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Friday, January 11, 2013<\/p>\n
After 5 international moves in only 3 years I came to a realization this week.\u00a0 <\/span>I really am a terrible missionary.\u00a0 <\/span>I say this not because I am high maintenance (although Blake may think so at times), and not because I don’t fit into the culture (although that is kind of true as well).\u00a0 <\/span>Time for a quick side note\u2026I have been married for 5.5 years and according to African culture should have 5 babies by now (1 for each year married), that might be a bit of an exaggeration, but its pretty close.\u00a0 <\/span>So, whenever we meet new people they say you are married?\u00a0 <\/span>Yes.\u00a0 <\/span>Where are your babies?\u00a0 <\/span>Well we don’t have any.\u00a0 <\/span>WHAT!\u00a0 <\/span>Try explaining that with your very limited second language!\u00a0 <\/span>My personality tells me I should plan everything out\u2026but I have also learned to be flexible, taking everything day by day.\u00a0 <\/span>Controlling what I can, and letting go of what I can’t control.\u00a0 <\/span>So I have even (mostly) adapted to being flexible.<\/p>\nSo\u2026what makes me a terrible missionary?\u00a0 <\/span>I HATE to fly!\u00a0 <\/span>I am not even kidding you.\u00a0 <\/span>I truly do have this unrealistic fear of flying.\u00a0 <\/span>I am sure it is psychological but I get so worked up about it that some days I get physically sick.\u00a0 <\/span>I get nauseous, anxious and shaky.\u00a0 <\/span>Blake and I have to spend a lot of time in prayer before and during any flights just to get my nerves to calm down.\u00a0 <\/span>He talks to me during take of and landing, just trying to get my mind off of what is going on.\u00a0 <\/span>Oh and the turbulence!\u00a0 <\/span>Do not even get me started.\u00a0<\/p>\nWhen we left in October for South Sudan, we flew Denver to Toronto, to Frankfurt, to Addis Ababa, to Juba.\u00a0 <\/span>I took deep breaths; made myself stay calm and overall did a VERY good job flying that trip.\u00a0 <\/span>Well, that was supposed to be the last time I had to fly until our assignment was over in a year.\u00a0 <\/span>Obviously all that changed because we now find ourselves 3 months later in Kinshasa, DRC.\u00a0 <\/span>Still waiting for one more flight before landing in Gemena, DRC (our final destination) for now!<\/p>\nBlake and I LOVE the work; we love what we are called to do.\u00a0 <\/span>We LOVE the people we meet and spending time getting to know the culture.\u00a0 <\/span>We are so excited to be back in DRC, but WHY oh WHY do we have to fly?\u00a0 <\/span>If it weren’t for missing family and truly needing a break\u2026we would never have to fly anywhere again!\u00a0 <\/span>Obviously I have unrealistic expectations\u2026but still!\u00a0 <\/span>Maybe someone should build some kind of turbo train that somehow connects everyplace on earth!\u00a0 <\/span>Hello\u2026it is the 21st<\/sup> century.<\/p>\nWell, now you know my secret\u2026although I try not to be\u2026I am a terrible missionary!\u00a0 <\/span>And I have one more flight to take tomorrow.\u00a0 <\/span>Oh boy oh boy!<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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What I SHOULD look like when I fly! What I probably look like when I fly! Friday, January 11, 2013 After 5 international moves in only 3 years I came to a realization this week.\u00a0 I really am a terrible missionary.\u00a0 I say this not because I am high maintenance (although Blake may think so at times), and not because…<\/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":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-95","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.berry1.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95","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=95"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.berry1.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.berry1.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=95"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.berry1.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=95"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.berry1.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=95"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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