by Madison Strauder The past two weeks have been some of the hardest days of my life, but not for reasons you might think. There is no illness, family emergency, impending natural disaster, or local political upheaval that has me on edge. It’s nothing that can be easily worded or is simple to communicate. I […]
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Much of the time living in Cambodia, I don’t feel like I am making huge sacrifices for God. In fact, I’ve found many things to love about living here. I am so settled here that I sometimes forget that other people have made sacrifices for me to be here. Reminders come in the form of my children, when […]
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Earlier this year, I went through a season of insomnia. A chaotic furlough, a new job, and lots of life change brought on anxiety, which bred sleeplessness, which bred more anxiety, until I was a mess. I lay awake many nights and begged God, “You know I need to sleep. You know I can’t function […]
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It’s a simple question, carrying with it the power to clarify purpose and extend longevity. It’s a question that buttresses against the nasty cousins of burnout and bitterness. It’s a question we need to ask more often. It’s simply this: “What is it that I really need?” We’ve got to start asking our cross-culturally-working-selves, “In […]
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By Stephanie Ebert My husband and I both have college degrees and 4.0 GPA’s (okay, not exactly, he once got an A-, and I once got a B). We like to think we’re pretty talented and could do anything in the world we wanted to do. But instead of staying in the States and raking […]
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Kay and I moved to the Solomon Islands in 1993. We boarded a rusty ship and headed out to a remote island village with two small kids in tow, and I jumped head first into learning the Arosi language. The sooner I learned the language, the sooner the Arosi people would have God’s Word in […]
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One man’s mission field is another’s land of opportunity. I realized this in a fresh way as I was interacting with some immigrants to South Africa from Malawi. They were telling me about their home nation, Malawi. The common descriptions were of a lush, green, and beautiful nation which was peaceful. They left their homeland […]
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The other week, I made a trip to the local police station to get an affidavit. In South Africa, this is the venue you head to make a document “official”. The officer who helped me chatted with me a bit. He inquired how long I’d been in the nation and where I stayed. Finally he asked […]
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“You will not receive praise in heaven; no one will glorify your name. No one will say to you, ‘This person is here because of you.’ The praise will all belong to him because he has accomplished it all,” Elyse Fitzpatrick, Comforts from the Cross You know the song, that tear-jerker everyone sang for special […]
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As missionaries, we often report statistics as a way of conveying the impact we are having. Numbers of salvations, people taught, clinics opened, or people rescued from the evils of society. Behind these numbers are people, stories, and often difficulties. One the people we’ve been training, recently had an interesting situation which drove this reality […]
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Missionaries deal with many things. Poverty, Disease, Visas, Political upheaval, driving on the “wrong” side of the road, and more. Perhaps the part of the job or calling which brings the most dread is support raising. Every job has things which we do not like. Whether you are in business, medicine, or missions. I have […]
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Some people tell me it is brave to raise my kids in Africa. They could get malaria or be bitten by a poisonous snake. They don’t have a Sunday School class. They can’t eat gluten-free foods. Their friends are Muslims. They live far away from cousins, aunts and uncles, and grandparents. My initial reaction is […]
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