Missionary reality

Since I have recently shared many of the joys of missionary life, praying with and caring for children, teaching a really great group of kids, and getting to share the gospel, I thought I would also tell you about some of the less glamorous aspects of missionary life. 

Today I am staying in Jinja to work on paperwork. Since we are here through Global Outreach and they are responsible to provide documentation to the IRS to retain non-profit status, we need to provide them with that paperwork. This month we had to turn in our budget for ministry expenses for 2014, and we have to keep tract of and organize receipts for all ministry expenses. So today I will organize those receipts by category and date, scan them and send an email to Global Outreach with all of that info. We also need to turn in a quarterly ministry report to the home office and I need to work on our next email update. In addition to all that desk work, I will try to go to the market and get food for the week. Not exactly what many think missionary life is like, huh?

Honestly, I really enjoy these days of paperwork and errands. It is unusual for me to have extended periods of time to work on anything without interruptions. I have four children and when I am teaching I am always juggling at least two different grade levels, usually 3 or 4. So my life is a constant multitasking mess, other than this one day every other week when I do the paperwork. Speaking of multitasking, pray for David today as he juggles his teaching load and supervising my classes too. I am thankful that he is willing to have a more stressful day so that I can accomplish these necessary tasks. 

I have also become more aware of my need for quiet time with God to process everything. Usually to have quiet time, I have to get up at what many would think an ungodly hour. I have begun to enjoy those early morning hours, but it is very nice to have a day when I can have that time alone in prayer and reading God's Word later in the day too. One thing missionary life has taught me is that I need time alone with God to sustain me each day. 

While I am an extrovert who loves being with people, I have also learned to enjoy a day alone. It is new for me, but I think that it is a blessing. For the sake of full disclosure, I do often try to sneak in a quick smoothie or lunch with my friend Jennifer! Today we will go to the market together. God has definitely blessed me with her friendship! Here we are at the post office together.

Today, I am seeking to glorify God in the mundane details of life. We all have these tasks in our life. So whatever we do whether we eat or drink or do paperwork or go to the market, let us do it all for the glory of God. (Paraphrase of I Corinthians 10:31)