I heard the other day about a Thai woman who loves Jesus but chooses not to call herself a Christian. Instead, she classifies herself a “Buddhist Christ-Follower.” She recognizes that the term Christian in this part of the world is thick with cultural and historical meanings from the West that she would rather not identify [...]
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We walk up to the bar, and we slap a hand down. “Give me your best,” we tell the bartender. And we wait, expectant and hopeful. And the bartender mixes– the perfect concoction, no two drinks the same. This amount of bitter, this measure of sweet. A shot of strong, several shots of weak. A [...]
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The recent discussion we had here about the brutal cycle of hope and disappointment had me nodding my head as the conversation developed about dreams and the eventual crash-and-burning of those very ideals. And this early morning light finds me watching the farmers begin the process of harvesting the rice. Over the big white wall that [...]
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Yeah, so neither Matt nor I have ink yet. But as I’ve worked with the generation right behind me (the 20-somethings), I’ve noticed a trend for tats which is much greater now than even in my own college days. It used to be that only the wonderfully-edgiest people sported some kind of celtic symbol on [...]
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I feel like we’re in an epic boxing match with God right now. And he’s the one most definitely winning. It’s as if we’re stuck living a bad version of Groundhog Day, the cycle of hope and disappointment playing out in a thousand different scenarios. It goes a bit like this: 1. We think God [...]
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We admit it– we’re Survivor fans. We’ve watched Boston Rob rise and fall and then rise again, we’ve rooted for firefighter Tom from New York, and we’ve rolled our eyes at evil-maniac Russell who burned people’s socks. And even though they’ve been recycling challenges for the past 10 seasons of the current 23 {really, how [...]
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Picture this — You’re grabbing a burrito at Chipotle’s {oh, don’t make me jealous} and the family at the table next to you unwraps food that could feed an army, sticks straws in cokes, and then grabs plastic spoons and sticks them on their chins. Yeah, you heard me– they stick spoons on their chins. [...]
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Anybody can have a good website. Anybody. And that includes missionaries and ministries and humanitarian efforts that want and need your money. And oftentimes, what you see IS what you get– honest efforts at helping others, effective means of sharing God’s love with a community whether it be in education or poverty reduction or leadership [...]
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Sweaty heads and dirty feet tumbled into the car after an evening last week at BHJ Girl’s Home in Thailand. And we waved goodbye out the window as the gate was closed behind us, and I asked my three kids in the backseat, “Well, did you have fun?” And, immediately, my son started in– “I didn’t [...]
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We were in our mid-twenties when we tasted utter failure in one of our first “ministry” jobs. It was a train-wreck on every level– landing our family of three into my parent’s basement with no money, no job, and a whole heckuvalot of hurt to muck through. Conflict sucks. Especially conflict in Christian ministry. And [...]
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“So the question is, when the credits roll in your life, are people going to think your story sucked?” – donmilleris.com There’s been a lot of talk about living a Good Story this past year. I’ve read Donald Miller’s A Million Miles in a Thousand Years {and loved it}, which has been a catalyst for [...]
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ALifeOverseas.com / LauraParkerBlog.com.
My family is living overseas in Thailand, where my husband is directing a Christian Humanitarian Foundation. This blog is the honest recording of our journey– squatty potties and all. 
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Destined Traveler.
Mentoring Young Adults, Hosting Teams, Educating about Human Trafficking.