You might be a missionary kid if:

Here is a cute list from some MK's!  (missionary kids)

You might be a missionary kid if:

1. You flew before you could walk.

2. At 20 years old you have a passport, but no driver’s license.

3. You watch a documentary on National Geographic and recognize someone.

4. You get homesick while watching National Geographic.

5. You watch a documentary on the Animal Channel and think how good that would be stir-fried.

6. You shake your shoes out before putting them on.

7. You’re only 7 years of age, but speak with authority about the quality of airline travel.

8. People send you packets of Kool-Aid for your birthday.

9. You have friends from or in 29 different countries.

10. You tell people where you’re from and their eyes get big.

11. The nationals say things like, “I used to know an American...” then ask if you know the guy.

12. Your mother gets excited over finding Doritos at 7-Eleven®.

13. You stockpile mangoes.

14. You go to school in a Cessna rather than a school bus.

15. Your dad scolds you in Swahili when you are on furlough.

16. While you were on furlough, your dad preached a sermon on Joseph, & he called him Yusufu the entire time.

17. You go on furlough, and your mom buys everything in the store.

18. Your family gathers around the computer to check email.

19. Your first trip driving through town on furlough was a disaster, because you honked your horn continuously.

20. You’re in college now, but the stringy hair and braces picture taken while you were in 5th grade is still gracing refrigerators all across America.

21. Your 5 foot tall mother is taller than most of the members in your church.

22. At your yard sale, the 80 year-old man next door buys your mother’s culottes and wears them!

23. When you find a bug in your food, you calmly pick it out and finish eating.

24. You know more about a blow gun than a BB gun.

25. When on furlough, your cousin shows you his pet frog and you get hungry.

26. It does not seem unusual to you to buy dinner while sitting at a red light.

27. Going to the post office is the highlight of your day.

28. Your father stops 8 times on the way to church to pick up 19 people in his 12 passenger van.

29. When you are asked to recite the alphabet you ask, “Which one?”

30. You have strong opinions about how to cook bugs.

31. You believe vehemently that football is played with a round, spotted ball.

32. Someone brings up a certain sports team, and you get the sport wrong.

33. You refer to gravel roads as highways.

34. Someone in your home country has to explain to you that the double yellow line means that only oncoming traffic can drive on that side of the road—even if there is no oncoming traffic—and you don’t get it.

35. Someone in your home country has to explain to you that the red light means stop, every time, even if there is a slight break in the cross traffic, and you have to stay stopped until the light turns green.

36. Someone in your home country has to explain to you that you can’t just give the policeman a dollar after committing some infraction.

37. Your friends accuse you of being a maniacal driver, but you’re driving exactly as your dad taught you.

38. You go to Taco Bell and have to put 5 packets of hot sauce on your taco but it’s still a little bland.

39. You go off to college, and your study of minor keys in music theory makes you homesick.

40. You won’t eat Uncle Ben’s rice, because it doesn’t stick together.

Now, for part two. The rest of these were written by our family with a great deal of laughter. Everything you read below has actually happened, except for numbers 6 and 7.

1. You don’t know how to work a seatbelt.

2. When you go on furlough, your grandma turns on the vacuum cleaner and you run from the room screaming in terror.

3. When you go on furlough, you have to have relatives meet you at the airport with shoes and socks.

4. When you go on furlough, the self-flushing toilets at Walmart cause your heart to skip a beat.

5. When you go on furlough, the automatic doors at the grocery store entertain you for hours.

6. You go to America and wonder why nobody is carrying anything on their head.

7. Every member of your family carries a can of raid in a holster.

8. Your mom takes a can of raid to an outdoor wedding.

9. You are driving down the road, hit a large pothole, and the door falls off your van.

10. You had to go to another country just to be born.

11. Your family’s Christmas Eve tradition is to sleep in the room that has the air-conditioner.

12. You tell people you live in Cambodia, and they say, “Isn’t that in Africa?”

13. You tell people you live in Cambodia, and they say, “How long does it take to drive there?”

14. You are more proficient in counting Khmer riel than US dollars and cents.

15. When you are on furlough, you or any one of your siblings could step into the pulpit and finish your dad’s sermon because you know it by heart.

16. You are not an accomplished singer or musician, but have played or sung in dozens of churches.

17. Someone who does not realize you speak their language starts saying really mean things about you right in front of you.

18. You start asking your dad to buy you a jacket, because it is 70 degrees outside.

19. When you are on furlough, your dad slows down and looks both ways at every intersection—even when the light is green.

20. You see someone 8 blocks from your house wearing something you just threw in the trash 15 minutes ago.

Dr Michael Mills and Chef Denise-Uruguay

We love when we receive updates from our missionaries and the extraordinary stories of the ministries they run.  Michael and Denise have been in Uruguay for about a year now.  Here is what they are up to!

 

  

From Michael:

We have been caught up in an Uruguayan whirlwind these last 2 weeks, with one week in a tent and the Holy Spirit moving in a spectacular way.

Denise and I were missionaries to Ecuador for 17 years when the Holy Spirit asked us to ‘leave all’ there and come to Uruguay…a land known for the saying ‘a graveyard of missions’.  Our saying is, ‘Jesus does miracles in graveyards!’  We are seeing miracles!  These last 2 weeks we saw ALL the national Pastors come together to seek Him, we saw 1500 teens worship and seek Him for the past week.  Help us to pray for Uruguay.  The Holy Spirit is brooding over this nation, a nation that has atheism in its constitution. No wonder He called us here!  They have never had an outpouring of His Spirit.  It is time for Uruguay.

I will begin teaching 20 disciples for 1 year this Monday.  Pray, they have never had a discipleship program.  I will train them to train other disciples…almost sounds like the Bible..lol.

From Denise:

Hi everyone.  Michael and I are more settled here in Salto, Uruguay.  We have started to travel further out to other cities, north of the Black River (see map).  Michael and I are responsible to reach all the area north of the Black river (Rio Negro).  Our area includes 1.5 million people and the majority of the churches in Uruguay.  As a missionary chef I have a goal as to what I would like to accomplish.  For starters, I would like to help the northern churches to develop an evangelism program through food.  To meet that challenge I am raising $1000 to buy equipment like a 3 burner, portable gas stove with propane tanks and accessories.  I will then be able to head to some of the smaller churches in the northern regions where I can do some teaching on evangelism (using food); a new way to effectively reach into their communities.  My ministry is definitely a new method for evangelizing the lost.

You can also come to help me reach the lost through cooking (or peeling vegetables..lol).  We need you, Uruguay needs you, the Lord needs you.  Hurry home to Uruguay!

Thank you in advance for your prayers

Your missionaries to Uruguay,

Dr. Michael Mills and Chef Denise
 

Their link on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/159092040867386/

Just a thought...

This weekend my husband blessed me with a Chinese massage.  I love this place.  The gals are so sweet and kind, but they barely speak English.  So, we communicate the best we can through hand gestures and giggles.  Today, I was trying to ask one of the gals how to say Thank You in Chinese.  Of course she didn’t know what I was asking & after 3 tries I realized that just saying the same thing over and over was not going to help her understand.  I tried sign language and we were laughing hysterically until I finally bowed and she said “Oh, shank shoo”.  Yes, I screamed!  And then she said “Xie xie” (pronounced “'she-ay”) and we hugged.  What an delicious moment of bonding!  

It made me think of the many missionary friends we have around the world.  So many nations, countries and languages!  Barriers at first, connecting while learning from one another and the potential to share God’s love through it all.  I considered how some of them leave every comfort, everything secure behind to enter into a culture where one is not understood and cannot understand.  I thought about the patience that is needed, the love that is endured, the grace and precious desire to build a relationship that is required.  Even language school only teaches the basics but there are dialects, slang and mixtures of each to learn as well.  

We short-termers count on those that have moved in to buffer the language barrier; much like Heaven coming to Earth.  We have learned the language of this world and its mindset, but God would come to live within us teaching us His language and Kingdom mentality.  We don’t always understand what He is saying & rather than repeat the same thing over and over, He sends angels, gives us signs and performs wonders.  Sometimes we feel silly when we finally ‘get it’.  We shake our heads and laugh.  Often it’s an epiphany and we must stop to ponder in amazement at how our lives are so much more valuable having learned a lesson unique to the Heavens.  However, no matter our response we are creating an intimate and lasting rapport with our Father.  A relationship in which His language will become our language. 

"So, we keep on praying for you, asking our god to enable you to live a life worthy of His call.  May He give you the power to accomplish all the good things your faith prompts you to do" 1 Thes 1:11