I am a missionary
gone rogue. Funded by supporters and my
organization to live in China, I received a masters in Intercultural Studies
and spent two years in full-time language school studying Chinese. I had relationships, was living in a Chinese
community complete with neighbor visitors, vegetable gardens, and a live-in pet
bunny. I was called. I was thriving. I was fluent. And then I came home.
I remember
discussing missions with friends in high school. “I’ll go if God really wants me to go, but I
want to stay,” they’d say. I’d surprise
them with, “I’ll stay if He really wants me to stay, but I want to go!” I finally had my chance to go to China and
lived there, loving it, from 2005 to 2010.
So when God had other plans and led me back to the states, it was with
great difficulty that I surrendered to His mysterious plan.
His plan included
rerouting my path from China, missions, language study and a PhD study to
changing diapers, making goofy faces at my 6-month-old and quiet evenings with
my husband. My plan was to marry a
missionary in northwest rural China, while God’s plan for me included marrying
an actor living in the northside of Chicago.
This blog will hopefully serve as an outlet as I reconcile my desire to
live a ruggedly adventurous life serving God where most people will never go
with the journey that He has me on, serving God on the normal, domestic path
that many mamas have tread before me.
Labels: China, Missions, re-entry
