In the villages of Malawi, sometimes it’s hard to know a person’s age. Even parents don’t always remember the date their son or daughter was born. There are no filing cabinets with birth certificates or even a calendar on the wall, but they do usually remember if it was during the rains or not and…
When I was a kid, I was good enough at my sport to make the local all-star team. I honestly have no idea how stiff the competition was for that spot, but I thought it was kind of a big deal to be the illustrious first pick. I was quick, accurate, and tough, but I…
Some of our kids at HUGS for Tomorrow are sponsored, but for the most part we raise money every six months to feed each one and keep them all in school. We do this for a few different reasons, including the constantly fluctuating food costs and the opportunities it presents for our supporters to get…
It seems to me that each place we live has its own resident evil spirits—local demons assigned to stir up a particular brand of evil. There are a couple here named Gossip and Slander. You should recognize them from their many mentions in the Bible. They’re cousins and quite skilled at working together. We’re watching…
I’ve had the worst ever writer’s block lately. No kidding. I have five blog articles in the works, but I can’t seem to complete any of them. Heck, I can’t seem to complete a sentence. It’s crazy! But I have information you need, so I made a deal with God. (I know that’s probably not…
We traveled to Malawi for two weeks in May and—I know this is an unorthodox thing to report—we didn’t see any gay people. Not one couple. It hit me in an airport on the way back when we saw a guy wearing a gay pride shirt, caressing another man. It was eye opening and thought…
I must confess that when our kids were little and just learning how to read and write, one of my guilty pleasures was to imitate the funny ways they mispronounced words and even adopt them into my own vocabulary. It was beyond adorable to hear the many ways Ben mixed up his bs and ds….
I’m happy to report that our trip to Malawi could not have been more successful! After three and a half long years apart, it was so good to see Snoden and his family thriving more than ever. Their focus is obvious, and they really appear to be growing in their roles as administrators. Snoden oversees…
Finally, after traveling from Nebraska to Colorado to Washington DC to Dubai to South Africa, we have arrived in Malawi. Along the way we took four planes and several cars, experiencing a medley of adventure, including a delayed takeoff, a very chatty drunk lady, a sticky soda spill, a guy who snored thunder, a surprise…
Sometimes I think about the thousand words a certain photo represents and how I really want to tell you the story. This is one of those and there are others, so I officially deem this article the first “Story Behind the Photo.” (I realize that implies there will be more, but I make no promises.)…