We caught up with one of our Moms on a Mission recently to find out what it’s like as an MAF pre-fielder preparing to move and serve overseas. This is the first part of two posts.
Q: Can you describe what your days are like as you get ready to leave? Juggling kids, packing, selecting what items to pack, errands, etc?
A: There is no typical “day in the life” right now—each day is different as we “prepare.” Some days, we’re walking through Target or staying up late looking at Amazon.com, finding which items we need to or want to bring.
We’ve spent the past year living with family, so right now our bedroom serves as a place for sleeping, packing, organizing, and playing. Our 18-month-old daughter loves her new “playground” of plastic storage tubs and piles of supplies. We’ve made use of second-hand sales to stock up on clothes and shoes for her for the next few years, so she enjoys playing “dress-up.” But often she’s walking around helping us “pack.” I’ll inevitably find a paper or piece of candy that was supposed to go in our “get-rid-of” pile that has somehow made it into our suitcases.
Of course, in the middle of all of this, we are doing “normal” things too—dinners out with extended family, hanging out with friends, walking to Starbucks for an afternoon treat, grocery shopping, going to the park.
The other day I very much felt like a “missionary” as I spent the morning researching water filters and power converters, then hopped in the car and listened to a foreign language CD, practicing unfamiliar phrases while I drove… But then I ended up at MOPS (a Christian mom’s group), a very “normal” activity for a Southern California mom.
Sometimes it seems like we’re caught between two worlds…
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This mom and her husband are MAF pre-fielders, which means they’ve applied to and been accepted to serve with MAF and are in the process of building their ministry partnership team of financial and prayer supporters. [Names are purposefully left out for security reasons.]
Click here to learn more about the process of serving domestically or internationally with MAF.