Annual Review
It's hard to measure spiritual maturity. There are certainly markers, and there are actions and behaviours that can identify someone as growing in their faith. However, there are lots of…
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July 28, 2024
Some Kind of Normal
"We have weird lives," Givorgy told me this week. It's true. But also, we have these beautiful lives where I get to spend time talking with people about cross cultural…
July 21, 2024
The Ordinary
You know when your body somehow holds out until you have a break to get sick? Yeah, my body nailed it. I decided to take two weeks off to give…
July 14, 2024
Midwinter Christmas
A week ago was the Māori new year celebration called Matariki, and our city had a light show set up to enjoy in the cold dark evenings. I'm really fortunate…
July 7, 2024
Playlist 2024
My favourite tradition on this blog is to write a Myspace style playlist for my life each year. This tradition started in June 2015, and you can follow these links…
June 30, 2024
Celebrations
I take celebrating seriously. I also am a bit ridiculous when it comes to finding small things to celebrate. I used to keep a bottle of champagne in my fridge…
June 23, 2024
Professional Development
In order to renew my Oregon teacher's license every few years, I was required to submit paperwork to prove I'd done enough professional development credits. I usually scrambled over Christmas…
June 16, 2024
First Training
My librarian friend texted me asking for book recommendations on mentoring. I had a couple, and I asked Matt his ideas, but he agreed most mentoring learning doesn't come from…
June 9, 2024
Hospital Connoisseur
No one plans to have a life where you can rank the quality of international urology departments at spinal hospitals, but here I am to save you all from doing…
June 2, 2024
Solitude
My life group started doing this thing where we integrate spiritual practices into our lives and discuss it. The first one we started with was solitude which I love. However,…
May 26, 2024
Mini Big Top
I'm so far from perfect, and I had a steep learning curve with some new situations that I didn't handle perfectly these past few weeks, but I also had an…
May 19, 2024
I Am Jonah
Ages ago I took a course from Ray Lubeck where I got to study the book of Jonah in depth as I learned how to read the Bible well. A…
May 12, 2024
Fresh Start
I had a few dozen ideas for what I wanted to be when I grew up that shuffled around until I settled on English teacher when I was in year…
May 5, 2024
On the Ground Reporting
I love what I get to do with life and ministry here in New Zealand and connected with TeachBeyond. My wild life links ministry partners on three continents and dozens…
April 28, 2024
Faithful in the Ordinary
The past few weeks our church has had a Sunday evening prayer time that I've loved being a part of. I am so excited about what God is doing in…
April 21, 2024
Recovery and Real Life
I took a couple of days to recover and sleep after Easter Camp, but I also have a real life that carries on after Easter Camp. The last message on…
April 7, 2024
Easter Camp 2024
Buckle up for the recap of my past week. I already warned you it was going to be wild, and this last week has really incredible. Monday morning I had…
April 3, 2024
Yesterday, Today, and Forever
Tiny Laura really loved going to AWANAs on Thursday nights because she had the coolest Sparky leaders. I honestly don't know what it was about them, but I genuinely loved…
March 24, 2024
Bonus Family
One of the first words I learned when I arrived in New Zealand on sabbatical was whānau which basically means extended family. It's the word in te reo Māori that…
March 17, 2024
Brave
I did something brave this week. Actually, I did a few brave things, and I’m feeling like a proper hero about it. Okay, not a proper hero, but I’m really…
March 10, 2024
