Jenny's Job

This is Jenny here and I still get quite a few questions as to what exactly do I do here.  I wanted to give an update because some things have changed as far as my ministry in Guatemala.

My first and most important ministry is to my family right now.  I have 4 young children (3 here and one in the Congo) and a husband that does ministry full time.  A lot of my time is spent homeschooling, taking kids to events, washing laundry, planning menus, grocery shopping, reading books, making crafts, checking e-mails, planning curriculum, etc.  I do a lot of discipling of our children.

Another aspect of my ministry here that I didn't realize I would be doing is serving other missionaries and other missionary wives.  Last fall we had a Gringa Bible study here, I make meals for people, help run errands for people, take people to the doctor, translate for people, plan birthday cakes and baby showers, etc.  Because I don't have a job outside of the home, I am free to serve the other missionary families.  This has been such a wonderful part of what I do here because I remember what it was like when we first moved here and we didn't know how to speak Spanish, we didn't know where anything was, and we felt VERY isolated.  I no longer feel that way, and God is using me to alleviate that someone for some of the other missionary women.

As far as "normal" missionary work, I am still somewhat involved in an orphanage here, as well as helping with the Sunday school ministry at our local church.  Last fall I began teaching a sewing class to a group of girls at the orphanage, and I am about to start that again soon.  We took a break over the Christmas holidays and I have been trying to get my schedule set up to figure out when I will have time to go this year.  I finally have found a couple of books in Spanish that will function for me sort of as a guide in teaching.  Before, I was sort of winging it, and the orphanage kept asking me to teach them certain things.  That made me feel a little disorganized, so I will be going through a more formal routine starting soon.  In the mean time I have been making curtains for the boys' room at the orphanage.

At church, I have scaled back my involvement drastically so that now I am just a Sunday school teacher and I don't have to teach but once a month or so.  That frees me up to listen to the sermons on Sunday morning, which I greatly enjoy, and to focus on the kids because Brandon is busy teaching two Sunday school classes.

So, that about sums it up.  I am not sure if it sounds like I am busy or not, but I sure feel like I am.  There are days when I feel like there is so much that I have to offer that I am not doing.  I have all these great ideas and want to do so much more, but the reality is that the call of God on my life has almost nothing to do with my gifted-ness, my talents, or really anything about me.  It has everything to do with the character of God...who He is.  My job isn't to go searching for ministry opportunities as much as it is to just do what the Lord has put in front of me.  So for now, I'll keep being a mom and wife, I'll keep sewing and serving and praying.  And be so pleased that God has allowed me to serve Him!