missionaryMAC

Drumroll...the results of my experiment are in (🙂 = non-work block; X = work block)! Sunday, October 7 9:57 am (in the car on the way to church): A fellow missionary mentions that she saw the post introducing my experiment. Commence work-related discussion. This raises a question: what is work? Is talking about work work ? I'm reading  Cross-Cultural Servanthood , one of two books we were given at the regional conference. I'm reading it by choice but probably wouldn't be if this weren't my job. Is this work? Baking for all-team potlucks. Is THIS work? Right away I'm inclined to say no, because I love to bake.  So...are enjoyment and work mutually exclusive? Tracking this is going to be harder than I thought. I would posit that a blurred definition of work is endemic to church workers of all kinds, everywhere. (As you can see, I chose not to count 6-10 am as a non-work block!) 2:33 pm : Checked EM in the DR Facebook page for no apparent reason othe...

As of Wednesday afternoon...I've got wheels! For reasons I won't go into, the Hyundai Cantus* is the most suitable make and model for most DR-based missionaries, even single ones. I knew this prior to deployment, so car "shopping" was fast and furious. I went to look at two Cantuses on Friday: a new one with just the basics and a used (barely - it's a 2017 with just 30,000 km) "fully loaded" one for nearly 20% less. The price differential and the fact that the used one still smelled new made the choice easy. I'm not mad about the backup camera, though. A few business days to wrap up some paperwork later, it was ready for me to drive off the lot. And park in my garage.  If you're wondering about ...drivers' licenses, I'm not 100% sure how this will play out. Foreign licenses are valid for 90 days every time you enter the country. I'm within that now, and the window will reset when I go to Puerto Rico in November. After...

Next week is a "normal" week - as normal as a week can be on the mission field, anyway. I'm not involved with any short-term teams (although maybe it'd be "normal" if I was?), FOROs, or Venezuelan pastors' conferences (just wait). So, I've decided to try an experiment. Given my workaholic tendencies, it was suggested to me that I try a block scheduling technique to reduce the risk of burnout by ensuring adequate down time. The idea is to chunk each day (waking hours, anyway...sleep is nonnegotiable) into four blocks. That makes 28 per week, at least eight of which are to be preserved as non-work blocks. Work trumps all. If ANY work is done within a given block, it becomes a work block. If you're wondering, yes, blogging is work. Since I'm me, I made a spreadsheet. I'll track how I do and report back in a week, along with some notes on my experiences. I'm fairly certain I fail miserably at this regularly, so pray for me. U...

And just like that, my first DR FORO is in the books. Last Thursday's early morning grocery run  was the beginning of a marathon day. Danelle, James, and I got to Santo Domingo just in time for the 7:00 pm Bible study at Las Américas, had a fashionably late dinner of Venezuelan cachapas , and only then started making Friday's sack lunches and doing some prep work for lunch on Sunday. One of the seminarians had seen a recipe for "brookies" (a mash-up of chocolate chip cookies and brownies) on Facebook but had no idea how to bake, so I got to give him a tutorial. Friday morning, we picked up the two collaborators that flew into Santo Domingo on Thursday for a cultural excursion followed by a visit to Kilómetro 28. Our initial plan was to go to the  Faro a Colón  (Columbus Lighthouse), a monument built in honor of the 500th anniversary of the discovery of the Americas. Instead of focusing on European imperialism, it celebrates the spread of Christianity - the li...

You ask what daily life is like? This weekend, hectic: it's DR fall FORO time!  FOROs are biannual, round-table strategic planning gatherings open to anyone who supports mission work in a particular country. While not a traditional "team," I was put in charge of logistics (meals, lodging, transportation) as a sort of test run before the first bona fide short-term team serves here at the end of January. Thankfully, I received all the support I needed from people who have been there, done that.  Danelle and I went shopping early this morning and got everything on the list - an answer to prayer in and of itself! I thought we weren't going to be able to leave until almost lunchtime and would need to go to multiple stores.  In addition to missionaries and local staff, 40 US collaborators were invited; four are coming. Disappointing as that is, if I'm being 100% honest, tracking flight information and making hotel reservations - in two cities - for a gro...

Good morning from my humble abode! After weeks of pouring into the house I now get to call my home, I slept here for the first time last night, only to be rudely awakened at ~ 1:45 am by an earthquake ! I've never felt one before, but somehow I knew exactly what it was. Acquiring furniture turned into quite the saga, but I was finally able to pick up the majority of my IKEA order on Wednesday. They only had one of the 2nd set of dining room chairs I picked out, but I'll wait on plan C until the four credit returns I have coming have been processed. Saga, I told you! Friday night, I hosted a furniture assembly party. The place was filled with missionaries and seminaristas who gave up their evening to play with "Legos for adults." Two hours or so later the job was done; all I did - besides take pictures - was dry and put away dishes that someone else washed! Quality control.  How many Lutherans does it take to put slats in an IKEA bed? This ...

You know the song that gets stuck in your head endlessly: //Amigos de Cristo; we're friends of the Lord; Amigos de Cristo; we're friends of the Lord. For we've been forgiven, and we've been restored, Amigos de Cristo; we're friends of the Lord.// You're welcome ;) That's what comes to mind, though, when I consider Amigos de Jesús , the monthly children's programming at Licey, the church I've all but decided I'm going to make my DR church home. Amigos de Jesús began as an outreach to neighborhood kids with special needs but has since morphed into something that serves a wider circle of little ones. There is Sunday school every week, but the third Sunday of every month is extra-special. Yesterday was my first. Breaking from the regularly scheduled, Catechism-based curriculum, the lesson was straight from the pages of Luke: Jesus Raises a Widow's Son. Vicar Yban Navarro and his wife Marta led the children in a song, Bible story reena...

My first work trip took me to Jamaica from 9/11-14 for the fall FORO meeting. Jamaica is a field that is gaining momentum, so the participants were mostly local staff and OIM representatives. I had an eye toward scouting out the potential impact that short-term teams could make on moving the ministry forward, which it turns out is significant. I already have plans to go back and work with a team at the end of March and may spend as many as five additional weeks there in 2019 with subsequent teams. Maybe by then my brain will have figured out that Jamaica's official language is (thickly accented, in some cases) English! The ambiance is that of any Latin American country I've been in, with a keenly felt British influence in the street names and the fact that they drive on the left side of the road! I'll let the pictures do the rest of the talking. L to R: Rev. Dr. Art Just (OIM); Rev. Peter Kirby (LHM...and a fellow member of my home congregation!); Rev. Charles St-Onge (...

Little by little. Little by little, I'm working to get my soon-to-be house ready for move-in. The car in the carport belongs to the missionary family that previously lived there. I also had an exterior, dusk to dawn floodlight installed underneath the center of the bay window since this photo was taken.  Homes in Cerro Alto, the neighborhood where the entire Santiago-based missionary team lives, might be spacious and ornate, but they require SO. MUCH. EFFORT. As a rule, landlords tend to be pretty hands-off. I'm starting to see the light, but it feels like I've been slogging through a mud pit. Thursday was a definite low point...long story involving a doorknob and IKEA. Suffice it to say Eddy the electrician saved the day on Friday. He's coming back to tie up a few loose ends tomorrow, so it's back to my all-too-familiar post at the kitchen table (as opposed to  on  the kitchen table...I finally borrowed some plastic chairs from the office) while he works...