My wife was recently at a retreat for missionary women. She came back with some amazing stories of people who really had fallen in love with this country. And suffered here.
She met a woman who had been working on the countryside with her husband. He discovered by accident that he had a heart condition and needed operation. Instead of going back home to the US where healthcare is more developed he stayed and had his operation here. All went well but a short time afterwards the wife got hit by a truck while riding on the back of a motorbike, in a bad way. She needed several operations and are still having them as I write this. To add to the injury: the lawyer that was supposed to help them didn't do his job so they lost the chance to claim any money for the accident. and the latest thing is that the man who crashed into the motorbike will sue them for psychological damages! But she doesn't complain. Neither did they leave Paraguay.
My wife also heard about another tragic story. A young family that also moved to Paraguay as missionaries. After their first child were born they adopted a Paraguayan girl. They worked a few years and then the mother and the first child were killed, also in a traffic accident. The man and the adopted daughter was left. And are still here. They didn't leave Paraguay.
These are terrible and tragic events. But what struck me when I heard them was that these people had every right to say "enough, I will go back to my home country now". And nobody would have blamed them. But they stayed.
In fact many missionaries that we meet does not have a finishing date on their assignment. They are here until further notice, indefinitely. For us that has been a refreshing and challenging eye-opener since our mission works with 3-4 year contracts.
Really it's a testimony that God can place a love in the hearts of His people that makes them abandon "ordinary" for something very different!
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