Your coffee shop will sell fresh meat AND fresh coconut milk. And coffee.

by Jonathan

At the end of my post on A Life Overseas called 10 Reasons You Should Be a Missionary, I asked the readers this question: If a “Top 10 List” could have 15, what would you add? Folks replied with some great stuff, which I’ve compiled and edited below.

So, just in case my Top 10 List didn’t convince you, here are some more reasons being an overseas missionary is awesome. To see all of the responses, view the original post.

– You’ll get to go off-roading in a 4×4 just to get to your village.

– All the chicken is “free range.” However, “free range” is interpreted loosely, and may in fact mean “they live and eat in the gutters and trash piles, freely.”

– You’ll feel like you’re on a perpetual camping trip because your neighbors have LOUD conversations and there is no glass in the windows.

– If you’re a teacher, you’ll have to make rules about whether the chameleons your students find on their way to school are allowed in the classroom.

– You’ll have to settle disputes about the afore-mentioned chameleons because, you know, they look different after sitting on the curtains a while and you can’t tell which is which.

– You’ll discover you can do things you didn’t think you could do, like living without “real” power and running water, taking cold showers, cramming in a vehicle with 18 other people, and advocating for yourself and others.

– You’ll get the opportunity to see the power and love of Christ work in the most remote, forgotten, and unlikely places; when a drunkard confesses Christ in the midst of a rainstorm on the backside of an island; when young Christians gain their spiritual footing in a weekly meeting, held in a small mud house. You’ll realize anew that there’s no place or person he cannot reach!

– You’ll see Bible stories come to life and sometimes you’ll feel like you’re living them; the woman searching for the coin in her house (I dropped a coin in the sandy road and never found it), separating the sheep and the goats (they are nearly identical here), the washing of feet after walking the dirt roads, caring for the poor, orphans and widows.

– You’ll experience singing and worshiping God in other languages and you’ll catch a glimpse of what it will be like to worship God around His throne with every tribe, tongue, and nation!

– You’ll learn how to slow down and value relationships over tasks.

– You’ll get to wear shorts and sandals every day (at least here in Panama).

– You’ll learn how to build a good garbage fire.

– You might even get to watch a Norwegian guy chase two wild wolves across a Central Asian grassland at 4am in order to take a photograph. You’ll understand why the wolves are running away.

And as to that last point, I just want to publicly state that my new life goal, when I grow up, is to be a Norwegian guy who chases wild wolves. Just sayin’.