Missionaries need time to unwind too. So, yesterday, a couple of us single ladies, and two of our married female teammates, got to spend some non-serious Chill Time at Eastwood Mall in Libis. This picture has just four of us in it but actually there were eight of us. At the end of our time together though, four of us decided we would watch a movie together and have some literal chill time together eating Dairy Queen Blizzard ice cream.

If you know me by now then you know ice cream and i, and all sweets in general, we do not get along very well. But it seemed to be one of those, do as the Romans do moments. So i got myself a nine ounce cup of Chocolate Almond Blizzard. (i barely got through it halfway.)

But i did love the company i was with. You may not realize this but the vast majority of Christian workers leave the ministry not because of the work itself nor the financial struggles. Most of them leave because of relational conflicts. i have certainly had more than my fair share of those. When i look back on my early staff years i wonder why no one throttled me across the room! i’m pretty sure i was such a know-it-all and that my short attention span irritated and upset many of those around me. But i have also been the subject of many painful confrontations – including once being asked, in front of many others, to consider leaving my team. Ouch! (By God’s grace, the man who asked me to do that has remained my friend today.)

And there is also the added challenge of teammates slowly getting married one by one leaving me all by my wee little lonesome. Boohoo? (Not really. But every now and then, yes.) So, the call to serve God vocationally as a missionary is accompanied by the call to work well with others, to get along even as we get on with the work of the Lord. The calling also involves being open to pay the additional possible cost of being in an organization where the ratio of single women to single men is seven is to one. Sigh.

So, OF COURSE, part of our time together involved talking about our alleged love lives. Apart from the two married people in our midst and the one single lady among us who is currently in a relationship, all of us were bokya in the romance department. So what else is new? But i am grateful that we do not all look losyang naman… One of my minor goals in life is to remain as happy and as holy a single as possible. Singleness cannot be helped at this time, but misery is definitely optional!

So i do thank God for such times to unwind, that i have wonderful teammates who make work feel less laborious when i am with them. And i do thank my ministry partners because they make it possible for me to have such a wonderful job. Life is sweet. Chill!

Under: About Your Missionary, Co-workers in the Harvest Field