5 Misconceptions About Missionary Life

When I decided to pack up my life and move to Baja California to teach at a school for the deaf, I was pretty sure I knew what I was getting myself into. Sure, I would be away from home. Separated from family for nine months at a time. Missing holidays like Thanksgiving and New Year's. But I hadn't lived with my family for four years, so I wasn't too worried about getting homesick for them. Friends? I was definitely going to miss them, but we had all just graduated college and would be going our separate ways regardless. Besides, life was about to become ALL about Jesus, so how could I possibly miss my ordinary American life? That was what pre-missionary Trish thought. Missionary Trish has learned a lot, failed a lot, grown a lot, and gained a lot of wisdom she didn't have before. Here are five of the biggest misconceptions I had before moving to Mexico, and what I've learned since being a teacher for three years and currently residing as a dorm mom...

1. Missionaries are all about Jesus, all of the time. Always.

Hahaha... oh goodness. If only. Despite our "selfless" altruism and our genuine desire to do good in the world and lead people to Christ, we are very, very, very human. We are selfish. We get jealous. We get lazy, and annoyed at people, and tired, and stressed out, and lonely, and apathetic. In fact, I thought that being a missionary would bring me closer to Jesus (because obviously missionaries have a more direct line to God than everyone else, lol), but it's actually been far harder to stay close to God while being in His service full time. It's so easy to focus on "serving" God with our actions and forget that all He really wants is our hearts. There have been times when the endless tasks and my own busyness became a wall that blocked out God's true desires for me. Even though we are here because of God, and we truly are striving to stay in line with His heart, it's a lot harder than the Mother Teresas of this world make it seem.

2. All missionaries live in the middle of some jungle in a hut with no electricity, and only pee in outhouses.

I live in a house with an air conditioner. I have a television with a DVD player. I have wifi. I have a working washing machine, and although we do line dry our clothes to cut back on expenses, we have a working dryer for rainy days. I live the middle of a beautiful desert with the same climate as San Diego, surrounded by rolling hills and vineyards on every side. Oh yeah, and my indoor toilet flushes just fine.

3. Missionaries are always kind and friendly to everyone they meet.

See number one. You wouldn't believe the kind of drama that goes on between staff when our hearts aren't right with God at the moment! We are just as back-bitey and snobbish and passive aggressive as anybody else on a bad day. And as much as we love having short-term groups come to help us out, sometimes we do get tired of telling our testimony fifty times a year. Or, as missionaries to the deaf, teaching a visitor how to sign "thank you" for the zillionth time. Or interpreting out loud a weird dream one of our kids is telling us at the breakfast table because a group person is feeling left out of the conversation. Or still worse, having to have actual conversations with people and socialize BEFORE COFFEE. Heaven forbid. Again, we truly do love our visitors, but catch us on an off day, and we just might snap at you a little bit. Sorry 'bout that.

4. All missionaries live on continents other than the one they were born on, and only see their friends and family about once every three years.

My mission field is about two and a half hours away from my parent's house in SoCal. True, there is an international border between us, and they've never visited me due to a lack of passports (which I keep bugging them about, but to no avail), but I could theoretically drive home on my weekly free day and hang out if I wanted to. I also get a week off for Christmas, and since I serve at a school, we're only in operation from late August to the end of May, which means I get at least two and a half months off every year to go where I please.

5. Missionaries have to do unimaginably hard and relentless work to reach the people group they're ministering to.

Every morning when I wake my girls up, my single "morning person" kid greets me (straight out of a sound sleep) with a giant grin and a cheery signed "Good morning!" One heavy sleeper glares and pulls the covers over her head, but my other groggy girl grabs onto my arm and just holds me there for a minute while she wakes up. Throughout the day they call me over to help with their homework, draw me into their mealtime conversations, ask me to interpret for them with our visitors or explain what's going on in the movie we're watching in the dorm. One of my girls is constantly trying to sneak up on me when we're walking to or from a meal, even though her poorly smothered giggles give her away every time. One kid is busy trying to be a "cool" teenager, but can't stifle a grin every morning when I tell her to have a good day at school. I would literally have to lock myself in a closet to NOT reach these kids! And yeah, sometime's they're little punks and hide penlights in their beds so that they can talk with each other for an hour after they're supposed to be asleep, and I don't catch them until I walk across the dorm to go to the bathroom... three nights in a row. And sometimes they get moody and don't want to have anything to do with anyone over the age of eighteen. But hey, they're teenage humans. And FEMALE teenage humans, on top of that! What can you expect? Most of the time though, I am so showered with their playful affection and overwhelming chattiness that I can't help but believe that I'M the one truly being ministered to.

Well, there you have it! Those were five of the things that most surprised me about actually being a missionary, as opposed to just revering missionaries from afar. Were you surprised by any of my findings? Is there something else you'd like to know about being a missionary, a dorm mom, or a hearie in a deaf world? Let me know in the comments below! Be blessed amigos, and as always, vaya con Dios!