Dr. Alyssa Pfister, an internal medicine/pediatrics specialist serving at Tenwek Hospital in Kenya through the Post-Residency Program, blogs about a special missionary couple.

One of the great blessings of being here at this time in my life is the chance to learn from those who have gone before.

Dolly and Vince Mungillo celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary today. They have spent much of their married life as missionaries in Irian Jaya and now here in Kenya. “A missionary is someone in whom the Holy Spirit has brought about this realization: ‘You are not your own’ (1 Cor. 6:19).”—Oswald Chambers

Helen Keller said, “I long to accomplish a great and noble task, but it is my chief duty to accomplish small tasks as if they were great and noble.”

As I have come to know the Mungillos and other missionaries through the years, I've learned that a pedestal is not needed. Many have been honest with me about things they struggle with, even in their 70’s, but they do know that their life is not their own. And they don't know that because of any super-human strength or qualities that the rest of us don't have, but because the Holy Spirit has taught them.

Even in the “retirement years,” they are still seeking to be faithful, like Helen Keller said, in the small tasks given to them.

“It is in Jesus, of course, and in the people whose lives have been deeply touched by Jesus, and in ourselves at those moments when we also are deeply touched by him, that we see another way of being human in this world, which is the way of wholeness.”—Frederick Buechner.

Samaritan's Purse , 50th Anniversary Party

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