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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

They say hindsight is 20/20. It is so cool to look back on your life and realize that through the spaghetti-type mazes, as they seemed at the time, that God’s Hand was there all the time. We sometimes get those “aha!” moments where a puzzle piece slips into place. A seemingly random event in our upbringing suddenly comes to light as having a purpose in bringing us to this moment. I have had many of these realizations, and each one is a gift from God. One of my annoying quirks

John Hyde, lovingly remembered as “praying Hyde,” did something controversial; something which sparked criticism from his brethren until they could no longer argue with the results. He was a missionary to India in the late 1800s to early 1900s. He loved God and longed to be effective in service. But he battled with hidden sins, which often pulled him down. During one meeting, he boldly confessed his sins to the group and shared how God had given him the victory. Several of hi

Spinning out of control is a terrible feeling. It’s like hitting black ice and just hanging on for the ride. Sometimes life can feel like this. In my head, I know that God is in control. But it’s so much easier to “trust” God when I feel like I have some level of control. I hate feeling helpless. I hate “letting go.” As I look back over my life, I can see countless ways where God’s way was so much better than my own. I can see where my faith has grown and where I surrendered

Elegant palm trees, smiling faces and crazy traffic. What do these have in common? They are all a part of my “home.” Not many months ago, I was filled with homesickness for my home country. How can you be homesick for two places at once? Perhaps only those who have lived overseas can truly understand. But now that I’m leaving, my heart is heavy. I feel so torn. The anticipation I was expecting to feel seems crowded out by the apprehension of leaving “home.” Sure, there are f

Do you have a blessings book? I can’t even remember where I first heard of the idea, but it is a good one. It doesn’t have to be a fancy notebook. In fact, my first one was on regular paper, folded over. I didn’t necessarily add to it every day, but I tried to have a mindset of thankfulness at all times. Sometimes I would make several entries in one day. On days when I felt a bit discouraged, I could read over all the blessings and remember the great things God had done in my

The first time I flew, I remember being filled with awe. How tiny everything appeared! I could see vehicles driving around, but they looked like toys. Psalm 8:4 came to mind: “What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?" From my vantage point, I could see far more than those below could see, yet how much more can God see in the third heaven? Of course, I believe that He is omniscient (all-knowing). But from this perspective, suddenl

Rainy season is in full force and when I hear the thunderous sound of heavy rain, I feel compelled to rush to a window and watch! It is so exhilarating! It has not yet lost its novelty or appeal to me. Citizens, however, are not so inclined to run to their window. They avoid being out in the rain whenever possible and when it starts raining, their posture assumes “So what? It’s just another rain” attitude. It’s interesting what people can get used to and take for granted. Now

One of the most effective ways to learn a language is to speak it. You can learn in theory all you want, but practicing speaking and getting feedback is one of the most valuable ways to make it your own. However, this requires a certain amount of bravery and humility. You have to learn to be able to laugh at yourself, while being painfully aware that to the native speaker you sound just like a toddler. When I was in the Philippines, I was enthusiastic about learning Tagalog.

As hard as besetting sin is to purge from our lives, at least it is often obviously recognized as just that: sin! The weights are a lot more subtle. They’re sometimes not even sin or wrong per se at all. Sometimes our friends can do the exact same things and not be affected in the least. But for us, it’s a stumbling block; a weight. In itself, it might not be bad and one could even find positive aspects of it. But that’s not where our perspective needs to be. Instead of focus

Anyone who moves overseas can tell you that it’s a stressful event. It is not the same as a short-term trip or vacation. You’re overwhelmed with doing life completely differently, while being homesick and lonely. It’s rough. What can make it harder is if you start a job overseas. As in our case, we arrived in the country in the afternoon and my husband was at work by 8 am the next morning. (He was only supposed to begin the following week, but one thing you learn quickly, is

The men next door were mean. We were not allowed to walk across their yard. We probably would not have done so anyway, but the neighbour girl did and one day I followed her. Boy, did I get into trouble! Respecting property did not apply to them, however, as my dad once had to stop them from standing in our driveway. They were teaching the neighbourhood kids to golf, using stones from our driveway and aiming at our front window. Another time, when I was very little, I was pla

Do you have any favourite Christmas traditions? Growing up, we would always open our stockings in the morning. My mom liked to put a fun toy at the top, peeking out enticingly. It often included candy and small toys, and, of course, an orange in the toe! When we were fairly young, my family started a tradition of going to sing Christmas carols at a local care home on Christmas Day. Many of the residents were taken to spend the day with family, others had family come to visit

“ Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 3:13-14 If anyone needed to forget the past, it was Paul. Before his conversion, he was a religious zealot, who committed many atrocities against the followers of his now-beloved Lord. These memories must have

I’ve been thinking a lot about this concept lately. How privileged to be the hands and feet of Christ. When people think of me, do they think of me or do they see Christ? Too often we’re preoccupied with ourselves. We want people to think well of us. We may struggle with conceit and arrogance, or we may put ourselves down and wallow in self-deprecation and worse, but it’s all pride. I’ve heard it said that we should not think less of ourselves, but rather think about ourselve