One of the problems of having the spiritual gift of teaching is that God has kind of “hard-wired” you to see lessons, new thoughts, and ideas everywhere you look. Then there’s the poor people that are in the way when you learn them and just feel like you’re going to die if you don’t share them….(you’re one of “them” right now…so if you’re feeling “lessoned out”…please just pray for Sareth).
I was making tortillas today and thinking of how finally…I feel like a real missionary…some of our supporters insist on believing that we live in mud huts, with no civilization in sight, when our reality is so far from that…but making tortillas from scratch allowed me that brief moment of fleeting pleasure, knowing that I was satisfying anyone who feels that we should do some real missionary living. (Notice that I didn’t mention our househelp that is busy doing about 12 loads of laundry while I’m “slaving” over those made-from-scratch tortillas).
Maybe some of you who aren’t missionaries don’t know that we can struggle with image every now and again. We all do…whether it’s being the “doctors wife, lawyer, mother…whatever…we have this image we sometimes feel compelled to portray and missionaries are not exempt from this tension. We are tempted to feel good when we’re with orphans and making tortillas, lulled into thinking that finally…we’re doing what we think people think we should be doing. As I rolled and cooked, my conversation with the Lord kept having to be disciplined to come back to several truths:
1. The truth is, we’ve scared off those supporters that think we should suffer and so that’s a dumb idea anyhow.
2. Instead of glorying in what I have, I am tempted to find glory in a pigeon-holed idea of what someone else thinks I should be. (Another dumb idea).
3. I need to know less of me and more of Christ. (Best idea yet).
Last but not least…homemade tortillas are a zillion times better than store-bought, so in reality, we are blessed over and above, like we are in almost every aspect of our life.
Yes…all that from making a tortilla. Thankfully, Jesus helped me corral my thoughts this time…I might give in next time…but I pray that the joy of truth will make the lies repugnant to my soul.
That’s what you call a drive-by-lesson-shooting.
On the ministry front – Buddy and Rich are heading to Cambodia for a quick trip tomorrow…they are needing to totally restructure a missions trip that is coming in from students in Okinawa because of Sareth being in jail. They cannot do ministry in those areas for a while…kind of having to “lay low”…so…as God so aptly provided two orphanages that we are connected to through Stop Slavery, Rich and Buddy are heading down to see what kind of projects and what ways our former students can bless those in Siem Reap. How blessed we are to be conduits to ministry to such needy people. Pray that God would open up doors to reach people with the Gospel!
We love you guys- Jen
Enjoyed reading your post about the tortillas! We found the same thing in South Africa while there for 3 months. Although we did not live in huts (as many thought we did) we did do everything from scratch. It is not a place where you can go to the local store and get a “box mix” which makes us appreciate the USA even more! This is our first post to you, and we hope to do more in the future. We love hearing from you (your emails) but we do realize that it may be somewhat redonent for you to post a blog and do emails as well. We know that our PC was our lifeline to the world, and we are sure yours may be as well. Keep sending the updates. We are hoping and praying our house will sell this year and we can head off to many more “short term” missions. Hope we get to meet you all sometime.