The Last Ten Days

So, we're taking a change in direction with our ministry. Instead of teaching full time next year, I'll be home schooling the kids and we'll all be helping out at the Bible school where Mark has been working. I thought I’d be LESS busy than ever once school was over and I was no longer teaching full time every day. Boy, was I wrong! If you’ve ever wondered what life is like on the mission field, here’s a peek at what our last ten days have been like. 

Wednesday – Last day of school!!! Finals in the morning, then finishing up grading finals, cleaning out my classroom, etc. Finished up at 12:30, and headed over to the Bible school for a couple of hours of helping out in the office with students making payments, etc. We celebrated by eating a late lunch at McDonalds, where Sarah and I (apparently) got nasty food poisoning from the ketchup. We helped a friend who was moving to the States with a few last minute cleaning things. Sarah and I spent the early part of the evening feeling sick, and the rest of the night throwing up. 

Thursday – Mark went to Guatemala City to pick up Michelle, a friend of ours who was coming to stay for 6 weeks. I spent the day in bed, trying to recover. Mark and Michelle arrived around 6:00. I came out  long enough to shower and say, “Hi,” then went back to bed. 

Friday – Bible school day. All six of us piled into the Jeep and headed down to the Bible school. Since it was a class day, we were busy helping make copies, getting outlines for students, handling payments, helping with the snack, etc. We headed home around 3:00 in the afternoon. I left from home at 4:00 to go to graduation. Everyone else went back to the Bible school at 5:30 for Friday night classes. It was a big night – final exams – and there was a lot to do. When graduation finished, I hitched a ride with a friend back to the Bible school and spent the rest of the evening (until around 10:00) there.

Saturday – Left around 8:00 to drop Michelle off at the Bible school, then drove to Mexico for required, once-per-90-days Visa run. Got hassled at the border in new and different ways than in the past, but we didn’t have to wait as long as usual. Arrived at our hotel to find the price had increased, and the AC was broken. The kids headed to the pool to cool down, then we spent the evening doing some shopping, since many things are half price there compared to here. Came back to the hotel to get ready for bed. Thankfully, the AC kicked in around 9:30, so we were able to sleep well.  

Sunday – Left the hotel around 9:00 to head home. Uneventful border crossing and drive home. Arrived about 35 minutes before Michelle got back from visiting a local church with a friend of ours. Just enough time to unload the Jeep and turn around and take Michelle back to the school where I used to work and where she was planning on helping out with a summer camp. Dropped her off, headed to the grocery store, where I ran into a Canadian couple bicycling through Central America who had just arrived in Xela. Did my best to help them get acclimated and offer some advice and a bit of information about the city. Picked up Michelle, headed home, and spent the rest of the evening planning for a class I was teaching the next day, and receiving visits from two sets of very dear friends who were heading back to the States. 

Monday – Got up early. Said our final goodbye to one good friend, and Mark took her to the bus station. When he returned (around 7:40) we all piled into the Jeep again to head to the Bible school. It was a very happy day, because the couple who founded the Bible school (and who had been gone for a couple of months) was back. Reunions are always so joyful, especially after so many precious people leaving! At 9:30 I started teaching a class about teaching to the extension school teachers and leaders, and finished around 1230. Mark and the girls got done helping with students, and then we headed home around 1:30. Went and said our final goodbye to our dear friends, who are moving back to the states. The rest of the evening was spent at home. <sigh of relief> 

Tuesday – I got up and walked Michelle to a friend’s house at 7:15 so she could catch a ride to summer camp. Mark headed to the Bible school around 7:15 again. (It’s enrollment time, and someone has to be there during business hours, even though there’s not a lot of traffic. He also has to make all the photocopies that they’ll need for the six weeks that we’ll be gone this summer.) I hung around home and did some much-needed cleaning and laundry until 1:00, when it was time to pick up Michelle. Found out she had made a connection with a visiting missionary team, and had been invited to go preach at a Baptist church in a town one department over. Headed home, cleaned a bit more, and then she and I left around 6:45 so I could drive us to this new church. We got home just after 11:00.

Wednesday – Another Bible school day. We all piled in the Jeep again and left at 7:40. Stayed at the Bible school helping out and planning for another upcoming class I’m going to teach. We left around 2:00. Mark dropped the girls off, took us to the money changers, then we dropped him off, and Michelle and I headed downtown so she could so some souvenir shopping. We got home around 4:00, and Mark arrived home about 5:00. To be honest, I don’t remember what we did that night. It’s kind of a blur, but I don’t think we went anywhere else. 

Thursday – Mark headed off to the Bible school and dropped Michelle off at camp along the way. I spent the morning meeting with a friend, who told me that she and her husband are ALSO moving in December. (These partings are getting hard to handle!) They’re going to do mission work in the Middle East, and I’m very excited for them. Later, I got more laundry and cleaning done, including a long-overdue tidy up of the roof, which included moving all the houseplants and cleaning up spilled dirt. (Despite our best efforts, housecleaning gets neglected far too often, and the need for attention is especially dire right now because of all the things that people who were leaving had been bringing us.) In the afternoon, Mark dropped Michelle off, then went back to work. When he got home around 4:30, the power went off. Michelle and I used that as a good chance to head to the grocery store. While there, I got a phone call from my friend (who was leading the missionary team mentioned earlier) who said that pastor of the church in San Cristobal specifically requested that we come back. 

We headed home from the store, lit some candles (the power was still out), and had 30 minutes to get ready in the dark. We left at 6:05 to walk down to meet the bus (this time we didn’t have to drive), and rode off into the darkness once again. A very dear friend of mine shared a beautiful but difficult testimony, and needed someone to translate from Spanish to English, so I got to do my first translating gig. Must have gone ok, because the pastor also had me translate for him later in the service. We had a very sweet time of prayer for my friends, and did a craft with the congregants. Michelle and I got home just before midnight. 

Friday – As usual – Mark was up and at ‘em at the Bible school bright and early. (God bless that man for his faithfulness!) Mercifully, I got to sleep in a little, and then chatted with a friend. (This is one of the hard parts about being here – we have technology that makes communication possible, but you can’t just pick up the phone and chat while you clean or run errands.) Keeping in touch with people is so very important, and it’s hard to find time to do it.  I tidied up a bit, then we all headed out at 12:30 to go buy paint and go to the Bible school. There is a visiting team of high school students who worked on putting in a new cement driveway, creating a paving stone walkway, mowing the grass, and painting a bathroom and a classroom’s back wall. Rachel and Michelle painted. The little girls were on floor cleanup duty. I supervised, helped, and assisted anyone who needed it. Mark and David worked on getting the Bible school’s front gate fixed. (The motherboard went bad.) We tidied up and I took the girls home at 4:40. Mark stayed to finish up. I changed clothes, got some new clothes for Mark, made us both a sandwich, and was back at the Bible school by 5:40. Mark and I helped out at the Bible school for Friday night classes, which was especially busy because of the end of the semester and new enrollees for next semester. We closed up the Bible school and left around 10J0. After parking the car and walking home, we got in just after 10:15, very ready for bed. 

And that, my friends, is what missionary life is like. I wouldn’t trade it for the world!