Purpose Asia

         I sit in my car on a quiet street in a neighborhood near my house. The grey road laps around the brown feet of the trees, their long arms reaching skyward with sleeves of green, gold and fiery red. The pale blue of the sky washes over all as a breeze rustles the tawny heads of the trees. Leaves drop to my car and inside like rain falling through open windows. My heart squeezes in my chest. Mama and I would have sat on this street and admired the colors, savored the chill in the air and the Autumn scents.  But here I am alone, missing her so much I can hardly breathe. I think that's what's making Fall harder this year, and harder to enjoy. I feel like my eyes see the colors but my spirit isn't registering them like I usually do. I can describe them, even beautifully, but I feel like they come with a pinch rather than a warmth. Probably because I too feel that my spirit is in its own kind of Autumn and the winds are stripping my soul of...

Orb Weaver web outside my house in Papua New Guinea after a storm Silver threads spanned the distance like a frail bridge. Diamonds gleamed along their lengths and shimmered in the pale light coming through the mist. What had been an invisible abode was now a colossal cathedral of glittering architecture that defied the genius of the greatest architects. I stood in awe as I gazed at the spiders’ webs outside my front door. They looked so fragile and delicate in the morning light and tiny drops of dew covered each slender thread as the owner of each abode hung silently from the center. But I knew better. The day before I had been sitting in my house when a fierce storm had swept down over my roof and buffeted these webs with the force of a gale. It clawed at the webs mercilessly with wind and beat down on them with pounding rain. But the webs were unmoved. They bent, twisted and swayed with the wind but they were not destroyed. Even more astounding, the spiders at t...

  photo credit to http://demortalz.com      The pale blue of the morning sky is dotted with creamy clouds. I sit in front of my window wrapped in a blanket, letting the crisp, chilly, September air wash over me. It’s been over a month since my Mom passed away but still there are days I struggle to believe it. Struggle to conceptualize that she is gone. Struggle to understand what that means and how I should proceed. In many ways it’s getting harder rather than easier the more distance there is between our loss of her and the now. I remember when my grandparents died a year ago – after the numbness wore off the grief set in. And so it goes with this loss too.       I’ve been struggling with what to write to you, which is why I haven’t written. What can I write? If I stay away from all that is going on in my life then I will seem flippant, surface and even somewhat cold. Nothing is further from the truth. However, I ...

So much has been going on that I thought I'd give you a mini photo journal to give you a window into my daily life here. So, here's a glimpse into some of the things I've been up to lately....  I've been talking on the radio with the village team we support. It's neat to hear about how they are settling in, learning the language, meeting people and getting a feel for the work God has for them in the Pamosu language group. To the left is a picture of me at the radio when I was talking with the village team Courtney and I provide logistical, prayer and encouragement support to while they are here in Ukarumpa or away. I've been crocheting with some friends. Recently a group of them asked me if I'd teach them how to crochet and now they're going gangbusters with it! It's so much fun to learn with them, compare projects and build relationships through something as simple and wonderful as crochet. To the right is my friend Dawn with some of the fini...

God is working mightily in and through the Papua New Guinean ladies’ Bible study I attend and get to lead occasionally. Here's an amazing story from a time our Bible study leader asked the ladies what characteristics of God stood out to them in particular or had been evident in their lives recently.  "God em i winman!" (God is the victor!)   From Marianne Recently Marianne has been trying to share the good news of Jesus with her friends and family. Then, with no apparent cause she started having swelling and pain in one of her legs to the point that she could not walk. Family told her that she had the same thing that had killed another family member and they began to say that she had been "poisoned" or cursed. Marianne began to think about this and she prayed. She thought to herself, if I give in and say, like my family is saying, that I've been cursed I just give glory to Satan and proclaim that he has the power, but I know that's not true. I kn...

     We open the back doors of the Land Rover-turned-ambulance and pull out our supplies. A goodly number of mothers and kids are beginning to gather under the trees and in the grass around the ambulance. Out come the scales, the umbrellas and tables and the basic medical kit and medication and vaccine boxes. Now, we’re ready. Community Health Clinic is now open.  First I help the ambulance driver check in and weigh the various children and infants that will be seen by our team today. Each wriggling baby that bounces in the hanging sling scale or little wide eyed kiddo that stands on the scale in bare brown toes is so precious to me. It’s at these clinics that I remember why I’m here. It’s the people of Papua New Guinea that have captured my heart. I love them so deeply and want so much to be a blessing to them as they are to me.     Soon all the kids are weighed and I go around the back of the ambulance to get ready for the next wave...

Checking In Patients at the Clinic I slide the key into the lock of the back door of the clinic and my day begins. I walk down the hallway past the x-ray machine, the treatment room and the lab, the pharmacy and front desk into the break room where morning devotions start at 8:00 . We sing and pray and I’m surrounded by the faces of missionaries and Papua New Guineans alike, all of us unified in our love for Christ and desire to serve Him with the work of this clinic in the lives of those in or around the center. 8:30 arrives and we all scatter to our various tasks. Today I will work in the lab in the morning and as an appointment nurse in the afternoon.     I switch on the light and run my hand over the cool black countertops in the lab as I turn on machines and prepare the lab for the day. I slip on my lab coat and busy myself with refreshing the bleach, running quality control on various machines and getting everything set up for my morning. The firs...