Laura Parker

Dirty Feet

8. September 2010

Back then, I clawed the dramatic and the exotic. Back there, I painted the ideal and clung to the dream. Back then, I thought serving the poor in a foreign land would sprout angel’s wings on my own three kids and would somehow make me an inspirational Mother-Theresa-type. But, I am finding that, right here, [...]

When You Become an Awful Person

6. September 2010

22 Comments

“What happens when trying to follow Jesus turns you into an awful person?” This was the honest question Matt and I talked about last night on our downstairs couch, in the 15 minute-window we had where the kids were asleep and we had the energy to talk about the important. It was a question born [...]

Confessions of Today

3. September 2010

10 Comments

Today I expected too much of my children. I swore in my head when my toddler dripped spaghetti, and then I swore out loud when I dropped the keys in the dirt. Today I rolled my eyes when a Thai woman asked to photo our {sweaty, tired} blonde family. And then I smiled-plastic, and I [...]

The Excuse

2. September 2010

9 Comments

Typos that don’t get fixed. Comments that go unanswered. Videos that only half-upload. Unexplained absences. This is the fallout from attempting to blog consistently from rice fields. Internet is a commodity I have learned not to count on in this life overseas. Wireless and speed have become smaller concerns in light of just having anything, [...]

Dream in Blue Ink

28. August 2010

6 Comments

I gave the journal to my son to fill with long-legged stick-figures in blue crayon (his favorite). We had carried around the empty book for years, and as we were packing during our recent move to Thailand, somehow the blank journal got moved from the dusty box in the storage room to the crammed-to-the-max suitcases [...]

Latitude 18

27. August 2010

7 Comments

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Two Men and a Swimming Pool

25. August 2010

11 Comments

I’ve watched two men struggle to keep afloat. My little man, Cade, is barely a whole handful of years. Last week, we logged countless pool hours during our vacation to Pattaya in Southern Thailand. And Cade was determined to swim. In the deep end. He desperately wanted the freedom to be a contender in the [...]

Shut. Up.

22. August 2010

8 Comments

“Language is power.” -Matt in a conversation about how vulnerable we feel because of our current language barrier “Be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to get angry.” – book of James, Bible Thailand is teaching me to shut-up. Literally, when you can’t speak {very much of} the language, you quickly learn to [...]

Over at RELEVANT {on Prostitution}

18. August 2010

5 Comments

When it rains, it pours. Looks like all of my guest postings happened to fall on the same week. Go figure. This time, though, I have written something a bit different. More factual. More “real-article-ish.” I would love for you to take a second and go read it. It gives a better overview of the [...]

Knowledge of Pattaya

15. August 2010

18 Comments

We found ourselves there by accident. By miscommunication. And ignorance. And impulsively hopping off the taxi-truck too early. We thought we were headed to a pedestrian walking street, with ice cream shops and t-shirts for tourists. But one wrong alley later, Matt and I found ourselves with our three little children in the heart of [...]

Community

7. August 2010

6 Comments

Take it from someone who doesn’t have much of it right now, Community is more important than you think. Whether you call it family or sorority sisters or a small group, community is a tightly-knit team, maybe without the matching jerseys. Community means friends who know your Story and can hand it back to you [...]

Keepin’ It Real {The Price of Saving Face}

5. August 2010

9 Comments

So, on a lighter note from my previous Help-Me-I-Might-Explode-Post, here’s a true account from my week . . . Just a few days ago, I was crammed into a sawng-taw on my way home from Thai Language Class. It was afternoon-tropics-hot. It was stop-and-go-after-school-traffic. It was too-many-cars-and-motorbikes-fumes. It was five-people-too-many-people-in-the-elevator. And I was practicing my [...]

The Space We Now Call Home

31. July 2010

10 Comments

So sorry for the last week of quiet! As most of you have suspected, the recent move has given us fresh ways to practice patience with our Internet (again). I won’t have access at home for a while, so things may be a bit quieter around these parts. Until then, I wanted to show some [...]

Five Ways for the Local Church to Support Its Missionaries (a.k.a. “Their Peeps Living Overseas”)

30. July 2010

1 Comment

Five Ways for the Local Church to Support Its Missionaries (a.k.a. “Their Peeps Living Overseas”)

Since Matt is not here with a specific missions organization {rather, he is working for a Christian NGO}, our church in Woodland Park, Colorado {where he has worked for the past four years}, has become the group that has sent us out into the wide world. And, as it turns out, they are doing a [...]

Destined to Move, Again.

24. July 2010

26 Comments

A Later Note: After I wrote this, I got to thinking that a post like this may communicate that you have it “easy” if you are called to stay in the same place, to develop roots and routines. Please know that I believe the planting is just as challenging (in different ways) as the moving. [...]

3 Months in 30 Seconds

22. July 2010

1 Comment

If there’s a video about our life and work here in Thailand that you must take 30 seconds to watch, this is the one. My amazing, photography-video-genius husband stayed up until the wee hours of the morning tweaking this quick and powerful glimpse into our life on Latitude 18. Enjoy. {Click on the photo to [...]

She Threw a Rock

20. July 2010

9 Comments

I watched her tonight out at the orphanage. A five-year-old body and a twenty-something-soul, though the age on her legal papers claims ten. She ran out, clutching a blue worn bear. It was the quality of stuffed animals handed over at a fair after winning a 50- cent game of darts. But, she doesn’t care, because it is hers. And an older girl takes it away. [...]

Leaving, and Being Left

17. July 2010

12 Comments

The taxi drove away today, and the wails erupted. The car pulled from view, and I was left with three sobbing children on the street corner of my Asian neighborhood. I tell the story {and talk about the struggle of living away from family} here . . . {Sorry the last two sentences of the [...]

Looking Up

17. July 2010

2 Comments

“A person will worship something, have no doubt about that. We may think tribute is paid in secret, in the dark recesses of our hearts, but it will play out. That which dominates our imaginations and our thoughts will determine our lives and our character. Therefore, it behooves us to be careful what we worship, for [...]

Ava eats Worms. For Real.

14. July 2010

13 Comments

We have been assaulted with the different in this exotic place we now call home. From the way we shop for food (every other day at open air markets) to the way we get around town (on the left side of the road, on the back of a motorcycle or in a truck-turned-taxi), daily life [...]

Archive | living overseas/social justice RSS feed for this section

Dirty Feet

When You Become an Awful Person

Confessions of Today

The Excuse

Dream in Blue Ink

Latitude 18

Two Men and a Swimming Pool

Shut. Up.

Over at RELEVANT {on Prostitution}

Knowledge of Pattaya

Community

Keepin’ It Real {The Price of Saving Face}

The Space We Now Call Home

Five Ways for the Local Church to Support Its Missionaries (a.k.a. “Their Peeps Living Overseas”)

Destined to Move, Again.

3 Months in 30 Seconds

She Threw a Rock

Leaving, and Being Left

Looking Up

Ava eats Worms. For Real.

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Archive | living overseas/social justice RSS feed for this section

WELCOME

Video from the Field

My Articles {Other Places}

Places I'm Involved

It's NEW! Click LIKE.

Featured Article

Featured Videos

Latest Flickr photos

Popular Topics

Sites I Frequent

Popular Posts

Family & Friends