A Day with Missionary Mike

Here's one of the most frequent questions we get asked: What's it like to live in Mexico?

It's not easy to explain a lifestyle in just a few sentences. So rather than trying to, I decided to record a day with a missionary. Yesterday I asked Mike if I could keep track of his activities sometime. Sure, he said, how about tomorrow?

I said yes, of course. So without further ado, here's a typical day with Missionary Mike:

5:30 a.m. Get up, go for a run, come home and shower, change, etc.

6:45 a.m. - 7:30 a.m. Give Noelle a bottle and watch her so that I can get myself ready, have a personal devotion, and throw in a load of laundry.

7:30 a.m. - 8:15 a.m. Have personal devotion.

8:15 a.m. - 10:00 a.m. Spend time in office prepping a seminary class and a premarital class. Work on this Sunday's worship service and sermon, which deal with leadership. (Also during this time he oversaw the work of Enrique, a handyman who's installing a ladder on the outside wall of our house so that we can climb to the top of the roof when needed).

10:00 a.m. - 1:30 p.m. Teach a class at the Mexican Lutheran Seminary. Grab gorditas for breakfast. Hold a couple of quick meetings with seminary students to make sure worship is prepared for this Sunday at the mission congregation in Zaragoza Sur. Go to a bank downtown for some work-related business; then drop by a furniture store to see if they can fix one of our couches.

1:30 p.m. - 2:00 p.m. Back in home office to answer work-related emails.

2:00 p.m. - 3:30 p.m. Eat lunch with family. (This is our big meal of the day. Today I served grilled chicken, rice, and vegetables).

3:30 p.m. - 4:00 p.m. Meet with the head of an importing company to sign up for a service that will allow us to bring in U.S. mail through a secure system. Yippee!

4:00 p.m. - 5:30 p.m. Go to the grocery store with the family to buy supplies for the week. (This is very common in Mexico. The husband/father often takes the family to the store to buy what they need.)

5:30 p.m. - 6:00 p.m. Finish preparing premarital class.

6:00 p.m. - 7:45 p.m. Teach premarital class.

8:00 p.m. Go out to have an informal meeting with two of the Mexican pastors in the area.

As I write this, Mike is still out with the pastors. I expect him home sometime around midnight. Then tomorrow he'll be up early to go at it again.

This day, which is a typical day for Mike, shows how he is so cut out for missionary work. As you can see, he doesn't lead a 9 to 5 schedule! It also changes regularly - it's not uncommon for the phone to ring at 9 a.m. and have Mike's plans for the day completely change because of it! While no two days are the same, Mike thrives on this lifestyle. He says it keeps him from getting bored.

And Mike's not only a hard worker, he's also flexible and doesn't sweat the details - two other key characteristics that enable him to carry out his position of field coordinator to Mexico. To be honest, I enjoy getting to watch him in action. I'm at home a lot with the little girls right now, and yet I can see his efforts lead to positive results, year after year.

So thanks for sharing your day with us, Mike, and we'll see what tomorrow brings.