It was my first job teaching Spanish to middle and high school students. The extent of my speaking as I roamed the aisles of antsy students was ‘¿Qué tiempo hace hoy?’ And ‘¿Cómo estás hoy?’ The kínd Spanish language students remember years down the road because the heard them 101 ways and times. But I […]
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When my husband and I decided to leave Cambodia, we had a hard time articulating why. Life was fine – very good actually. We had a decent groove with work, amazing childcare for our two children, and the most incredible faith community. And yet. We knew. It would have been easier in some ways if […]
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By Cindy Brandt I have lived cross culturally almost my entire life. Born in Taiwan, I knew one language, one culture, and one worldview, until I was introduced to the strange habits of the West at age 10. As my tongue adjusted to swirling out two diverse languages, I began to know life only by […]
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For the past three months we’ve been working through Timothy Sanford’s book “I Have to be Perfect” (And Other Parsonage Heresies). If you’re new to this series, you can read the previous posts here: Part 1: The Little Word That Frees Us Part 2: “I’m Not Supposed to Have Needs” Part 3: “I Can’t Trust Anyone” […]
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“Ongoing Forgiveness is key to the Development of a Nation, Overcoming Horrors of the Past.” I recently spent some time in Rwanda. Both Rwanda and my home nation of South Africa had history altering events happen twenty years ago. The Rwandan genocide saw two tribes kill over one million people in just a few short […]
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Of all the difficult things we do in cross-cultural moves, finding places to live is near the top. We want to create space and place – we want to create home. And often our expectations are a planet away from our reality. At one point while living in Cairo, we were hunting for a flat […]
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“Would you talk about domestic violence on the mission field?” That’s the question I got last month. “Wow,” I replied, “I sure would.” And then, my friend shared the story that follows. I’m passing it along with her permission, and with a few changes made to protect identities. CASE STUDY There is a suitcase in […]
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On Aug. 27, 1888 while working in Zhenjiang, Lottie Moon made the above statement finishing with the words “…for China.” It’s one of those inspirational missionary quotes likely to land on a striking or haunting photo featuring those in this world who most likely don’t know Jesus. The desired response is conviction and motivation. Get people moving, […]
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Grief is a powerful thing, echoing on and on through the chambers of a heart. Loss singes the soul, and death does indeed bite. We are not the only ones who grieve, to be sure, but those who’ve lived abroad certainly know this to be true: it hurts to leave. It hurts to return. And […]
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The world has grown more and more connected due to technology and open communication across the world-wide web. Thirty years ago you didn’t know what was happening with a particular friend or acquaintance serving across the world unless you got a newsletter that arrived to your mail box four to six weeks after it had […]
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I’m not even going to pretend to offer rules on how to respond to beggars. I’m not even going to define ‘beggar.’ There are lots of varieties of people who ask for money or help and I don’t like calling them beggars. I prefer to call them Saada or Abdul but for simplicity, I’ll call […]
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