Useful Missionary Skills - Part Two

Mom Skills

Ok, for those of you who just spit your Diet Coke out through your nose when you laughed after reading the words "mom skills" in my blog, let me explain...

This week I've had to be a mom to many people. Thankfully, these people all happen to be over the age of 20 (not quite ready for the little folks yet!!) As mentioned in my previous blog entry, we received two new interns a week ago, and also had 14 people from NPCC here this past week. I knew that this week would be in no way a normal week, but I was a little surprised (in a good way though!) at how it turned out!

Let me sum up the whole "mom" thing for you:

Wednesday night, I was walking around the Centro with some other gringos, enjoying the night and enjoying actually being with english speakers that are my age. My phone rang, and I saw that it was Helena (an intern who's been with us for 4 months now), so I figured I should answer it. It was actually Marly on the phone (a new intern) telling me that she was sick. I asked her the basic "stomach sickness" questions that I always ask, not even thinking about the fact that I had 5 other young adults with me who are not accostomed to stomach sicknesses. I had to walk away from them when they started dying of laughter from hearing my end of the conversation, so Marly wouldn't hear them laugh. Then Elise, the other new intern, got on the phone and told me that the couple that she is living with had left in the middle of the night before to go to Mexico City because Lucero's (the wife of the family) dad was dying. Elise didn't know if she should stay at the house, or find another place to stay or what. And quite frankly, neither did I.

I continued through the next day contacting Elise's Mexican family by phone to see what was up, and with Marly to see how she was doing, and that afternoon, Wyndi, a girl from NPCC got sick. I am getting rather good at knowing symptoms of minor stomach illnesses, so we went to the pharmacy and got the appropriate medicines. That night, Lindsey also became sick. I went home, and immediately contacted Marly to see if she was feeling better, and I felt bad for not having gone to visit her during the day. Elise was getting desperate about getting a new place to stay, and I still had no answer for her, so I set up a time to meet with her Friday morning. As soon as I hung up with Elise, the phone rang AGAIN, and it was my friend Ana crying, saying that she really needed to talk with me. So we set up a time to meet Friday, before the meeting with Elise.

I woke up on friday morning feeling rather sick to my stomach, but when you are playing mom to all these people, you just can't be sick yourself. So I met with Ana and we talked, cried, and prayed for a good two hours. I showed up late to meet with Elise, but we got things a little more worked out with her situation. By this time, half the NPCC team was sick, and I wasn't feeling any better myself.

Needless to say, it was a long week, and I'm thankful that I never will actually be a mom all of a sudden to 5 ladies between 20 and 29 years old (I'm only 26!!). All but 4 of the Atlanta team got sick before they left on monday morning, Marly is still sick, and Elise's mexican family has returned - the dad is still alive, but in intensive care, and I checked myself in to see Dr. Jessica at the "Self-Medication Clinic" (in other words, I've not gone to the doctor, just bought what I know I need at the pharmacy).

I wonder if this is somewhat close to what it's like to be a mom - trying to take care of several people while you are not feeling well and are not getting any sleep either. By the way, I really hope this whole story doesn't come across as whiney sounding. I really enjoy having the team here working at the church (more to come on the NPCC team, with PICTURES!) and God has really pulled me though by giving me just enough strength for what I'll need in any given day!

Anyhow, I'm off to take my meds, and get a few hours of sleep before taking Marly to see another doctor...