A Missionary Is...

I always thought that a missionary was someone whose sole focus was on sharing the gospel, planting churches & strengthening existing churches.  Sometimes they go as preachers/teachers, sometimes they go to minister to orphans, and sometimes they go by a different vocation, but still with the intent of the prior.  While that is a majority of what we are involved in here, I am also realizing that a missionary also needs to be a "Jack of All Trades." 

The past two weeks are a good example.  

About 2 weeks ago, we awoke to Caleb screaming that the front yard had been flooded.  One of our outside faucets had apparently sprung a leak (a major one) and was spraying water some 15 feet up into the air.  Our driveway was a small swimming pool as a result.  Well, when you're in Africa, if you can't fix it yourself, you are in trouble.  Because most of the time, the people you can trust to do a good job, cannot come at a time when you typically need them, which is immediately.  All that being said, Brent became a plumber and fixed the faucet.

Then, yesterday, all of the power to the laundry room went out.  Charles and I spent the better part of the afternoon trying to isolate what was causing the problem and finally found it this morning.  For some reason, whoever ran the electricity to this room also decided to power the rest of Africa as well.  There were wires coming from everywhere, which overloaded the switch.  In Zambia, electricians are harder to come by than plumbers.  So, Brent also became an electrician.  After removing some burnt electrical tape, re-splicing some of the wires and reconnecting the important ones (we just decided to do without the outside light and some other things because of the overload), Voila!  We now have electricity in the laundry room.

So, I guess you can call me a missionary, an electrician and a plumber.  What's next???