What’s a Missionary Wife’s Life Like?
April 22, 2022
Dear readers,
When I’m asked what a missionary wife’s life is like, I guess I have to say that it is as varied as there are missionary wives. This is true because every missionary wife has her own personality and her own set of skills and struggles that shape her. I’m certain that there are many circumstances and experiences that we missionary wives have in common just by the nature of our calling to leave our families, our home culture and language. But how we adjust to all of these is different in many ways because we are different in many ways.
Before anything else, though, I want you to know that I do not consider my life on the foreign mission field a sacrifice or a burden. I am thankful to the Lord for the life He has given me. Yes, I have my struggles and hardships, but I know that each and every one of you do too. Some of mine are completely different because of my calling, but many are very similar to yours. I am both happy and fulfilled in what the Lord is using me to do here in Brazil. I thank Him for the privilege to serve Him where I am.
Charlene 
Charlene & Bobby 
Charlene with some of their church ladies for Children’s Day 
Charlene
It is hard for me to put a title on my role, so I will just share some of the things that I do and not worry about titles. I help our couples’ ministry team leaders prepare for our outreach events. We usually hold 4 to 5 of these events per year. They are basically two-hour banquets, each with a different décor theme and different marital issues in focus. My husband, Bobby, usually brings a message addressing the marital principle in focus and always shares the gospel with the lost guests. My part is to help plan the décor and set up the auditorium for those who attend.
I also work with our children’s teaching ministry. We have put together a great team of volunteers who are gifted teachers and I assist them now. Through the course of our ministry and with each new church plant, I am usually the first and main children’s teacher as we begin to discover and develop new teachers from among our new converts.
Maybe one of my most important roles, though, is to assist Bobby in whatever he needs me to do. When he has to counsel women, he always has me with him, both for my female input and for ministerial integrity.
Our home life is one of the strongest illustrations of what we teach and of what he preaches, so I realize that I must give great attention to making it both pleasant and solid. We have raised our children and we now have an “empty nest,” but I want it to still be full of joy and love.
The hardest part for me as a woman is the absence of our children and our grandson. But I would rather be 5,000 miles away from them doing what the Lord wants me to do than to be in the same city with them when that’s not His will for me.
My prayer request is that Bobby and I will always be attentive to the Lord’s leading. We want to be in fellowship with Him so intimately that we will know when and where He is leading us to new opportunities to share the gospel and plant new churches.
I am really grateful to all of you who pray for us and for the faithful support to maintain our ministries.
Yours in the love of Jesus,
Charlene Wacaser
Contact Info:
Bobby & Charlene Wacaser
Rua Laudelino Ferreira Lopes, 279
Sobrado 1, Novo Mundo
81050-310 Curitiba, PR. Brasil
Phone: 55-41-99899-2333
bobbymichael_1@hotmail.com
For ministry donations:
Pastor George Sledd, Treasurer of BFM
P.O. Box 471280
Lake Monroe, FL 32747-1280
or click here to donate to BFM online
My 4th child at age 21 marries in Sept. My other adult kids are all either here or within 3 hrs away. First grandchild is abt here. My husband retires next end of next year or earlier.we all are devout Christians, 2 adult kids in full time ministry the other 2 in church, leading or attending Bible studies, worship team. We homeschool Ed them all thru. So God has been giving me excellent materials to combine for a neighborhood Bible Study or discipleship with women. We have the privilege of a motor home as my huanbad wants to travel and see a lot. He has the gift of hospitality and is very neigh t well learned man of the Lord and has done different thing alike teaching and leading small groups. I desire to continue setting out Gospel tracts even more so during travel but also having gospel conversations and my husband is open to supporting that but needs a good retirement period /travel spurts like Alaska. Ive read numerous times abt older women teaching the younger women. And also abt following Jesus hating your wives, children, brothers sisters etc. So since I’m a wife to my husband (Scripture doesn’t say hate your husband’s and follow me), it seems I need to have deference to my husband and maybe not concern myself so much with soul winning. I see there is a place for that but my personality wants to just go all out in that area, which I suppose I can do by tracts. I pray for my husband to have a stirred passion for when he retires and what serving the Lord wld look like for him. He’s worked so long and hard that retirement from his agricultural engineering job is so appealing and how he will have extra time for travel. So I wonder what’s the best way for me to win souks/disciplele and support him too. I’ve had the equivalent of a yr (this excludes covid and some other long hard health issues that have cleared up) away from homeschooling (24 yrs) so I’ve had time to decompress, rest, exercise consistently, and prepare for the next phase and he hasn’t had that time as he’s still fully employed. I work abt 10 hrs or less a week at cleaning church, Bible Study child care etc so I do have that and family we have coming around or living at home (a fiancee around a lot too). But Id like advice on what my life shd look like, dying to self, keeping God first above family so as to bring souls to the Lord yet be the wife of my husband. Because the Bible doesn’t say hate your husband and follow me. It says hate your wives, bros sisters etc and follow me. And you have done that as well as perhaps sold your possessions and gave to the poor (Luke 18).Thank you, Sheryl Casada
My husband (his parents as well) and I have been supporters of BFM for over 30 yrs.
So happy you both have been serving on the vast mission fields for so long! I have tried to keep up with you all through Mama an Uncle Ross until they moved on to Heaven and since on FB ! May God continue to bless you and yours in all that you do! Love from a 2nd cousin!! Anytime you may be in Northeast Florida you are welcome to stay with us and visit the area! Bill & Joyce were some our favorite people in the whole world! Bobby’s Mom and Dad!