Key to long-term missions...
Got to talk to an Australian lady who was a single missionary here for almost 30 years!! I asked her what one piece of advice she would give a new single missionary. Her answer, though nothing new or earth shattering, was a great reminder... contentment. Enjoy life wherever you find yourself. "Bloom where you're planted."
Reminds me of a prayer I just love...(quoted by John McCarther in one of his sermons.)
A prayer for contentment by Susan Coolidge
“Father, how can I thus be bold to pray
that Thou shalt grant me that or spare me this?
How should my ignorance not go astray?
How should my foolish lips not speak amiss and ask for woe
when fain they would ask for bliss?
How shall I dare to prompt Thee, the All-wise, to show me kindness?
Thou art ever kind.
What is my feeble craving in Thine eyes which view the centuries vast before, behind, and sweep unnumbered worlds like viewless wind?
Thy goodness ordereth what things shall be.
Thy wisdom knoweth even my inmost want.
Why should I raise a needless prayer to Thee or importune Omnipotence to grant my wishes, dim, short-sighted, ignorant?
And yet I come,
For Thou has bidden and said.
But not to weary Thee or specify a wish,
but rather with this prayer instead:
Oh Lord, Thou knowest.
Give it or deny.
Fill up the cup of joy or pass me by.
Just as Thou wilt is just what I would will.
Give me but this:
The heart to be content.
And if my wishes thwarted,
To lie still waiting till puzzle and pain are spent,
And the sweet thing made plain that Thou hast meant.”