Tag: travel

Soul Food Before Thanksgiving

November 13, 2021 /

For Those Who Want a Little Inspiration…

Over the past month I coached an online workshop through National Community Church, teaching people how to share their God stories – the story of how they came to know Jesus and the stories of how God has shown up in their everyday lives – showing them more bout His character.

In our tiny group, was a committed young man who joined us online at 4:30 a.m. his time each week from India! He so inspired me as he shared his story of growing up Hindu, but coming to recognize Jesus as the healer of his mom, forgiver and savior. He has little to no support other than the online faith community and yet he has such a passion for having India know Jesus. Will you pray with me for him?

Gracious Lord, we come before You on behalf of many around the world, like Kirubakaran, who are following You under such difficult circumstances. We pray that your Holy Spirit might strengthen and encourage their hearts. Help them to know that they are known, seen, loved, and valued by You. I pray that even today they might see the fruit of their perseverance. In the strong name of Jesus, Amen.

For Parents (or mentors, aunts, etc)…

I love, love, love this list of 10 Fun Things to Do at Home with Kids and I know they are good, because I did some of them back in the day of littles! Even though my kids are grown, I’d love for us to create a family time capsule over the holidays. Won’t it be interesting to look back on this season 10 years from now? (Hopefully we WILL be looking back some day!)

If you’re like me, you can read something like this and think, “Oh, what a great idea!” but not do anything about it. Maybe choose one idea (or let your kids choose one) and commit to do it this week. Make a memory!

For Leaders…

If you’re a leader, a coach, a teacher…basically anyone who works with volunteers, take a look at these great questions your volunteers are asking.

For Those With Wanderlust…

Those who know me, know I need no extra motivation to travel, but I was captivated by this list of 18 Movies that Inspire Travel and am putting several on my list to watch asap!

So thankful I was able to visit D.C. IRL this week!

For Hosts…

A Hosting Game-Changer from Priya Parker – assign your guests roles. People like to help!

In social gatherings, hosts can also carry too much weight (in part because we want people to relax and have fun.) But guess what? These roles can actually be fun, playful, and deeply simple. It could be, as my friend Nora Abousteit does, that you assign a “Water Minister” and a “Wine Minister” to be in charge of refilling glasses and making sure everyone has enough to drink.

Priya parker

You might also like my Instagram post with recipe here!

For Nesters

You’ve heard of a “capsule wardrobe”, right? Well what about a “Decor Capsule Wardrobe”? I thought this was a great idea!

For Those Who Want a Book Suggestion…

This was a really good mystery, and I just read that Jennifer Garner has signed to play the lead in the limited series based on the book!

That’s it from me except for one last question…

Who is team “decorate for Christmas before Thanksgiving”, and who is waiting to spring into action Friday, November 26th?

Soul Food Life Lessons

February 14, 2020 /

As I write this it’s both rainy and sunny over the Reuss river that flows into Lake Lucerne. I keep checking to see if I can spot a rainbow like I did last week.

There are just a couple more weeks before we leave our ministry assignment here in Switzerland. We’re trying to soak up every bit of the experience that we can and reflect on what we’ve been learning.

There are things as silly as “They charge $ for tap water in restaurants so you may as well order wine.”

But we’ve also learned not to make assumptions based on our cultural bias, to question for better understanding, and to not under-estimate the stress on people living as ex-pats.

I’ve been asking this of others too: What are you learning in this season of life?

I re-read this this week and it is sooooo good! Twelve Truths I Learned from Life and Writing by Anne Lamott

I’m listening to this on repeat thanks to my friend Molly. If you’re going through a tough time, this is for you.

Want a good book for this weekend? I recommend this!

The Giver of Stars by Jo Jo Moyes – totally different than her past novels, this is historical fiction about three women in the 1930’s who become know as the Packhorse Librarians of Kentucky – part of a program instituted by Eleanor Roosevelt. It is an inspiring story of strong women who prevail in the face of racism, sexism, hardship, and natural disaster

You know that Instagram is kinda my thing, right? Join me there! This first one was a day-brightener daughter, Maggie sent me. Love it!

Enjoy a little encouragement and inspiration from some of my favorite follows here:

Great insights and encouragement for those experiencing grief, or walking alongside others who are

If we were sitting down to coffee, and I asked you, “What are you learning in this season?” what would you answer? Share in comments and let’s encourage each other.

Soul Food for Vacation Time

March 3, 2016 /

It’s March, and you all deserve a vacation! At least you do if you live in my part of the country where the winters seem like an interminable movie in gray and white. It’s like God turns off the color, scent, and sound of life for 6 months.

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But we’re a hardy people and we will persevere to Spring which arrives at the end of May and lasts 2 days.

Meanwhile, maybe you’re planning a little escape to tide you over.

If you live by a school calendar you may be preparing for Spring Break.

If you don’t, you still may be planning a warm getaway.

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So this post is about resources for vacation (or even “staycation”) refreshment. Continue reading

The Genius of Inconvenience

March 23, 2015 /

Our family loves travel like E.T. loves home.

But travel is often tough. Uncomfortable, patience-stretching, anxiety-producing tough. This is what we’ve learned – it doesn’t matter whether it’s a road trip, or driving a carpool, or taking a bus downtown, or business commuting to 3 cities in a day, or something more exotic.

We heard a leader once say that he doesn’t make any major hires unless he has traveled somewhere with the candidate because travel can reveal so much about a person’s character.IMG_5483

(In case you can’t read this it says there may not be a toilet on the plane :))

Although travel can reveal our character, God can also use it to refine our character.

Recently, we were headed out on a trip and John discovered the night before that he had booked his flight for 7 P.M. and mine for 7 A.M. (Uh, no…I have no idea how that happened).

When we arrived, we found that he had booked our rental car for a different city (on the opposite coast) where he had traveled not long ago.

While walking to the car rental desk we got a call from our friends who were supposed to host us in their home, saying they had food poisoning and we’d have to find a hotel.

Lastly, when we were heading home, a freak snowstorm hit and our flight was cancelled.

We’d like growth to happen while we’re flying first-class with wine and fluffy pillows, but that’s not the way it works. Growth is uncomfortable – found in the middle seat at the back of the plane or in the driver’s seat of a mini-van carrying toddlers.

Continue reading

Fearless Leaps and Little Steps

September 20, 2013 /

It’s Fearless Friday and we have a guest post.  I’m excited to let you hear from my intrepid, amazingly mature, thoughtful and articulate friend, Mackenzie Dykstra!  She’s a senior at Edina High School and is already shaking up her part of the world.  Enjoy!
Mackenzie

The word fearlessness has the connotation of something extraordinary; where one battles impossible tasks with incredible courage and bravery.  When I think of fearlessness I see a soldier on the front lines, or a young child fighting against cancer that’s wracking her body. I see people that have great challenges to overcome and that are brilliant through their darkest moments. In this past year I have realized that fearlessness is represented by all those things but it can also be the smaller acts that are done in the shadows that require as much courage and delight God just the same.

To be fearless is to take a blind leap of faith. Continue reading

Waiting at Gate C6, C9, E10, H5…

February 11, 2013 /

I’ve spent a lot of time in airports this past week.  And this was not a happy thing.

It’s not like I was going someplace exotic like Bora Bora, or ran into Mumford and Sons on their way to the Grammys.

With the mega snowstorm that hit plus, normal mechanical stuff, It was just a matter of multiple delayed flights where each update means a gate change and a later departure.

And so it meant sitting.

And waiting.  Hours and hours of waiting.

Years ago John and I heard a motivational speaker who, in these situations used the refrain “You can cancel my flight, but you can’t cancel my day!” 

That sounds so…positive!  So cheery.  So empowering. 

But it’s just an annoying quote when your life is about being productive and on the go and you’re sitting in an airport, missing the event you’re scheduled for, or waiting to get home and your husband texts that line to you.  Are you with me?

When your plans are upended and you feel upended like Charlie Brown, once more having the football snatched away just as he was kicking, and you’re out of control, how do you control what you can – your attitude?

I’d like to be super spiritual and tell you all the Scripture that came to mind, but here’s how it went.

First I tried the practice of thanksgiving.  I was very thankful they aborted the first take off of one of my flights half-way down the runway, throwing on the brakes when an emergency light came on.  Safety is always good in my book.

And I was thankful for the cute little girl in the terminal with the Tinkerbell peeking out of her backpack.  And then I was pretty much done with thankfulness (with apologies to Anne Voskamp :)).  Still unproductive and waiting…

Next I tried praying while unclenching my hands, letting go of my need for power and control.  Very unproductive and still waiting (but it felt like the right thing to do)

Then, I tried to see Jesus.  To be present and aware of passengers around me who I might encourage. But every head was down, every eye seemed to be glued to Iphones while mine was dead (This was not on my “things I’m thankful for” list!).

Lastly I tried to smile.  I had just heard about a new study out that shows that smiling affects your attitude, reduces stress, and increases heart health.  Sounded good to me.

I tried, but I felt kind of like a Stepford Wife, plastic and robotic.  And I think people wondered if I was a little “off” shall we say.  I was unproductive, still waiting, and my mouth muscles hurt.

In the end I bought a Chik-fil-A sandwich and a People magazine.

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I remember hearing someone say once that God wants to give us a “snow day” every week with Sabbath.  Why do we resist?  Why do we seem so addicted to “doing”… to being recognized for what we accomplish?  Is it born out of a fear that being God’s beloved child isn’t enough?

Maybe, we need to relax and remember God’s ok with unproductive.  Having Chik-fil-A and a little Sabbath at Gate C6 was not a bad thing.

How do you handle interruptions to your plans and out-of-controledness?

Where are you going today?

May 9, 2012 /

Tomorrow John and I are leaving to go to Sri Lanka, off the coast of India (yes, I had to check).  He for a World Vision Board meeting.  Me, to support him in his Board-dom and see more of God’s world and work.

The amount of travel I get to do is a privilege I don’t take lightly.  I’m blessed, but I told the girls it doesn’t bode well for me that one of the first things I read about Sri Lanka is that they have 84 different kinds of snakes, but not to worry because not that many are poisonous.

I hate snakes.  I mean really.  Me and Indiana Jones.

So, Sri Lanka has that against it.  And it’s like a million hours on three flights to get there which I could live without.

But, I’ve been thinking.  Discomfort and snakes aside, in many ways it’s easier for me to go across the world and build relational bridges to folks in Sri Lanka, than it is for me to go across the street and build a bridge to my neighbors who smoke and have loud parties and yell at their kids.

It may be easier to fly across continents than for me to make the time to fight traffic and go across the city to a homeless shelter, or to tutor.

Sometimes it’s easier to jet across time-zones than to walk across the Great Room at church and include someone who is hard to love.  Or cross the coffee shop to listen to enter into someone’s pain, or reach out to a stranger.

I think of what it was like for Jesus, leaving the pure delight of heaven and coming across time and space to enter into the everyday brokenness, muck and mess of this world He loves.

And then He went across cultural and economic and class lines to reach the Samaritan, the tax-collector, the confused rich, and the broken-hearted father.

I think the reason it’s easier for us to go across the world than across the street is because across the street is just so everyday.  It’s always right there.  It’s the ever-present opportunity we’ll get to “someday”.

Going across my city, my neighborhood, my church, my home, my coffee shop.  It’s not like it’s a big deal.  Which is why, perhaps it is a big deal to Jesus.

A quote by Gregory Boyle has captured me this week: Jesus “goes where love has not yet arrived.”

So on this last day before Sri Lanka, my goal is to be aware go across wherever I can go across in my everyday world, prayerfully going where maybe love has not yet arrived.

Where is it hard for you to go across?

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