We are experiencing some interesting missionary confusion right now, and we wanted to share it with you! ('Cause the world needs more confusion. Right?)
Wait...
Anyway, from the very beginning we wanted this blog to be a place where we could share what we went through on this journey we're on with Jesus. Some of our posts have been super serious and spiritual. Some have been silly. Some have been, well, kind of in between. I'm thinking this is one of the latter. I mean, it's not really about life-or-death situations, or eternity, or deep doctrinal issues. In fact, it's about pictures.
Yep. Pictures.
I love taking pictures and sharing them on Facebook. I love showing our family and friends back home what we're up to and what day-to-day life here is like. (And, I kinda love rubbing it in that we live where it's warm while most of the people we know are eagerly awaiting Spring after a bitter, hard winter. There is some truth to that.) But, mostly my intentions are good. Sometimes, though, I wonder if the outcome is.
We're missionaries. We didn't move here because of the good weather or opportunities to see new things. We moved here to help people know and love Jesus. The problem is, it's much harder to photograph our ministry stuff than it it is all of the other stuff.
It's fun and easy to take pictures of exotic trips we're able to take, but the last thing we want to do is give people the idea that
all we do is take exotic trips. Yes, we've been able to see things here that are amazing and super cool, but they're also only amazing and super cool because they're different than what we're used to. Around here, they're usually just the things that are cheap, easy, and closeby.
So, while I can't photograph the slow, steady, ho-hum work of encouraging and teaching students, or doing the thousand little tasks that need to be done behind-the-scenes to keep the Bible school going, we can put up photos of gorgeous volcanoes, natural hot springs, beautiful locations in Guatemala, etc... There's no way to photograph prayer, or sharing a smile and the Word of God, or the process of building relationships, but it's easy to throw up some pics of flowers and sunshine from time to time so our family and friends can see at least some of what life is like here.
Is that a good thing? Do you think people who see the pictures understand? Does it matter if they don't? Can they tell that we're not taking pictures of the important stuff because we can't, or because we want to respect the privacy of the people we're helping? Should we be doing more to try to tell about ministry things? Should we be doing less of sharing our non-ministry lives? Is there a special ratio of ministry : non-ministry things we should be sharing with others?
<sigh>
You see why we're having confusion about this? It's simple stuff, but tough, because we want to do this well, and "right" (if such a thing exists) in order to maximize our effectiveness for Jesus and honor the sacrifices of the people who support us.
I guess, for now, we'll keep on doin' what we're doin' until someone tells us otherwise. If you're reading this, and you're going through the same struggle, at least you'll know you're not alone. And, if you're reading this and wonder why the picture above makes it look like we live in the lap of luxury even though we're just a simple, missionary family in Guatemala, I hope this helps explain things a little better! :)
