I often wonder what my legacy will be. I know my father, who was a missionary for 42 years, never really worried about that, he knew that he was doing the best that he could and while he was making mistakes, he trusted God to work through him.

Now, I am back in the same country that he served in and I get to hear about his legacy. Of course, at first what they tell me is all very good and nice but as time goes on and I am here longer… well, I hear more of the whole story. It is not a bad story, just one of a man doing the best he could with the knowledge of the times about how to do mission.

I hear stories of how he was a task master at the school he worked at for a very short period of time. How he would not give a direct answer but would rather make people read the Bible, talk about things and come up with their idea of what the answer was. He would also not intervene when the children, of all colors, would fight over my brother’s bike but would rather, tell them to work it out themselves. He would lose his temper, I have been told. Do things that were not culturally acceptable, and I am sure other things that they have not told me about.

The thing I keep hearing is that he is remembered for bringing the word of Christ to South Sudan. Not a bad legacy. What I take from this is we need to forgive ourselves, and each other for the mistakes we make and look at the bigger picture. I am making a lot of mistakes here in the same country as my father. I wonder what my legacy will be since they already have the word of God. I have determined not to wonder about this anymore because the only legacy I want to leave is that I loved God and tried my best to follow him.