What do missionaries do on home assignment?
What do missionaries do during home assignment? We know that they are usually busy in far off places teaching Bible, translating, and doing good deeds like helping little old tribal ladies across the river. Oh, my mistake, the little old lady was helping the missionary across the river. Well, you get the idea. Then, one day you put the missionary on an airplane for a day and a night and poof! They are suddenly back in the USA and in a special dispensation known as home assignment. What do they do? Wading across rivers is just not as culturally acceptable and it is difficult to find a friendly grandmother who wants to go. The closest cultural equivalent, of course, is running through traffic, a skill that many missionaries perfect. But, alas, American drivers don’t play the game correctly and many slam on their brakes as the talented missionary tries to run behind their vehicle. Hopefully the vehicle has kids in the backseat so that unsuccessful missionary can pretend he was smashing his face against the window to entertain the children. Anyway, after a few such experiences, missionaries decide that they must do what missionaries do on furlough, drive. Yes, drive. It actually turns out to be a good thing because there are a lot of people that missionaries need to see and driving is more efficient than walking and saves a lot of wear and tear on the face.
We have taken up driving and find that we can still entertain children in other vehicles. Here are some of our home assignment activities:
We drive to see our children.
We drive to speak at school chapels.
We drive to visit relatives.
We drive to visit churches
{Thanks, Glenda, for the invitation to Westwood’s Christmas banquet}
We drive in the woods
We drive in the plains
We drive into the sunset.
And we drive trying to figure out where we are.
Thank you for praying for our safety as we drive!