In 2017 I spent ten days in Benin translating for a team. An African friend was driving me to the guesthouse where I was staying. Suddenly, he gasped. As I looked up, a car tire (or tyre if you’re from England) careened furiously toward us and jumped the grassy median, invading our lane. At some point in life, you prepare…read more →
THE TIME HAS COME. I feel like I have gone from not having any details to drowning in them. I began this moving process months ago so that I’d be prepared; it didn’t work. Apparently, from conversations with others, that never works. I seem to complete one task on my list of things to do and two more appear. I…read more →
Raise your hand if you knew that Jesus went for a walk on Hanukkah. I didn’t either. A few days ago, I stumbled across a rather inconspicuous footnote attached to John 10:22. The setting of this passage is Dedication Day, which, according to the footnote, is the ancestor of Hanukkah. Jewish festivals follow a lunisolar calendar, so the dates change…read more →
I pondered what I should write for an update, and I pondered, and I pondered, and Christmas and New Year’s just ran right past me. The year 2018 was a full year, but, to me, it seems to have disappeared rather quickly. It seriously feels like Christmas 2017 was last month. I read an article that theorized that transitions and…read more →
I feel like I’m always writing about time. The date on my website indicates that may previous update was posted around Christmas Eve of last year. Adults seem to compute time at a much faster rate than children. I read an article once that explained this phenomenon as the result of the brain becoming more efficient at processing new input…read more →
Greetings Everyone! I hope your Christmas season has been going well and that your new year is full of health and optimism. For me, the new year brings plans of putting into place the appropriate mechanisms to return to Africa. I hope to be in Niger by the end of the summer, and I would appreciate your support of prayer….read more →
Hello Everyone! It’s been a while. I’ve been pondering a letter for many months, but the timing never seemed right. I also haven’t really known any more information than when I last sent an update. Apparently, it’s been since just before Thanksgiving of 2015 that I last wrote. Time must have boarded a jet plane. It seems like yesterday that…read more →
Hello Everyone, I hope you are happily preparing for this year’s holiday season. I wish upon you many days of stress-free, constructive activities. Happy Thanksgiving! Normal, stationary people think that missionaries who move back ‘home’ (the country of their passports) should have answers to every major, and even some minor, life question. In reality, we usually have almost no answers to any questions. I…read more →
I have this spot in my soul chest cavity: bottom right. I’d like to say that I hear an occasional, divine audible voice or that I receive a letter from heaven every now and then, but I don’t. I’d also like to say that my general wisdom and insight make all major decisions with precise acumen so that the results…read more →
The rainy season has been in full swing. In Niger, heat is a daily companion. Niamey has the second highest year-round average temperature among capital cities. During the hot season, I was talking to another missionary and he remarked that it felt as if the day had cooled. His wife walked to the thermometer, smiled, and said, “It’s 101.” Today, when I walk into my…read more →
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