Awkward Missionary
Tuesday, May 30, 2017After you are away from your home culture for 6 years you start to acquire some strange personality quirks...
Goodbyes. You get really good at saying goodbye, but you weigh the effort of making new friends when you know they will just turn around and leave in 6 months - 2 years. We have 3 really good friends that will be heading out from Congo in the next few months. I am so happy for what the next stages of their lives are going to look like but the gap they will leave and the thought of filling it is just plain exhausting... So if you meet a missionary that seems a bit standoff ish they may be evaluating their emotional reserves and seeing if they have enough to get to know you better.
Saying goodbye to the Burtons just a few short months ago |
Compassion Fatigue. Life in Congo is hard for no one more more then the Congolese. Life for a Congolese in Kinshasa is hard. People move from the villages to Kinshasa for work and to get away from rebel groups, but there is less work and life in way more expensive. There are just so many needs. We are often getting asked for way more then we can afford. But we do our best to balance our giving so we can give to those in need and not just those that are taking advantage of the system. But some times it get tiring; and where before there was compassion and mercy in our heart, judgement and bitterness takes root. One month we give out significant school debt to our guards so they can send their kids to school and lament about how we have to stretch thin for the month. One guard hasn't been able to come to work because his wife is constantly ill and I give the rest of my grocery money for that. I lament about having to stretch thin my meals for guests. I judge someone for the nice cloths they wear as they ask for money and wonder why they didn't use that money better instead of having to ask for more money now.
One day when I get to heaven, I expect and will rejoice to see my guard as first beside Jesus because I have every confidence he will be and you know what, I will be happy to come in last.
1 comments
Wow.....tears are running down my face. Thanks for sharing. Does not matter who we are we all have something. By helping others our something does not seam so bad....Thanks for the reminder.
ReplyDeleteEphesians 3:19-21
You will know Christ’s love, which goes far beyond any knowledge. I am praying this so that you may be completely filled with God.
Glory belongs to God, whose power is at work in us. By this power he can do infinitely more than we can ask or imagine. Glory belongs to God in the church and in Christ Jesus for all time and eternity! Amen.