Back in Mozambique

Well, I’m journaling in spite of the fact that we have no internet.

So this isn’t really going to be posted on June 3^rd. That’s ok. Part of the habit of posting blogs it actually to form a better habit of writing daily.

My hubby and I have been on three different airplanes, and one 4 hour bumpy bumpy road trip to get to our final destination of Chimoio. We arrived to our African home around 6 in the evening just after the sun was setting. It’s winter here. That means short days and less sunlight in the evenings. So we left the airport as soon as we could. We were a little held up in the immigration area, but we didn’t get stopped at all in the customs. That is a spot that can cause a real headache. So at least we only had one headache since the officer found a problem with our paper work. His solution wasn’t to pricy, but oh how we wish we had meticals to pay the fee. The price for a visa in dollars is way more expensive than meticals.

Anyway, that is taken care of. I tend to think it is a blessing for them as long as they are doing their job and following their convictions of what is ‘right’ according to their every changing rules and ‘laws’. So rather than be grumbly that we had to pay more for this or that. I am believing that Jesus knows all of our expenses, expected and the unexpected. He knows how to provide for all our needs and the needs of all his children. So if they were ‘wrong, or corrupt, or whatever’ in charging us this fee then I rather not only begrudgingly forgive them for something that is a frustration to us. But actually bless them for working diligently according to their convictions.

So I take a deep breath and bless them. God knows how to love his kids. I’m not blindly or knowingly giving into some corruption – I have an official receipt for this visa fee. So, he’s explaining that this is what he is supposed to do, and he is really helping us to be in the country legally….We ask a few more respectful questions because we had been informed differently, but the answer is emphasized that this is what has to be done. There is an option to pay for a 30 day visitor visa, that has been denied for lots of travelers, or possibly some fee for having an expired DIRE. I don’t know all the rules (and I probably won’t post the details on-line cause I don’t know if that is a good idea) but anyway

We have the entry border sorted. Our dear friend drove us to our home where his wife, our Mozambican pastor and his wife, and one of our beloved Mozambican sons had organized a lovely Mozambican dinner for us all to enjoy together. Am I emphasizing Mozambican enough? So yes, I’m HAPPY to be back in Mozambique! Over all, Yesterday was lovely no unexpected expense at the border going to ruin my day!

After greeting our friends and Mozambican son Ngenie, we sat down together and ate dinner. I had looked around our living room and notice very few changes in the way that we had left the furniture and dishes on our ‘china hutch’ shelf. It’s not really a china hutch. It’s a book shelf that we use for the prettier porcelain plate and things. We are so please to walk into a nice tidy home after such a long long long long one more lonnnnggggg journey. Did I mention three planes? Ok, I did….did I say how many hours? Cause there is a reason I haven’t written or posted anything in this blog….um like two eight hour flights and some 12 or 13 hours of layovers. Maybe more, I try to forget so it doesn’t ANNOY me….wouldn’t want to stay frustrated over that fact that we have all kinds of technology and can send people to the moon, but we still have to fly for a billion hours. Now I’m exaggerating…. Texans tend to tell tall tales. So please pardon me. And understand that I get kinda pooped from long travel, it is however, entirely worth it to see my big beautiful family!!!!!

So anywho, we all sat down for dinner and caught up on as much of over a year and a half of history as possible in about 3 hours of fun lively conversation. Our lovely South African friends said goodbyes and see you in the morning.

Then our dear Mozambican friends who have been caring for our home since October offered to heat up a kettle of water for our evening bucket baths since the water pump on the well has petered out for possibly the 6^th time. The motor does wear out or the electrical wires short. Stuff happens. I totally expected to come home to our Mozambican reality and give up a few western comforts. I did laugh to myself when I had washed my hands earlier after just walking through the door and heading to the restroom because I notice right away that there was a basin and bucket with water – indicating that the pump for running water was not functioning. I had really enjoyed some lovely long baths and showers during my little mini-vacation in California. I was especially savoring the steaming hot running water since I anticipated water shortages or the possibility of no running water. This is normal life in Africa. It takes so much time and energy to run a house here. These little details like a burnt pump or electrical shortage are a bit tricky here. Sometimes there aren’t resources to fix the pump, and sometimes there are. But the most important things are important and water can wait. I guess that is another thing on our list to find out about fixing. –bunny trail.

So anyway, I was going to write a bit about today, but I’m pooped and better head for bed. It’s been a very full day from about 8 in the morning to 9:30 at night. We saw friends who popped in to say hi, and organized some details for a party tomorrow. We met some lovely volunteers who became a part of the Iris Chimoio family of volunteers while we were away in the states. They just fell in love with the children and are SUCH a blessing!!!

God is good to us. So we had a lovely dinner out with one of our new friends, and we are so excited to see as many friends and as much family as possible while we are here for a short time.

Oh, and we are trying to find a yummy poisen for the rats who are building a lovely home in the roof of our rental house. I keep having visions of the rats from the CG film ‘ratatouille’ in my head. I’m a bit terrified that the whole rat colony will have more rat babies and drop through the old worn out ceiling under our old aging roof…..oh sweet Jesus, help us to not have rats dropping in on us via windows, cracks under doors or any other entry they find available…..

Housekeeping tip for living in Africa: try not to rent a house near a garbage dump that only gets emptied once a week if we are lucky!!!!!

Anyway, life if full of surprises here and we have a good laugh when the rats and cockroaches show up….they are notorious for finding the craziest hiding places…..some of our small kitchen appliances haven’t been used for months or maybe even a year, so guess who made little nests inside our coffee grinder? Yeah so that was a fun part of my day today…..finding where the little buggers where hiding…..because I was using my coffee grinder.

I totally drank that coffee too because the bug nest was in the underside of the grinder. We washed the bowl with the blades and wiped the electrical part down. As the little electric motor started whizzing and the beans grinding, I noticed one of those tiny tiny little cockroaches. I am used to them. Just kill them and wash the mess. There was a lot more than just one bug to kill however, and I got a little grossed out for about a second. I know why they are there, and that bugs are bugs….so I can logic my way out of being too annoyed. This is after all their happy climate – subtropical climate does mean that housekeeping is a constant battle again the buggies like cockroaches, ants, termites, mosquitoes, and flies. It’s all part of life here.

So welcome to my candid rendition of African homecoming…..

Hope you are not to jaded by my ramblings. I really do love living here, it is just more obvious some of the things that I had begun to take for granted as I spent so much time away from our home here. I will constantly be thankful for our parents offering three lovely bedrooms, an office and bathroom for us to stay in in Colorado. During our time there we have never killed a cockroach, chased a rat out of our room or taken bucket showers.  

All pretty normal things in our African life….and it isn’t torcher. It’s the reality of living in an undeveloped country in an old un-renovated rental house in an old neighborhood on a dirt road with so many contributing factors to a bug problems, rodents and electrical and water issues.

I’m comfortable here, happy here, and also happy in America. I will always be thankful to get clean at the end of the day. I will always celebrate running water a little bit more, or a lot more, than a bucket bath. But I know that it is a blessing to use a full bucket of warm water to get clean, when there has been a drought in this part of Moz. I know that Papa God has blessed our well and it has not dried up when others have. That’s why I’s still super thrilled that we have water! I do have a tendency to find the silver lining in the various circumstance that we face.

Tonight we were remembering that last year we were guests of a very affluent man in a powerful position in his government. We were very happy as guests in his penthouse apartment, and we are very happy to be guests in a home without running water, or even in a home with a dirt floor and grass roof.

Its good to just love on people and focus on what they live without, but that we can learn from them because they are genuinely happy with their lives. We see how JOYFULL they become when they know Jesus! They don’t want bigger houses, and more appliances. They want peace, love and JOY! They need to be able to face any situation with JOY, and that’s better than finding a silver lining in a grey cloud.

My husband and I love to give our Mozambican friends and family presents. They are so thrilled with a sweater, or lip-gloss.  They put on the clothes and wear them right away. They are really grateful, not asking for a receipt so that they can return the gift if it doesn’t fit.

I learn deeper heartfelt gratitude from my beautiful Mozambican friends because they don’t expect more stuff. They don’t worry too much about what they don’t have. They take care of what they do have, and are truly thankful when we give them presents. So I don’t worry to much about bugs and rodents that live here, I focus on hanging out with our friends. Drinking coffee with our guests, and eating meals to build friendships.

So the next time you see a mouse don’t squeesh it….Just kidding. Kill that thing if it is inside your kitchen and not a pet. But its really not a “woe is me’ problem. Its just a problem. The more ‘problems’ you can face with a calm cool attitude, the more and greater problems you can face with a calm cool attitude. You might even become a missionary and leave your comfort zone where lots of things that are considered big problems (like a non-flushing toilet because its clogged or the mechanism is broke) that are among ‘problems’ you might face everyday and learn to be an overcomer who is less focused on convenience (I do love convenience and comfort) and more focused on loving people and understanding their reality….Then it hurts less when I get a bug bite. I’m facing the challenges my friends face. If they can do it with a smile, then they can teach me how to do that too!

So here’s to overcoming the little and big frustrations, scares, and unwanted buggers in our lives as we are learning to love more people, more deeply.

Lots of love,

Missionary momma mia

Subway for Thanksgiving Feast

Today when we ate lunch at Subway, I remembered when my hubby, firstborn son and I had Subway subs for Thanksgiving in Sau Paulo Brazil, instead of turkey in Colorado. It was one of those unexpected adventures that turned out to be a blessing for some tired missionaries.

Let’s see. That family trip was scheduled for late November. We were supposed to arrive just one day before Thanksgiving, on a Wednesday. Our tickets had been bought for a while, the visa for my hubby to visit the USA was still valid. Everything checked through just fine on the first leg of our trip to get to Sau Paulo, but that’s where we got stuck for a couple nights while even our second carry-on went ahead to Colorado. We were ready to go, except right there, between our departure from Brazil and arrival in Denver, an overzealous airline employee decided to check our details just one more time. She found out that my hubby didn’t have a visa for Canada. “What? No one said that we needed a visa before?” Our connecting flight showed up in her computer system as US/Canada. According to her computer, we didn’t have all the right travel documents.

We were surprised to hear her say that we would have to delay our flight and get a visa in the Canadian Embassy in Sau Paulo. It was the weirdest thing ever. Our flight had one connection in an airport that was both Canadian and American. We were literally only walking through the airport to get to our connecting flight, our itinerary said USA. I explained that the city and state is in America, but she was adamant that Canada would require a visa. We asked for her to confirm the details until she was getting even a little more short with us. We explained that we were not going to Canada, but she was insistent. So we told her that it was the company’s fault that they had verified our visas, loaded our baggage, and given us boarding passes before she verified the details again, and then changed their minds about it.

They were going to help us. We wouldn’t have to pay for everything since the company was partially responsible. Then something changed. I was surprised (this time happier surprised) as I learned how sincerely kind Brazilian culture is towards expecting mothers. My hubby talked with her explaining that the first airline employees hadn’t seen any problem with our visas because we weren’t disembarking. She apologized and insisted we had to get the visa. “Its just difficult for my wife because she is pregnant…our suitcases have already gone on to Colorado…..” “She’s pregnant? It doesn’t even show?” And then, the atmosphere shifted. They were helpful. Insistent that he get a visa for Canada, but they reserved a hotel and got us booked for the same flight in two days. So they paid part of the fees to change our flight, and even a got us a room in a hotel. That meant that we would arrive after Thanksgiving. I was still a little distraught, but it was actually nice that we were going to spend a night or two in hotel that the airline company paid for, it was a five star hotel. That was super nice for frugal missionaries who wouldn’t splurge on that kind of luxury. We only had to pay for a Canadian visa, and the taxi and travel costs in the city.

It was late when that was finally sorted. A taxi took us from the airport to the hotel, and the next day we headed to the United Nations complex in Sau Paulo. Beautiful place! We were barely able to get the visa, but we did. I don’t remember all the details, but I do remember praying because it was possible that we would have to come back the next day to get the visa - it usually took more than one day to process. Somehow it worked out. They would try to have his visa available after a few hours, just before they closed.

We were so tired from all the unexpected requirements, but there was a UN complex full of shops and restaurants to explore while we waited until just before the embassy closed. We had to find some clothes because we didn’t have enough for the three of us in the one carry-on bag that we had with us. There wasn’t a lot available there, but we managed to find something.

Then we looked for our lunch, and to my delight, there was a Subway fast-food restaurant inside the UN complex. We looked at each other and my husband knew what I wanted. I told him that I was actually more thrilled to have a Subway sub sandwich that he could imagine. I had dreams about subs, not turkey. So, inside our unexpected delay was a gift that I had been dreaming about.

In the end, we didn’t need the visa. We didn’t even walk on the Canada side of the airport. We would have been just fine. But my husband looked at me and he said do you remember asking God for a Subway Sandwich? You even told me that if you could pick any food for your holiday it would be a fresh cut Subway sandwish….Things that pregnant woman say!?! I was dreaming of their pickles and fresh veggies.

Well, I didn’t think that an entire company would examine my husband’s passport and determine that he needed a visa –that he didn’t actually need (and we were barely able to get in time!) just so I could rest in a nice hotel, get a lovely back massage, get three haircuts taken care of, and eat the sandwich of my pregnant dreams.

Mommy advice, be careful what you wish for….it might change an entire family’s holiday plans while actually blessing you at the same time. You can trust that God’s got you in his perfect care. He’s not throwing a wrench in travel plans just to see if we will cry, but actually to give us the things our hearts desire. That sandwich that I was dreaming about is also one of my hubby’s favorite foods. 

Thus the drive down memory lane as we ate lunch today.

May all your sandwiches be yummy, and some of them be memorable.

Lots of love,

Missionary Momma Mia

The what ifs, ands, ors, & buts in the shadows

There are so many what ifs, ands, ors and buts that lurk in our shadowy futures and dimly lit pasts. We wonder what would have happened if only, or what we might face if we go in that direction.

There were so many dreams that we thought would follow some reasonable timeline. Or at least glance at our time table and consider our input. Right?

Wrong….

We are not merely managing some project, or overseeing an event. We have some kind of title of importance that basically means ‘the missionaries who want to face more haranguing’. There was a time when I was younger and thought a title would make things so much easier when we met with other important people or needed to sign important papers. Don’t get me wrong. Titles have their proper place in society, businesses and organizations. There are important reasons for titles of authority and power. I wasn’t really sure exactly what I wanted, but I knew that I wanted things to run more smoothly in our lives, our staffs’ lives, and the children to whom we were responsible guardians. So much paper work, and every single time explaining that I was an administrative director, or interim leader….I never thought that the conversations about who I was were actually building a relationship with people. I thought that I had work to just get done.

That was a character building phase in my life. Out of my experience rose up a character named…. Just kidding. I didn’t create another split personality to deal with the pressure. But I did learn to take less responsibility on my plate, even if it meant that everything we had built might crumble. We didn’t really have a typical way to build up a team and restructure organization where we were, and with the title that we held we didn’t have scary authority to brandish to irritating, irresponsible, or just naive people. There was no way to teach people the protocol and procedures that we had established and followed to build up that place. We had no connection with the western people who came to “help”. They just wanted to do things their way. They might have thought that was what we did, so in some small way maybe we should be flattered….I don’t know.

My husband and I were going to have to learn a very different style of leadership if we were going to ever do anything without big powerful titles. We would have to learn how to build connections and relationships that can withstand our absence or control.

First we had to walk away and let something nearly die. We were asked if we should just close the ministry base or not. We knew that place would probably struggle, but we believed that whatever God had in mind for that place would happen someday, and it wasn’t dependent on us being there. Now it’s thriving and full of life! We had to let it nearly die – a big ‘What if’, What if this was all some big test of character and it was mostly a waste of time? No we had to let go, not because we didn’t value the blood, sweat and tears that we poured out over that place, because we had valued our sacrifice more than Jesus’ sacrifice. We had to let go even if it meant that our sacrifice might have been in vain, and the place could become a ghost town.

Not only could we walk away, but we could possibly forget our sorrows. We had a gift from some family members that was supposed to help us purchase a little house. (Our interpretation was “walk away from being missionaries and just start a life somewhere else”.)

It never happened. We walked away from our place of pain, growing character, and blood sweat and tears and never started over as something other than missionaries. Within just a few weeks we knew that it wasn’t time to give up and run away from what we had started in February 2006 in Chimoio, Manica, Mozambique.

And much to our surprise, we didn’t really have any gift that would help us start over and buy a house. We had a reasonable gift that helped us travel to visit both of our extended families in Brazil and the United States, and head back to Mozambique to finish what we had started. We had to choose to face the shadows. We didn’t go back to live at the place that we had to let nearly die, but at the place where we had been given land for starting a new ministry base, in Chimoio, Manica, Mozambique. We had permission to do whatever we felt like God was leading us to do. We could have a fresh Start.

In the meantime, we had learned a huge lesson –among many others. Don’t build something that depends on your skills and presence to survive. We would try to build something that would become self-sustaining, and we entertained lots of other really cool ideas. We dreamed so much and had a few ideas and plans, at the same time we agreed to work on an existing big ministry project. But the big project was something that we had poured into before, and there were huge roadblocks to anything that was connected to our first place as missionaries. We were willing to work on whatever and wherever we were needed, but it just didn’t ever happen.

So many things that we imagined, planned and prayed about fell pretty flat. We had so many what ifs, ands, ors & buts. We assumed all the blame for everything falling flat, never imagining it was God asking us to completely let go of the past season.

Then one day someone left four kids in on our ministry property. These kids were abandoned by the last family that was caring for them. The term ‘caring’ is used very lightly there. The children were working in their fields with little food or comfort for recompense. They needed love. We could give them that.

These kiddos were a brand new plan for our lives. My husband and I prayed for them. We knew that we couldn’t abandon them. We felt like God spoke to us very frankly, “Are you going to reject the children that I am giving to you?

Our children? They were ours, given to us? Our hearts were totally rent in two. Talk about humbled.

My husband and I definitely couldn’t send them away, we did everything we could to make them comfortable and well fed and loved. We had energy, ability to care for them. We felt immediate love and compassion for them. How could God trust us to love them? Why did he give kiddos to us? We couldn’t even seem to get our ducks in a row for any project or program. We were pretty much cut off from anything that had happened in our ministry lives ‘before’. We could have wallowed in the past with all those thoughts and regrets, or thank God for a fresh start with these four children.

It was a big change to what we had thought about in the months coming up to our return to Mozambique from a little over a year furlough. We kinda threw a fleece before God. If this was truly his plan, and he was in fact giving us more children to love and care for, we needed clear confirmation.

I was up praying around 4 in the morning before the mosques in the city played a loud call to prayer. I had poured out my heart to God, and spoken with a dear friend who prayed for us. We needed God to show us that these kiddos were part of his plan for us. We hadn’t planned on taking care of any children without a fence around the ministry property, running water and electricity, the right buildings, and projects and programs. We were hoping to build everything first, but God had other ideas.

We had been thinking about our new think in Chimoio along the old word we had from God when we built a ministry base before. There were some projects going on as we built and built and built, but we felt like it was missing something. God kept telling us “If you build it they will come.” I thought it was funny because to this day, my husband has never seen the film, ‘Field of dreams’ I tried to explain it to him after he had a dream where he heard the phrase, but it was to no avail. I have just really never pursued renting it, or buying it because it’s a little bit Ironic that he did it. He built it. And we did have to let some things die, but someone was always there, and then they really did come. It never totally died. None of the work that we did was in vain. I digress. My bunny trails are leading somewhere though.

The new thought: It was just to trust him with whatever he gave to us, whatever or whoever God put into our hands. We were to love, steward and care for the gift that he entrusted to our care. At that point ‘Iris Chimoio’ was just a plot of land with a couple of tiny buildings, and an unfinished building, and a lot of turmoil pouring over it from the nearby Iris Churches and unsure neighbors.

We needed to have a dedicated safe place for those children, a place reserved for their care, comfort and to ensure their future. So we felt like we needed to separate the ministry land from all the past turmoil and dedicated it to God as a ministry center with a new name.

At that early morning hour when Heidi called, my husband and I had already talked about ministry names. We knew it was based on a vision that God had given us as we drove through the Manica Provence of Mozambique in 2006.

We saw a river, with a vision of a beautiful house near it. We knew it was a safe place, and a place of worship. We saw so many details about the promise that God showed us growing near his river of life that flowed from his throne. So we had the name ‘River of God’ already connected to our ministry vision. When Heidi called around 4 in the morning, it was as if we had already been talking through the night. She asked what our name for Iris Chimoio ministry base was, all the ministry bases had names like Joy village, or village of Love. That is when I told her that Joao and I already had a name in mind. We weren’t sure if it was really a village though, but she loved it!  

So the ministry land and small buildings that we steward in Chimoio were given the name ‘River of God’. ‘Children’s center’ was later tagged on as ‘Iris Chimoio – River of God’ was not quite a village. It is quite a mouthful of a name, but that made us happy because we had asked to do something small and organic after having done something big and over our heads.

We let the experience of the past be filed away for the time being, and moved forward as new parents and directors of Iris Chimoio – River of God Children’s Center. We became the legal guardians of those four children along with our other Mozambican son Seba. They are all pretty grown up now. They might not need us as parents much anymore. We don’t know exactly what we will find after having been away from November and arriving in June. We have had daily contact with our staff or children. The Iris Chimoio – River of God CC volunteers have been amazingly connected with us. It’s been totally different from before.

Still, I have to take deep breaths and trust God that this isn’t simply a repeat of the last time. This is the promise for now. We are not alone, we don’t feel isolated, we don’t feel that a title would help us promote order. We feel a bit shy going back after such a long time. What will they need our help for? Will they need us, or won’t they? Do we even want them to need us, or our guidance? Can we keep leading from a distance, or not? Will we discover something that causes huge changes? Would huge changes be good or bad? There is so much to pre-worry about, but I don’t have time for that.  Now I wonder what will happen after being away for more than a year. Things happen. I’ve heard about a lot of it. And we’ve helped guide the team from here. This promises to be interesting, and an adventurous journey.

Joao and I are still trusting in Papa God to help us care for the children that he put in our hands and our lives. We’re trusting God to help us encourage the churches, and reach out to the community. It’s time for us to get ready to go.

We can’t worry about those buts or whats, ifs, ands & ors. Its just going to have to be what it is, and we are going to have to go over there and be ourselves as we spend time with our lovely kiddos, amazing team and big International Family.

To each of you who prays, I’m thrilled that you would lift us up to the throne room of God and ask for his hand to be with us. We are desperately in need of more of God’s presence in our lives. We need his touch so deeply as our hearts question what he wants us to do as we go back for this brief time, and our own three sons stay with their grandparents and aunt and uncle. We are not super humans, we are simple people who can’t stand to let the shadow win.

Our confidence is pretty small right now. But help us shift our eyes back onto his lovely face as we go forward. Pray for us, cheer us on so we can feel his grip on our wrists when we feel like watching the waves.

I’m not good at walking on water yet….I’m confident that the one who is great at it is our greatest help! Thank you for reading this. It’s just a rough bit of my heart poured out. I hope and pray you are blessed as you face the shadows, and you remember where and who confidence comes from!

Lots of love,

Missionary Momma Mia

Half a day away

After spending 12 hours away from home because of traffic and the first day of my long weekend class, I came home to the smell of homemade Japanese food. My husband had organized and cooked dinner like a pro! It was so sweet to come home from a long day and dinner was already prepared. I love being taken care of!!! I was so tired from a long day of sitting in class, and sitting in my car for the long commute.

When I finally got to see my hubby and kids it was dinner time. Everyone was sitting down to eat and loving their food, even my littlest nephew ate almost as much food as his cousins. After that I was the longest bath I’ve had in a longtime. Sometimes I feel like taking extra-long time in the bath to make up for the years of living without running water in Mozambique, but tonight was just to relax after too much time in the same space in the same little school desk with the desk top attached to the chair. What am I talking about the class again?

Oh man, I can’t get away from it even here…it must be time to just close my eyes and try to sleep before heading out at 6:30 tomorrow morning to get to class before the 8 o’clock traffic. Only a few more days until this semester is over folks. Well, I better try to sleep so I can face tomorrow.

Its great information and my classmates and teacher are great. This semester has been wonderful. I just have to push through tomorrow, and the last week before finals week. Oh my goodness. I’m almost there. One more class in the fall to finish my degree! I am happy to have come back from Mozambique to finish my BA degree and get my husband’s US green card documents. At least we can travel out of the country again. And we are already looking to book our flights for a trip to Mozambique this summer. I can’t believe summer months are basically here!!!!

So much to do in so little time. Oh my goodness….I need help Jesus!

But first sleep.

Lots of love,

Missionary Momma Mia 

Missionary Momma Mia

We are definitely an international family, and that will come up now and then, so I should start this little blog about our ‘life’ with a bit of a character description.

Right then, here it is:

Husband is Brazilian. Wife is American. Oldest Son has three nationalities, and all three boys were raised for the majority of their lives in Africa.

So, as you might imagine we do actually have an international family, not very modern, but definitely international. I wasn’t just making that up cause it’s a funny reference to a TV show. Anyhow.

We are actually missionary people. Neither my hubby or me are able to make the claim as the worst missionary because, as so many people already know, that claim has been made by a blogger ‘Jamie the worst missionary ever’, and we won’t pretend to claim being the best missionaries ever. The best is dead, that was Paul –Hands down. No one is really going to be able to win an argument against Paul being the best ever Christian missionary. Evidence is welcome, but it probably won’t shake my opinion.

I’m not gonna be arrogant and pretend like we are perfect. There was only one perfect man on a mission thus far, and his name is Jesus. We are however, interesting missionary people somewhere between the worst and best missionaries. Do we want to be perfect like Jesus? Well that’s the aim people. I’m tired of sucking in life, and repeating the same lessons. It would be nice to get the point and move on. Right? That is kinda my version of sharing in the sufferings of Christ. He suffered unto perfection. He doesn’t ever just do something hard for the sake of it being hard or painful. So I feel like his perfection is attainable, on different levels in different areas of our lives as we follow Jesus.

I don’t try to be the worst or best missionary. I’m not gonna pretend that I am perfect. There might be some areas in my life that are perfected. We all tend to take for granted the childhood lessons that we actually have perfected and are the foundations of our successful living as youth and then adults. I’m really glad that my beautiful brain did accomplish awesome things like regulating my breathing, heartbeat and functionality of other vital organs. It might not be perfect but pretty close to it. I don’t usually have to think about breathing….

I don’t want to take that for granted anymore, or other parts of my life that feel pretty close to perfect. I feel like sharing some of the lessons that I’ve learned as a “not so great, not so terrible” missionary wife and mother of an International Family will be a great foundation for me to perfect writing, even if it is only for my kids.

So here is the beginning of me talking about the things I’ve noticed, learned, am learning, and find literally too funny not to share.

Momma Missionary