Muddled Thoughts

Somehow blogging was easier when no one was reading it :) And I suppose that may be the case now, since so much time has passed since my last post. But I know I need to keep this thing going. It's just that...I'm not so sure I want to share some stuff that I think about. What if you don't like it? What if you think I am way out of line?

But the other day I shared an idea with my son and he practically made me promise to write it down and post it. I say he practically did...I still haven't done it yet, but that's not to mean I won't. I got to work up to it.

I've taken a small break from writing just about anything. Why? Life is a little crazy at the moment. A couple of years ago I'd look at the parents of high school seniors and wonder what the fuss was all about. What did they mean that having a senior made life crazy at the end of the year?

Now I have a senior. And life is crazy. Now I get it.

I'm working on a Tshirt quilt for him. Memories displayed in Tshirts all the way from middle school days. Yes, I kept them and carted them around through three moves to three different islands. It is coming along well and I am already eyeing the Tshirts of my younger sons. They come downstairs after changing out of their school uniforms and I look at them and think, "Oh, that will be great on their senior quilt!"

I've got to clear my desk off though, so I can put my sewing machine on it to sew it all together. I remember that there was once a desk...I'm hoping it's still there, under all the junk that I piled on it just days after cleaning it off and telling myself "this looks so great, I'll never junk up my desk again." This time, if I find my desk, I'll keep it clean. I promise.

And speaking of promises, I need to write that post my son told me I should write.

But first things first. I gotta finish his quilt.

Having a senior in the house is crazy at the end of the school year.

Thanksgiving

I love to improvise, I think that's why celebrating holidays overseas is my favorite. 

I grew up in a little town in Indonesia. Making traditional Christmas and Thanksgiving meals took a lot of work on my mom’s part. One year (I don’t know which holiday it was for, let’s say Thanksgiving since it works so well in my line of thought) my parents decided to have turkey. No big deal right? Butterball turkeys in the open market, right? Well, perhaps we named him Butterball, but I don’t think so because the live turkey running around our back yard was not that fat. Maybe we named him Beanpole. But he had to be caught, killed, de-feathered and gutted, well you get the picture. I don’t remember my parents ever deciding to do that again. I suppose that’s why having turkey is not a big deal to me. Chicken is just as good, thank you.

But it's not always overseas. Sometimes you have to improvise in good 'ol United States too. One of my favorite Thanksgiving memories in Texas is the time I ate at a Chinese restaurant with my Grandmother. The restaurant was empty, since everyone else in Dallas was at home eating turkey and dressing. Grandmother and I had a quiet and relaxing Thanksgiving dinner with no cleanup. If you love cashew chicken and a plate of rice, you can't beat that deal.

A third favorite memory is the year Kris and I lived in Eritrea and I invited my two English students to our house for Thanksgiving Dinner. They wanted to help, so I made all the "fixins" and they brought zighini: the traditional super spicy chicken dish. Maybe not quite the traditional turkey, but it worked. In retrospect, it was a bad idea to invite just the two of them because one was my closest friend and the other was a married man whose wife lived in a different city. Honestly, I think the two of them liked each other, so it didn't help that I invited them over and it was like a double date. That should have been super awkward for me, but I think I didn't even realize how weird that was until it was too late. It was still a fun day with yummy food. 

This memory probably explains why yesterday, after twenty years of never attempting to replicate it, I decided to make injera: a tricky-to-make-but-yummy-to-eat Eritrean bread. So yesterday, while preparing for our big Thanksgiving celebration for today, I was also attempting to make a sourdough starter for injera. It's sitting on the cabinet fermenting today. A grey stinky mixture, slightly less than it started out because who knew that the yeast was so potent? And the whole wheat/rye mixture grew like a giant wet blob and spilled all over the cabinet. But I only lost a portion of it and the rest is safely back into a larger container and rotting (oops I mean fermenting) on the counter-top.

This evening, while eating a “proper” Thanksgiving meal with all the accoutrements, I’ll be smiling as I think of the turkey running around our back yard in a little market town in Indonesia, I'll be remembering Grandmother sitting across from me in a booth at the Chinese restaurant in Texas, and I’ll be reminiscing a make-shift Thanksgiving dinner in Eritrea (and wondering if my gray blob of fermenting dough is getting a life of its own again and if it will have taken over the kitchen by the time we get home tonight). I’ll be feeling thankful for the Thanksgivings that were traditionally perfect and all the ones that were perfectly un-traditional.

And I’ll be thankful…so very thankful…to have celebrated each one.

 Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

Out of the Rut

Sunday Morning Breakfast!

My parents' recent visit reminded me to enjoy the things that are available here that I take for granted. I get stuck in a rut and am appeased by the easy rather than making just a little more effort to enjoy what's at my fingertips. Like tropical fruit. Why be satisfied with lengkeng only when I could enjoy lengkeng AND a few pieces of jackfruit? Or why not take the time to cut up some pomelo and mango?

Because of my parents we found tempe and dried shrimp chips. We discovered a market we hadn't been to before and watched a beach sunset we wouldn't have stopped long enough to enjoy. We played a lot of Scrabble. People should take the time to play a lot of Scrabble. I learned the word bivouac. I am ashamed to say that I didn't know that word. We played corn hole and frisbee and 42. We watched movies and laughed. We ate at the oldest restaurant building in Penang and I learned all about Hainanese food by reading the menu. We met a funny man who runs a Minang restaurant and we got up early to eat breakfast served at a neighborhood food stall. Who knew they served yummy breakfast? I picked out the cake I want for my birthday next May and I learned I could buy nuts at the nearby market from a lady who mistook me for a Chinese. Ha! That's a first.

Sometimes it takes fresh eyes to appreciate what is all around us. I loved living in Penang all along. But I think I love it just a bit more now.

If we take the time to try something new, see something different, consider something out of our usual routine, we just may find a treasure or two, right where we live!

Island to Mountain

Sometimes it's nice to take a break from the usual. A couple of weeks ago we took a break from our little island. So we drove across a long bridge to the mainland and headed up a winding road to the mountains.

Goodbye Island!

And we enjoyed a few days in this cozy little house surrounded by beautiful flowers and an awesome view of mountains and trees.

We enjoyed games, reading, hiking, sleeping, and relaxing. 

Mountain Trails

And we even tried to get a family picture on Easter Morning, but it was a little sunny, can you tell?

Even though I love where we live, it was still nice to get away for a few days. Now we are back in the thick of life on the island, but I sure am thankful for the days we had as a family in mountains.

Rain!

It's raining. The steady patter of the rain makes me feel cozy as the sky darkens with the approach of night. I made soup for dinner. That's always a great meal for a rainy night. But we live on a tropical island at sea-level, so it's not cold. I had to turn on the air-condition in the dining room so that we wouldn't sweat while eating the hot dinner. We don't usually turn on the air-conditioner downstairs unless we have guests. Electricity here is expensive, so we try to use the ACs and our clothes dryer sparingly.

I never get tired of rain. I think it's because of two things.

First I have great memories of rain as a child. I supposed the wet season was more irritating for my parents. There were always leaks in our roof and the day after a rain, Dad would have to get the ladder and go up on the roof to fix the leaks. Mom would gather all the buckets and pots we'd used the night before to catch the drops falling from the ceiling. I suppose she might have tired of having to wash the pots every time. The other problem was that the rain often knocked out the electricity. I remember spending evenings sitting on our front porch watching the rain in the dark. Sometimes we'd light candles all through the house. We'd joke that just about the time we got all the candles lit, the lights would come back on. The other thing we had to do as soon as the electricity cut off was run to the kitchen and unplug the fridge. When the lights came back on, the electricity would surge through the house at high power for a couple of seconds. We didn't want to lose our fridge in the spurt of power. Good times! Great memories!

The second reason I love rain is because we lived in the desert for so many years. Rain was infrequent to say the least. When it did come, it was not refreshing. It dredged up the muck and stinky-ness of the city and the lack of drainage left countless roads covered in chocolate milk colored water for days. Not pleasant. When we moved back to Asia and had our first rain I thought, "Ahhhh! This is why I love rain!" I love the rain in Asia because it is refreshing.

I know it's hard to get out and go places when it's raining. I know it is gross to have the bottom of your jeans damp all day. I know. But still, I like it.

"I know that the Lord is great, that our Lord is greater than all gods. The Lord does whatever pleases him, in the heavens and on the earth, in the seas and all their depths. He makes clouds rise from the ends of the earth; he sends lightning with the rain and brings out the wind from his storehouses."
Psalm 135:5-7

#H54F: High Five For Friday

This Friday our family is super happy because...

#1 It's the beginning of SPRING BREAK! Yay! The boys are so excited to have a week free of homework, school work, and busy schedules.

#2 Kris left Sunday night on a trip and returned Wednesday night. That makes for a busy week for him. We are glad to be together as a family for the coming week.

#3 I actually received a copy of Side By Side! I am so happy to get to hold in my hands the product of a lot of work. A dream come true :)

#4 Parent/Teacher conferences this week. I'm happy to report that all the boys are on high honor roll. High Five for the Kelley Boys.

#5 My computer is well again...I think. That's a relief and definitely worth a high five.

What was your week like?

It Arrived in the Mail!

Look what has arrived! It's a real-deal book y'all! Sadly, I have not seen it yet. The woes of living overseas. But my family has seen it and I'm pretty sure they are telling me the truth :) These are my advanced copies. I asked my mother-in-law to send me two copies and it cost a whopping $18 in postage so those books better get here because good grief. I can't afford to pay the postage for my own book!

Today I got on Amazon and noticed the book is no longer labeled as "pre-order", but the kindle version is. What? So, perhaps if you order it now they will actually send it to you now!! How cool would that be? Except, so much for a grand "Book Release Day" because apparently it has already released. Oh well.

So, in honor of all of us totally missing release day...whenever that was, you can apparently order it now. And I'd BE SO PUMPED if you would get on Amazon and put a review on there. That would be great!

Now, another exciting thing was that last night I met via Skype with someone from the publisher to record an interview for an upcoming podcast. Wow, that's a first for me. They wanted audio AND video. Yikes. That's unfortunate because I don't like my hair. But it's supposed to be about the book anyway so I decided to get over it and agree to the interview.

Besides the issue of my hair, there was the issue of where to set up my computer. Not in my "office" because it is more of a "crawl space" behind a giant wardrobe. And it's very messy. Not the living room because of three students doing homework and a dog that would want to sit in my lap and I don't want to be a crazy old dog-lady. Well, Kris is gone, so I took over his office.

Next problem. His office.

How to make a man's office look like a cozy living room...amazingly, I sort of did it! Look at this!

Can't you sort of think that I am sitting in a cozy living room or at least in a very cool looking office. I mean, awesome wall-hangings, a fresh ivy, family picture, cool looking lamp. "Welcome to my livingroom, all five people listening to this podcast!"

Look, I even brushed my hair and put lipstick on! I had to hunt for lipstick because seriously, who wears lipstick over here? I was once told (in a very Southern drawl) that "A Southern girl ALWAYS wears her lipstick for a picture..." (awkward pause) "you do have lipstick don't you?" To which I replied, "Does chapstick count?"

So I hunted down and actually found...well, it was more of a tinted chapstick, but pretty darn close to lipstick. I slathered it on my lips and immediately got grossed out and wiped off half of it with a kleenex. At any rate, this is what I looked like for the interview. Cozy, professional. Well, at least decent.

But to appreciate the efforts I went through, you need to see the full picture. This is what it actually looked like in there:

Yea, note the golf clubs shoved over to the left, papers barely out of camera shot. My soccer shorts go nicely with my fancy top, right? Don't you wear soccer shorts and flipflops when you are being interviewed? Hey, don't judge. If you had to do it at nine o'clock at night, you might have done that too. 

I also had to instruct my kids not to play their loud music or talk loud, puleeeeeeez, for half an hour. And I had to steal the dog's new squeeky toy that she carries in her mouth at all times and when she sleeps, she lays on top of it so no one will steal it. So she was distraught for half an hour last night. I shut the office door and could still hear her sniffing through the crack between the door and the tile floor.

Well, thankfully, the internet across 10,000 miles apparently makes the video a tad scratchy, so maybe the scene will look like a cozy living room and my hair will look awesome. I plan to post the link here whenever they put it up. They said it would be closer to the release day. 

Which brings me back to Amazon, who says they can now send it...and today it says only 2 left in stock, more on the way? What? 

Is this part of being a new author? Being in a perpetual state of confusion? At least I'm enjoying the ride!

I hope you'll get a chance to read Side By Side and will spread the word!

P.S. Oh, and I created a hashtag which is hilarious seeing as how I don't really know what to do with it. But those of you who do and want to help me spread the word, you can use #SideBySideNovel.

Parenthood is Convicting!

This never happens to me of course, but I have this friend...

Let's make up a name for her...uh...him...err...I mean...the person...who is not me...we'll call this person "Kana Jelley".

Well, see, sometimes when her kids don't do what she tells them to (mine always do, I'm just saying that Kana Jelley's don't always do that), they look at her and say, "I love you Mom!"

Do yours ever do that? I know. Mine don't either. But Kana Jelley's do.

(Have you ever seen actual steam come from someone's ears?)

Isn't that the most irritating thing ever? Wouldn't you just want to scream "If you LOVED me you would DO WHAT I SAID TO DO."

I mean...if you were the kind of mom that screamed at your kids.

And when I am tempted to do that, I am reminded of my Heavenly Father. Didn't He say just that? He was much nicer, but Jesus said to His disciples, "If you love me, keep my commands" John 14:15.

Ouch.

Sometimes I just stand there and say, "I love You God!"

You know: stand in church and sing a praise song to the Lord while feeling bitterness take root in my heart, or think a judgmental thought about what so-and-so is wearing to church (the nerve). Isn't that the same thing? Isn't that standing there and saying "I love You" but not obeying His commands?

Parenthood is convicting y'all.

Well, I mean, for people like Kana Jelley.

Soccer and the Good News

Almost every week I visit a temporary housing neighborhood with a partner. We pray for the people there and often get to share stories, including The Best Story. Last week I met a young boy. He enjoyed practicing some English and was also surprised that I could speak his language.

"Where do your children go to school?"

I told him.

"Yes, I know. They come to my school sometimes."

"Oh really?" My oldest son volunteers at a local school. He has helped play games, teach songs, and practice English with the students. They are all of the majority religion here. "My son's name is A."

"Yes, I know him."

"Really?" I was doubtful.

"Yes, does he speak our language?"

"Well, yes he does speak a little."

"Yes," said the boy. "I know him."

Wow, there I was in a poor neighborhood with people I was only meeting for the first time. Actually my son has met their children. Little did I know that my own child was touching this neighborhood long before I arrived.

God is good! I went home excited to tell my son that he had a part in the spreading of the Good News to this neighborhood. Sure, he was teaching English and kicking the soccer ball. But his presence made an impact on this boy. And the people in this boy's neighborhood are getting exposed to The Best Story. Maybe they will be more receptive now that they know we care about their kids too.

There are a lot of ways kids can help spread Good News. What are your ideas?

#H54F Christmas 'Round The Corner!

Wow, Christmas is only a few days away! A crazy week ends in a calm weekend. Yay for calm weekends!

#1 S went for Xrays and Dr. check up. His arm is looking great and healing well. Yay! We still make him wear a sling when he's out and about and he still has to be EXTRA careful so he doesn't fall on it.

#2 A went to orthodontist with the dreaded message "My dog ate my retainer." Thankfully the orthodontist likes dogs and more than that, she said it wasn't too damaged, he can still wear it. We all breathed a sigh of relief as A knew how much that thing cost!

#3 I got a new phone! A real phone! It happened like this: on Thursday my son J tried to call me from school. I tried to answer his call but my cell phone wouldn't let me pick up. It just kept ringing. Finally it registered that I was receiving two calls from the same phone and I had put one of them on hold. Then it started playing random music that I'd never heard before...loudly. I finally had to take the battery out to make it stop. That was the final straw. No more of this says Kris. We spent the afternoon shopping for my Christmas gift: a smartphone! Woohoo! My phone even knows BOTH of our names (see T9 You're Killin' Me to see why this matters.) I never wanted a smartphone, but now that I have it, I like it :) Thanks Kris!

#4 A aced all his exams. Woohoo!

#5 We watched The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies today. It was great! Loved it! So thankful for a family that likes to hang out and do stuff like that together.

Now on to the weekend and 3 1/2 weeks of Christmas Break for the boys.

What was your week like?

12 Days of Tropical Christmas

I wrote this a couple of years ago to describe our first Christmas in Sumatra. No mouse in my tree this year, but I'll be honest, I cringed just a tad when I opened the box. I knew a live mouse wouldn't run out at me like before because the box was well wrapped. It was finding a dead mouse entombed in the box that I was concerned about. But my fears were unfounded. I thought you might enjoy a new twist to an old favorite!

On the first day of Christmas the tropics gave to me

A mouse in my Christmas tree!

On the second day of Christmas the tropics gave to me

Rust on the ornaments, and a mouse in my Christmas tree!

On the third day of Christmas the tropics gave to me

Rain in the evening, rust on the ornaments, and a mouse in my Christmas tree!

On the fourth day of Christmas the tropics gave to me

Leaks in my bedroom, rain in the evening, rust on the ornaments and a mouse in my Christmas tree!

On the fifth day of Christmas the tropics gave to me

Five calls to prayer!
Leaks in my bedroom, rain in the the evening, rust on the ornaments and a mouse in my Christmas tree!

On the sixth day of Christmas the tropics gave to me
rice and soup and noodles,
Five calls to prayer!
    Leaks in my bedroom, rain in the evening, rust on the ornaments and a mouse in my Christmas tree!

On the seventh day of Christmas the tropics gave to me

Mold in the kitchen,  rice and soup and noodles,
five calls to prayer!
Leaks in my bedroom, rain in the the evening, rust on the ornaments and a mouse in my Christmas tree!

On the eighth day of Christmas the tropics gave to me

Masses of mosquitoes, mold in the kitchen, rice and soup and noodles,
five calls to prayer!
Leaks in my bedroom, rain in the the evening, rust on the ornaments and a mouse in my Christmas tree!

On the ninth day of Christmas the tropics gave to me

Amoebas in my belly, masses of mosquitoes, mold in the kitchen, rice and soup and noodles,
five calls to prayer!
Leaks in my bedroom, rain in the the evening, rust on the ornaments and a mouse in my Christmas tree!

On the tenth day of Christmas the tropics gave to me

Natalans at the church, amoebas in my belly, masses of mosquitoes, mold in the kitchen, rice and soup and noodles,
five calls to prayer!
leaks in my bedroom, rain in the the evening, rust on the ornaments and a mouse in my Christmas tree!

On the eleventh day of Christmas the tropics gave to me

Skype calls to family, Natalans at the church, amoebas in my belly, masses of mosquitoes, mold in the kitchen, rice and soup and noodles,
five calls to prayer!
Leaks in my bedroom, rain in the the evening, rust on the ornaments and a mouse in my Christmas tree!

On the twelfth day of Christmas the tropics gave to me

Memories to cherish, Skype calls to family, Natalans at the church, amoebas in my belly, masses of mosquitoes, mold in the kitchen, rice and soup and noodles,
five calls to prayer!
Leaks in my bedroom, rain in the the evening, rust on the ornaments and a mouse in my Christmas tree!

#H54F: High Fives on Monday

You know how you have those days that don't play out the way you imagined they would? That's what happened to us last Friday. Who knew we'd be spending the weekend in the hospital? Well, the Lord did, and that's a good thing! So here's my Friday Highlights...on Monday:

#1 Our oldest son hosted Bible Study at our house last week and it is such a joy to see teenagers gathering on their own to study the Word. I made a lot of ice tea, a lot of popcorn, and a lot of meatball sandwiches. It was a lot of fun.

#2 I'm stopping my Neighborhood Narrative story. Sorry. I hate to stop things unfinished. But, you may have guessed, it is a true story and it just got crazier than it already was. I will still write it and perhaps one day I'll get to post it. For now, you can pray for the characters. The names are different but the people are real.

#3 Thanks to friends, I figured out how to buy pork! (shhhhhhh #nothalal) It is no longer chunks of meat hanging on hooks to me. I now know which chunk can be used as a pot roast and which chunk can be cut into pork chops. Watch out Pinterest...I'll be searching for pork recipes pretty soon.

#4 I am super excited to have received final confirmation from the publisher on book title and cover for my debut novel. Woohoo! Post coming soon about that.

#5 And the biggest news from last week happened on Friday, although I am not sure it is in the "highlight" category! Our middle son broke his arm pretty badly while running a race at Field Day. He broke the ulna and radius and had to have surgery to put plates and screws in each bone. The Lord was so faithful in providing excellent medical care and a great community around us. Surgery was on Friday and our son was free to go home from the hospital by Sunday afternoon! And get this, he's back at school today. What a tough guy!

I am hoping that #5 for this week will be super boring.

Have a great #Thanksgiving Week!

Did You Tell Lana?

Lana was a young lady who had been visiting in our home each week.  One day after she left, my son asked me if she believed in Jesus. I told him no.

“You have to tell her about Jesus, Mom,” he said.

“If you will pray with me for Lana every day, then I will share with her next time she comes,” I replied.

That satisfied my son and he prayed each day. The next time that Lana came to our house, my son whispered to me, asking me if I had shared.

“What did your son say to you?” Lana asked.

“Well, he wants me to tell you all about Jesus,” I replied. And I did. That day my son prompted me to “get to the point” and share Jesus with my friend Lana.

As a family, we can be each other’s cheerleaders, prayer warriors and mission partners. Our kids are a vital part of our team. Kris and I have discovered that we grow closer as a family when we minister together. When we pray as a family for our nonbelieving friends, we get excited together when we have opportunities to share with them. When we open our home as a family we have a special bond: it is the bond of being on mission together.

Crying Baby

My baby on the shore of the Nile River.

When our kids were small, I sometimes felt that my young ones took me away from ministry. That’s simply not true.  I remember one day my family was visiting in the home of an African family. One of our sons, who was a baby at the time, began to cry and I was forced to leave the room and stand outside. I began singing to comfort him. But in my heart I was so frustrated. If I didn’t have young children to take care of, I could be in the house sharing Jesus with that family. 

I continued to sing, I was singing the Lord’s Prayer in the local language. As I finished the song I noticed the mother had stepped outside and was listening to me. She asked me about the song I sang and I told her the story of when Jesus’ followers asked Him how they were to pray to God. It was such a sweet time. But you know, it never would have happened if I had not been outside comforting my crying baby. 

My Favorite Adventure

I've been away for a week. Traveling is fun and the conference I went to was very good. But it's very nice to be home. It's very nice to have the kids back and to hear all about their adventures. In just a few days Kris will be back and we'll have all five of us under one roof again. We each have enjoyed our separate activities. Maybe it's the mom in me. Maybe the others would have taken another week of it. I don't know. But I know that, no matter what traveling adventures I get to have, my favorite one is being with my family.

Mother's Day

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY to all you mothers out there! 

First we went to church and spent some time in Psalm 119. 

Then we went out to eat at Chili's. Mostly because chips and salsa is one of my faves.

Kris and the boys gave me an iTunes gift card. Thanks guys! I used part of my loot to buy "Bella" which is a great movie that I think you should watch. The boys even watched it with me. It broadened their horizons. What do YOU think of the movie?

I did not get to talk with my mom or mom-in-love because that's the way it goes sometimes when you live in different time zones. But I am so thankful for email and iMessage, and for moms who understand why we are in a different time zone to begin with, even if we don't get to hear each other's voices much.

Happy Mother's Day! (Late I know. It has nothing to do with the time zone, it's just that I am a little rebellious and didn't want to post a Mother's Day post on Mother's Day because it seemed too cliche. And then I decided I should, but it was a day late...and also a work day which meant I didn't have time to put a bunch of thought into it but I thought I should do it anyway, so I did. Just now. While dinner is burning in the oven.) 

Throwback Thursday

I haven't figured out the whole social media scene very well. I do my best, but I am definitely an outsider (read why I feel this way). But it's Throw Back Thursday today, folks. I threw back yesterday though, so I was a day early. I found an external hard drive in all my stuff. I plugged that bad boy into my computer and found pictures and videos from 2005 onward. Wow, there went my evening. I spent a couple of hours throwing back. It was great!

The Lord has blessed us with some amazing opportunities and adventures and I am so very thankful. Today I re-watched some of the videos with the kids. They enjoyed it as much as I did.

Here's a picture (I won't make you watch all the videos, although I'd love to because they are really fun!) in honor of Throw Back Thursday...

On the Nile...just a walk away from our house!

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A Hearty Hike

It's Chinese New Year, Gong Xi Fa Cai to all our Chinese friends! Because Chinese are the majority on our island, there is lots of celebrating going on today. We hear lots of firecrackers and see lots of red lanterns hanging outside houses and shops. The boys have the day off from school so Kris and I decided we should go on a hike today. The good news is, we could begin our jungle hike right from our very own neighborhood! We had the idea last night and ended up with a group of about 17 by 9 O'clock this morning. It's a pretty good hike up and over the hill behind our neighborhood. When there was a break in the jungle, we could see the city and the ocean. Beautiful! We ended up at the Botanical Gardens about two hours later. Thankfully, one from our group had the foresight to get the guys to drive several cars up to the gardens and park them so we could drive home. The final part of the hike was about 1,100 steps, so you can imagine we were not interested in hiking back home!

Here's the view of the city and ocean from the trail.

Hiking a STEEP part of the trail.

Made it to the Botanical Gardens!

And here we have a two gray monkeys.

Hats Off!

Hats off to homeschooling moms! Mostly because the hat will be knocked off anyway. Things can get wild and crazy in a homeschool room. In the past few years, I added homeschooling to my repertoire of school experiences. Whether as a student, parent, or teacher, I have experienced: private Christian school, public school, and homeschool in the United States as well as international, Christian, boarding, and homeschool in several foreign countries. Each situation carries a unique set of challenges and benefits.

Not very far into my first year of homeschooling our kids, I realized that homeschooling is not for the faint of heart or for anyone low on energy. My image of homeschooling moms has never been negative, but it certainly jumped up a few notches once I started doing it myself. I kept thinking, “And all this time I had no idea what all they had to do!” Sure, we get done earlier in the day, but when we are done...I am DONE, you know what I mean? My brain is toast by two o’clock in the afternoon! Emails? Forget it. Dinner? Did we already order pizza for dinner this week? We did? Phooey.

Last year we did homeschool and dorm school (different kids did different things obviously). This semester all the kiddos are homeschooling. Next semester it will be Christian school abroad. See what I mean? We really like to mix it up in our family! Ha!

To all the families starting up a new year of school...HAVE A GREAT ONE!

The Rest of the Story

I got a lot of responses from my post The Box. For some reason the "comment" tab doesn't always work so some responses were verbal or in emails and messages. Sounds like the post stirred something in all of us. So now I'd like to post the rest of the story... and I've invited my mom (shout out to Diana Norwood!) to be a guest blogger for this! We all may be wondering what the rest of the story will be for Wi'am, but here is a look at someone else's end story... thanks for sharing Mom!

Consider the difference Jesus Christ makes in a life. The contrast is significant.

It happened to me in South Asia…

We were in a small town that had a decent hotel. We were staying there while we taught a leadership seminar for national church pastors and leaders. For women teachers, it is appropriate to teach in a sari. Hence, I was wearing a sari, riding in the local rendition of a rickshaw, which sets the occupant high in the air on a small seat, behind the man who peddles the rickshaw. Talk about conspicuous! First of all, being white seems to draw everyone’s eyes in your direction. Secondly, a white woman wearing a sari is really strange. Oh, the looks I endured as we traveled the roads to the community center where the seminar was being held. Especially irritating to me were the stares of the men. They were all Muslim men. When they looked at a woman there was no respect in their eyes. It was more a look of disdain and distaste and vulgar thoughts. A woman feels dirty after noticing a man looking at her in that way. After enduring many such looks on the way to the community center, we arrive. I pay the rickshaw driver and walk inside to meet our class which has gathered from many areas of the country. It’s always a thrill to meet these men and women. This week, I notice a man who is dressed just as any Muslim man, with white salwar-kameez (long shirt and pants) and a very bushy black beard. One of the participants brings him up to me to introduce him.

The contrast to the men on the street is vast. He walks up to me with a huge smile shining through his black beard, and he looks at me straight in the eyes. He’s eager to meet me and talk to me. I quickly shift my cultural gears. In this Muslim culture, a woman doesn’t look a man in the eyes or talk to him. But there was no avoiding this wonderful man. I quickly learned his story:

He was the imam (leader) of the mosque in his village: looked up to and respected. As he frequented a pharmacy in town, the pharmacist (who was also sitting in this seminar and who was a strong believer) began to share with him Jesus Christ. The imam became a believer, but kept going to the mosque and sharing Jesus Christ there. He was run out of the mosque and eventually out of their village. His wife had also become a believer. They and their children were now without a home. Eventually they were able to relocate in another village and have been attracting Muslims and winning them to Christ. He no longer can lead in a mosque, but he now leads a growing group of former Muslim believers as they have gathered into a “church”.

Only Christ could change such a man. It’s a miracle. And it's "the rest of the story" for this man and his family. What can we do today to help write "the rest of the story" for those without Christ?