Purpose Asia

  Morobe Province on the way to Lae, Papua New Guinea 2022 There’s something about moving back and forth across the globe every few years that makes a person feel pretty vulnerable. You surrender your job, your house, your keys, your friends and rhythms and you feel, somehow, that you’ve surrendered your identity as well. You’re bare and defenseless with nothing but your suitcases and a flimsy plan that can go bottom up at the slightest provocation until you reach the other end of what a friend of mine calls “the travel tunnel”.  A friend asked me today how I was feeling about going to the USA for furlough, and about my experiences with God or friends right now. I launched into my long list of to-dos that were done or not done, work tasks, ministry wrap ups, etc… Then she asked me, “but how are you feeling? ” That pulled me up short. Anyone who knows me knows that I’m pretty task oriented. Often, when I’m in a season of transition like this I like to keep the door between me a...

 Note: I wrote this back in August and forgot to publish it, but it was too good not to share. So, you guys get two blog posts this week. :) Ukarumpa with a lovely double rainbow over it  The smell of freshly roasting coffee and rain glide through my window into my office. The weather is turning cooler and more foggy but the rain has slacked off as we creep into the dry season. And so we make another determined march through the seasons, ticking off the months in their turn. In the northern hemisphere Summer is tantalizingly close. Schools are finishing up their year and kids are counting down the days until break and endless hours without homework or classes. Right now some friends and I are studying the way God’s story starts in Genesis and wraps through the whole Bible, weaving in and out of what feel like unrelated stories and poetry and pronouncements of doom should the people not repent. But as we look for the common thread of God’s story I can see God’s rhythms of creat...

 The words of 1 Peter pulsed through my head, “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire —may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the sa...

  I laid my head down on the desk. It all just felt too heavy. The giant hole from the leaking pipe in my front yard. The fourth request for work or money in as many days. Waking up with a sore throat and a throbbing leg. Feeling totally unprepared for the study I’m supposed to teach tonight but knowing I have to work all day and wondering when I’ll have time to prepare. Then there’s the patients. The neglected rash turned septic. The simple wound from stepping on sharp grasses threatening the viability of a foot. The double break in a 9 year old’s forearm. Being told I can’t give crutches to someone because we don’t have them. Getting the wrong thing in a medication shipment so I will have to wait another 1-2 months for supplies I have several people asking me for urgently. Staff calling in sick and trying to figure out who I can call in, or how I can find a way to juggle three roles in a four hour shift. And then add to that the self-condemnation that is plaguin...

John 15:1-2 The Vine and the Branches “I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful." Psalms 127:1 Unless the LORD builds the house, the builders labor in vain. Unless the LORD watches over the city, the guards stand watch in vain. Philippians 1:6 being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. * Have you ever planted a garden or watched a farmer clear his fields in preparation for the sowing season? Recently I walked up the steps of my garden and noticed that my gardener had cleared out a huge swath of decorative plants. I remember the first time she did this. I was appalled! She had just reduced a lush landscape to bare earth. I remember feeling horrified and desolate. However, as I watched over the next few months, the beautiful plants slowly began to retur...

There’s a worship song that I love here, it’s called Sindaun Long Heven. A line that says: Jisas laikim b’long yu, long laif bilong mi, emi winim silva na gol Jesus your love over my life, it exceeds/is better than silver and gold. I love this song. I have loved it for a long time for its catchy tune, good truth, and sing-ability.  But today it hit me really powerfully how incredible it is that Jesus — that the Trinity, ruler of the universe, maker of all things, judge, sacrificial king, master and provider for all peoples everywhere — pours his faithful, pure, powerful love over my life. I nearly started crying in my kitchen as I sang along with the video below while I made dinner. I thought to myself, It’s true Jesus, Your love over my life truly is better and far exceeds money or possessions or anything I could ever pursue or desire. It was a humbling, holy moment in the midst of the mundane. Another friend sent me this verse from Zephaniah 3:17 that seems even more incredible t...