Beauty for Ashes

September 28, 2018

“Mom…Mom?” My last-minute preparations for a Friday-night dinner with friends were interrupted by Ivan’s uncertain voice as he thrust his left hand over the kitchen sink in front of me. Although it took a few moments to realize the severity of his injury, I knew at once that his fourth finger had experienced some trauma. […]

The Day Tarzan Fell

April 9, 2018

Three weeks ago on Monday, March 19, I (Carol) went to the boys’ school to pick them up at noon. Titus was busy playing on his favorite part of the playground, a rope swing that swings out over a small drop-off. A couple of months ago, a ball was hung out above that drop-off so […]

Loving in Small Ways

February 23, 2018

A conversation recently took place in our local expat* Facebook group here in our little city in Asia-Pacific. A newbie family introduced a question along these lines: “Are we the only foreign family that constantly deals with local people wanting to take selfies with us? If you have experienced this, how do you deal with […]

A Year in Pictures

August 8, 2017

The following pictures tell the story of our first year in Asia-Pacific. They’re not all pretty or professional, but they speak better than words alone. One year ago on August 5th, we departed for Asia-Pacific. We arrived on the 7th of August, jet-lagged, with (most) of our bags. We began making friends… …going to […]

CLA Classroom: Brake for Chickens

July 23, 2017

Welcome to the CLA Classroom! These posts are designed to give an insider’s perspective on CLA (Culture and Language Acquisition) in Asia-Pacific. What does it feel like to be a foreigner in this country? What new sights and sounds assail us every day? How do people view us? How do we react to cultural differences? […]

CLA Classroom: Greetings

July 6, 2017

Business First

July 5, 2017

This post is a little late in coming, but business first: New Tribes Mission has officially changed its name to Ethnos360. The decision for such a significant change was years in the making, and the reason for it is to expand the reach of this organization, rather than allowing a thing as simple as a […]

Count Your Many Blessings

February 27, 2017

This collage tells a story that tweaks at our heartstrings as we remember the journey we have traveled over the past year. The picture in the top right was taken in March 2016 during our aviation training in Arizona. I (Carol) was four weeks pregnant, and we had just been told by our leadership at NTMA that […]

Toilet Paper and Traffic Patterns

November 2, 2016

It’s been almost three months now. Looking back, it’s hard to remember the first few weeks and our general state of overwhelm with a new culture, new surroundings, and new language. Not that it’s over–not by a long shot! But we’re getting more comfortable and beginning to figure out the flow of life in this segment […]

New Home, New Eyes

September 8, 2016

Yesterday marked exactly one month since we arrived in Asia Pacific. In that time, our vision has expanded significantly. During the first few days, we could only grasp information about three feet in front of us. We noticed things like shiny tile floors, dirty gutters, and flags decorating every street (we arrived around Independence Day). […]