A Self{Less} Life

Since my time here in Lesotho, I have been searching to try and figure out what the Lord has been wanting to show and teach me. It has been slightly frustrating, because in my mind I thought I had an idea of that looked like. I thought that maybe He would work in me in mighty ways while I am here, or even that He would reveal something amazing about my life or give me revelation. It was none of those things. It was something that I honestly didn’t think I needed to learn or see. He has been continually opening my eyes to the “real life” of a missionary.
In my mind, a missionary was someone who got to live in a foreign country (which that alone is awesome to me), got to share the culture of the people they are surrounded by, and of course served the Lord while they lived life helping and serving others. My eyes have been opened to so much more than that. A missionary does do all of those things, but I left a key concept out of the equation: Selflessness.
Through being with the Dimmock family these past few weeks, they have shown me what it means to be selfless. They have taken in three babies in their house from MIS that are either on nutritional or medical rehabilitation. This means, MIS is not able to give them the proper medical and nutritional attention they need because there are so many children. They volunteered to take the babies in until they were well enough to go back to the orphanage. If the babies go back to MIS before they are well, they will probably die from not getting the proper attention and care that they need. Having an additional three to the original eight is obviously a huge act of selflessness.
Not to mention, they are getting ready to go on their yearlong furlough to the States in June, so they have so much to do in getting ready for that. At times, I want to get overwhelmed for them.
I have seen that missionary life is not easy. It’s not a cushiony life. It is a life full of serving and putting others before yourself on a daily basis. Many of you know that Jonathan and I both have desires to serve in the mission field together in the future. The idea has always been amazing to me. Not only spending the rest of my life with the man of my dreams, but to serve alongside of him and to further the kingdom of God through our relationship. It is so wonderful that the Lord has placed the same desires in our hearts in this way. I am still very excited about the day when we are able to serve alongside of each other. However, God has opened my eyes to the fact that it is not some fairytale life. It is a life where constant dependence on Him is crucial. He has shown me that the life we desire will not be easy, and we needed all of the preparing we have had so far, and I am sure in some ways still need preparing.
I still have a lot of growing and learning to do in this area. I am excited, however, to see what all God is going to do in the future, and I thank Him for the growing He has done in my life as well as Jonathan’s thus far.