The warm tropical sun beat down on the tarmac of the playground outside the classroom window. I couldn’t seem to focus on my schoolwork. I wish I were outside playing in the sand under the shade of the big mango tree. December was the dry season in Nigeria. The voice of my first-grade teacher in our boarding school for missionaries’ children jolted me out of my daydream. “This is the month we celebrate the birth of our Savior, Jesus. Let’s…
During the last thirty days… My mom’s memoir was published, Our daughter got married, I hosted two garden tea parties, Fractured my knee (again), Then canceled our annual neighborhood tea, and… This is apparently my 100th post! In January 2018, I created a website where I could post short devotions sharing what I learned as I searched for God’s involvement in my daily activities. Coincidentally, a month later, I received a prompt to write several vignettes about my childhood as…
This is a quick note to say my mom completed her memoir and it’s coming soon. Addendum: It’s here! https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DJDVHW47?ref_=pe_93986420_774957520 Over the past ten years, Marcella (Marcy) Jones has carefully crafted her memoir. In the book, she shares details about their thirty years in Nigeria. It’s being published through Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) and will be available on Amazon as a soft-cover and an eBook. Here’s a sneak preview of the back cover: Growing up on a farm in California’s…
In the chapel at Titcombe College, a Scottish teacher, Mr. Ian Finlayson, directed the Nigerian student choir on the stage at the African mission station founded by Serving in Mission (SIM) in the 1950s. I loved the old hymns and they were singing one of my favorites, “There is Power in the Blood.” The first line always encouraged me. “Would you be free from the burden of sin?” I believed that Jesus’ death on the cross provided the cleansing blood,…
“Christmas will be here soon,” my first-grade teacher said. “In a couple of weeks, you kids will fly back to your parents on their mission stations for the holidays. Today you’ll make a Christmas craft to take home.” Twenty happy faces beamed around the sunlit classroom at the boarding school for missionary children in Nigeria, and cheery voices called out. “Yay! It’s almost Christmas!” “Crafts are my favorite subject.” “I can’t wait ‘til we go home.” During the next half…
Today our daughter, Heather, contributes to this blog post for you as this month we celebrated Chris’s 65th birthday with his dream golf vacation in Scotland. All of our adult kids, including Andrew, his wife, Sarah, Heather, her boyfriend, Aaron, and Robby, joined us. We took in the sights, visited friends and relatives, golfed, shopped … and enjoyed much excitement around a surprise proposal, which Heather shares here: STORY TIME! Aaron proposed on Princes Street with Edinburgh Castle in the…
Jutting out from the green-painted walls, three shower heads loom dark and shadowy under the single lightbulb that lights the bathroom. I’m scared to take my first dormitory shower in this open room with a dozen other first-grade girls…. I’ve rewritten this story using the present tense, and I would value your honest feedback. Does this tense flow well and bring you more deeply into the story? Or does it sound awkward? What other thoughts do you have? Shower Troubles…
Come with me on a photo journey as we meet up with Chris’s family and friends in his home country of Scotland. In March 2023, we had a fabulous time in the land where Chris was born and in which he hopes to retire. (Chris and I are still in negotiations about that, haha.) As I consider spending more time in my husband’s home country, it is a special gift that I have found friends in Scotland–connections from my childhood…
This year, Chris and I spent the entire month of March in Scotland celebrating two great events. My husband wanted to be back in the land of his birth, on the day of his birth. In 1958, he made his grand entrance into the world on March 19 in the maternity hospital in Bellshill, near Glasgow. This year marked his 65th birthday. All month long we celebrated that momentous event as well as our 38th wedding anniversary. In my next two…
I stared out the window of the second-grade classroom at the tall mango tree and listened to the birds tweeting in its branches. The drone of the teacher’s voice faded quietly into the background at the boarding school for missionary children in Nigeria. My racing heartbeat slowed for a moment. Then the chalk screeched on the blackboard, and I quickly turned my head toward the front of the classroom. I don’t want to get yelled at again for daydreaming. I…