Instantaneous

I read the story of Amy Carmichael about a year ago and was struck with the fact that after going to India, she never returned to her homeland again. I understand that she was caring for many children which made it difficult. But even without the children under her care, if she could have returned, it still would have been a long boat voyage. A letter from home took many weeks to arrive, making the news more like history by the time she got it.

And then I think of my life here on the mission field. If I miss my sister, I just turn on the internet. That takes about a minute to get running on a good day. Then I open Skype. I look for her name, double click, and within a few minutes, I am talking with her, face-to-face, using the web cam. She shows me the toys she is sending for Rosa for Christmas. I see my neices. Then we say goodbye, and I re-enter my world here in El Salvador.

Is this truly amazing to anyone else out there but me? Just this morning, I spoke to one of my sisters, my brother, my grandma, and my mom...all in a matter of about two hours. If I lived in the U.S., I wouldn't be able to see them all in that amount of time since they live in different cities.

Although missionaries like Mary Slessor, Hudson Taylor and Elisabeth Elliot all had the chance to visit home, it was not without extreme difficulties. What about us today? Buy an plane ticket online, an hour drive to the airport, a few hours in the air, and I am back on U.S. soil.

I think its incredible and I am so grateful that I was born in this century and not an earlier one! When put in this perspective, my life of "sacrifice" just doesn't seem like much of a sacrifice.