“In returning and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and confidence shall be your strength.” Isaiah 30:15; NKJV. When Phil and I left for Italy with a two-year-old, a four-year-old and a seven-year-old, we were about as prepared as any missionary could be. Like a couple without children are experts on childrearing, we had […]
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The sun was shining. Blue sky filled the kitchen window. My eight-year-old daughter played in front of our house with friends. I could hear voices, a mixture of laughter and children’s bossiness. Busy with laundry and cleanliness I scrubbed inside while outside wars were fought, princes and princesses declared, and games were invented. Peace reigned […]
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They watched the One they loved suffer agony and succumb to a tortuous death. It was the greatest event of history, but they likely didn’t realize it. To experience exceeds preparedness. Surreal grief must have shrouded the horror of those events and ripped the hearts of Mary Magdalene and the other Mary as they followed […]
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My name is Sylvia and I am technophobic. Technology scares the crud out of me. “Hover,” my husband advises. “Just hover and see if it is a good site or one that will eat your computer alive in chomping bites that chew up your fingers, your arm and eventually invade your brain. There’s nothing to […]
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The car doors slam, and we slide into opposite sides. We look at one another, then sit silently and think over the last hour. The question comes again: “Will we be like that?” As our car heads home, my husband and I add to our verbal inventory for our future. We talk about what we […]
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I plunked her diaper-padded bottom into the shopping cart and directed two little legs into the slots. The mission began. I had one hour, one child with me, two others at home, and a whole lot of errands to accomplish. I shoved some apples into a bag and twisted a green wire around the top […]
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Spring Cleaning My hands immersed in suds, I stand at the kitchen sink and gaze at the aura of green tinging the trees against blue sky outside my window. Buds are beginning to open. A hint of spring awakens. Bloom is coming to the brown earth. As I savor the beauty, I become aware that […]
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My husband and I get a kick out of mistranslations, written instructions or explanations into English from another language. Perhaps it’s because we have been on the other side. Language learning can be brutal, and we have both had plenty of embarrassing moments when what we thought we said did not match what we really […]
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“For our citizenship is in heaven…” I hold the blue covered booklet in my palm. Lines of weary travelers are long. They hold passports in green, maroon, and brown, irreplaceable identities of citizens from around the globe. I look for clues to invent their stories. A mom cradles an infant who has cried nine hours […]
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“You rule the raging of the sea; when its waves rise, you still them.” (Psalm 89:9, ESV) There are storms and then there are STORMS. On the scale of 1-10, ten being hurricane level, I remember it as about a 4, maybe a 5. I’m not actually talking about the thunderclouds in the sky type […]
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