the very worst missionary<\/a>.\u00a0 Let\u2019s face it.\u00a0 I\u2019m an introvert.\u00a0 I\u2019m an introverted missionary, working in a culture were friendship is about talking over a cup of tea.\u00a0 Friendship is always being ready and willing to stop what you\u2019re doing, and hosting someone at your house.\u00a0 Never worrying about the work you can\u2019t do.\u00a0 The conversations you can\u2019t have because of the language barrier.\u00a0 I live in a culture where friendship is about seeing and visiting people from sun up to sun down, every day of every week.\u00a0 I live in a culture of extroverts!<\/p>\nI also live on a property that\u2019s a school\/training facility for orphans, widows and handicap people.\u00a0 I live on a property with a guesthouse.\u00a0 I live on a property with a half built orphanage.\u00a0 I live on a property that sits next door to the boys\u2019 house and the girls\u2019 house.\u00a0 I live on a property with a small prayer house. \u00a0And I live directly in the CENTER of this property.\u00a0 I can\u2019t hide, even if I wanted to.<\/p>\n
School has recently started back and I have one friend that lives in the girls\u2019 house (unfortunately she loves me much more than I can reciprocate at times), she has SO much energy it exhausts me.\u00a0 I use my French and we can talk and dialogue together.\u00a0 It is a great way to practice my French, but she is much more interested in learning English than practicing my French.\u00a0 She is so passionate about life, always smiling and so happy to see me every day!\u00a0 In fact she is SO excited, she can barely wait until the next morning to see me again.\u00a0 I have to admit, today I hid in my bed and refused to open the door when I heard her calling \u201cLindsey, Hello, Lindsey\u201d bright and early at 6:30!\u00a0 …And then again at 7:30, and then again after school at 12:30\u2026and this isn\u2019t the first day this has happened.<\/p>\n
Last night she ran after my taxi driver as soon as I arrived back home and she followed me into my house.\u00a0 I sat and talked with her for close to an hour, before I told her I was going to walk her back to her house.\u00a0 This morning I talked to her until she was late for school, but this afternoon, I politely told her I still have work to do.\u00a0 To which she responded, \u201cWhat time will you be free? \u2013 I will come back when you are free and we can talk all night!\u201d\u00a0 Now you understand why I can\u2019t reciprocate the love.<\/p>\n
I officially awarded myself the title of very worst missionary on Friday night.\u00a0 Blake and I had just returned from the office, we were getting him packed and ready for a trip, when Jocelyn came over.\u00a0 I heard her calling from the path well before she ever arrived.\u00a0 I jumped up, quickly turned off all the lights, and closed all the doors and curtains to the house.\u00a0 I turned off our music and ducked down below the windows.\u00a0 And whispered to Blake\u2026 \u201cBe very quite.\u201d\u00a0 \u201cHello, Blake, Hello, Lindsey.\u00a0 I\u2019m here.\u00a0 Hello???\u201d\u00a0 After about 10 minutes or more of silence, she left.<\/p>\n
Was it rude?\u00a0 Sure.\u00a0 Is there a better way to handle this situation?\u00a0 Probably.\u00a0 Of course, as an introverted person that hates conflict, it\u2019s much easier for me to pretend to that I\u2019m not home than to come face to face with my fear that I may actually have to talk to her every single day!\u00a0 Or better yet, I may actually have to find a gentile way to tell her that she just can\u2019t come over every day.\u00a0 How do you explain the need for privacy, when she lives in a 1-bedroom house shared with 8 other girls?<\/p>\n
Pray for my heart.\u00a0 Pray for discernment on how to set boundaries in this situation.\u00a0 Pray for Jocelyn, as a teenage girl, an orphan, just looking for someone to love on her, a friend and \u00a0a mentor.\u00a0 Pray that the Lord will show me exactly how He wants me to be involved in Jocelyn\u2019s life. \u00a0But until then, I am signing off as, Lindsey, the very worst missionary.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Matthew 25:40 \u201cThe King will reply, \u2018I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.\u2019 Wednesday, October 9th, 2013 Jaime, I\u2019m afraid you have competition this week, for the title of the very worst missionary.\u00a0 Let\u2019s face it.\u00a0 I\u2019m an introvert.\u00a0 I\u2019m an introverted missionary, working…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,3,5,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-311","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-drc","category-gemena","category-missionary","category-wycliffe-associates"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.berry1.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/311","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.berry1.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.berry1.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.berry1.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.berry1.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=311"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.berry1.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/311\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":313,"href":"http:\/\/www.berry1.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/311\/revisions\/313"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.berry1.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=311"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.berry1.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=311"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.berry1.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=311"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"5\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.berry1.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/5.jpg?resize=300%2C168\")
<\/p>\n