Note to a lizard

Dear Mr. Chincha,

I would like to tell you how very much I appreciate the time you put in to eating disposing of any bugs who wander into my bathroom.  This job alone is enough to make me not mind when you run up the wall next to me when I am occupied there.  It would be nice if you could let me know before you run, but I understand that our language barrier makes this difficult.

There is just one thing that troubles me about the time we spend together. When I am in the shower, I would much appreciate it if you would not run about on the ceiling.  It feels a little creepy, and I am afraid that you are planning to jump on my head when I am not watching.  My preference is that you either stay still in one place, or better yet, stay in one of your favorite hiding places - behind the toilet perhaps?

Thank you for taking the time to read this note.

Your friend and housemate,
Diane


P.S.  I apologize for the incident with the door that claimed your tail.  It was unfortunate, but I am happy to see that you are already growing a new one.  

Sacrifice?

A few weeks ago a short term missionary said to me, "Thank you for all the sacrifices you are making to be here."  And I had to stop and think... What sacrifices am I really making?

 Compared to Jesus - NOTHING.

I look around me and I see a nice home, time to spend teaching my children, air conditioning and the money it takes to keep it running.  Our physical needs are well taken care of.  We have no problem getting our kids what they need.  We don't have to deprive ourselves or our children of things that we want just for fun. 


It took a while but I finally started to see things that we are sacrificing.  We only have 5 TV channels in a language we understand.  There are more bugs -shiver- here than we are used to having around.  It's hot and muggy.  We sweat - a lot!  Our children tend to get stinky because they sweat, too.  We can't pick up the phone and call our families because if we are awake, there is a good chance that they are asleep. But all these things are pretty minor.  Irritating sometimes, but in the long run not worth getting upset about.

Admittedly, we have days when we let the molehills turn into mountains.  We get tired of being hot and sticky.  We wish we could give our kids a bath... in a bathtub.  But we always come back to why we are here.

1 Peter 3:18 (NIV)
For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive in the Spirit.

THAT is sacrifice.  Shopping in a smelly market instead of shopping at a supermarket?  Not so much.  So I think I'll stick to my story of not really making sacrifices to be here.  God seems to want us here right now, so here we are.  I can't do a fraction of what He has done, so I will just do my best to show Him to the people around me here.  

Short term

    Before I was a parent, I was the fun aunt.  I would color and play games with my nieces and nephews.   I often had someone hanging on my back or riding on my shoulders.  It was not uncommon for me to spin someone around or flip them upside-down.  I was really fun.  As a parent, I can't do that everyday.  We do play like that sometimes, but not often.  The reality is that I don't have the energy to do that all the time.  With other people's kids I knew that I was not responsible for taking care of them everyday, I could play and have fun and give them back to their parents.

  I feel like in missions we are now the parents.  We used to be short term mission people. We would go somewhere, do as much as we could to help in a short time and then go home back to our regular lives.  We were fun, we had a lot of energy and we were able to do a lot in a short time.  Now we have to be able to live here in the heat and humidity all year long.  Working so hard that we are exhausted at the end of everyday is just not an option.  We have to be able to maintain life here with our family while doing mission work.  It's hard.  The heat and humidity alone are enough to make us tired at the beginning of the day.  There is a limited supply of energy, and we have to use it wisely. 

     Short term mission teams are like fun the fun aunt or uncle.  They come in with lots of energy, excited to work in our country and with the people here.  Short term teams come and play with our Kid's Club kids.  They run and jump and spend more time with them than we can often do.  It's fun for them, and fun for our kids.  They see how the kids live, and learn about their lives.  They can take that home with them and tell their friends about the needs here.  The more people that know about the needs here the better. 

   We were recently able to spend about 10 days with a couple of short term teams.  It was a huge blessing to us.  It was hard because most days were filled with activities clinics and outreaches and it was hard for us to keep up.  I realized that they could keep up that schedule because they were going to go home and be able to have normal again soon.  It was good for us to let them share their energy and excitement about the mission with us.  We were blessed to have their encouragement. Thank you short term mission groups!