I mailed the majority of my support letters today and am trusting that He will provide for this journey. On that note, I'm glad that I feel being a "tentmaker" is my path when I return overseas later on.
What is a tentmaker? The best definition I've found is on this website: http://paul-timothy.net/pages/perspectives/lesson_15_readings.pdf (It's PDF, so just search for Siemens, the author, in the search bar, and it will take you right there!)
I must say that I've always hated that "M" word for myself. Missionary. Ugh. I don't want to be "one of those" :) That word creates the image in my head of a floor-length-skirt-wearing mom who lost her sense of fashion in 1960 and at least five socially awkward children. Her husband probably has a bushy beard and is wearing a khaki safari outfit. Yep, that's not me. At all!
Tentmaking, though, that's more my cup of tea. No coming back on furlough every fourth year creating familial and social instability. I can still be a "career-woman," a therapist, with coworkers, a salary, and a "normal" lifestyle. I can live life there just like I can here.
The main challenge with being a tentmaker is the same as being a person anywhere else: living life intentionally. I can't say that I will live the same kind of life as I do in the middle of Missouri. Here, my main "ministry" is to those from overseas--students, parents, my tutoring kids who I meet with online as they live in Korea! There, I'm going to be the foreigner. Maybe it will be there that I finally fit in with Americans :) Maybe my work will be with refugees. Maybe it will be with the locals, I have no idea. But I am excited that being in the health care field brings such awesome opportunities. I wonder who the other therapists or doctors at my clinic will be. How will He use me in the lives of my Muslim or Hindu or Buddhist or Jain or Sikh or Zoroastrian or Christian coworkers and patients?
Time will tell. In the meantime, I am devouring the "culture" section of my Perspectives textbook. It's truly beautiful to have other human beings describe (in more eloquent terms) precisely what I feel in my own heart.
What is a tentmaker? The best definition I've found is on this website: http://paul-timothy.net/pages/perspectives/lesson_15_readings.pdf (It's PDF, so just search for Siemens, the author, in the search bar, and it will take you right there!)
I must say that I've always hated that "M" word for myself. Missionary. Ugh. I don't want to be "one of those" :) That word creates the image in my head of a floor-length-skirt-wearing mom who lost her sense of fashion in 1960 and at least five socially awkward children. Her husband probably has a bushy beard and is wearing a khaki safari outfit. Yep, that's not me. At all!
Tentmaking, though, that's more my cup of tea. No coming back on furlough every fourth year creating familial and social instability. I can still be a "career-woman," a therapist, with coworkers, a salary, and a "normal" lifestyle. I can live life there just like I can here.
The main challenge with being a tentmaker is the same as being a person anywhere else: living life intentionally. I can't say that I will live the same kind of life as I do in the middle of Missouri. Here, my main "ministry" is to those from overseas--students, parents, my tutoring kids who I meet with online as they live in Korea! There, I'm going to be the foreigner. Maybe it will be there that I finally fit in with Americans :) Maybe my work will be with refugees. Maybe it will be with the locals, I have no idea. But I am excited that being in the health care field brings such awesome opportunities. I wonder who the other therapists or doctors at my clinic will be. How will He use me in the lives of my Muslim or Hindu or Buddhist or Jain or Sikh or Zoroastrian or Christian coworkers and patients?
Time will tell. In the meantime, I am devouring the "culture" section of my Perspectives textbook. It's truly beautiful to have other human beings describe (in more eloquent terms) precisely what I feel in my own heart.
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