CATEGORY
Reflection
Dancing in the Dust
Research notebook? Check. Fully charged phone doubling as a recorder? Check. Diapers for the baby? Check. I headed out to the refugee camp to meet some well-known Naas musicians with my 5-month-old baby in tow. As we ducked down to enter the low door of the first...
The Pilot’s Words
The pilot folded his hands and looked at us across the table. His eyes brightened and a smile crept across his face. “This week I get to fly Bibles. First Scripture ever in these people’s language.” Our grins matched his. My family and I were in the capital for our...
How a Blue Starfish Taught Me Something
One of the perks of serving Bibleless people in Papua New Guinea is that I lived in one of the best snorkel spots in the world. The underwater world God created is magnificent, and I never tired of floating above a coral reef and watching an endless variety of sea...
Where Mercy Meets Us
**This post contains heavy subject matter regarding a stillbirth. We got the call at 6:30 a.m. on a Sunday morning. Our close friend Anna was in labor and needed to get to the hospital soon. My husband Kevin got up, dressed quickly, and headed out to the village where...
I Am a Foreign Weirdo
Being an alien and stranger is no fun. Ask me about it. Everywhere we go, people stare at us. They grab at us to touch our skin and hair. They unashamedly point and stare at us in public. They sometimes treat us like royalty, bestowing on us white privilege...
Lesson from a Tree Frog
My husband Mike and I were enjoying a quiet evening at our home in Papua New Guinea. We’d finished our post-dinner clean up and were relaxing in our favorite chairs reading books we’d just received in a care package from his mom. Suddenly the quiet was shattered by...
How Much Sacrifice is Enough?
Moving to a new country and new culture is full of surprises. One surprise for me when I moved to Southeast Asia was that every single temple is filled with idols. There is not just one idol per temple. We once visited a temple which, when literally translated, is...
Home Hunting
Since 2020, our family has moved all of our belongings five times to five different houses, stayed in too many hotels to count, and slept on the couches, beds, and floors of all our closest relatives. We’ve been looking for “home” in one way or another for the last...