On Being Missionaries

It got real when we received our prayer magnets in the mail. "We are official missionaries now." I told Ryan. You know the pictures that stay up on your fridge or bulletin board or stuffed in your Bible... for years and years. We worked hard to make sure our picture was good, which was no small undertaking with a 3 month old. It felt like the 3 little bears- not too __, not too ___, but just right. She had to be awake, diaper changed, not sick (had just gotten over a cold), and dressed in a cute outfit but not yet spit upon. I wanted to be awake, not post-call, not on call, showered- ha! And Ryan, well he can be ready anytime. So the minute that looked like it would happen, we had to find someone to take the picture. We asked some friends if they were available. Unfortunately, they were running errands and were at the mall at the time. No matter, we went to them! Our official picture was taken at the mall with an iPhone. Now you know.

To be honest, I have mixed feelings about having the title of a missionary. I confess that one of the barriers I had when we were praying about making the jump from short term trips to long term missions was that I had a perception of missionaries when I was little was that some looked frumpy, some looked foreign, some looked out of date (possibly a result of being on our fridge for so many years!), and some of their kids looked awkward and acted shy. On the flip side... in Kenya I met some amazing doctors who gave up lucrative careers to be there, I wish I were half as cool as my cousins who grew up in Bolivia and are bilingual, and some of our best friends are working in videography and photography as official missionaries. Regardless of whether people see us as frumpy and our dear Sydney awkward, the goal is not to make much of ourselves, but to make Jesus famous.