Go Ahead … Invite Yourself Over
I like to think that I am quite the domestic woman, but I really struggled to find my creativity when I moved to SE Asia. I blocked myself from getting on Pinterest because I felt sad that Hobby Lobby was so far away and that the ingredients I was so used to using in comfort […]
My Mama Didn’t Teach Me
Early in the orientation course in Papua New Guinea, we learned a polite way to refuse food offered to us. “My mama didn’t teach me how to eat that.” Considering we started interacting with our hosts with linguistic capabilities and overall usefulness of four year olds, I am sure many of our host families wondered […]
A Craving Worth Satisfying
It only takes a few weeks overseas for the cravings to begin. It depends on where you live and what is unavailable, but it’s easy to come up with a list of things we crave. The cravings usually begin with foods that aren’t really accessible. Here, it’s things like good pizza, Mexican food, tasty ice […]
When We Fear
As women, we instinctively understand what it means to fear. We fear that God won’t meet the desires of our heart. We fear being insignificant or ordinary. We fear rejection. We fear cancer stealing our lives or the lives of our loved ones. We fear tragedies and accidents. Fear is our default emotion. Living abroad, […]
Bending Into the Comfort Stripping
You gals have provided such a rich conversation surrounding comfort and thriving in the last few weeks. It was a joy to chat with you about the expectation to live modestly, and I really appreciated the way Ruth tied austerity into her post on Monday. I am your biggest advocate when it comes to keeping […]
Peace For Our Hearts When Life is Anything But
Sometimes all the voices we hear are negative. As women living on the fringes of culture, overseas and in service, we can get used to the sideways glances and the undeniable truth that a lot of people don’t really “get” what it is we’re doing. I remember when my husband and I returned from the […]
Apples of Gold That Don’t Rot In Our Mouths
I regretted the words as soon as I spoke them. The look on her face conveyed the pain I had unintentionally inflicted. In trying to offer encouragement, I had instead communicated she should be ashamed for feeling the way she did. I had wanted to offer hope by sharing a new perspective on the situation, but […]
Idolatry and Comfort In The Home
I still remember the first time I returned to America and sank into bed. There was no thunk! I forgot that beds could be so soft. I hadn’t realized how much my own culture valued physical comfort until I learned that some cultures could replace “pillow-top” with “cloth-covered plywood” and still call it a mattress. […]