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With cloudy sky cover and a breeze blowing off the water, it smelled and felt like a summer morning at the beach. Jessica, Rachel, and I pedaled our bikes leisurely down the river trail, enjoying the occasional patches of sunlight and the constant joy of each other's company and conversation.  "It's Tuesday, which means the farmers market will be open downtown," I suddenly remembered. "Let's check it out," Rachel added with enthusiasm. So we ventured over to the river market in search of some fresh fruit, only to find some divine appointments waiting for us there as well.  The large open market pavilion was empty except for one lonely vender with a table full of fresh produce, but no customers in sight. "Good morning!" We greeted her as we unclipped our pedals and removed our helmets. We introduced ourselves and found out her name was Kelly, so we struck up a small conversation about her delicious-looking goods and then began to ask her about h...

"What is it about your faith that compels you to do missions?" I was asked this week. An excellent question, I might add, and one that I am happy to answer as simply as I can in this short post. As I prepare to leave for Burkina Faso once again in a little less than a week, and as I ongoingly prepare to move to Burkina in the next year, I want to give God the glory he deserves for bringing me to this place.  It is only because of him that I am going. It only because of him that I am not afraid. I am nothing special, and I have no special call...just a love for Jesus and a willingness to go where he sends. Really, that's no different from any other follower of Jesus. We are all God's kids, loved by him, saved by his grace, and invited to participate in kingdom mischief to make his name known wherever we go.  Since the beginning, God has been on a mission. He created the cultures of the world, and he loves all people extravagantly. His purpose was to create a global ga...

A little rain wasn't going to stop me. I had plans to hammock in the park on my day off, and I wasn't going to let it "rain on my plans" (pun intended). Plus, this was a perfectly good excuse to test out my new rain fly for my Eno, so I packed up my gear and headed to the park on this perfectly rainy day. Needless to say, I had the place to myself.  And just in case you were wondering, my rain fly worked beautifully and I thoroughly enjoyed my hammocking in the park after all.  I  suppose you could say that I am no fair-weather camper. Perhaps I learned it from my dad, who never lets the weather stop him from a good camping trip. He will camp when the forecast is raining, saying that the best napping occurs to the putter-patter of rain on the tent. He even loves to camp when it is crazy cold...like in the dead-of-December, 25-degrees-at-night kind of cold. I will admit, that kind of cold makes the campfires extra enjoyable. I love snuggling down into my down sleeping ...

I don't know about you, but I fear failure. According to some sources, the fear of failure is one of the most common (if not the most common) fear among people today.  The fear of failure is not a new thing. I bet Moses related. I was thinking about this as I have been reading through the book of Exodus. God called Moses to lead the Israelites out of Egypt, but he feared failure. What if they won't listen to me? What if I don't have what it takes to do the job? The fear of failure is rooted in thoughts of inadequacy.  Inadequacy is simply a loss of perspective. It is taking out eyes off Christ and fixing our gaze on our own abilities and failures. When we fix our eyes on Christ, inadequacy does not exist because we know who he is. And there is absolutely no inadequacy within the person of Jesus Christ. He is entirely able.  So God tells Moses that he will be with him, and he need not fear failure with the Lord on his side.  As the Lord explains to Moses what he is ca...

" How have you seen God today?" This question has come to be very significant in my life. I first learned to answer it when I was a high schooler and attended a weekly prayer group where that was the first question discussed every week. Knowing that this specific question would be asked each week without fail helped me learn to look for God working in my life week after week.  When I was an intern in Nicaragua for a couple of summers, I was again challenged by a similar question. "How did you see Jesus today?" The missionary would ask us at our devotionals each evening, and we would go around the circle and share how we had experienced Christ in our days. This again trained me to look for Jesus as I go about each day.  My mom even has an index card that rests on our kitchen table and serves as a discussion starter for our family dinners. On it is written the question, how have you seen Jesus today?  Then this past Saturday night, as a group of believers gathered for...

"I got you an early birthday present!" My dad told me over the phone.  "Oh boy!" I replied, "I hope it is something for our backpacking trip this weekend! Maybe something to do with my hammock?"  "I'm not telling," he replied (which totally means yes). So I smiled and told him I couldn't wait.  My dad and I have been in the process of conversion. We are switching over from tent camping to hammock camping, which I have termed "campocking". Sure enough, my sweet dad got me an early birthday present of a rain fly and possum pouch for my hammock, and we got to test it out this past weekend on our father-daughter backpacking trip.  (And no, the rabbit did not get to go with us...although we joked about getting a hammock for him too) There is something about the woods that brings peace to the soul. Maybe it's the bright lime green underbrush that covers the forest floor like a clean , fresh blanket and seems to glow when the sun h...