Identity and family identity can be a controversial subject. What do we stand for? How does it compare with the larger society? How does our calendar and spending reflect that?
I was serving in Mazatlan, Mexico recently, and I met a new student who is living in the Abigail House, Back2Back’s Hope Program home for girls.
Recently, I was visiting a Back2Back’s ministry site in Haiti. While I was there, I knew I was balancing many agendas (to encourage the staff, to engage the team I traveled with, helping with a project). I honestly almost forgot the real reason I was there was to love kids.
Todd and I first met in March of 1990 when I was a high school junior. I remember teasing Todd that he was a month late. I had spent the 14th of February watching other girls receive flowers and chocolate.
I am the mother of ten children and in leadership at an international orphan care ministry. Those two hats alone bring into my day plenty of email, other children, a staff team and a ridiculous to do list.
We were walking in a Nigerian village and I was fifteen feet behind Todd. I happily was holding the sweaty hands of several village children, when I look up and see him. We celebrate twenty years of marriage this fall and with that much shared history come wonderful vacations, terrible fights, seasons of health and… Read more
‘If you can’t share it, you can’t have it.’ This is one of our family mottos and I only have to start the first two words when my kids chime in together to finish it.
Courage is not the opposite of fear. Courage is the byproduct of faith. It’s surrender and forward motion. It’s a release of control and a holy confidence in a plan bigger than the page you are on. It announces to those paying attention, you are a citizen of another place.
It was a Saturday like most other Saturdays in our home – full of projects to finish, laundry to do, kids’ events to attend, mouths to feed.
I remember everything about the afternoon the phrase “Reckless Faith” first came to mind. It was 2007 and I was writing a book about my family’s stories from living in Mexico, unsure of how to link them altogether.