on the weekends right now. That's enough, isn't it? If that's all I feel I can do physically at this time?



ajidil -> RE: missionary (5/18/2008 3:26:27 AM)

I'm a missionary, too. DH & I live in northeast Europe (former USSR). My daily life looks a lot like my daily life would look in America. I go to "work" (be that teaching English at a local high school or helping with office things at our base, etc.), I take care of our home (cooking, cleaning, shipping, errands) and often have people in our home in the evenings (teenagers just "hanging out" which leads to discussions about faith and morals and God's leading in their lives, or other leaders in the community for prayer times, etc.). We try to make sure we have at least one evening a week that no one else is here but my and DH (we have no children) so we can spend time together. We watch movies in the evening, play games together, and sometimes spend Saturday mornings sleeping in. I have a garden on my balcony and I like to do crafts to relax. Yes, we have a busier schedule than many others, but in a lot of ways, we don't. Our teens have become like family so it's still relaxed when they are here. We're planning a "vacation" with some of them this summer, which is slowly turning into a somewhat "missions trip" for them as they comprise a band and it looks like we'll have opportunity for them to play and speak in some of the places we're going.

I've always thought that the only real difference between foreign missionaries and "normal people" is that they live in a culture that is not their own. Otherwise, our lives and focus and passions should be the same. We shouldn't be doing things on the field that we wouldn't do back "home", just because we're on the field, trying to live a "better" life.

I also understand being the only foreigner around. We're more often than not the only one. We're actually the only foreigners living in our entire region. Now, it's odd when we're not.



funny_girl -> RE: missionary (5/18/2008 9:42:30 AM)

Basically ajidil,

Your life sounds similar to ours in the beginning years. Now, I'm in a new phase of the missionary life and although I felt comfortable and made the youth my family, my foreign family grew disinterested in us 4+ years later and moved on to other things. I suppose if I could glean anything from our particular situation, I guess I shouldn't have gotten so close to them, but I couldn't have done it any other way. Now, we have moved on to other relationships, but nothing compares to the first ones. I've cried many tears, but I'll cherish those first years forever. We built our musicians a recording studio so they could have jobs. We even started an internet cafe for them but it failed.

Now, my own children are coming of age, they want to start working. This is a critical time for our family. My oldest is interested in YWAM, close by. It's possible that he could become a career missionary with YWAM, like yourself. My other son, wants to get dual citizenship. A three year process from now. He has a girlfriend that if we stayed, it's possible he'd marry her.



faithfulservant_ -> RE: missionary (5/24/2008 4:09:35 AM)

I went on a short-term missionary to Mexico. It was difficult because of the language barrier and the living condition. We had to take cold showers everyday and we had to sleep on the floor since there were no beds. You are expected to work as a team, although I am a do-it-myself type of person. Here was our everyday schedule:

1. Early morning personal devotions
2. Morning Service
3. Daylight Evangelism and Outreach Activities
4. Evening Service
5. Time of Reflection and Fellowship



funny_girl -> RE: missionary (5/24/2008 11:00:01 AM)

That's the thing faithfulservant, being a team isn't very normal. I live here and sometimes, when it's time to take a break, I feel guilty for it. I feel lost and lonely. There are different stages to culture shock that you have to deal with too. Maybe not every missionary has to deal with this but I have someone in my family that isn't content and often thinks of going back to the states and that makes it hard for me, as a woman, to have her nest.



funny_girl -> RE: missionary (5/24/2008 6:34:06 PM)

May I ask who you were a missionary with? New Tribes??? We have it easy compared to those conditions. What's difficult for this one I'm speaking of is the level of stress. We live in the city w/millions of people. Driving here is scary and the roads are awful. If you get from point a to point b w/out a scratch, you're doing good! I thought that's the kind of life we would have had but it's not even close.



ajidil -> RE: missionary (6/1/2008 9:02:52 AM)

Do you have a support group at all... a group of women who get you and what you're doing or anything like that? I think that's really important and has been a big help to me. God never intended us to be loners. He created us for relationship.



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