Though I have spent over three months in India, all told, my grasp of Hindi doesn’t extend past a few memorized phrases and songs. I have never sat down and really studied the beautiful language for myself. One thing I do know is that Hindi doesn’t have a definite article comparable to the English “the”…
Recently I read Ann Voskamp’s beautiful, heart wrenching post about the situation in Iraq. In it she outlines the impossible choices children face there – girls sold into sexual slavery, forced to have their virginity surgically remade only to be taken again and again. Children denied an education. Babies as young as three years old…
Most people in our generation will always remember where they were and what they were doing on September 11, 2001. It is actually September 12 that sticks in my mind as a pivotal day in my life and faith. On 9/11 I did what thousands of others probably did. I sat glued to the television,…
I have done some things in my life that most people would find daring. That trip to Yemen when our car was turned around and sent back south because of Al Qaeda activity up north – that seems pretty bold. Passing by those jeeps with guns strapped on the backs of them would have scared…
After Michael Brown’s death in Ferguson Missouri last year, I wondered how I was being called to respond. Though clear that God has equipped me to be a communicator—in print and in speech, sometimes with paint or film—I wasn’t sure what to say or how to say it. The naughty little voice in my head…
Avoid. Bypass. Duck. Evade. Dance around. Sidestep. We’ve all done it. Avoiding eye contact in the church lobby with a woman you enjoyed working with on a committee at church until you had THAT discussion. Crossing the street when you see a neighbor who just lost his wife in a car accident. Letting your phone…
When I joined Google+ last year, with tongue-in-cheek I listed my occupation as Domestic Opposer of Entropy. For that is what I do: I hold back the chaos. As a stay-at-home mom, I pick up the strewn, I wash the dirty, I tidy the messed, I soothe the hurt and I untangle the knotted. All…
“Thank you, Mother, for raising a worthless daughter.” These words, part of a lament of a bride going to meet her husband for the first time, summed up the experience of women in China in the 1800’s, according to Snow Flower and the Secret Fan. In this book Lisa See brings to light the reality of…
Each of us wants to believe that we matter. That we have something to offer. That our contributions to building God’s kingdom are needed and valuable. But as I travel the world speaking to women in ministry, I have found a substantial obstacle to seeing that happen. One might think the biggest barrier would be…