It was a very exciting email. The editor of A Life Overseas had contacted me, asking me to be a monthly contributor to their missions website. I had previously had two guest posts published on this site, but I didn’t see myself as an equal to the other writers, many of whom have published books. So it was indeed an honor to be asked. And now my name is there–listed with all those other wonderful missions writers.
So, of course, I’ll be sharing my “A Life Overseas” posts with you, my favorite readers, since it is your encouragement that keeps me writing. The posts for this site are aimed at overseas Christian workers, but there’s often a lot there for anyone. So….[drum roll]….Presenting my first official post as a monthly contributor to “A Life Overseas!”
Missionaries are supposed to suffer….So am I allowed to buy an air conditioner?
“When you’re standing there on the center of that church stage, surrounded by hundreds of people praying for you, plane tickets in hand, earthly possessions packed into bags exactly 49.9 pounds each, you feel ready to suffer. Yes! I am ready to abandon it all!
And then you arrive in your long-awaited country and you realize that in order to host the youth group, you’re going to need a big living room. And in order to get the translation work done, you need electricity, which means you need a generator. And in order to learn the language, you’ll need to hire someone to wash your dishes and help with childcare.
Suddenly, you find yourself living in a bigger house than you lived in your home country, but you are ashamed to put pictures of it on Facebook. You don’t want to admit to your supporters that you spent $1000 on a generator, and heaven forbid people find out that you aren’t doing your own ironing.
Apparently, if you suffer more, you are a better missionary. Or more godly. Probably both.”
Click hereto read the whole article.
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