It was hot that day, I remember. And not just because every day in this West African capital city is hot, but hot because the sun was shining with an unequaled intensity, pulsing in waves through the air and saturating every surface. Stepping into the African taxi, I...
Research notebook? Check. Fully charged phone doubling as a recorder? Check. Diapers for the baby? Check. I headed out to the refugee camp to meet some well-known Naas musicians with my 5-month-old baby in tow. As we ducked down to enter the low door of the first...
One of the perks of serving Bibleless people in Papua New Guinea is that I lived in one of the best snorkel spots in the world. The underwater world God created is magnificent, and I never tired of floating above a coral reef and watching an endless variety of sea...
**This post contains heavy subject matter regarding a stillbirth. We got the call at 6:30 a.m. on a Sunday morning. Our close friend Anna was in labor and needed to get to the hospital soon. My husband Kevin got up, dressed quickly, and headed out to the village where...
Being an alien and stranger is no fun. Ask me about it. Everywhere we go, people stare at us. They grab at us to touch our skin and hair. They unashamedly point and stare at us in public. They sometimes treat us like royalty, bestowing on us white privilege...
My husband Mike and I were enjoying a quiet evening at our home in Papua New Guinea. We’d finished our post-dinner clean up and were relaxing in our favorite chairs reading books we’d just received in a care package from his mom. Suddenly the quiet was shattered by...
Moving to a new country and new culture is full of surprises. One surprise for me when I moved to Southeast Asia was that every single temple is filled with idols. There is not just one idol per temple. We once visited a temple which, when literally translated, is...
Since 2020, our family has moved all of our belongings five times to five different houses, stayed in too many hotels to count, and slept on the couches, beds, and floors of all our closest relatives. We’ve been looking for “home” in one way or another for the last...