Once Upon a Time
Once upon a time I said I’d never homeschool my kids. Once upon a time I said I’d never serve overseas. Once upon a time I said, “And absolutely...
Category: Relationships
Look Up
Living in a machismo culture is a lose-lose situation for my pride. I remember when our little family of three first moved into our humble Central...
Alone in the Wilderness Together
Most often, I am quite content to be alone. I live in what local friends like to say is the ‘wilderness.’ It is common here...
Confident and Safe in Him
“I just want someone I feel safe with.” With every cross-cultural move I have found myself thinking this, saying this, praying for this....
It’s a Party for Patty!
Today we want to honor and celebrate someone who has had a huge impact on Velvet Ashes! Check out these sweet words from women in our community about Patty...
When You Can’t Be Together
It was Christmas Eve. I sat on the floor next to my 10-year-old grandson in his family’s near empty apartment to say goodbye. They were leaving early Christmas morning....
Courage? Wisdom? Acceptance? Me?
Did Reinhold Niebuhr have loved ones living across an ocean? It seems to me he must have when he wrote the Serenity Prayer: “God, grant me the serenity to...
Neighboring in Your Culture + Hulk Muffins {The Grove: Love Your Neighbor}
It was Christmas time several years ago while we were in language school, hunkered down in a bitterly cold northern China city. I had just spent the afternoon baking...
Won’t You Be My Neighbor?
Last week a neighbor popped over to give my children the toys she had earned through her grocery store purchases. That gesture, entirely mundane and unremarkable...
Open the Gates
I grew to love living behind a fence, barbed wire and broken glass at the top and bars on the windows keeping fear at bay. I craved safety and...
