I Like My Job

Admittedly, some days I could do without. Like the other day when we had dinner guests and the refrigerator stopped working. But most days bring a strong sense of fulfillment. As I jump from being a father and a teacher, to church planter and trainer, I am grateful to the Lord for allowing me this time in life.

My proudest role is that of a father. Martha, Jonathan, and I begin our days with breakfast and a devotional time. Lately, we’ve been reading some Max Lucado books and memorizing Scripture. Our goal is character building: how can I change in order to be more usable in God’s hands. After praying, we review the tasks for the day. Then Dad sounds the horn and, like horses out of the gate, the day’s race is on.

So how does Dad home school two teenagers (Jonathan turns 13 on May 11) while doing his job as a full time church planter? The idea is to instill in each child the necessary character qualities such as diligence, responsibility, determination, and self-control. Then lead them to be self-instructing. I give them the assignments and the resources; they study and find the answers. I give tests in each subject to be sure they are learning what they are supposed to.

I said this was the idea. In real life, events seldom goes as planned. Daddy has to do a lot of prodding: “Jonathan, you haven’t finished your math.” “Martha, you forgot to wash your plate.” “Jonathan, it’s been 3 days since you brushed your teeth!” I guess the goal is to follow the plan, do the best I can, and hope most of it sticks. Looking at my older 3, they show me that the plan can work. And, really, I think Jonathan and Martha are turning out pretty good, too – pretty much, overall, for the most part, I hope.

As for the house work, we couldn’t do without Ghie-Ghie. She’s the lady who has worked for us since 1998. She does our marketing, cooking, washing, and cleaning. Although part of our character learning is cleaning up after ourselves, Ghie-Ghie pretty much takes care of everything else. She also is here to take care of visitors and phone calls when I’m away, so Jonathan and Martha can focus on their studies.

About every other day, I’m away from home leading house groups, conducting training, or visiting church leaders. When I’m home, I’m usually preparing training lessons or working on some aspect of our church planting strategy. In the evenings, we sometimes do family fun stuff. Jonathan usually beats me in dominoes, Martha and I enjoy chatting, and lately we’ve been watching The 3 Stooges film shorts.

Occasionally I get to do some extra projects, like building Jonathan a new bird cage for his parakeets. Jonathan is our computer technician and mechanical engineer. Martha is our artist, drawing sketches and playing musical instruments. Skype keeps us in regular contact with David, Sara, and Hannah. So, as I reflect on our lifestyle here in the tropics, and on my task of sharing Jesus while growing His Church, I can honestly say that I like my job. That is a blessing, indeed!