Purpose Asia

I rocked back onto my heels brushing the dust from my hands as I surveyed my handiwork. Four years of college text books now sat in the box in front of me. I stood, trying to tell myself this was the right thing. Why is that so hard? Why is it so hard to let go of a handful of dusty textbooks I have hardly glanced at since I graduated 5 years ago?  My textbooks aren't the only thing I've been going through lately. It seems like ever since I returned home from Papua New Guinea (PNG) I've been trying desperately to slim down my list of belongings and the amount of things around the house. From just trying to make sure my parents don't have a ton to lug around with them when I go back, to trying to help them downsize for their move to a smaller house it's been a constant practice of sorting through stuff to give things away, throw things away and keep a tiny portion of the original. Easier said than done I'm afraid.  It's got me thinking; why is it so hard ...

Sunrise over the ocean in Madang, PNG January 12th. Pretty ordinary for most people. The day slips by just like all the rest. But for me it's a critical landmark. It was the day I landed in Papua New Guinea for the first time. I had left Portland, Oregon, USA on the 7th of January and 33 hours later landed in Cairns, Australia. It was only after I'd walked through security in Portland, boarded another plane in Los Angeles, and sat exhausted in the Shanghai airport waiting for a final plane to Australia, that I realized how crazy I was. I had left everything and everyone behind for a country I'd never seen before, where I didn't know anyone except through email or perhaps brief trainings in the USA. Then, on January 12th I took the final plunge, boarded an airplane in Australia and made the last short hop over the ocean to the country I believed would be my home for the next 4 years. Talk about crazy. I've been reading a book about a French pilot who flew in t...

      The new year is fast approaching and the annual feeling of throwing off the old and running toward the new runs rampant in the air like an electrical charge. Normally, I'm not that into setting new year's resolutions. We all know what normally happens with those. We keep them with zeal and vigor for the first two weeks if we're lucky, and then we slip back into old habits before the hearts and flowers of Valentine's Day saturate the stores, or, if we're particularly motivated, eggs and bunnies fill every aisle.      However, this year I feel a bit different. I've been thinking about New Year's resolutions and bucket lists and what their purpose is or should be in my life. Most people make both to give their life meaning. To somehow prevent their lives from slipping by before they squeezed some life out of it. I, like many people have at least a mental bucket list of things I'd love to do in my lifetime. Visit Italy and see the histo...

Drought Continues in Papua New Guinea Houses no longer standing in water in the town of Kerema, Papua New Guinea   (Aris Messinis) Photo from http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/breakfast/png-drought/6975594      When you read the Bible do you ever put yourself in the character's shoes? I do. It helps me to make the Bible more real to me and really internalize what it's saying.      For instance, take the story of Elijah praying for rain after 3 years of drought on the mountain top. He had been told to present himself to King Ahab -- the same king he'd been hiding from for the last 3 years -- only then would the Lord God (Yahweh) again send rain on Israel. Elijah had come and boldly presented himself to the king. On top of that, he'd challenged all the prophets of the false god Baal to a knock-down-drag-out contest of who was the true god -- Baal or Yahweh. Baal never showed up but Yahweh, the God of Israel, showed up in a big way c...

In the last month or so I've been working on reading Ann Voskamp's One-Thousand Gifts. It's been humbling and challenging. I think her message -- that the discipline of thankfulness leads to a full, joyful life -- is one that the Lord has been trying to get across to me this last month because it's been popping up everywhere. In my morning devotionals (all three of them), in emails from friends, in radio messages and sermons, and in my times of solitude with the Lord. I've been pleasantly surprised that, as I give thanks to the Lord (something so seemingly simple to me), I've been filled with a joy I have not felt in a long time. I've been more at peace and more filled with contentment as I've set the gaze of my soul more intently on the Lord in an attitude of thanksgiving. It's been delightful and refreshing. So, I want to share a little of my daily thanksgiving and joy with you by sharing a few photos of what I've been thankful for in the past ...

I plunk down with my computer in my lap after a long day. I stretch my aching neck and make note of all the muscles that are sore today that I didn't even know existed before my painting work the last few days. I sigh. What can I possibly share this week?  I think to myself. It feels sort of anti-climactic being a missionary in preparation, then on the field and then back home for a time all in the course of a year. I can't report any exotic foods, crazy exploits, or touching encounters this week. Just the faithfulness of every day. I guess you can tell that's a thing with me lately. I'm learning about faithfulness in the waiting right now and you get to hear my thoughts as I muse on the lessons the Lord is teaching me. This week I've spent a day at the hospital with my Grandma as she underwent some tests. The next two days I painted our bathroom that's being remodeled and worked to keep the house in order in the mean time. Then I spent a day working on odds...

Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving. Colossians 3:23-24 NIV You’ve all seen memes that go something like this, “What my friends think I do. What my family thinks I do. What I actually do.” Sometimes, I feel that my life is a bit like that. It usually happens when I’m doing some mundane task in life. I find myself in my jeans at the grocery store, trying to accomplish one of the 175 things on my list for the day. I run into someone I know and they ask me what I’ve been up to. I tell them that I’ve been working as a nurse for a Christian ministry in Papua New Guinea (PNG). Then it happens. I see the “what my friends think I do” look. Their eyes glaze and I can see them envisioning me living Survivor style in the jungle, machete in hand, bandana around my head standing next to my mud hut with a dinner I c...