Did you know that the continent of Africa is actively splitting into two pieces? It’s true. It’s in the process of breaking into separate tectonic plates at a rate of approximately eight millimeters per year or so, according to the people who study that sort of thing. The Great Rift Valley, as the dividing line…
(photo: me with Chimwemwe, making the thank-you video after his biopsy was funded) Five years ago when we lived in Malawi, a friend asked if I had ever heard of DonorSee. I had not, and maybe you haven’t either, so I’m going to fill you in and tell you what a blessing it’s been to…
(photo: us in Nicaragua with our new friends) We arrived in Costa Rica just over two weeks ago and intend to live here. Despite that fact, we were only granted a fifteen-day visa at the airport, so we had to do what the expat community calls a border run. It sounds a bit sketchy, but…
(Photo: This was us, packed and ready to head to the airport.) We’ve been in Costa Rica for ten days and just got internet installed last night, so now I can tell you how it’s going. Of course we’re not exactly settled in just yet, but we didn’t expect to be. I can’t tell you…
I’ve been overwhelmed for so long that I was beginning to forget what it feels like to just be whelmed (if that’s even a thing). We have spent the last two months feverishly working to get things out of our house and finish renovations in order to prepare for an international move. We haven’t been…
Well, now what? John quit his job and we moved out of our house and sold most of our stuff. It’s time to go back to full time mission work, which in this case means finishing the school we started building in Malawi. Only we can’t move back there just yet because of finances and…
photo: Sonny (dad), Gina, Janette, Billy, Joanne (mom), John John’s dad William Jewell passed away in March. We just had his funeral yesterday. At his military service, John read this article I wrote: What do you say when someone dies? The good stuff. You talk about all of the fun memories you shared with that…
(Picture: This magnet is on my friend’s fridge, and I can’t think of a more appropriate image for this post.) Two years ago as John and I we were on a road trip to visit our son in the military, we took advantage of the time by planning and organizing the HUGS for Tomorrow…
The school we’re building in Malawi now consists of preschool through the fourth grade and educates 150 students. As this year wraps up for summer, we have the wonderful problem of figuring out where to put our fourth grade students next year. You see, this group is the original preschool class of 2018, and…
Just before the last presidential election, I had to scramble to renew my registration in order to vote in the Biden-Trump showdown. We move so often I almost always have to do that. It’s a chore that gets lumped in with setting up utilities and finding local services like medical care and hair cutting. But…