Itinerant Ministry

Well I am wide awake at 5:30 am in the morning. We have to get up and catch a plane at 6:30 and I have been up since 3 am because my internal time clock does not care what time it is in Norway! I haven’t slept more then 3 hours a night in a week at this point. At moments like these I am always tempted to contemplate this life style I am living, so here are my thoughts....

Pros....

• People... I love that we meet so many cool people all over the world.


• The services... I love being able to share what God is doing around the world and then watch Him move and transform lives!


• Praying for people and seeing them get healed and set free in so many nations.... what can I say it's so stinking cool!


• In some places the food is also a rare treat! Like Japan for example... yummy!


• Getting to see places we could not afford to fly to and see on our own dime like Sydney Australia.... I love Sydney.


• Forming relationships with people we will spend eternity with ... again that's really cool!

Cons...

• Having to eat food that you would not choose to eat in a month of Sundays and that being the norm!


• Having to eat aforementioned undistinguishable food while smiling because the nice family that you are staying with made it and you are likely having it for lunch tomorrow as well so you might as well smile. (It's better then crying but then I have done that too! but not until I get to a place alone of course!)


• Having jet lag sometimes as much as 3 weeks out of every month. Sounds sexy don't it! NOT!


• Packing


• Un-packing


• Sleeping in hundreds of different beds each year. Now add a bad back to start with.. yep, getting the picture!


• Vegetables... Oh how I miss you! Why does everyone think that itinerants want to eat pizza? I HATE pizza but then it's not as bad a century eggs or bbq'd pig intestine so sometimes I am thankful for it!


• All the financial challenges that comes along with dealing with other peoples poverty mentalities in different nations


• Airplane food.. need I say more?


• Customs line ups and security screening


• Airports... I am so sick of airports!


• US Airways... yuck!


• Throwing up in 8 nations over 9 weeks while having morning sickness and traveling full time.


• The hardest one for me is not being able to see my family and friends as much as I would like to and feeling like you miss every important event in the lives of those that are important to you. Yep, that truly suckith!

In the end even with all of the cool stuff associated with itinerating you would basically have to be out of your mind to choose to do this for a living without God giving you the grace for it! I mean when the grace lifts baby I am so out of there! It's kind of funny too because when we teach at the school and travel around there is always people that dream of doing what we do ... of course I guess that's normal if you only see the glamour of it all. I love it because I know I am doing what God has asked me to do for now. At the same time I think when God says here is the new thing I have for you while I may miss it a bit I think I would like a chance to not live in the hotel rooms for a season.