Catching up: post 3 of 4 - Work

Note:  please see post 1 - Intro, post 2 - Family, post 3 - Work, and post 4 Mission and Ministry

Work  ­- I often don’t talk about my “day job” or my business when I’m blogging.   I find it hard to talk about working for a “living” when all of the other missionaries I know work in their ministry full time.  I sometimes feel awkward because of this and, to be very honest, sometimes I feel like I don’t do either of them well because of the pull between the two priorities.  I’m so thankful to have been blessed with great clients who are infinitely patient with me as I try and find the right balance between these two areas of my life.   The last few months have been so busy with work that I really can’t ignore it when telling folks about how I’ve been doing and what I’ve been doing.   I’ve been working on a project for a client in Salt Lake City that turned out to be much bigger than I thought it would be.   While I’ve been working on the project for about a year now – these last two-three months have just been really, really busy with this project.  One aspect of this is that I’ve had to travel back to the states much more than I’d like to.   I’ve made six trips in the last 12 months.  This is really hard on the family and, to a lesser extent, on those that I serve with here at Loma de Luz.  The good side of this is that it has been a real challenge for me and I’ve grown personally and professionally through tackling a project much bigger than anything I’ve tackled before.  The best part of all is that it has been a huge blessing financially and relieved much of the financial stress of some slow months prior to starting the project.  I am still working on it and in some ways, busier than ever.  We are in the middle of implementing the project now and it is finally actually starting take flight.  I hope to be winding down with this particular project in October but, thanks be to God, this same client has approached me about two more big projects for next year.  It seems as if God clearly wants me to pursue this “bi-vocational” or “tent-making” type of missionary service.  The prayer request here is that I would remain faithful to the way God wants to support us here at Loma de Luz – and work hard to do the work that he has given me.  Please pray that I would be a blessing to my clients and that I would be responsible with deadlines and commitments.  Lastly, please pray that I would find and maintain a good balance between the often competing priorities of missions and ministry, family, and my work.