All Posts

(Note: this was written when I was still pregnant 🙃) What’s one of the hardest parts of living overseas? Right now, it’s the heat. Which is crazy to admit, because that is one of the things I loved most about my other trips overseas. I’ll blame it on pregnancy, but my ability to handle the heat is negligible. The way they build houses here is different from North America. Everything is very “open concept.” The doors and windows are never completely sealed to the outside a

One of the hardest things you can do is to watch a loved one make a shipwreck of their lives and not say anything. My pastor often talks about the wisdom it takes to know what to say and when to say it, because you may know exactly what they need to hear, but they may not be ready or able to receive it. Just think about how gracious the Lord is with us. He gently leads us along, never giving us more than He knows we can bear. Of course, this is never an excuse to say nothing

Do you know what drowning looks like? Most people would assume, as I did, that the person in danger would be thrashing around, calling desperately for help. I read an interesting article where a lifeguard and water rescue expert, Francesco Pia, PhD. explains what drowning actually looks like. - Silent: There's no spare breath to call for help. - Bobbing up and down: their mouth sinks below the water's surface, pops up just enough to breathe and sinks back down. - Stiff-armed:

When we first moved here, several things seemed different to me. One of them was the village mentality. Parents actively watched other people’s children. When this first happened, I felt slightly offended. Did they not think I was doing a good job watching my son? I knew he could play in a specific part of the playground by himself. Why did they feel the need to jump in and help him? How differently I view this now, as I sat in a shady area of the playground holding my infan

When you live in a foreign country, navigating little things can feel overwhelming. But this also makes it easy to be thankful for the little things as well. I have always enjoyed doing laundry…it has never seemed like a chore to me. But in a foreign country, it’s a different story. It took me a couple of weeks to figure out our apartment washing machine. You had to manually turn on the water, and then I would push buttons randomly until it started. Sometimes this took only

I’m probably going to step on some toes with this one, but rest assured, I’m stepping on mine first. In the past few decades, we’ve been inundated with MySpace, iPhones, YouTube and various other mediums which center around “us.” More recently, there’s been a new phrase coined “main character syndrome.” It seems to affect those who grew up in this media age, or really anyone who has been submerged in technology. They view everything in life as if it’s a movie, they’re the “ma

As we read about the kings of Judah and Israel, we can learn many important lessons for our own lives. We see a King like Jehoshaphat. For the most part, he served God, relied on Him and did that which was pleasing in His sight. But his failure was compromise. He joined with two wicked kings of Israel. God had given Him a miraculous victory (2 Chronicles 20). But shortly after this, we read about him making an alliance with the wicked King Ahaziah. Sadly, we can also have vic

Do you remember some of the most hurtful things that have been said to or about you? Even if you’ve forgiven the offender, it is really hard to completely forget the words which can seem to echo in our minds. This is why Proverbs 18:21 warns, “Death and life are in the power of the tongue: and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof.” We’ve all heard the mantra that “sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me.” In reality, words can hurt us deep

We did not have a lot of money when I was young. There was often not much food in the house. When I was about 4, I was wishing we had a loaf of bread. But what could I do about it? I looked through my coins and found a two-dollar bill. “Can you buy some bread with this?” I asked my mom. She nodded and quietly took the money. I was so thrilled to be able to eat the bread that I had bought! Sadly, the bread ran out and I only had coins left. A while later, as I was looking at

As I listened to my son’s wail, my own heart was breaking. I pulled him close, wishing I could somehow protect him from this pain. But I could not. “I’m sorry, buddy. Loving people hurts.” One thing I have recently done is allow myself the permission to grieve. As a child, I was bullied and learned to hide my sadness. It became a badge of honour to never allow myself to cry, especially publicly. Instead, I would bottle up my emotions, and later they would come out as anger, e

Returning to my home country briefly has been an interesting experience. I can’t tell you how many times the excitement has hit me as I realized… “I can drink the water!” “I can brush my teeth with tap water!” “Whoa! There’s hot water in the sink! What a novelty!” (At “home” we only have hot water for one of our showers, none of the sinks). And “dryers are so cool! You can get more laundry done, faster, and you don’t have to depend on the weather to cooperate!” Every time I

Have you ever experienced Hamanitus? Thankfully, the remedy is fairly simple! Recently, as I’ve been reading through Esther, I was struck once again by Haman’s attitude. It’s easy to judge him, but unfortunately, we can often adopt a similar attitude. Esther 5:13 is a key verse. “Yet all this availeth me nothing, so long as I see Mordecai the Jew sitting at the king's gate.” He was caught in the “if only” trap. We don’t often think of ourselves as being similar to Haman, but

Growing up, food was always a fun part of fellowship. You loaded your plate up with sweet and savory snacks and found some friends to visit with while you ate. It was normal for me to put a handful of chips on my plate. I did not take one at a time. Usually the serving table was separate from the fellowship tables anyway. Well, when I was in the Philippines, I was offered some chips. Without thinking, I took a handful. My hosts were offended. “You’re selfish!” they accused. T

One thing about seasons is that they do come to an end. Yes, even winter eventually comes to an end, although not necessarily as soon as those in northern countries might like! The other seasons definitely rush swiftly by. Life can be like this. There are some seasons which go by far too quickly, while others drag by, seeming to never end. I went through a very long, difficult season with my firstborn. I didn’t get to sleep through the night until he was about 18 months old

My sister once tried to witness to an older gentleman, who told her he was an atheist. As they continued the conversation, it turned out that he had gone to Sunday school faithfully as a child. One day, his dog had died. He asked his Sunday school teacher if dogs go to heaven. She flippantly replied, “Of course not.” He told my sister that at that moment he decided that he didn’t want to go to heaven then either. I don’t think the right response would have been for her to li

When you travel, you will inevitably experience culture shock. The first stage is dubbed the honeymoon stage. It is when everything is new and exciting. We, however, jumped straight into the frustration stage. After we landed, I had to wrangle an overtired, active toddler and juggle our 3 carry-on bags, laptop bag, diaper bag and car seat while my husband went to claim our 5 suitcases. This was after going through a couple of lines to obtain our visas. By this point, we were

Growing up, my mom always taught us Bible stories. We would often host a 5-day Bible club in our front lawn. The neighborhood kids knew to come to our house to hear Bible stories. When I was 12, our pastor’s wife joined our efforts to reach the children in our area. The kids who came were mostly from broken homes. One day, a boy shared that he didn’t have a dad. “Me neither.” Another kid agreed. Then the class clown blurted out dramatically, “I have too many dads!” He came fr

In other posts, I have shared my surrender to being a mom, and how fulfilling I have found it to be. That being said, there are times it is hard to be completely content with my role when I see my husband able to do so much more than I can. When I look at others who are past the littles stage (or at least the stage of just littles) and see how much more productive they are, I can inwardly chafe. What’s wrong with me? Why can’t I accomplish what they can? While I seemed to onl

When Jesus lived among men, compassion was one of the attributes He commonly displayed. But what exactly is compassion? Webster’s 1828 gives an excellent definition. “A suffering with another; painful sympathy; a sensation of sorrow excited by the distress or misfortunes of another; pity; commiseration. Compassion is a mixed passion, compounded of love and sorrow; at least some portion of love generally attends the pain or regret, or is excited by it. Extreme distress of an e

“Now while Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit was stirred in him, when he saw the city wholly given to idolatry.” Acts 17:16 When we arrived in Cambodia, it was late, and we were exhausted. We had left behind the Philippines, with its cheerful populace, in exchange for grumpy agents. Our flight had been delayed (by no fault of our own) and these men clearly wanted to be done with us and go home. I noticed immediately an oppressive feeling in the air. As we travele