So ‘The honest missionary’ sounds like a weird title for a blog. What am I saying? Do missionaries generally lie? Well,  missionaries wouldn’t be very good missionaries with such a major character flaw, but missionaries do tend to omit details when writing newsletters. There are topics which are ‘taboo’ and even if a burst of honest feeling comes forth the delete button swiftly rectifies the problem.

Why is honesty an issue?

Everyone wants to know how life is going on the mission field but what do they really want to know? It seems that the ‘fruit’ is something everyone wants to know about and it brings great excitement and congratulations. The ‘labour’ however isn’t so popular.

Everyone wants to know how life is going on the mission field but what do they really want to know? It seems that the ‘fruit’ is something everyone wants to know about and it brings great excitement and congratulations. The ‘labour’ however isn’t so popular.

Spare Me the Gory Details!

The bump

Bump number 3 (17 years ago)

Roy and I have 3 children. When I went into labour with each of the children most people were not interested in the labour, they were interested in the outcome. “Let us know when he/she has arrived”. Those who were interested in the labour were those who had been through it. They wanted to compare experiences, to know the gory details and to compare levels of discomfort and pain.  In addition, they wanted to talk about pain relief and how to cope during labour.

So missionaries have a tendency to tell you what you might be interested in rather than burden you with the labour stories. Newsletters are used to share good news so the pain is omitted. So missionaries don’t generally lie but do struggle to tell the whole truth and this is why I decided to write.

‘The Honest Missionary’ is for anyone who really wants to get an insider view of what it is like on the mission field. It may be that you have a heart for missions or are considering going on the mission field, it is equally likely you are already there and want to compare notes.

Looking forward to hearing from you

Lainey

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