by Alyson Rockhold When an email requesting volunteers in Tanzania hit my inbox, it was a knock-you-off-your-horse type moment. Gratefully, God didn’t strike me blind like Paul, but I definitely slid off my chair and onto my knees in recognition of His Voice. I had been studying missions for a year and was consumed with […]
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by Gina Butz Sometimes as I think about this strange season we’re in and how much longer it’s going to be, I wonder how we will get through. What I keep coming back to is this: we need a lot more kindness. We need to be kind to ourselves, and we need to be kind […]
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by Lauren Wells Back when COVID first began to wreak havoc on the lives of expat families with whom I work, I put together a spontaneous video series. I had talked through the same points, concepts, and answered the same questions with many families in those early weeks of quarantine and decided it would be […]
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There’s something in architecture called a corbel. Even if you’ve never heard the name before, you’re probably familiar with what it is. A corbel is a bracket, sometimes ornamental, that projects out from a wall, providing support to a structure above. It allows that structure to extend out to where it couldn’t on its own. […]
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On of my favorite things to look for in Chinese parks are the men (it’s almost always men) who write poetry on the sidewalk using a large sponge calligraphy brush: It’s beautiful, living art. It’s social with people hanging around and chatting about the stroke order, the ability of the writer, the words written. It’s also […]
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I wrote a couple of posts about questions that Third Culture Kids are often asked. Some they dread, some they love. Same for their parents. There is a problem inherent in these posts and these types of posts. They center the TCK and the expatriate adult. They make us the most important person in conversations […]
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by MaDonna Maurer The African proverb, “It takes a village to raise a child” is a saying that most overseas workers would agree with. We do not have easy access to trusted family members to help us in times of need. We rely on those in our host country to help. I live on the […]
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Blessed are the language learners, for theirs is the gift of idioms and verbs, of words and communication. Blessed are the visa holders, for they shall never forget what it is to live as a guest in a country. Blessed are the homesick, for they shall know and understand longing and displacement, the themes of […]
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My youngest has been fascinated with finding places on Google Earth. He recently brought me the iPad and said, “Mommy, help me find HOPAC.” My son is in third grade, and Haven of Peace Academy is where he went to school for kindergarten through second grade. But even before that, HOPAC was always a part […]
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by Rebecca Hopkins Editor’s Note: In Part 1, we looked at the findings from Barna’s latest research on the Future of Missions. Part 2 discussed deconstruction of missions’ past. Today we talk about the movement within the African American community to join missions—and call for reform. Less than 1 percent of American missionaries are black, […]
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by Rebecca Hopkins Editor’s Note: In Part 1, we looked at the findings from Barna’s latest research on The Future of Missions. Today we talk to Ted Esler, president of Missio Nexus on the current trend of deconstruction of missions. ~~~~~~~~~~ If you want to get people excited about joining missions, you may need to […]
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by Rebecca Hopkins A note about this series: Barna recently released The Future of Missions, a 100-page report about trends in American missions. Some of the findings indicate that in the future, Americans may choose to stop referring to themselves as missionaries who “convert” and “make disciples,” out of principle. The data indicates that younger generations […]
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