A Day In The Life
Being Missionaries isn't like living in the US. Our jobs are not 9-5. So to say "this is a typical day for us" would be disingenuous. But generally our days go something like this.
We usually wake up to Zoe bursting into our room. She is up with the sun and as the youngest doesn't believe in being alone. We usually ask her to let us sleep a little longer unless Jose has an early meeting. If we have a mission team we usually get up a little earlier than normal so that we can complete any tasks we have around the house before we head out.
My kids are homeschooled so I usually try to stay home in the morning to go over Zoe's school with her and, be available to my boys if they need help with anything. (Except for math. Heaven help me they know more than I do in that department.) I work on laundry or reorganizing cabinet's for the millionth time. Sometimes Zoe and I play (Barbies are her current favorite) or do crafts. The boys are good friends so once they finish school they usually do something together
Around 11:30 I start working on lunch. In the Summer the house is too hot for me to be able to cook anything with the oven. So I stick to stovetop dishes (which can still be torture) or I use electric cooking devices like crockpot, instant pot or air fryer. If you have amazing recipes I should try with those send them to me because I'm still limited in my knowledge. I have not mastered the instant pot and am a little bit afraid of it after I mistakenly tried my crockpot roast recipe in it. I don't even know what I did wrong. Maybe it was too full?
If Jose is working close by he comes home around 12:30 for lunch, and will usually try to hang out with us for a few hours. We often have counseling or other meetings in the evenings so our family time is normally from lunch until 6 when Zoe starts getting ready for bed. Before you assume that Zoe wakes up with the sun because of how early she's in bed let me assure you. I've tested that theory. She wakes with the sun no matter what. The sun sets around 6:15 here and Zoe is usually asleep by 6:45 (unless she is excited about something)
Monday night is our date night and that night is sacred. I know not everyone agrees with us about this point but we have found that a weekly date night is crucial to maintain the health of our marriage. We run hard and sometimes Monday night is the only time we get to just relax and talk about all the things. Having teenagers has been very helpful in our ability to get out of the house. But ever since we made the decision to do it we have always been able to get hep with the kids. There have been times we paid a babysitter and walked around a park because all we could afford was the babysitter. But we have always made it work.
Wednesday night Jose has Man Church which is just our name for our mens service. Wednesday's are his busy day in general. He has all his normal responsibilities along with prepping for man church, mentoring his guys that want to get commissioned, then preaching.
Our Saturdays or Peruvian holidays are often filled with Serve projects. Those are the days that the most local people can join in. When we have mission teams in town the entire week is usually made of serve projects. Some of our recent projects have been.
*Community development. We go into a neighborhood and clean up a park or soccer field while having sidewalk Sunday school with the kids.
*Water wells or clean water projects. (These require skilled teams that come and do most of the work. While we facilitate)
*Mobile medical clinic
*Ministry in the local schools
*Wheelchair distribution. We are the Regional Coordinators of Northwest Peru for Free Wheelchair Mission. So we work with the local government to find the people that need wheelchairs then we help those people to get them. It's a very detailed process which involves a surprising amount of paperwork and lots of manpower to transport and build the wheelchairs but the end result is this. So, WORTH IT!
We usually wake up to Zoe bursting into our room. She is up with the sun and as the youngest doesn't believe in being alone. We usually ask her to let us sleep a little longer unless Jose has an early meeting. If we have a mission team we usually get up a little earlier than normal so that we can complete any tasks we have around the house before we head out.
Around 11:30 I start working on lunch. In the Summer the house is too hot for me to be able to cook anything with the oven. So I stick to stovetop dishes (which can still be torture) or I use electric cooking devices like crockpot, instant pot or air fryer. If you have amazing recipes I should try with those send them to me because I'm still limited in my knowledge. I have not mastered the instant pot and am a little bit afraid of it after I mistakenly tried my crockpot roast recipe in it. I don't even know what I did wrong. Maybe it was too full?
If Jose is working close by he comes home around 12:30 for lunch, and will usually try to hang out with us for a few hours. We often have counseling or other meetings in the evenings so our family time is normally from lunch until 6 when Zoe starts getting ready for bed. Before you assume that Zoe wakes up with the sun because of how early she's in bed let me assure you. I've tested that theory. She wakes with the sun no matter what. The sun sets around 6:15 here and Zoe is usually asleep by 6:45 (unless she is excited about something)
Monday night is our date night and that night is sacred. I know not everyone agrees with us about this point but we have found that a weekly date night is crucial to maintain the health of our marriage. We run hard and sometimes Monday night is the only time we get to just relax and talk about all the things. Having teenagers has been very helpful in our ability to get out of the house. But ever since we made the decision to do it we have always been able to get hep with the kids. There have been times we paid a babysitter and walked around a park because all we could afford was the babysitter. But we have always made it work.Wednesday night Jose has Man Church which is just our name for our mens service. Wednesday's are his busy day in general. He has all his normal responsibilities along with prepping for man church, mentoring his guys that want to get commissioned, then preaching.
Our Saturdays or Peruvian holidays are often filled with Serve projects. Those are the days that the most local people can join in. When we have mission teams in town the entire week is usually made of serve projects. Some of our recent projects have been.
*Community development. We go into a neighborhood and clean up a park or soccer field while having sidewalk Sunday school with the kids.
*Water wells or clean water projects. (These require skilled teams that come and do most of the work. While we facilitate)
*Mobile medical clinic
*Ministry in the local schools
*Wheelchair distribution. We are the Regional Coordinators of Northwest Peru for Free Wheelchair Mission. So we work with the local government to find the people that need wheelchairs then we help those people to get them. It's a very detailed process which involves a surprising amount of paperwork and lots of manpower to transport and build the wheelchairs but the end result is this. So, WORTH IT!
We always end the year with our Christmas outreaches which include taking stuffed animals to kids that have to be in the hospital on Christmas Eve. Also, feeding the homeless and people that have to work or are in the hospital on Christmas Eve. Here Christmas Eve is the celebrated holiday which works for us. We get out and serve the community on Christmas Eve then celebrate as a family on Christmas Day.
Last year we were able to bless 2000 kids with Christmas presents and got the opportunity to share the Gospel with them and their parents in a fun and exciting way. We are only able to do these things because of generous people here and in the states that give into these visions. We are so blessed to be able to do these things and it's only because of you!
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