living like missionaries

Monday I spent most of my precious office time catching up with my favorite office mate, Jodenel.  We've been sharing the finance office and load for a good long time, and after we caught up about his pregnant wife and work and the summer conferences he's done teaching discipleship materials, about the churches he pastors and about Haiti, he asked about our time in the States.

I chatted on about all the people we got to spend precious time with, the places were were able to go and the churches we were able to visit and about how the girls did.  Trying to help him understand, I explained all the places we went, how often we were traveling and sleeping in different places, how dependent we were upon people to feed and care for us and transport us, how unstable and irregular our schedules, diets, laundry patterns and sleep schedules were like, about how gracious everyone was with our family of six, how dependent we were upon the generosity of others and on the Lord...whew!

Wow, he said thoughtfully and sincerely. You guys were living like, like missionaries!

The thought that had never occurred to me slapped me in the forehead and I couldn't stop laughing.  HE WAS RIGHT!  Everything the Bible talks about regarding going out and sharing the Gospel in your hiking sandals and showing up at peoples houses and being dependent upon them to care for you sounds a LOT more like our life in America than our life in Haiti!

Now that we're home, we're cooking for ourselves and others again, unpacked our bags, and staying in one place :)  I'll tell you what, I know Jesus told them to take as little as possible with them (and to leave their wives and kids at home) for a reason!

So there we have it...for eight years Jodenel and I have just been friends and ministry partners...but now he sees me as a missionary!

Part of the freedom that has been seeping in with my "there is only one me, and I'm not the one needed, anyway" revelation is the freedom to stop trying to throw myself into full-out ministry with every single person I meet, with everyone in our village, with every visitor, with every other missionary and expat, with every person we meet, and to re-focus my time and energy on our staff and students.

I've been spreading too thin, and want to invest more in the rich ministry that is pouring into these men and women whom God has brought us to minister TO and minister WITH.

Some of those are these six, the team we sent today to Goanives to work and minister in the orphanage where two of our students grew up and still live and work today.  I have loved planning this all out with them and getting them ready to go, and I'm loving getting texts every few hours of their time.

How precious are these opportunities to minister to orphans, widows, the lost, the lonely...how valuable for our students to live along others and show and share the Gospel, how important for Haiti to have TRUTH and COURAGE, not lies and fear going out, going out, going out.

I walk the empty campus in the evenings with our little tribe and pray and pray and pray for the men and women coming back in just a few weeks to dig deeper, go further, be transformed, be a part in transforming.

I've been a missionary on the road in my home country with no home, and I'm a missionary now at home in a foreign country and WHATEVER, WHEREVER...how rich it is to receive peace and courage and faith and help and provision and power from Him, and to pour it right back out on those He's given us to love well.

Let's love well, missionaries, because He's loved us so well, first.