Domestic Missionary

Never underestimate the importance of a domestic missionary,

with an apron around her waist, love in her heart, and wisdom in her words. :)

These words were spoken by Brenda over at Coffee,Tea,Books and Me, in her Sunday Afternoon Tea post. What joy they brought to my heart...

Tim and I met at a Mission Bible Institute and then proceeded with the training to serve with this mission. We were headed overseas to work with tribal groups that had no written languages,who were often times quite remote. The missionaries in this mission had done marvelous work over the years, and yet a weakness with the mission was a prevailing attitude that if you weren't serving with either this particular mission or overseas that you weren't really serving God. This is my own opinion based on our experience in this mission at that time. Much has changed in 20 years!

However back then I often felt the "odd woman out." I liked to decorate my home, not expensively at all, we were students after all! But many woman had the attitude that those things were 'worldly'. I just couldn't help myself however, it was so natural to me to make my home a welcoming place - I would rearrange student furniture, hang pictures on the wall, burn potpourri...even when we went to our "jungle camp" training where we lived in a plastic house for 6 weeks. We had stuff that the training institute gathered for us to use...can I help it if I found coordinating stuff? :)

After this period I discovered Emilie Barnes and later Edith Schaffer. They taught me, as Brenda spoke about in her post, that it was ok to be creative, that in fact God had made me that way!

I read Brenda's post late tonight, well technically now last night, when I was done cleaning up after a houseful of people spent the afternoon and evening in our home. It is sometimes a daunting task...I sometimes feel like I would like to get to know people before they come to our home, but today two new families came over - along with some of our church friends. We ate chinese food and talked and got to know one another...we made coffee and tea and used real tea cups. We warmed little bodies that were cold from playing out in the backyard and falling into the creek...we shared and we loved. Today I did not wrap my apron around me - but I reached out with love in my heart and hopefully wisdom on my lips. Today my home was a place of ministry, and love.

Thank you Brenda, for giving me the words, to recognize what happens here in our home on a regular basis. I'm grateful.