Water runs down the middle of the alley, a silver tear in the shadows, and I can hear a baby crying.

I’m walking a narrow Guatemalan City street, a street without house numbers, mailboxes, doorbells — more like a path through tin dominoes rusted right through.

Brown eyes lurk in doorways, peer out between barred gates. A girl in a grimy pink t-shirt keeps clanking at an iron gate. It echos, a cry off cardboard walls. When I am closer, I smile and nod. She does neither. Clank. Clank.

Continue reading at A Holy Experience »

Lost.

Even though I am sitting on my own bed under the duvet we’ve had since Pete and I got married, I don’t quite know how to find my way back home.

Stranded – in between countries – it’s where I’ve spent most of my life. You’d think I’d be used to it by now.

Soweto, Khayelitsha, District Six, and the nameless shanty towns that stretch for miles and miles alongside the hot tarmac between Pretoria and Johannesburg – these are a painful part of my South African heritage.

Continue reading at The Gypsy Mama »

Yesterday was one of the best days of my life. Spending the day with my new Compassion child, Stefanie, was amazing. I did see some hard things during the day, but I gave myself permission to feel the joy fully because I knew what was coming next on the agenda.

This morning I woke up with a bit of a weak stomach. I knew we were visiting the city dump and the people who lived and worked there. I wanted to see it – well, sort of – but I was very nervous. I had a mental image of myself wandering through the homes in sackcloth and ashes and wailing at the top of my lungs. I wasn’t sure what that was going to do for anyone. I was also a little concerned about losing my breakfast in front of the team. That was a real possibility. My mom and sister have both been down that road before and I didn’t want to complete the humiliation triangle.

Continue reading at Baby Bangs »

From the book of Isaiah, chapter 51:

1“Listen to me, you who pursue righteousness,
Who seek the LORD:
3Indeed, the LORD will comfort Zion;
He will comfort all her waste places

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I know this beautiful girl who has a big heart. At 5 years old, this little girl traveled to Indonesia and visited her sponsored child. At that time, her father and I wondered if she would be too little to understand, but we watched this 5-year-old reach out and profoundly minister to her sponsored child, Kristy. Kristy was frightened of “the white people” and cried when we came to her home. Isabel instinctively walked up to her, put her hand on Kristy and sang, “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.” Kristy settled, and Isabel and Kristy shared a moment that would carry on into a global friendship. Now both girls are 11 years old and they call each other “cousin”.

Continue reading at Jones Bones 5 »