Counting Down

I appreciated Andy and Leigh's recent post about preparations for their mission work in El Salvador and the importance of realizing that even the preparation work can be missionary in a sense. When I was in high school, I was on the search committee for a new rector at church and one candidate kept talking about how her goal was to "find the daily in the holy and the holy in the daily." Perhaps my job as an about-to-be missionary is to "find the mission in the preparation and the preparation in the mission."

Lately, I've been feeling like a traveling dog-and-pony mission show because I keep saying the same things about mission and Mthatha to everyone who asks, which is just about everyone I meet. I managed to get preaching invitations on three consecutive Sundays in three different churches and preached more or less the same text each time. Yes, I should win some kind of award for efficiency but it can be so exhausting being so repetitive.

But when I'm not mentally complaining about the repetition, I've been able to realize how this sort of pre-departure communication is actually a tremendous blessing and a way for me to expand my community of support and - more importantly - involve more people in my small bit of the mission of reconciliation. Maybe the greatest blessings take longer to recognize.