It's the little things
Gratitude for the little things is how I continue to recognize God’s presence with me in all of the unknown, uncontrollable, and/or undesired circumstances around me. It seems like I need to learn this lesson all over again in each new season. The past four weeks have had a lot of stressors and I was pretty overwhelmed as I looked at all of the things that I had no control over. My circumstances have not changed and I still have many unanswered questions, but this past week I was able to take a bit of a step back and as I did my perspective shifted. I am not in control but my Heavenly Father… Read more >>
A New Friend
Earlier this month, I had the priviledge of spending two weeks with a local family. The family I stayed with had four women: a grandmother, G, her adult daughter, D, and another unrelated woman, Joy, with her 8 year old daughter, JD (names are adjusted to respect the privacy of my new friends). Joy is passionate about sharing our Father’s love with everyone around her. She committed to live with G and D to help care for both of them as they recovered from some health issues. Joy loves to cook, she is very creative and crafty, and is a diligent worker. Joy is the oldest of three… Read more >>
Thoughts from the journey
Here are 7 thoughts from my past 7 weeks of adjusting to life in Southeast Asia: 1. I now experience sunset when I used to experience sunrise and sunrise when I used to experience sunset. Both sunrise and sunset still have beautiful colors. I now see the constellations in different locations as I look up at the sky. I still get to appreciate the beauty of the moon and stars. 2. American traffic is stop and go, traffic here is ebb and flow. The key is to not think about right of way but rather to pay attention to what the majority of people are doing. When enough side road cars and… Read more >>
Learning
I have been in Southeast Asia for two weeks. Here are a few glimpses into my journey thus far. I am really enjoying trying new fruits. Jackfruit, seen above, is the size of a large watermelon and kind of tastes like juicy fruit gum. Each yellow case has a single seed inside. The texture is kind of like gummies. Each single Jackfruit has quite a few seeds. The one I enjoyed had enough seeds to fill about three gallon sized Ziploc bags. I am currently in the language learning process and I am starting at the beginning of learning to read, write and speak using a new alphabet. I am… Read more >>