Hey, you never know unless you ask, right?  I hear lots of people saying lots of things about missionaries, but it seems like people rarely ask the missionaries themselves for a perspective.

clocks

So it was refreshing to read this two part interview and hear some answers to real questions about missionary life.

This particular missionary family lives in Tanzania.  The interview starts with the question,"What expectations did you have concerning missionary life that have proved unrealistic?"

Great question!  Here’s how the answer begins.  Click the links below for more…

The three years I served in China before coming to Tanzania helped to remove many of the unrealistic expectations I might have otherwise had. However, I was still not prepared for everyday life to take so long. I tried to prepare myself for it; I knew it would be the case. But I failed. I had been in Africa a couple of times, and for several months, prior to moving to Geita. A lot of that time was spent in nearby Mwanza — which I knew was a larger city, but thought would be similar. In some ways it is. But not many. Everyday tasks just require a great deal more time than ever before. Some of this is cultural, but much of it is simply due to goods not being available in stores (or being very expensive) and city services being poor at best. Some examples…

To continue:

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More specifically, this is a visit to the Port-au-Prince area.  This is the capitol city of Haiti with more than a million people.

You remember the earthquake that hit the city in January.  Now, 6 months later, here are some somewhat random photos from missionaries in the area.  Actually, though they are somewhat random (a report on a busy weekend), I thought the collection was rather interesting, and said a lot.

Check it out now at Special Moments and Seeing the Sites!

You can see lots more pictures at The Krul Family blog, but do be warned it’s heavy on the graphics and will take a while to load.

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Markets and Food

9 July 2010

I decided to take a stroll to the market to try out some new foods and check out the atmosphere.  Here’s what I found…

Something fishy makes a missionary scream… in Congo
Lending a helping hand with Romaine in Tanzania
Answered prayer at the night market in Taiwan
Watch them cook in the Dominican Republic
So what kind of food [...]

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2010 Tour of Thailand!

2 July 2010

I’ve been thinking a lot about Thailand, as I hear about some of the challenges that the country is facing in the news.  I did a check and discovered that, although we talk about Thailand a lot here, we’ve never really done a full feature on blog posts from there.
So, here’s a whole bunch of [...]

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He Says/She Says

30 June 2010

It’s always fun to get the perspective of both a husband and a wife.  In this case, He Says/She Says is actually the name of her blog.  His is Posts from Somewhere.  Specifically, the place is Huánuco, Peru.

I think the first post from herself sums it up well.  Here’s an excerpt:
As a little girl, I [...]

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South Africa has the Ball

14 June 2010

Sorry.  I tried, but just couldn’t resist.  I just had to do a post on South Africa since, after all, the world’s eyes are on South Africa for the 2010 World Cup!
First, a couple of posts specifically about the World Cup.  Next, some more general posts.

World Cup Vibe ========

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2010 in Tanzania

12 June 2010

Let’s visit the country of Tanzania today.  I’ve been enjoying a lot of great posts from Tanzania … here are a few:

Mpe jina – Wow, that’s just cool.
hospitality and rest: answers to a missionary predicament – how do you find rest in another culture?  Here’s one family’s answer.
Illuminate – just a picture and a caption. [...]

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Tragedy in Bolivia

3 June 2010

This is a long post, but worth reading.  It’s filled with challenges missionaries face, tragedy, culture, questions and emotion.
Dealing with death is never easy, and yet it gets to the heart of the reality of this world and our need for salvation.
Thursday, May 21. Daniel and Ines were ready to go back to their house [...]

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A visit to Albania

28 May 2010

Today we’re going to take a little tour of Albania.  Here are some recent posts out of the country that caught my attention.

The challenges of learning to live together – do we really know how to do it well?  And on a related topic, did you know arranged marriages are alive and well in Albania?
And [...]

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Kids, Moms, and Tarantulas…

18 May 2010

An interesting mix of themes for today’s post of interesting missionary blog posts from around the world!  But all of the posts do have something to do with kids, so here goes…

What happens when a 4 year old finds a tarantula on the wall… (Ecuador)
A birthday party in South Africa
An upcoming women’s conference, Being a [...]

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