Typical Days

There is much to be said about a “stripped-down” life!   That is living VERY simply, having VERY little.  Christmas Day, I flew down to Guatemala, making the connections by the favor of God after the crew did not show up before the scheduled boarding time to pilot the plane, even if we’d been on time there was a short, short connection time and the agent told  me as I did board, “I got you a seat on the 7 p.m. flight.”  That’s not giving a girl confidence she will make it to spend some hours of light with family for Christmas. BUT I decided IF there was a layover 7 hours at Houston airport, divine appointments were there for me.   Thanks for always praying that for me Pastor Mark!

My bags were at 102 pounds, my carry-on was 30 and my backpack was at least 25 pounds and ALL that included very little personal things for me.  You should know, with joy, I carried that weight, pushed it, pulled it to get to my destination and spread infinite joy to girls and boys!   Hey, a few adults too have been please at the blessings of God they have received from my cargo.

This being said, let’s move on to that idea of “typical”!  The title and theme of this reflection.  I abhor the word “blog”, to me as a writer it is so vulgar!  But on the other hand it IS embraced as a term by so many, sorry refuse to use it.  I like the word exposition, but that does quite cover the ramblings of an old missionary gal!

How many times have I been ask what I do as a missionary and the other question is “what is a typical day for you”.  I would get that a LOT when living full time in Central America.  One day, I just had to laugh , plans were laid out, but early in the morning a missionary called me from the states, she’d had an unfortunate accident and had left quickly, everything important was in her home.  Her request was for me to gain access and find some papers.  This predated cell phones, hey for us phones were not always something we had attached to a wall, okay this is really OLD school!!  What happened to my plans, they were amended.

Some days we have glorious “typical” days, days to be remembered by ourselves and those we serve.  See the faces of these children above. Sure they are not all beaming from ear to ear, but you have no idea how happy they really are to be sporting a cool new backpack from the states direct no less to start their school year.  Within the backpacks were their new clothes, each received two things, then a school supply starter kit, Karla and I put together the night before and a bonus candies from the states!

Now to get these onto their back, you know the air travel part, but all these kids live up a mountainside, oh yeah, straight up and the last part no pavement but a dirt path.  Karla does this up and down everyday, but I try to limit my climbing that mountain to about twice a year, especially when I am toting another 25 pounds or more of stuff.  This time, I managed to make it without a timeout.  Praise God !  These children I’ve known since they were ALL babies, have the pictures to prove it.  One of my favs is missing as he and his younger brother were sent much further up the mountain to chop wood for the family fire that they cook with.  Okay all this and a full afternoon with another family.  Just another typical missionary day, I’ll tell you more later!!  For now God Bless you in this New Year, may He guide you or should I say YOU ALLOW Him to be your Guide in all that comes your way.