Missions conferences. There is nothing quite like them. They challenge. They encourage. They reunite. They ignite. They humble. They excite. We spent the weekend in Huntsville as guests of a very special church family. It is evident that the families care for one another, love the Lord, take their f...

What a couple of weeks! Jim and I are leaving for the States tonight (tomorrow morning?!) at 3:30 a.m. And I simply forgot how much has to be done to be able to go. Denial? We have been working with a friend stateside to create a powerpoint presentation of our ministry — pictures really DO say...

Jim and I continue to read as one of our devotionals A Year with C. S. Lewis. This excerpt is from his book The Screwtape Letters. (For those who may not be familiar with the screwtape letters: shift gears in your mind and read this as if you were speaking to your little devil minions. The Enemy, in...

We were so encouraged last night when we learned that a church that is new to us has officially decided to support God’s ministry here in Ukraine, even through us. Our friends who attend there sent us a link to the church’s web site so that we could become a bit more familiar with the be...

Today Jim and I read part of the sermon delivered at the marriage of Bernard and Alice in their book Underneath are the Everlasting Arms. The message was centered on Exodus 25:16-22. “‘Just as the two cherubim were facing each other with their eyes fixed on the mercy seat, Alice and Bern...

We just watched this speech in its entirety on CNNInternational…this is just an excerpt: “And so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream. I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and l...

One year ago today. It hardly seems possible that a whole year has gone by. And then, at other times, it seems like forever ago: so much has taken place in these last 12 months. Jeanne and Kolya are living outside of Kyiv now, and visiting us on weekends, so we celebrated their anniversary on Saturd...

I mentioned yesterday about the book that Jim and I are currently reading together: Underneath are the Everlasting Arms by Alice and Bernard Bakunda. This is the true story of the parents of our new medical student friend Timothy from Uganda. The introduction: “There are moments in life when a...

About the same time that my grandmother created the church in her ceramics class she also created a creche scene. The tradition for our family has been to not add the baby Jesus until Christmas morning. When the kids were little this was a sure-fire way for them to know if Christmas had indeed arriv...

I was getting all ready to make a delicious-sounding recipe for cinnamon biscotti when I realized that I didn’t have enough butter. Ugh. So I went into Plan B: gluten-free peanut butter cookies. This may be the easiest cookie recipe in the history of cookies: Combine 1 cup of peanut butter, 1 ...