Personal Readiness
Regardless of the location where you think you will be a teacher of missionary children there are a variety of personal items (as contrasted to professional) of which you need to address, become familiar, or experience.
Following is a list of personal readiness items supplied by MK teachers in the field. It is made available to you as a reality check that life on the mission field could be quite different than the life you have been used to.
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| 1. Cleaning house | ||||||||
| 2. Shopping for groceries | ||||||||
| 3. Cooking from scratch | ||||||||
| 4. Washing dishes | ||||||||
| 5. Washing clothes with different kinds of washing machines | ||||||||
| 6. Hand washing clothes | ||||||||
| 7. Mending clothes | ||||||||
| 8. Changing a tire on your car; checking oil, water, air pressure | ||||||||
| 9. Driving a stick shift | ||||||||
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| 1. Finding a place to live | ||||||||
| 2. Paying for utilities | ||||||||
| 3. Having local people as house help | ||||||||
| 4. Using ATM machines and other ways to get money from a financial institution | ||||||||
| 5. Maintaining a balanced checkbook, even when mission financial statements arrive at a later date | ||||||||
| 6. Budgeting money | ||||||||
| 7. Counting and using money in host country | ||||||||
| 8. Purchasing stamps | ||||||||
| 9. Using items such as a multi-tool, flashlight, rechargeable batteries and charger, duct tape, silicon sealer, etc. | ||||||||
| 10. Using 220 volt, 50 HZ electricity and appliances | ||||||||
| 11. Changing computer / photocopier paper from US letter size to European A4 | ||||||||
| 12. Renewing passport, resident permit, driver's license | ||||||||
| 13. Going through customs of foreign country and then back to the US; knowing which things are legal to bring into country and what is required for entry (e.g. visa, work permit, photograph of self) | ||||||||
| 14. Experiencing food differences (color of sugar and size of crystals; taste of meat and milk; color of egg shells; milk and juice in box on the shelf not refrigerated; buying vegetables and fruit and have it weighed and labeled; etc.) | ||||||||
| 15. Trying new foods | ||||||||
| 16. Dealing with less material goods (e.g. recycling Ziplock bags to the point that they totally break apart) and convenience food in particular | ||||||||
| 17. Coping with Different kinds of kitchen appliances (e.g. stoves, electric coil coffee pots, refrigerators). | ||||||||
| 18. Coping with power outages--use of candles, flashlight; developing refrigeration and cooking alternatives | ||||||||
| 19. Working with students after school, at night, on weekends | ||||||||
| 20. Following mission agency's contingency plan during civil unrest | ||||||||
| 21. Sending and receiving e-mail | ||||||||
| 22. Using e-mail that may be limited; responses may not come as quickly as in the US or Canada | ||||||||
| 23. Using cell phones; asking colleagues what works and where | ||||||||
| 24. Dealing with no access to the WWW; it may be limited; there may be a per minute fee | ||||||||
| 25. Using refrigerators in rural areas that may be kerosene or propane | ||||||||
| 26. Using electricity in rural areas that may be solar generated and therefore limited. | ||||||||
| 27. Knowing the availability of prescription drugs and how to obtain them | ||||||||
| 28. Using gray water | ||||||||
| 29. Pumping gas using liters and foreign currency; local customs | ||||||||
| 30. Preparing yearly tax returns for US and host country | ||||||||
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| 1. Using caution with items you carry and where you place them (e.g. cameras, binoculars, etc. | ||||||||
| 2. Knowing what not to take pictures of (e.g. flag, airports, government buildings, army personnel, police) | ||||||||
| 3. Keeping secure passport, resident permit, driving license, etc. | ||||||||
| 4. Using public transportation, cost, change needed, precautions, particular routes to avoid, pickpockets | ||||||||
| 5. Knowing what to look for that could be trouble (e.g. gathering of crowds) | ||||||||
| 6. Agreeing on a price before you get into a taxi; in some places get the price in writing and signed by the driver | ||||||||
| 7. Keeping a map with you of where you live with location written down in local language; in some places looking at a map in public identifies you as a tourist and therefore a target. | ||||||||
| 8. Understanding the value of cell phone and keeping a list of friends' telephone numbers with you | ||||||||
| 9. Knowing areas of town that may be unsafe; how to avoid them | ||||||||
| 10. Being aware of poisonous spiders, snakes, plants in areas where you will live or travel. | ||||||||
| 11. Keeping clothing accessories simple (avoiding wearing gold, silver, jewels and "look-alikes;" wear locally made items | ||||||||
| 12. Being alert to reality of car jackings | ||||||||
| 13. Understanding the need for and use of home security measures | ||||||||
| 14. Practicing safety precautions after dark | ||||||||
| 15. Being aware not to ask a stranger for directions in which the answer is a simple "yes" or "no." | ||||||||
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| 1. Growing in your personal relationship with Christ | ||||||||
| 2. Asking for prayer support | ||||||||
| 3. Attending church services of different denominations | ||||||||
| 4. Attending an ethnic church service | ||||||||
| 5. Taking time alone with God in prayer, worship, and Bible study | ||||||||
| 6. Being aware of other religions in the area where you will be living and working and that they could potentially have a powerful influence on the government, your mission agency and school | ||||||||
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| 1. Exercising flexibility in almost every aspect of missionary life, including domestic life and teaching | ||||||||
| 2. Demonstrating stability | ||||||||
| 3. Demonstrating resourcefulness | ||||||||
| 4. Demonstrating reliability | ||||||||
| 5. Managing stress | ||||||||
| 6. Managing time; productive use of free time | ||||||||
| 7. Being away from traditional family, friends, and support and as a missionary you have new "family," friends, and support | ||||||||
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| 1. Obtaining vaccinations for country where you will be living | ||||||||
| 2. Keeping an appropriate level of personal cleanliness and grooming, especially if there is limited water | ||||||||
| 3. Using personal hygiene supplies (could be different than US) | ||||||||
| 4. Taking a bucket bath or shower; flushing toilet with bucket | ||||||||
| 5. Preventing illness and health issues such as malaria and use of mosquito netting and insect repellent; hepatitis, cholera, brucellosis, etc. | ||||||||
| 6. Knowing what to do in a medical emergency; who to contact; which hospital to go to (where the needles are sterile); which doctors and dentists to go to | ||||||||
| 7. Cleaning fruit and vegetables thoroughly before consumption (e.g. soaking them in chlorine water, iodine, potassium permanganate) | ||||||||
| 8. Knowing which restaurants have safe food | ||||||||
| 9. Filtering or treating water with chemicals before drinking or making ice | ||||||||
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| 1. Knowing and understanding the local driving customs of locals | ||||||||
| 2. Knowing when and how to barter | ||||||||
| 3. Knowing and understanding local culture customs (e.g. appropriateness of taking a small gift to someone when visiting) | ||||||||
| 4. Staying with a local family | ||||||||
| 5. Seeing and enjoying the good in a different culture; refraining from putting down host culture (e.g. garbage; construction of buildings left incomplete) | ||||||||
| 6. Refraining from expecting better treatment from locals than what other locals receive | ||||||||
| 7. Language learning; ESL training (importance of language as entry into culture) | ||||||||
| 8. Making friends with locals and taking an interest in those who work at school (e.g. their lives and culture) | ||||||||
| 9. Participating in community outreach programs from your school, with or without students | ||||||||
| 10. Being aware of sensitive topics topics when talking with nationals | ||||||||
| 11. Balancing appropriate dress for the culture in which you live with your Christian testimony | ||||||||
| 12. Understanding the role local workers play in the operation of the school; degree they are part of school community | ||||||||
| 13. Being sensitive of cultural offenses like hand gestures, eye contact, touching | ||||||||
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| 1. Increasing your knowledge of missions in general and your particular mission agency in particular (the mechanics) | ||||||||
| 2. Entering into and understanding the "culture" of missionaries, mission stations, MK schools (e.g. time for chai and prayer, upholding each other, feelings for each other) | ||||||||
| 3. Being aware of how basic needs of the staff and children are met | ||||||||
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| 1. Discovering places to visit and agencies in which to become involved (e.g. museums) | ||||||||
| 2. Locating places to get a cup of coffee and meet with friends | ||||||||
| 3. Learning about member care offered by your mission agency | ||||||||
| 4. Obtaining adequate financial support | ||||||||
| 5. Giving someone in the US "Power of Attorney" before you leave | ||||||||
| 6. Having a sense of adventure | ||||||||
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| 1. Being a good listener | ||||||||
| 2. Replacing or paying for items you borrow that were lost or damaged | ||||||||
| 3. Understanding male-female issues in host country (e.g. holding hands, walking alone with opposite sex, visiting in home alone) | ||||||||
| 4. Asking colleagues questions, and judiciously of strangers | ||||||||
| 5. Developing a good sense of humor (and a diminished sense of smell) | ||||||||
| 6. Relating to and doing things with a variety of people: different ages, singles, families, children | ||||||||