This past week he told stories from his last trip overseas–around a table and over sandwiches– that still-fresh ink crawling out from under his shirt sleeve. I’d heard the story several times before, but there was something about this telling that felt different, scarier to me. Maybe it was the natural responses from our friends. [...]
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Our family went rock collecting the other day. We drove to the local sand and gravel place and unloaded the kids in front of the river rock pile. And then we started picking up rocks– flat ones, red ones, oddly shaped-ones. It was Colorado-cold and our fingers started to hurt, but we dug and selected [...]
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There are a few things I’ve learned about doubt over the last three years of risk and failure, of transition and struggle. First, I’ve learned that the people who tell you that you shouldn’t ever have experience doubt if you are really following God and are on the “right” path, are probably smoking crack. You’re human. [...]
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My husband says I’m the writer of the family, and that he’d rather just stick to the speaking-bit. And maybe he’s right. Because he rarely writes but every time he speaks publicly he brings people to cry tears or draw swords. The man seeps inspirational leadership. And these last two years, I’ve seen him endure [...]
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Here in the comfortable West, we tend to think of life as an extravagant beach picnic. Our families are gathered around on red checkered tablecloths, eating fried chicken, those little pickles and chunks of fresh watermelon. We drink our sweet tea while we relax in the sun, and we call to our kids to be [...]
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My husband has been into over 300 bars and brothels in SE Asia looking for victims of sexual exploitation, and the strange thing is, he’s re-learned the Gospel more powerfully in that setting than anything he’s ever experienced in a church building. Funny that he would find Jesus in a strip club. But he did, [...]
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I admit sometimes my eyes get a little green when it comes to what my husband gets to do and what I have to do (as if it’s not obvious from the verb choices there), but it’s always been like this. I remember when I was a mom with toddlers and babies, staying home most [...]
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This weekend I got to see a friend who remembers me when I was an overweight middle schooler with braces. In fact, we go back even further. She remembers me when I had spend-the-nights at her house across town as an elementary kid who still had to call my mom before I went to sleep. [...]
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So with the shift from homeschooling to public school, family devotions have been challenging to fit in, I’ll admit. We tried getting everyone up early to have some “thoughts for the day” before school, but that would mean waking children up at five-something, which seems just sacrilegious in the first place. We’ve opted, instead, to [...]
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Jesus had a new way of being in the world, a new system of success that was upside-down in every way. It was a different kind of Kingdom he taught about where a person stoops to be taller, where someone serves to be greater. It was a Kingdom where death actually comes first. Before life, [...]
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It’s hard to reconcile the two lives I’ve lived in the past two weeks. One overlooking rice fields, the other at the foot of Pike’s Peak. One with Mississippi-summer-heat by 9 am, the other too chilly even for my cutest of skirts. One with scooters flying and orchids climbing, the other with bikes on trails [...]
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LauraParkerBlog.com.
My family has just returned from living overseas in SE Asia, where we were (and still are) involved in counter-human trafficking efforts. This blog is the honest recording of our journey– squatty potties and all. 
