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Enthralled, I stood gazing at the glass Unrivalled by its kind. Glimmering light danced to and fro Delighting an artist’s mind. Unknown to me, an old man stood Observing me, till I turned. With sparkling eyes and twitching mouth He asked me what I had learned. “It’s beautiful!” I said at length. “I feel safe, happy, and warm.” He stood, as if waiting for me to continue To name some unmentioned charm. Finally he shrugged, seeing I didn’t know The secret he longed to imp

“I had fainted, unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.” Psalm 27:13 As a mom of two precious but busy boys, it’s so easy to get caught up in day to day, sometimes referred to as the “nasty now and now.” Juggling nap schedules, snack/nursing and endless diaper changes, until before I realize it, the day is over. Okay, that’s not true. A lot of days truly drag by. But you get the idea. How often I feel like I’m just hanging on, just sur

After surrendering everything, I fell into a peaceful sleep. At 5 am, I woke up with a sharp spasm and the half hopeful feeling that perhaps this time it was “real.” I stayed in bed for a couple of hours, doing my devotions and language lesson. I texted my husband, who commented that I sounded nonchalant for someone in labour. But I’d had too much false labour to get my hopes up quickly. At 7, I went to get my toddler up, and suddenly couldn’t lift him out of his playpen. Wa

Another Braxton hicks contraction. Only this time it felt different. I tried not to panic as the cramping became more frequent, intense, lasted longer and could even be described as painful. I was only 34 weeks along. But not only that, the very next day I was supposed to embark on an international flight to have this baby — next month, not this month! These contractions lasted several hours and did not dissipate with changes of position, eating or drinking. I finally asked f

When Amy Carmichael wrote the book “Things As They Are”, she received major backlash. She was told that people didn’t want to hear the cold, hard truth. They wanted the romanticized version. However, she wanted to present what it was really like, without sugar-coating it. Serving God always comes with a blessing, but living overseas has its fair share of challenges. In these posts, I have sought to give an accurate view of what living overseas is like. Because there are so m

Walls can be used for protection. They can keep the things out that shouldn’t come in… enemies, criminals and even extreme elements. There’s a feeling of safety as you sit within the walls of your own house. But what about emotional walls? Interestingly enough, most of us who have erected these kinds of walls did it for the exact same reason: we were trying to protect ourselves! Have you ever been hurt and thought, “I’m not going to let that person hurt me again!” Or maybe i

“…I will never leave thee nor forsake thee.” Hebrews 13:5 How precious this phrase has become as I think back over some painful times in my life. There were times when I felt forsaken by people who should have been there for me. Even as an adult, there are times when I feel so vulnerable and alone. But the truth of the matter is that people will fail. They will fail me and I will fail them. But He never does! He will never leave me nor forsake me. No matter how much I mess up

(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