Part of the experience of international missions is interacting with another language. My son David has studied Spanish the last 2 1/2 years but Julia, my other two children Bethany and Mark and I have very little, "poco', knowledge of the language. I asked our interpreters, Don Harris and Jason and Jennifer Hollen, about words and what they meant. But conjugating verbs was not my goal this trip. So I adopted a Tarzanic approach to speaking – nouns and adjectives and the occasional friendly greeting – “Buenos dias”, “Como esta”, “Hola”.
All articles in category: "Family life, Identity, Ministry, Observations"
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Tarzan on the Mission Field
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Spiritual fertilizer
I’ve been thinking about fertilizer from a spiritual standpoint too. During my family’s trip to Honduras we got to see the work of the church in the third world. We observed up close how the church can grow and flourish in a place with minimal resources, or fertilizer so to speak.
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Nothing that hinders the Gospel
I’m teaching our home Bible study this weekend. And the thing I’m being struck by as I consider the message of 1 Corinthians 9 is how hard it is to swallow. In that passage Paul comments that he'd rather put up with any kind of sacrifice than hinder the Gospel in any way (v.17).
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Exercising the Right Kind of Influence
We should be salt – seasoning our relationships with grace and kindness, patience and compassion. We should be vessels of God’s love to our families, but not stop there. We should be known as the neighbors with the open door policy. We should have a reputation among our co-workers as the person who can be counted on in a pinch. That’s a short list.
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The Danger of Summer Slumber
Summer is a funny kind of season for me. I love the extra time with the kids, the freedom to explore new things because I’m not hamstrung by life’s normal commitments, getting outdoors, going on vacation and hopefully, throttle down just a bit. But I’ve also discovered that summer is a season where I need to exercise extra diligence – spiritually. I find it easy to drift into the endless summer mentality and begin to think that all’s well with the world. Something usually happens when I shift into that mindset – I fall asleep.
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Family life