Job shadowed

Something pretty cool happened this week for me. I was asked by my business office if I could be job shadowed for a day by our short term mobilizer. Now initially I'm thinking, woah, they specifically want to job shadow me??? I remember in high school going to engineering firms asking to shadow their workers to see what they do during the day. So I'm thinking to myself, who am I that I have the experience to show someone what I do during the day-I'm still learning what I do during the day!
But we set up the time to meet together. I was going to entertain him, Alan Garnett, from 10-3. And I had nothing planned in stone! That's our life, we live by the seat of our pants. I had ideas, and prayed that God work work them out.
When we met, we drove over to my old neighborhood and visited with my apartment owner. He's a wonderful man and just showered me with compliments to my guest. I was humbled as I translated. I like him to, and told him how welcomed I always will feel there, that he is like a father to me, and though my home is in Mekhe, my heart lives here with his family. And along with this we had a good talk in catching up together. It had been a few months since I had seen him.
From there we walked my neighborhood together. I showed him some of the boutique stands that we buy things from, comparing them to all that we have to shop from in Mekhe. That was to give him an idea of what our town is like. We also talked a bit about the different strategies in rural ministry verses urban ministry. And I also mentioned that in the morning the visits are short because people are working. It's cooler and they're able to work more. But in the afternoon the visits are easier and longer. We can sit and talk over tea while lunch settles and people rest from the heat of the day. So typically I do most of my visits during the afternoons with my closest friends.
We also met one of my closer friends in the neighborhood, too. He heard us coming by and ran out to greet us. He speaks English as well as I speak Wolof. We talked a lot of his life and compared the life in Senegal to the life in America. He told my guest about his family, his house, and we shot the breeze about other things. These were 2 very good visits. I could not have asked for better visits.
After this I asked Alan if he would mind running errands with me. I could entertain him longer and these were things I had to get done while I was in Dakar. He was actually thankful and encouraging to me for asking. I appreciated him being flexible, but he reminded me that I have to wear many hats as a missionary. I'm not only a missionary, but a friend, a son, a cleaner, and a cook, and all of this is a part of our lives. So when he goes back to the states he can also share with future short term applicants this part of the life in Senegal as well as the sharing part of being a missionary.
So this day was a very productive day. I took the chance to specifically praise God for giving us such a great day together. I hope Alan enjoyed it as much as I did.