2020

This month I had the opportunity to share a Sunday morning message with Dover Friends Church in Wilmington, Ohio. Actually they had invited me to share in January, but lucky for all of us we were snowed in that weekend and church was cancelled. I say *lucky* not because we got to stay home but because my message wasn't ready yet. It needed to--as my chef husband would say--simmer and season a bit more before it was truly ready to be consumed. The topic of my message was "rejection". Randy and I were blindsided by rejection during the last week of December, so it was very fresh on my heart in January. Too fresh. Too painful. If church hadn't been cancelled that Sunday I would have spoken specifically about the hurts we had experienced. The lies. The betrayals. And I would have shared this advice from Jesus: "Whatever village or town you enter, search for a godly man who will let you into his home until you leave for the next town. Once you enter a house, ...

Our first adventure in Nebraska was to the Museum of the Fur Trade  in Chadron. The museum didn't look like much from the outside, but the artificats were incredible, spanning from furs to seeds to guns. Even their website is worth a visit! So well known and well researched is this place that they were called upon during the making of the movie Revenant (featuring Leonardo Dicaprio) to autheniticate every little detail. We ventured west from there (because why would we go east toward our final destination!) to another museum, but it was so hot that all we really wanted was an ice cold slushie. We stopped at the "Dairy Sweet" and had the best slushie of my life. You know how you usually run out of juice about halfway through? This one was blue raspberry all the way to the last slurp! AND the "barista" (what do you call someone who makes slushies???) convinced Van and me to add nerds to our drinks. Genius! So, so good. While we waited for our drink perfectio...

Of all the states we were planning to travel to in our 4 months of wandering, South Dakota was the only one I had never been to. So obviously I was most excited about this one! I had always wanted to see Mt Rushmore, and even though I've heard people say it is disappointing, I didn't care. It was still tops on my bucket list! After visiting Devil's Tower, Wyoming, we once again started heading east, making the short drive to South Dakota. We stopped at the rest stop/visitor's center on the border of the two states and asked for a recommendation of an RV park. The woman suggested we go to Wyatt's Hideaway in her hometown of Belle Fourche (pronounced "bell foosh"). We had already been to Belle Fourche -- it was the geologic center of the United States that we had passed through earlier in the day -- but we were all about taking recommendations from locals, so back to the center we went! And we were so glad we did. The plan had only been to spend o...

During my 40-40-40 Lenten challenge, one of the organizations I donated to was Friendly Water for the World. Water is a universal need, even if the need varies from city to city, country to country, village to village. While in Mexico, we had purified water trucked in every week for our drinking water. Last week we stayed in El Centro, California, which is below sea level. Tap water there is too brackish (salty) to drink. So they use purifiers, or buy bottled water. Driving through the White Mountains of Arizona, we met a family whose car overheated. We had several liters of water in case this happened to us, and we gave them all of it. We've had to keep water on us at all times, not just for us but also for our dog. While water may not be something that you think about daily because of its ready availability to you, it is something that a whole ton of people think about constantly because of their lack of it. Friendly Water for the World board chairman David Albert share...

Last week, my college friend Christina put out an appeal on her Facebook page. It included the above photo. She was asking her friends to purchase the items in the squares to provide for her community. Christina wrote: End 68 Hours of Hunger Lake Co. is currently providing food to 350 students in Lake Co., and as always, they need our help to provide food donations!! This food drive gives you a great opportunity to do something small on your end, yet it makes a huge impact in the life of a child who goes hungry over the weekend (hence the 68 hours, give or take, between lunch on Friday and school breakfast on Monday) when food might not be available in their home. My heart immediately stirred. Perhaps it is because I am in "giving mode" this month. Or the fact that I know my kids are luckier than many of their friends at school because my kids are guaranteed 3 meals and 2 snacks a day, 7 days a week. But the idea of a child having nothing to eat for a weekend is heartb...

I've been thinking about "40" for the last several months. I turned 38 this week, which is just a stone's throw from 40, and I find myself super excited about it. Crazy, right?! But I'm so excited about spending the next two years becoming the kind of person I want to be on my 40th birthday. With that number 40 on my mind, it flows naturally into thoughts on Lent. The season of Lent -- the 40+ days leading up to Easter -- has made a HUGE impact on my life. In 2013, for the first time ever really participating in this part of the liturgical calendar, I felt God nudging me to read the ENTIRE Bible in 40 days. I didn't quite make it, needing another month or so to finish my reading (let's face it: Numbers and Chronicles are HARD to get through!), but I didn't give up. I remained faithful to the finish. And met God along the way. In 2014, God again called me to something grand: walking across Spain . Again, I didn't quite make it in 40 days,...

This past Saturday we had visitors, who brought a truck-load of gifts for the children. The kids absolutely loved it. We all get a little bogged down by visitors and gifts at Christmas-time, when it’s nearly a daily occurrence. But visitors and presents in September are a special treat! The only problem is: where are we going to put all these new toys? On Saturdays, I’m in charge of devotions for the kids. Knowing that we needed to do something with all these new items, but not wanting to be solely responsible for deciding what stays and what goes, I had them read Exodus 18:13-27 . In Exodus 18, Moses is serving as judge over all the people. From sun-up to sun-down, he is listening to their complaints and ruling according to what he thinks is God’s will. His father-in-law, Jethro, tells him that this is no good. He’ll burn out for sure. Who wouldn’t, listening to people complain all the time? Jethro says, “The work is too heavy for you; you cannot handle it alone.” He ...

Because it is hot nearly year-round in San Felipe, we've had to come up with a new way to "define" the seasons. There is no rainy season, snowy season, tornado season. Instead we define our seasons by which bugs are attacking us. When we first moved into our apartment at the children's home, I noticed that all of our outlets had these "bug magnets" plugged into them. I didn't know if that was reassuring or terrifying. Reassuring that we were actively repelling them. But terrifying that they are enough of a problem to require a force field around us. We have lived here since November, and so far we have been through 3 seasons. We moved here during fly season. So many flies! Inside, outside, there was no avoiding them. I guess it just doesn't get cold enough to kill them off. But if I thought fly season was bad, that was nothing compared to mosquito season, which struck around the middle of February. I started noticing them in the offi...

Every Saturday morning I lead devotions for the kids. We use "El Libro Devocional de Maravillas" ("Wonders Devotional Book") to guide us. It includes a Scripture, a short explanation about what the Scripture says, and why it is important to our lives. In addition to the reading, I always try to have a little activity for the kids -- something to help them remember the devotion. Last Saturday's devotion was about the importance of trusting God, so I decided we would do a "trust fall" as our activity. We used to do this at camp every summer when I was growing up. We would have to stand on platforms of various heights and fall straight backwards into the arms of our friends and fellow campers. Terrifying. As I was preparing for the activity on Friday night, 7-year-old Anita walked into the room. I asked her to turn around and fall into my arms. She did without any hesitation. Such trust! I was totally jealous. On Saturday morning, Anita an...

Most mornings our children have a time of devotions before they eat breakfast. They like to sing songs, followed by a time of Bible reading, and then ending in prayer. Today Mama Imelda, our administrator, led devotions for the children. She titled the devotion: "The Heavy Backpack." The Scripture she used was Salmos 55:22, Echa sobre el SEÑOR tu carga, y El te sustentará; El nunca permitirá que el justo sea sacudido. Cast your cares on the LORD and he will sustain you; he will never let the righteous be shaken. -Psalm 55:22 Mama Imelda explained that when we try to carry all of our burdens ourselves, each burden is like adding another book to your backpack. The kids could relate to this because their backpacks are burdens! Any time I pick them up from school, one or more of them try to pawn their backpacks off on me to carry on our walk home. And I don't blame them! They weigh a ton! She explained that when something hurts our feelings, we have...

Sonshine Hacienda was all set to open in December of 2011. There was a grand opening celebration and everything. When the government suddenly decided that all casa hogars -- children's homes and orphanages -- needed to have a 10-foot fence surrounding their facilities. It was another 6 months of fundraising and building before Sonshine would actually open. Maybe it is because I live behind a fence -- las cerca -- or because the people in Las Manitas, where we live, are so creative, but I am fascinated by the fences in our neighborhood. There are fences made from the ocotillo cactus, which grows wild in Baja... And fences made from old fishing nets (San Felipe is a fishing village, after all). There are fences made of pallets (they must be fans of @Pinterest)... And fences made from used tires (there is no limit to the number of tires discarded on the side of the road, thanks to the number of pot holes and off road vehicles in Baja). But my personal fa...