A Normal Day in 2024

Come with me on a typical weekday here in Africa!  My alarm rouses me at 5:30 to pray and read a chapter of Scripture in three languages.  I eat breakfast, get dressed, and play hymns and Classical music on my harp before heading to work in my red truck with a petition for God’s protection.

Work starts at 7:30 with a devotional, then it’s into my office to count money and start giving it to those who need to make purchases.  I handle e-mails and WhatsApp messages and proceed down my list of administrative duties.  Making online payments, reconciling bank accounts, registering employees’ hours, checking airtime on phones, doling out keys, tracking electricity usage, charging workers for soft drinks, generating financial reports, updating vehicle maintenance logs, calculating quantities of dog food needed, receiving rent, formatting newsletters, and paying sales tax are all on my routine task list.  Running an annual pastors’ conference and opening a hospital are two huge projects that require much time.  Discipleship, counseling, and meetings about spiritual issues add variety to my days.  At noon, I eat microwaved dinner leftovers while reading a Kindle book.

When my workday ends at 4:00, I swim, except on Wednesdays when I have Taekwondo class.  Once I get home, I set the table for supper, then cozy up to my desk (pictured here) to spend delightful time on my projects.  The national Bible Bee tops the list, followed by women’s Bible reading clubs, father-daughter outreaches, protection for the unborn, and children’s songs.  Classical music takes me to my piano to learn a few more bars of Tchaikovsky’s first concerto.  The call to supper ends my project session for the day, so items farther down the list — blogging, journaling, sending birthday cards, preparing women’s studies, and managing my personal finances — usually wait until the weekend.  After dinner, our family has devotions, then I bathe and head to bed by 9:00.

As much as I relish adventure, I also thrive on routine.  Pray that I would follow God’s guidance without complaint when adjustments or interruptions to my schedule become necessary.  Romans 12:1-2 has recently been on my heart in this regard:  “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.”