When I Would Rather Hit You Than Love You
I really loved the people of my host country before we went. I mean, I prayed for them, I sacrificed for them, I fought for them and advocated for them,...
Author: Joy Smalley
Struggling with Guilt in the Face of Poverty
I was in Wal-Mart shortly after getting married, shopping for household necessities. I’d bypassed the paper goods section, as I never buy napkins or paper towels, but found myself...
Stop It!
When we sold our house before leaving for Indonesia, my husband had to patch up holes in the walls. Holes that I had made with my fist, a Sippy...
God Is Not Boring
I have learned that God is not boring. Instead He is full of surprises. Some of these surprises I like and some of them I detest, but they all come...
Soul Writing
I didn’t hear about Velvet Ashes until about my sixth month in Southeast Asia. It came by way of my mom, who shot me off an email and said,...
The Burden of Baggage {The Grove: Baggage}
I imagine we all have an unhealthy knowledge of baggage limits. I bet many of you can feel when a bag has reached its fifty-pound limit without having to...
Surviving College Re-entry
I was eighteen when I returned home to California. It was an intense summer before college began. I learned to drive, pump gas, get a bank account and found...
Goodbyes are Awful {The Grove: Goodbye}
I was ten years old for my first, genuine goodbye. Our church prayed for us before we left for our initial move to Mongolia. I sobbed on the sanctuary...
The Importance of Being Father
I love my Dad. He has always been my biggest cheerleader, the one I am able to receive criticism from and the one who can talk me off the...
Nature vs. Nurture- Renewing the Mind {The Grove: Personality}
I believe in asking the question, “Who am I?” It is a good question to ask and information from personality inventories can spur on conversations about our inner selves....
