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“So what do you do, really?”

It’s inevitable that someone will ask me that question whenever chatting with a new acquaintance. It is a hard question to answer.

What do I do?

I do lots of things that don’t have a degree behind them. I’ve listed a few here below, they are in no particular order of importance:

• I’m a wife, mother, and grandmother.
• I dabble in writing.
• I’m a house clearner, chauffeur, tutor counselor, and organizer.
• I cook and am a pet sitter.
• I call myself a professional packer, mover, and personal assistant (come to think of it, I need one of these myself).
• Together with my husband, I’m a missionary (which I’ll explain later what that means 😂).

The real question

With that being said, I know the real question behind that initial question: what is your career? What exactly is it that a missionary does, is that even a career? What is it that you do for a living? I have a couple of degrees that have proven to be useful over the years. However, I’m not sure if any of those degrees adequately describe what my career is, because I am a missionary.  

Together with my husband Jamie in Bujumbura, Burundi 2018

When I answer people who ask “what do you do?” with “I’m a missionary in Africa.” They will either say something like, “Oh, that’s cool.” Or, “What does a missionary do?” I often feel tentative when answering. I have the impression that I don’t measure up to what people might think a missionary should be.

What is it that I do?

I’m not what you might think of as a normal missionary. I’m not a nurse, doctor, or schoolteacher. I don’t have any special skills that you might think of as useful in the developing world where I have spent most of my life. I’ve done whatever the occasion has demanded of me to do. These are some of the jobs I do, and as stated in the first list above, are in no order of importance:

• Project manager: I have responsibilities lined up for everyone.
• Ambulance driver: I’m there with my car.
• Bible teacher: I have my notes ready.
• Feeding the hungry: I’ll find the pots and firewood for cooking.
• Establishing a school: I’m there with notebooks ready.
• Church planting: I’m standing with my husband ready to help with whatever is needed (this job is worth its own article but I digress and will simply give it a sentence today).
• If the ministry we run needs to be registered in a country for us to operate, I’m the secretary with all the documents.
• Travel agent: I’m the one who makes the reservations.
• And if we have a visiting team, I’m the chief cook and bottle washer.

What I do is eclectic

When asked what a missionary does, my stress levels begin to rise. I begin to rehearse in my mind a way to describe my very eclectic job description. While I was traveling some years ago, I was in a discussion with a group of well-spoken professionals. I felt a bit out of my league when asked, “What exactly does a missionary do?” I fumbled some kind of half-baked answer and found a way to excuse myself from the situation.

After that first disaster of a conversation, I learned to say that I work in “community development” or as a “church planter” when faced with the dreaded “what do you do” question. Neither seems to be very impressive alongside other professionals.

I’m a no-nonsense “do what needs to be done” kind of person. It’s not an impressive resumé of skills, but it has worked pretty well for my situation over the years.

When I really didn’t know what I was doing

My first years in Africa were spent simply learning how to live in a new culture. It was a long and difficult process.

We left our home in the USA in June 1987 and landed at our first assignment in Kalemie, Zaire. I quickly realized I had a lot to learn before I could be of any help. I didn’t know how I was going to survive let alone help anyone. Because I couldn’t speak with anyone without the help of an interpreter, I needed someone to interpret for me everywhere I went. There was much to learn.

A small piece of wisdom from my grandfather echoed then (and still echoes now) in my ears. He said, “If you only understood, that you don’t understand anything, then at least you have understood something.” I took his advice to heart.

I want a banana

Language school began with fervor and over the next year or so I carried a Swahili dictionary (Swahili is one many languages spoken in that region) with me wherever I went. I felt as if I were a complete disaster as a missionary. How was I ever going to get anything done? I didn’t even know how to ask for a cup of water.

God blessed me with friends on the ground who were patient with my ignorance. They encouraged me to persist in studying the language even though it seemed impossible to learn. One day, I bravely went to the market alone hoping to find some bananas. The ladies there knew me by then and waited patiently as I stood pondering what to say. I thought long and hard and finally said, “Ninataka kitika” translated, “I want a banana.” I’ll never forget the feeling of victory that day. It felt as if I had won the lottery.

There also came a day when I learned how to make sandwiches.

Sandwiches?

Yes, sandwiches.

Where we lived, there was no grocery store as I understood grocery stores to be at that time. Neither was there jarred mayonnaise. All we had to eat was what we made for ourselves from mostly raw ingredients found in the market or local shops. There were odd treats from the USA brought by guests like candy and chocolate bars that we enjoyed. However, those treats were far and few between.

If I wanted to give my family sandwiches for lunch, I had to find bread (the local bread was pretty flavorless) and mayonnaise. This did not include what kind of sandwich meat I would actually put in the sandwich. So first, I had to learn how to make mayonnaise.

How to make mayonnaise

I didn’t understand, until then, that mayonnaise could be made and not bought at the store. I learned so many things about mayonnaise! The ingredients were simple: oil, mustard, eggs, vinegar, and salt. I quickly learned that the oil used in making mayonnaise has to be clear. If it is not clear, the mayonnaise won’t emulsify.

For the curious, here is a simple mayonnaise recipe that works really well!

Disasters abounded in my kitchen that first year, but by the time my first year was over, I was making mayonnaise, baking bread, and even roasting my own coffee beans for our morning coffee. One day I’ll fill you in on how important a cup of coffee is for me to start my day, but that’s news for another post.

I finally knew how to make more than sandwiches.

Five years

I felt a bit accomplished after that first year on the field. I learned to speak Swahili well and even served as an interpreter at times. And I could cook and teach a class or two at the Bible school where we were serving. I didn’t need to be accompanied by an interpreter everywhere. Life had finally begun to settle.

We later moved to serve in an extension Bible school in Bukavu, Zaire. Even though moving was difficult, because I had made it through my first year in Kalemie, I felt everything else was bound to be easy. How wrong I was!

Grinding coffee was an ordeal back then. Together with my son Tommy in 1987.

That part of Africa, known as “The Great Lakes Region,” uses many different languages: Swahili, French, Lingala, Kirundi, and Kinyarwanda, to name a few. We knew one major language, Swahili which I hoped was sufficient. It became apparent to us that we needed to learn more because not everyone spoke Swahili. I wasn’t happy with this news and resisted until one evening when our paths crossed with an older, and much wiser, missionary couple who had us over their home for a meal. Ever so gently they said that long-term missionaries generally spend their first five years on the field learning language and culture.

I only had one and a half years under my belt. I still had a long way to go.

It did take me longer to learn to do what I do

We did learn French and a few more languages as the years went by. By the way, it actually took a bit more than five years to get to that point.

I have lived and worked in a number of countries, learning all the while, and doing whatever needed to be done. My life expanded quickly from learning languages and cooking. I learned to raise a family in a new culture, plant churches, and start feeding programs, schools, and other community outreaches. Even though I didn’t start out with a job description, what I do has grown to include a very large and eclectic variety of things.

I just do what needs to be done.

1 Samuel 10:7 NKJ “And let it be, when these signs come to you, that you do as the occasion demands; for God is with you.”

So, let me ask you a question. What do you do?

For a fuller account of what we do, click on the link below (yes, a shameless plug).