Writing Trust into Our Family’s Story
How many cups of coffee have warmed my hands as I hold space for chilling stories? A montage of cups in a myriad of settings flicks through my mind. A couch in Mexico, a church office Keurig in America, a to-go coffee and a walk in South Africa, my patio in Papua New Guinea, a […]
Release and Trust + Minestrone Soup
My kids love a good trust fall. As they climb up on something, they declare they’re going to do one and wait for a parent or sibling to come over. With one more glance back to ensure readiness, they stick their arms out, close their eyes, and fall backward, unhindered. Fully trusting that whoever is […]
A Retreat Sounds Wonderful, but It’s Just Too Hard
An entire day to get away. A day to unwind. A day to rest. A day to soak in the Word. A day to simply be. This sounds wonderful, doesn’t it? Can we be real and blunt for a moment and admit that it also sounds completely unrealistic? Yes, yes, we all agree that going […]
When Trust Requires Action
This leaving season was a real doozy. If you’ve been an expat for a while, you can probably relate. Each year usually brings a season where people leave our host country and head to other postings or back to their passport country. Some of these years hit heavier than others. There are years that feel […]
This Month’s Theme: Trust
“True trust is not the cliché platitude of hoping hard for what you want. True trust is one of brokenness, of release, surrender, and utter dependence. It involves lament, grief, and pain. But it leads to peace, joy, and contentment. It means living light and free, in the face of all that this world holds.” – […]
What Does It Even Mean to Trust God?
Trusting God. It’s that sticky, ambiguous thing that we know is super important. But we don’t often know what it really means, much less how to actually do it. It seems we Christians often think trusting God means hoping really hard that things will work out the way we want. But if we’ve lived long […]
A Sheltered Faith
A couple of weeks ago I picked up an old notebook of mine and out slipped a 3×5 card with a bible verse printed on it. It was a verse from Jeremiah chapter one. It read… “And I, behold, I make you this day a fortified city, an iron pillar, and bronze walls, against the […]
How I Learned My Belovedness
Czechoslovakia felt like home to me. Well, not Czechoslovakia exactly, but my mom’s large Czech family. Their love was a constant throughout all my TCK moves. I never fit in at school, but I never, ever doubted my belonging in the Musel family. And wherever I go in the world now, the memory of my […]
A Driving Lesson
My first Sunday in Portugal I drove to church on the main highway, through city streets, and across a major bridge. The teammate I went with disliked driving so much she entrusted her life to an early twenty-something who had never driven overseas. In the following months I traversed the traffic circles and narrow streets, […]
The Resilience of Dying
I am not known for being an optimist. But when I think back to my expectations before I moved here, I can only smile (and sigh) at my innocent optimism. I had lived overseas before, so I thought I knew what I was getting into. I knew it would be hard. I knew it would […]
Honoring My Parents When I Live on the Other Side of the World
As I looked around the room of fellow expats at our International fellowship’s women’s retreat this spring, I had a sudden rather shocking realization: I was probably the oldest woman in the room! This was one of those defining moments. A “first time this has EVER happened to me” experience. Déjà vu, just like the […]
Another Kind of Cost
It’s been an emotional day today. A mixture of excitement for the future while at the same time loss and grief for what that future implies. Twenty-five years ago, we were on the same path. Twenty-five years ago, we said good-bye to family and friends and took our little two month old baby boy to [...]