THE AWKWARD MOM

because uncomfortable conversations are the ones worth having

Tag: missionary

Bad News. You’re Not as Necessary as You Think You Are

Reading Time: 4 minutes

necessary irreplaceable indispensable

Ever lost a job?

Years ago, after a frequent series of layoffs in my company, the axe finally fell on me. read more

Do Our Churches Prefer Certain Occupations? (Does God?)

Reading Time: 4 minutes

Last week was the week where you sign enough paperwork that you think, Maybe I just bought a house or something. But actually, you’ve just registered your kids for school. I lost track of how many boxes of pencils and packages of notebook paper I purchased. And one of my kids is starting high school, which may mean that I am old?

Either way, the principal introduced himself as I walked out with my freshman (man, just typing it makes it sound real). And here is what I liked: Our new principal, in his last district, was also an elder in his church. So was our new superintendent. These intelligent, gifted men could presumably be doing a lot of things with their giftedness. But as I chatted with the principal, I thought, I’m really glad you’re doing this particular job. It matters to me and my kids and their discipleship. People like you preserve our schools so they don’t become “unreached”. read more

Guest Post: Raising Kids on a Mission

Reading Time: < 1 minute

She was already cuddled up for the night beneath her comforter, pillows blooming around her olive skin. While I perched beside her, we spent a minute chatting about her favorite teacher.

“But Mom, he doesn’t know Jesus.” She looked down. read more

Guest post: A Prayer for Your Community–Every Day of the Week

Reading Time: < 1 minute

It’s probably good that you can’t see my house this week. I actually said to a visiting friend yesterday, Mi chaos es su chaos. 

We’re moving out on Tuesday. As in, to very soon leave this stunning continent.

It’s some of why I’ve been exploring lately–in posts like this one on living “sent, like missionaries who stay, and this one on having an “open house”–what it looks like to live as people set on fire in and for our communities.  And after the heart-rending events in Manchester this week, we’re reminded again of the gaping need and pain in our communities. (In us, too.) read more

Living Sent: An Updated Job Description (Guest Post)

Reading Time: < 1 minute

Quick role-play. Let’s say you, your spouse, your kids—you’re all headed back to the Western world from some distant land. You’ve been missionaries somewhere; Africa, maybe. (You pick.) You’ve been helping people gain clean water, maybe, or teaching refugees, or advocating for orphans of AIDS.

How would you live in your home country?

This is actually my personal, particular predicament. My family and I have been living and working in the developing world for five years now, and are now headed to suburban America. I’m asking a question that perhaps many of you are already asking: What does it look like to be missionaries…who stay? read more

“As a bow to the violin”: FREE printable chalkboard art

Reading Time: 2 minutes

Today’s quotable is from Frank Laubach (1884-1970), missionary to the Philippines. Laubach is estimated to have been responsible for teaching half of the 90,000 people in his area to read and write, and to have reached out to the Mohammedan Moros, who regarded the Christian Filipinos as enemies.  Laubach wrote in the new year of 1930,

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Don’t waste the waiting

Reading Time: 4 minutes

It was two years ago that our family received unsettling news that began an extended holding pattern for us, news which wouldn't be resolved for another eleven months. That period of gray, unsettled twilight will stand out in my life as one where I became well-acquainted--more than I would have wished, for sure--with the chisel of God that is waiting.

28 Signs I Might Be Living Overseas

Reading Time: 2 minutes

1.  I set a goal for myself while jogging: If I can only make it to that goat.

  1. Everyone speaks more languages than I do.
  2. I have partaken of creatures I would normally not consume by choice, e.g. fish eyes, grasshoppers, and the like.
  3. People dispose of trash by simply throwing it out the window.
  4. A healthy percentage of my most delightful friends were born a hemisphere away from where I was.
  5. I avoid unfiltered water like the Plague. Because I’m pretty sure I’ve seen the Plague in there.
  6. My pothole-per-mile ratio exceeds 136:1.
  7. The concept of “home” feels bewildering.
  8. I answer to a wide variety of names that sound entirely different than the one I’ve answered to for the majority of my adult life.
  9. Fruit and other materials labeled “exotic” in my home country are available at that little wooden stand down the street.
  10. My children asked for a raise in their allowance based on the increasing value of the dollar.
  11. My electrical company is perpetually listed in my phone’s recent contacts.
  12. Sometimes home feels like camping.
  13. Despite the lack of familiarity, there is something about the place I live that makes I feel so…alive.
  14. I adopt an accent when speaking, say, at the supermarket.
  15. My suitcase is filled with odd items, like 6 of the same deodorant, 18 months of underwear for six people, eight pounds of chocolate chips, and 12 jars of B vitamins. My carry-on is where I stash the Hot Tamales and six packs of Slim Jims.
  16. People attempt to compliment me by calling me “fat”, or in regards to my status, a “big woman.” …Yeah. Thanks.
  17. Ants in my home don’t even capture my attention anymore unless in vast quantities or floating in my drink.
  18. The last trip to the States found me saying, “What in the world is ‘Apple TV’?”
  19. I are content with my “dumb” phone, because pretty much everyone else has one, and if it falls in the toilet (or pit latrine) I can afford to replace it.
  20. Cops stop me because I are more likely to be a source of cash.
  21. “I’ll Be Home for Christmas” gets me all sniffy.
  22. My bed is shrouded in netting, but somehow my arms and legs still have telltale welts of those little (literal) suckers.
  23. I keep toilet paper in my glove box. Because public toilets, when I can find them, are BYO TP.
  24. I give up asking for decaffeinated coffee, because people don’t really know what that is (or why you would drink it), nor do they have it.
  25. I can pronounce all of the ingredients in my food.
  26. I am feeling a whole lot more deft with the metric system lately.
  27. My employer contemplates sending out regular deworming reminders via e-mail.

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