While standing at my kitchen counter, I chopped lettuce for a salad for my husband and me. The late afternoon sun streamed brightly through the window, but my thoughts were gloomy. Why does Chris have to fly away again? This time he’ll be gone for two weeks. My eyes filled with tears as I reached for the green onion and started dicing it. Because he’s a pilot, life has been like this throughout our marriage. I brushed my cheek with…
Over the July 4th weekend, approximately 110 missionary kids (MKs) and their spouses gathered for a reunion to explore The DNA of an MK. Every three years we hold a reunion for both of the boarding schools I attended in Nigeria.… and no, the reunions aren’t in Nigeria! The location alternates between Indianapolis and Dallas, the two cities in which the volunteer organizers live. At each reunion, only three or four people from my graduating class attend. However, because they…
No prayer is too small or too big for God to answer. Do you feel like God couldn’t possibly care about your prayers? Take heart. He cares about every detail of our lives! My story of a miraculous college graduation gift I received from God when my parents were a continent away in Nigeria was published in Abba’s Answers. In this devotional book by CrossRiver Media, you’ll find thirty uplifting personal accounts of how God answered prayer. The interview was…
Recently I learned about Adverse Childhood Experiences, also known as ACEs. Are you familiar with the term? ACEs are traumatic or stressful experiences that have a heavy impact on children at the time, and the effects can continue throughout their lives. I searched online for a simple definition and found one on the CDC website. “ACEs can include violence, abuse, and growing up in a family with mental health or substance use problems. Toxic stress from ACEs can change brain…
During the months of sheltering in place due to Covid restrictions in 2020, I spent extra time surfing the internet. (As many of us did!) One morning in November, I was reading an inspiring post on Facebook by a well-known author, and I casually scrolled down, reading the responses. One of the names, Tosin Iyawo Ogaga, jumped out at me. That sounds like it might be Yoruba, the language of the people group my family lived with. My heart rate…
Today, February 18, is my dad’s birthday. When I was a child, I thought all famous men were born in February! Dad passed away in November 2015, and a few months later I began writing my childhood stories. Here’s one of the first memories I documented but am just now publishing. Let me know what you think of The Shiny, White Truck… The morning sun blazed through the African sky at our mission station in central Nigeria, as I grabbed…
At the end of my first year at boarding school I was so excited to go home. I’d made a few friends and learned the ropes but hoped I wouldn’t ever return.
Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering … the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed. Isaiah 53:4,5 (NIV) “In place of our usual devotion time tonight, we have a special speaker,” the Dorm Uncle announced to the eager first-through-third graders gathered in the lounge. After dinner, I had expected our usual Bible reading in the dorm in our pajamas. Instead, we had walked from the dining room, across…
In first grade at boarding school I decided to cheat on a test and hoped I would get sent home. I missed my little brothers and new baby sister.