Day to Day Preparation

     Many people ask me what a normal day looks like for me as I'm preparing to go to Papua New Guinea in January. I can't help but smile and inwardly chuckle when people ask me this question. What don't I do? I ask myself before I respond. Today for example, I started my day with prayer for the work at hand. After that I had a skype meeting with my supervisor and we talked about the direction for the next week and the tasks at hand. Then, I turned my attention to a stack of newsletters that needed to be mailed to some of my partners. After an hour or so of jotting notes to some of my partners on the backs of prayer cards and addressing envelopes I sealed the last one and put it down with satisfaction.
Now what?
Oh yes. I remembered that I needed to text a few people that wanted me to confirm appointments with them for this week. My fingers moved methodically over the tiny letters as I coordinated times and dates and tried to hold all of the information in my head long enough to get it onto my calendar. After a quick lunch I poked my head into a book for 15 minute break and pulled myself back out to get back to work.
This afternoon I had a skype interview scheduled with the clinic manager in Papua New Guinea so I spent some time making sure I'd have everything available to me in case he had questions and made sure I had my questions ready for him to answer. While I waited for the interview I decided to pop off a few emails to see if a couple of friends I had not contacted yet would like to meet up with me to hear about where I'm going and what I'm doing. I set my fingers to clicking as I put down my available times and asked how all was going in their world. The sound of my skype phone chirping interrupted my thoughts and I spent the next 20 minutes talking with the Ukarumpa clinic director, asking questions, answering his and beginning the process of getting to know a doctor I will work with for the next 4 years. When we finally hung up I returned to my emails to put on the finishing touches.
Tomorrow, I will do it all over again and will spend time meeting with people, weeding through my belongings and planning what I need to take and what I need to leave, and..... the list goes on. There are so many things that I do in an average day as I prepare to leave that it's hard to put it into words.

And now this post. My fingers are flying across the keyboard as I endeavor to share what it's like to spend a day in the life of a missionary that's ramping up into full time ministry for the first time. It's wonderful, and tiring, and frustrating and rewarding. I'm really finding that this process of communicating and reconnecting with new and old friends is blessing me in ways I never thought possible. I'm seeing old friendships I thought long gone rekindled and I'm seeing new ones born and maturing faster than I thought possible. It is a healing thing, a stretching thing and a beautiful thing. I thank God that He is allowing me to be a common point for people from all backgrounds to come together for a common cause: God's glory and His work among the unreached and Bibleless of the world. What an amazing thing to spend an average day with Christ as a missionary preparing to go!