A God-Sized Dream.
I’m on a plane now, returning from a week in Jamaica. Those who don’t know me well have sent well-wishes for a wonderful vacation, but my feet never touched...
Navalee Speaks.
I first saw her smile a year ago. She darted out of her dorm at the Jamaican School for the Deaf, ready for an afternoon of play – but...
You May Have a Point – but You’re Wrong.
I’ve heard it said that short-term mission trips can be damaging, that they are little more than easy ways for people to pacify an itch to be Santa Claus....
Turning Left.
From the car, I could see it. The Strand. A tourist destination on the Gulf of Mexico – cluttered with hotels and bars and people longing to find a...
Something that Feels like Normal. (Moore, OK)
The stench from broken sewer pipes and buried refrigerators sent my mind to the dump in Guatemala where Courtney and I wept as we held the hands of the...
Amy and the Long Road (McLoud, OK).
It’s been three weeks since tornadoes ravaged neighborhoods in Central Oklahoma. The sides of the road are still littered with the ripped remnants of shredded homes. Here in McLoud,...
Frail. Wispy. Smoke.
The fields are on fire. In places like Guatemala and Uganda, the white plumes rise like tufts of air-spun cotton across the countryside as the farmers burn to prepare...
See the More.
A broken soul is not the absence of beauty, but a cracked and torn soul reeks of the sweet incense it contains. ~C. JoyBell C. The ravine sits...
This is Edgar.
His name is Edgar. He is our bus driver, charged with the daunting task of getting 23 people from here to there on a daily basis. Though we’ve only...
Lights and Baskets and Broken Things.
I snuggle under the warm quilt as the day breaks outside, and my mind drifts in a sleepy, still jetlagged fog to another world. The cold outside and Christmas...
Olga, the Transformer
Five years ago, the last Leningrad region orphanage was opened in the town of Kalozhitsy. The selected building was dilapidated, but that didn’t stop the government from asking a...
Irina, the Promise Keeper
A four-hour journey over snow-packed roads leads to the village of Tikhvin in the Leningrad region of Russia. It’s a lovely place, with a nice shopping district and lots...
