Carol’s list of 25 random reasons why it’s good to be a missionary

Carol’s list of 25 random reasons why it’s good to be a missionary

1. You’re doing at least one thing God said to do.
2. If the liberals win the presidency, you have the consolation of the people in the country where you work being happy with the U.S.
3. You can appease your guilt right away because “the-starving-kids-in-Africa” are right next door.
4. You read more.
5. If your kid ever wants to be President someday, he or she can talk about how his different worldview gained while living overseas qualifies him for handling international affairs (that is, if being really conservative becomes politically correct)
6. You learn to appreciate things that are taken for granted sometimes.
7. You get automatic practice with learning patience and learning to trust God.
8. You get automatic help with your vow to not watch too much T.V.
9. You get less junk mail and hardly any sales calls. (Although I got one here in Haiti on my internet phone from a Fast Burn Weight Loss Farm. I didn’t have time to explain how I’m sort of already at one.)
10. Lots of people want to be your friend (so what if it’s because you’re a rich American who can take them to the U.S. where they can live happily ever after?)
11. You have a great excuse to spend time on facebook – keeping up w/ supporters
12. You get to play board games with your kids, because there’s not much else to do.
13. The people you live with say you’re really good at the language. (Unless you live in France.)
14. You tend to lose weight instead of gain because of withdrawal from American food addictions.
15. Women actually wish they had your hair.
16. You get more exercise than most Americans.
17. Instead of getting snow days off, which require you to shovel snow or pick at ice, you get political days off with no snow or ice.
18. You get to be around missionaries, who are really great people.
19. People think you’re better than you are because you’re a missionary.
20. You do things you never thought you could do.
21. Christmas is not too commercial anymore & it’s easier to avoid things like Halloween if you want to.
22. You’re likely to get to drive a truck and a motorcycle (unless your wife says no)
23. You learn by experience not to panic so much in scary situations.
24. You learn to be resourceful (in Creole, you learn to degaje)
25. You get frequent flyer miles and you pay less income tax.

Adult ESL Class

Some of the parents of students at QCS have requested an English class and I was asked to teach them. This could be a great opportunity for interaction/relationship building with the families of QCS and integration of Biblical principles and concepts. Please pray that God brings the people He wants to the class and for me that I will be used by Him in this new venture. There will not be a set curriculum, I am designing the course. I have done this before, but I hope to improve on what I have done in the past.

Does being a Mears mean I have to play soccer?

QCS was planning a sports day and decided that the girls soccer team should play a women's team made up of staff members. They called it the Women's Allstar Team. People assumed I could play soccer since all the other Mears they know can play it well. At first I laughed, but when I realized that most of the women on the staff also knew little to nothing about the sport, I decided that the only chance we'd have would be to "psych them out" (as we used to say in the old days).

Looks like I'm about to head the ball....nah.

So, yes, I played. And, yes, we psyched them out, but didn't beat them. And I played soccer for the first time in my life. (Even though Richard considers my first soccer game to be one that happened in New York when we were dating and since there weren't many players, he asked me to stand in the goalie cage.) We did give them a run for their money, mostly because of a few girls who knew what they were doing and also because of my husband's great coaching, i.e. teaching us the whole game the day before. :)

It was fun and we had the most team spirit of all the teams at QCS. And, I must admit, I liked playing more than I thought I would. But I still prefer cheering in the stands.

Here is a Mother-Daughter picture from the game.

Visit to an orphanage

UPDATE: We went back to the orphange yesterday afternoon (Tuesday) and did more of the same. Some of the girls hadn't had a chance to make necklaces and on Monday we didn't have any ink pads for the rubber stamps we brought. I continued reading with them in the books I had brought. Some of the girls stayed interested and stayed with me. But, there were several distractions and the empty tiled room echoes a lot. So, for some I think it was good.

One thing I really loved was helping some of the girls who were never in school before this orphanage started a couple months ago with their writing. One little girl couldn't write her name, so I wrote it and helped her copy the letters. At first one girl was embarrassed because I asked her if she could write the alphabet. Some of the girls who were probably between 9 and 12 years old, could write numbers, but needed help, or could recognize and copy the alphabet when I write it for them to copy. I was amazed by how happy they were to be given pencils and paper and how motivated they were to work on this.
Since we have off from school for Carnaval/Mardi Gras, and Richard and Ricky went on a 3 day bike hike, Joy and I went to an orphanage started by friends (Joy's good friend, Ari, and her family) just before Christmas.
We did crafts with them. (Yes, Joy did crafts--a true missionary willing to sacrifice!:)) We made necklaces and bracelets with foam beads and let them make pictures or cards. Then we started reading a comic-style booklet that tells the whole story of the Bible. These were given to us by the Frank & June Williams and the kids really like them. We read in French and translated into Creole. Only a few of the girls have been in school long enough to read or understand French. These girls were taken off the streets and given a place to live beginning just before Christmas by this wonderful family, The Manasserros (sp?).

WOW group

The ladies' group called "WOW" met at my house in November. I really enjoyed these young women!