The God who sees

Foster Parents Needed billboards have always hurt my heart, but I used to tell myself that someone more patient, more organized, more mature would call the number and get licensed to meet the need.  I could put it out of my mind and let the ache recede.  Until the next billboard. Good friends of ours …

Emotionally Frustrated Idealist

I most identify with type 4 on the Enneagram, which according to Heuertz’ book, The Sacred Enneagram, makes me an emotionally frustrated idealist.  I feel like I have lived this out to the extreme since moving to Germany, and I am just starting to understand what fuels my emotions, frustrations and ideals.  We moved to …

News from Neusatz

Detroit versus Neusatz

(I made this in a Coursera Course called "Design and Make Infographics" taught by WSU graphic artist-in-residence Karl Gude. I recommend the class!)

Neusatz

Was soll ich sagen?  Sie passt nicht mehr im Kinderwagen. Neusatz, the village in Germany where we live (since September) means new sentence. A new sentence.  What is it? I walk the hills.   Feel the losses.  See the cherries dark on the trees. These wide open spaces. Black Forest graces.  Feeling far from home.  Bridges …

Quiet Me

We went last week to the little lake in Memprechtshofen.  Elli and Jaben were swimming under the rubber boat with their goggles on.  They flipped the boat over and were going to pop up under the boat, but the bottom was sagging and there was nowhere get air.  Jaben noticed first and came up and …

When the wrong things grow

Friend or enemy I’ll take you as you are And cry, Father, forgive us for we have wandered far from what we once were but not far enough into what we still could be.  We still could be a seed in the ground dying to grow  (John 12:24) As I was walking one Monday (the …

how then shall we live (and vote)?

I recently had dinner with some German girlfriends, and they asked me my thoughts on what is happening in America right now.  And they asked me how Christians in America can vote for Trump. I answered as best as I knew how, but these are questions with many-sided answers.  Two things I am realizing:   there …

Fear not

We don’t always get to live on the mountain of transfiguration, but it was real.  That was the real Jesus.  When his friends saw him like that, they freaked out.  He touched them and said, what?  Fear not.  You’ve got to get off this mountain.  But fear not.  I AM!  I still AM even when …

clouds and rainbows

December 15, 2019 I went outside this morning to throw scraps into the compost bin and the wind was wet and warm.  The sky was turning pink and, across the street, I saw a rainbow coming up out of the hills and disappearing into the clouds above.  I ran inside to get my glasses and …