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.

Eid Mubarak!

It's quiet over here on my side of the island because most of my neighbors are Chinese and expats. But somewhere around here, and most definitely in places surrounding the island, folks are celebrating IdulAdha (Eid alAdha). I have some great memories of long hot days celebrating the holiday with our neighbors and friends.

Our first time to celebrate was in East Africa. Here we are, don't we look youuuuuuuuuuuung? By the way, that cute little lamb survived. It was not sacrificed that year, like so many other sheep were. Our friends were so proud of their new baby sheep that they wanted us to take a picture with it!

My first memory of Eid alAdha in North Africa was when our neighbors (who were Libyan), invited Aaron to come watch them sacrifice the sheep. When in Rome, right? So I sent my four-year-old next door to watch. Aaron came home to tell us how he got to feed the sheep and then the man cut the sheep "and jelly came out of his neck". Awesome. Mom-of-the-year.

I remember the year I relaxed in the courtyard of a friend and watch her prepare sheep intestines. She squished all the pellets out of the LONG tube and rinsed it out before looping it with her fingers like she was crocheting yarn. Then she boiled it. Your mouth is watering, right?

I remember eating raw liver while I was pregnant. I found out later (from my OBGyn) that in America that is a big No No. No raw liver when you are pregnant. OK, well, just to be safe, I'll NEVER EAT RAW LIVER AGAIN. Or esophagus. I will eat raw esophagus and liver only once in this lifetime ok?

I remember riding down the streets of our dusty desert town and seeing dead sheep hanging from door posts or trees outside the door, waiting to be skinned and prepared for lunch. Their heads sat on the ground beneath the bodies and next to a pool of blood.

I remember the yummy fried meat. Lots of it. Meat, meat, meat.

Eid alAdha: celebrating the provision of God when Abraham was going to sacrifice his son. God provided a substitute. I am so thankful that we no longer need to sacrifice. I am so thankful that God gave His Son, Jesus Christ, as a substitute for the punishment that I deserve.

Today I remember my Muslim friends and pray that they will meet God in a special way this year.

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. 

Grasping

I went to Tesco today to buy groceries and a few items that we've been needing for the house. It turned out to be one of those BIG shopping trips with a few "more than normal" expenses. While waiting in line to check out, I noticed a group of ladies in line behind me. They were looking at and discussing my shopping selections. This used to happen all the time when I lived in a city with few foreigners, but now I live in a big city and it doesn't happen often. This not happening often is good, as far as I'm concerned, because I really don't like other people to look at all the stuff in my basket, talking to each other about how MUCH that foreigner is buying.

I smiled nicely at them as I unloaded all the items onto the conveyor belt thingy. The ladies smiled at me and whispered to each other. Then one of the ladies scootched over right next to me and spoke to the cashier. Continuing to scan my stuff, the cashier asked if I had a Tesco card. Why yes I do. How nice of those ladies to remind the cashier to ask me for my card. I stopped unloading my cart and reached in my purse for my card to give to her so she could scan it.

As I returned the card to my pocketbook and continued unloading, I realized what was going on. Those ladies weren't reminding the cashier to scan my card. They were asking if she would scan their card so they could get my points!

I looked back at them. They were still gawking at my stuff. When I had bagged all the groceries and was ready to pay, one of the ladies positioned herself right beside me so she could see the amount that popped up on the cash register.

I wanted to say, "NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS!"

Why does this bother me so much? True, it's none of their business, but why do I fight so much to keep my supposed "right-to-privacy"? Am I willing to forego that "right" in order to live among a people who live life so much more in community than I am comfortable with? Obviously I am willing because...well...here I am. But am I willing to forego that "right" with the attitude of Christ who "being in very nature God did not consider (even) equality with God something to be grasped"?

The Lord has been bringing up that passage to me lately (Philippians 2:4-11) in relation to things I am tempted to grasp. Jesus was in very nature God, but He did not grasp it. He was willing to make Himself nothing for our sake.

I am blessed with so much. Do I grasp those blessings or am I willing to hold them with open hands so that I can give them up if the Lord asks me to?

What are you tempted to grasp?

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.

Novel Book Cover Survey

Can you help me choose a cover for the upcoming novel? The publisher is doing a market research survey to help them design a great cover. You can help by taking just 2 or 3 minutes to look at their sample covers. It would help me out a lot!

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/Y8VBVS7

Just go to the link above and say what you think!

Novel Title Survey

So did you know I wrote a novel? Yeah, I did. Crazy. But what is crazier than that is that I am now on this twisty-curvy roller coaster ride of publishing. The Lord totally knew this was coming, but I have been blind-sided by it... if you can call it that, because it's in a good way.

So I'm on a steep learning curve. And I am enjoying the journey.

At this part of the journey we are in the titling phase. The publisher would like to take a survey to see what YOU think of the title ideas.

Can you take this survey and tell them what you think? It is just 2 questions.
 https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/VGDTVYZ

Survey is closed now...thanks to all who participated.