Missionaries are People Too

One of the most important things i think i'm gonna take away from living in Haiti is my experiences with and around the missionary lifestyle.
It's amazing how many of us have no clue what it is like to be a missionary. Whenever i thought of overseas missionaries i had a picture of the "lone" missionary or group living among the native people, witnessing to them. And that's about as far as my thought process went. (I didn't expect that coming here, i infact, didn't expect anything)

If a woman works from 7-5 every week day, then comes home only to have supper and then continues to do more work throughout the night, and if she frequently spent most of her Saturdays doing office work as well, i think most people would consider her a workaholic ( I would).
Now, what if a woman worked from 9-5 week days and then spent the rest of her evenings and weekends watching movies, hanging out with friends, spending time with her family, attending church, reading, writing, etc...? I would consider that quite normal and healthy for a woman and her family.

Now what if that woman was a missionary?
Which work style would we expect from her?

What i have learned is that missionaries are regular ol' human beings. Doing what many people would consider to be "regular" jobs. Ted runs sound equipment for a radio station, Dan repairs vehicles and organizes construction teams., Gill works in front of a computer for 9 hours a day, Bill runs a seminary, another lady is a principle of a school, two other ladies teach at that school, Scott gives the news three times a day, and DJ's one of the stations on the radio, John does computer troubleshooting, Bret is a carpenter that does other handyman work. These are all regular people doing regular things. The only difference is that they are in Haiti, and that they don't receive a paycheck for any of their work.
Missionaries have downtime. (Especially in Haiti) A person working without free time would hurt their family life, their mental health, and their physical health. There is also downtime since electricity is inconsistent and goes out at 10:00pm.

We read Corithians 12 today for school and i was reminded of how that whole concept as been reaffirmed in my life.
The next topic will be how Corinthians 12 applies to missionaries.