Re-entry Thoughts

June 21, 2017

We are back in Brazil! It’s strange how familiar everything is, this time. The graceful lines of the açai trees (a tall, slender type of palm), the mysterious majesty of the buritis (a shaggy-headed type of palm), the stars of the southern sky, and even the cement curb of the empty lot across the street […]

Theirs Truly

June 8, 2016

“Are you going, Aunt?” “Are you going, Cousin?” “Are you going, Yasa?” Half a dozen little voices called out to me from the schoolhouse, as little heads pressed and pushed to get up higher than the others or closer to the window. Their teacher didn’t call them back. “Yes, I’m going.” I answered. “Oh, that’s […]

Disciple at Home

January 24, 2016

“What about your kids?!” was one of the biggest and most frequently asked questions we heard as we were preparing to leave the States and plunge into a strange new world, new culture, and new language with our family. I have to admit, I’ve asked God the same question quite a few times since we’ve […]

Sitting on the Ground

March 9, 2014

“A little more povilho” my coworker said. I reached for the bag and poured a little more manioc flour into the strainer in her hand. She shook it gently to sift the flour into the bowl on the counter, where she was mixing the dough for pão de queijo. (Cheese bread rolls). We were making […]

Honey for a Pilgrim’s Heart

February 16, 2014

Some notes I took in my devotional journal when we first got back to Manaus 12/30/2013 In my reading through the Bible, I’ve finally come back around to 1st Peter, and 2nd Peter. And it’s such a timely encounter for me, with these letters. We’ve moved again. And once again, it’s not to anywhere even […]

to walk humbly with my God

February 16, 2014

At the risk of over-simplifying and over-generalizing, I make this statement: The missionary life is just the normal Christian life lived in a different context. God deals with us just like He deals with all His children – using His Word and His Spirit to bring to light sin in our hearts and to bring […]

You know you’ve been in Brazil a WHOLE YEAR when…

September 11, 2013

You walk into church and automatically greet another woman by giving a kiss to the side of her face. You are trying to tell a story in English but you can’t remember the word for “grocery store”, only “supermercado”. You just took your 3rd shower for the day, and spent most of the time in […]

How my Birthday Became a Reminder of Jesus’s promise

August 18, 2013

I was just laying Isaiah down in bed on August 9th when I heard a guitar strumming in front of our house. So I picked Isaiah back up and went outside to investigate. This is what I found at my front door: It’s kind of a blurry photo, but it illustrates a special marker in […]

F is for Flexible

January 20, 2013

F is for Flexible in both languages, actually – Enlish and Portuguese (“flexivel”). We are moving again. This all happened really fast and we just found out last week, during Encontro, that we were being asked by leadership to move to another city in another state of Brazil and finish our NCLA (National Culture and […]

Safety is from God

January 20, 2013

Sometimes Cali says she doesn’t want to live in Brazil because she thinks it’s dangerous. That’s when we remind her of the time we drove past a tornado on the Montana freeway and the time we slept with poisonous spiders in Kansas. Who kept us safe then? God. Who keeps us safe now? God. We […]