Confessions of a Missionary -5 things you won't expect

I watched Brooklyn yesterday, a movie about girl leaving her country and adapting to a new one.  In the beginning of the movie the main character meets a fellow Irish girl on the way to America.  The girl imparts a little wisdom on her so she can survive the first day.  At the end of the movie as the main character returns to America after a visit home she does the same thing for another Irish girl heading to America for the first time. 

I have been mulling the title “What they don’t tell you about being a missionary” for a week now and the movie inspired me to finally write them down.  So, where to start…

Leaving your family in the States as they cry and say goodbye is the easy part.  The hard part comes months later when you realize they are going out for a family birthday party/dinner and you aren’t there and you won’t be there for next year’s birthday either.

Not having a 9-5 job is a lot harder than you might think.  When does your day end?  Have you accomplished enough in a day to feel like you can “rest at the end of the day?”  What is normal for a missionary to do on the weekends?  In the States it’s a game night, dinner at a restaurant, movie with snacks.  Like a pastor I don’t really have a weekend.  I often get two separate days off in a week, but a Saturday and Sunday without work (ministry) is rare. 

Living in a third world country with air conditioning during "their summer" will make you so tired you wonder if you will get more than one thing done in a day.  Better yet, the most productive parts of your day will be when you first wake up until 10:30 or so and then again after 5:00.  If we could just sleep during the day and work at night that would be cooler, but that’s not how it works, so you take siestas and hope we it will be cooler eventually.  Maybe then we will get more done.

Changing cultures is hard, especially when you live with the new culture 24/7.  As much as I like Malgasy food you can’t help miss the food you ate for all of your life up until this point.  When you don’t get to eat that food hardly ever it’s kinda sad.  Similarly, there are things you can easily do in America that are not that way in the new culture and making the switch is harder than one may expect.  One of the hardest ones for me is that people just stop by to visit.  I’m use to social times being scheduled in advance.  However, on the positive side, the fact that people are much more social here makes it easier to start relationships.

As much as you may have heard about spiritual warfare until you experience the intensity of it for yourself you don’t know how hard it will be.  What I have learned is that telling people about Jesus comes at a high price.  You WILL be attacked in one form or another, but you will also see the Holy Spirit working to hold you up just as strongly.  When I think of the lies Satan has told me I have also seen the Holy Spirit give the truth just as intently.  The question is who will you listen to?  I can’t help but tear up a little know that in the battle there is Matthew 5:12 “Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.” 

So when considering being a missionary or planning to live cross-culturally know that things will take a lot of time to happen and often there will be a ton of obsolesces in the way as you attempt to see goals accomplished.  As much as you think you won’t be the one to be lonely, it will happen at some point, in one way or the other, even if only briefly.  There are three culture shock plateaus - at 3 months, 6-7 months in and 9 months in.  If you know about them in advance you won’t feel as foolish and maybe you will be a little more prepared, or at least you will know you are not the only one who wonders if they are really cut out to live in a different culture than their own.  It passes.  And finally, if you remember nothing else hold onto this (tears as I write this truth) God is in control,

⁴  “See, I have made him a witness to the peoples,

    a ruler and commander of the peoples.⁵ Surely you will summon nations you know not,    and nations you do not know will come running to you,because of the Lord your God,    the Holy One of Israel,    for he has endowed you with splendor…⁸ “For my thoughts are not your thoughts,    neither are your ways my ways,”declares the Lord.⁹ “As the heavens are higher than the earth,    so are my ways higher than your ways    and my thoughts than your thoughts. Isaiah 55