2020

Hello faithful readers! It's been a minute... but I couldn't pass up sharing on #GivingTuesday. Giving is something I feel fiercely passionate about! After we've spent 18 billion dollars on Cyber Monday and Black Friday and Small Business Saturday, it's time to give to those who can't. This year, for Lent, God called me to donate $40 to 40 different ministries for the 40 days of Lent. It was an act of faith. Randy and I were missionaries in Baja California at the time, relying on donations for our own livelihoods, so giving $1,600 was more than a widow's mite. I made 39 donations (and I have the thanks-for-giving-here's-your-free-address-labels to prove it!). After moving to Ohio this summer and settling into a new neighborhood, God brought #40 into my life. Number 40 is included in this list, and it is one that I have not only given my money but also my time to, each and every week for the past two months. Today on #GivingTuesday, I challenge you t...

As if the Geological Center of the United States, Deadwood, Sturgiss, Spearfish Canyon and Mt. Rushmore weren't enough, we discovered that South Dakota has so much more to offer. Too much to explore on this trip. But we did add in a few more stops. From Mt. Rushmore it is less than a half-hour drive to get to Crazy Horse Memorial . Like Mt. Rushmore, Crazy Horse is a carving in the side of a mountain, mostly created from strategically placed dynamite blasts. Korczak Ziolkowski, one of the men who worked on Mt. Rushmore, was approached by Chief Henry Standing Bear and the Lakota people to create a monument to one of their own heroes. Ziolkowski agreed with one stipulation: that he would never take any government funding--his own way of protesting the unfair treatment of our government on native people. Ziolkowski turned down multiple million-dollar offerings from the government in his lifetime. It is for this reason that the monument remains a work-in-progress to this day. The ...

Because we were having so much fun hiking the Redwoods, we left California late on Saturday afternoon and rolled in to Portland, Oregon, around midnight. While there was much to see in between, we rushed to get to Portland so we could go to church with Randy's brother and sister-in-law the next morning. Roy and Suzanne were enjoying a neighborhood progressive dinner while waiting up for us, so we all mutually agreed to go to the late (11:30 a.m.) service the next morning. I was so glad we were able to make it to church. Many of you know that I’ve been claiming a “ word of the year ” for the past 5 years. This year’s word is “fierce.” While I no longer dislike the word like I did in the beginning, I haven’t exactly owned it either. So I was thrilled when the band started playing a song I’d never heard of – one called “ Fierce ” – that was all about the fierce nature of God’s love for us. (Apparently I've been living under a rock – or in Mexico – because this song came ou...

We spent our first week of this RV adventure in New Mexico, doing more preparation for travel than actual traveling. Mom last used the motor home in September/October of last year, as she moved from California to her home in New Mexico where she wanted to spend her final days.  Since the RV had been sitting for the better part of 6 months, we weren’t sure what we were getting into. But after initial inspection (plus removing the dryer sheets and ivory soap that were placed in every corner to prevent mice from chewing up any wires) everything seemed to be on the up and up. The front windshield was cracked and we had to jumpstart the battery every time we wanted to drive, but these seemed like issues we could deal with down the road The next agenda was to figure out licensing and registration. We plan to end up in Ohio eventually, so New Mexico gave us a “transit permit” to get us from here to there. (Of course we are taking much longer than the suggested 10 days to get...

I'm reading a book called " Fierce Convictions ." It's the story of Hannah More (1745-1833), a poet and abolitionist during the 18th and 19th centuries who worked with William Wilberforce , among other reformers of the time. Hannah was a devout member of the Church of England, yet many of her fiercest convictions (to abolish slavery or at least improve conditions for slaves, and to educate women and the poor, for example) went against their teachings. While many people whose views were in line with Hannah's were dissenting from the Church of England (including the Quakers), Hannah held firm. She insisted she could be both a member of the Church of England and a reformer. She repeatedly received criticism and public defamation of her character, causing her deep distress, both physically and emotionally. I thought of Hannah when an online friend of mine told me about The Reformation Project . The Mission of The Reformation Project is: The Reformation Proje...

One of the pieces of this 40-40-40 days of Lent campaign that God is undergoing in my heart that I am so fiercely passionate about, is that as I was seeking out organizations to support, I felt a nudge to speak to people who are directly involved with these ministries. So, intermittently throughout the next several weeks I will be featuring "guest bloggers" to share their stories. Our first guest blog comes from Rachel Mills, founder and director of " PEARLS in Haiti ". I didn't know Rachel before this Lent, though I did go to elementary/high school with her younger brother, so we are from neighboring home towns in Ohio. I trust that you will fall in love with her story just like I did when she first shared it with me... PEARLS in Haiti Back in 1996 God summoned me to Haiti. At that time I knew little to nothing about the island nation, but I was compelled to step out in faith. Over the course of four months I raised two year’s salary through donatio...

Happy Valentine's Day! Happy Ash Wednesday! Happy first day of Lent! Today is DAY 1 of my 40-40-40 challenge. Of all the ministries in the entire world, there was ONE that I was 100% sure that I wanted to focus on for the first day of Lent. Shawn and Katrina McConaughey Shawn and Katrina McConaughey were recently called to serve in the Africa Ministries Office of Friends United Meeting , and are raising funds to get them to Kisumu, Kenya. If your religious affiliation isn't Quaker, you probably don't know about Friends United Meeting or the Africa Ministries Office, but trust me when I tell you that they do amazing work through schools, hospitals, evangelism, theological training, conflict resolution and more.  Shawn and Katrina share this about their call to serve: After 30 years of ministry among Friends in the Pacific Northwest, we are pulling up roots and joining in on what God is doing among Friends in East Africa! Friends United Meeting (FUM...

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,...

The first time I met Randy's mom, in 2014, she gave me a heavy amethyst necklace and said, "Welcome to the family." (Jewelry was her love language!) The next time I met Marie, she told me that she still had relationships with her former daughters-in-law. (All her sons went through divorces.) After confronting my own petty insecurities, I realized what a beautiful lesson this was -- that her relationships weren't based on "marrying in," but that I too would have the opportunity to develop a relationship with her independent of my relationship with her son. On our California wedding day she told me that I was "right" and "good" for Randy. A parent's blessing is a powerful thing. Six months later, Randy and I were playing UNO in the hospital waiting room while Mom underwent exploratory surgery. We watched as the doctor came in and out, telling families that surgeries went well and their loved ones were in recovery and they could vi...

My word of the year presented itself sometime in November. My first thought was, "Ew." It was NOT the word I was hoping for. But none of them -- embrace, walk with, serve, share -- have turned out like I expected. So maybe this one, too, would be okay. But really  -- FIERCE --  are you sure God, that you are speaking to ME? Fierce makes me think of desperate older women chasing younger men. Fierce makes me think of fake cat noises. Fierce makes this pacifist think of war paint and javelins. Fierce sounds like energy and intensity and a strength that I just don't have. Fierce makes me tired. So I suppose, once again, that God wants to challenge me to embrace this word as coming from him and his vision for who I could be, or perhaps underneath it all who I already am. And what would be so wrong with ending 2018 stronger, more passionate, wilder and bolder and empowered? As someone who STANDS for something. As I've looked into "fierce...