It's a Good Life
Recently someone said something to me along the lines of, “your life isn’t so bad.” They continued on about how they see the sacrifice and the surrender—but basically acknowledging that we have a good life.
And honestly, we do. Why shouldn’t we?
We have a beautiful property where our home and our organisation are located. Far too often the church portrays missionaries as uncommon and extraordinary people—even “martyrs.” Missionaries are often perceived to be evangelists living in rural villages, living like local tribesmen and surviving off whatever the local salary is. Or the opposite: missionaries living behind gated communities protected by armed guards.
I can tell you, for the majority of it, this old-school painted picture is not really true. In fact, it’s far from it.
The modern missionary is often a young single woman committed to sharing love with whoever she encounters—during language classes, doing errands on the back of a motorbike, participating in local sports activities, and making new friends. The modern missionary family integrates their kids into the culture of the community they are part of, while attempting to teach them to read in multiple languages and maintain some sort of ties with grandparents and relatives in their home nation.
For my family, I would say we are different still from many modern missionary families, as we truly call this our home and have lived overseas for nearly all of our adult lives. We met here, married here, and have our children here.
Many of us don’t live off wages earned at our companies, but instead off the generous donations of family, friends, and churches who believe in our mission to share the love of God in practical ways—like teaching English as a second, third, or fourth language; delivering food to refugees; helping victims of human trafficking; and along the way, practically offering the love of God to people who may never have heard the Good News of Jesus.
It’s making friends and family out of our neighbours. It’s struggling to understand a different way of thinking and a new worldview.
So how did I respond to that statement?
For me, the whole key to making life in a foreign country “good” versus “bad” as a missionary is family—having a genuine family made up of local people. We have fostered a family culture within our organisation, and we are part of a family unit that we truly belong to. It makes life overseas sustainable. Family is everything.
Raylor, our Karen brother, his wife Ellie, their kids, and the whole extended family (which Judah’s son, Min Min Soe, also married into) are truly our family. We act like family. We cry like family. We argue like family. We party like family.
That is what has made our life here full. We are rich in love and rich in joy as a result of fostering that relationship for nearly two decades.
