Everyday Life :)

A couple of years ago a girl came up to me after I finished speaking at a church. With a look of great wonder, she cautiously touched my arm. Delight spread over her face afterwards as she exclaimed, "Wow, I got to touch a real live missionary!" I smiled to myself, and think of that at the oddest moments... usually when I am doing the most mundane every day tasks... the kind of tasks that people such as that girl don't envision missionaries doing. After all, don't missionaries just go around preaching the gospel, getting people saved, and building churches? :) So... to prove that real live missionaries (aren't all Christians supposed to be missionaries?) do everyday mundane tasks... let me tell you about my day Saturday.

We had several days of chilly, drizzly weather, and Saturday morning dawned cool and crisp. However, the morning bore the promise of sun... so it was a good day for laundry: things would actually dry! So, I set the machine up on the porch and started off, using the rinse water from one load to wash the next load, then keeping the water to be used the third time to scrub down the floors of the house. I washed clothes, towels, sheets, blankets, and rugs... it was time for a good cleaning! In between loads of laundry I took the recycled water, poured it onto the cement floors, and got on my hands and knees with a brush to scrub out the dirt. Sandra helped me finish up, and by 11:30 laundry was finished, floor was clean, beds re-made, and the last of the laundry was basking in the warm sun. I even used some of the recycled water to wash the shower curtain and scrub down the bathroom. Wow, did the place smell and look sparkling clean! And did I ever feel exhausted!

The early afternoon was spent catching up on some paperwork, then we headed outside at four to get some yard work done. The lawnmower buzzed, the rake moved, and the machete whacked, until 6:00 when it was time for a well-deserved dinner. It was a good day of work!

So... besides everyday cleaning, cooking, and laundry, real live missionaries take some time for days of deeper cleaning as well. After all, we are just real people like everyone else!

I know you already knew that, but it is good to throw a reality post in every once in a while, lest anyone think we teach and write Bible studies every waking hour. :)