Phnom Penh Pals: Team Helm in Cambodia

  Some of the best advice I heard about moving is to focus on what is good about where you are. This is solid counsel, and applicable to both temporal and geographic contentment. The pandemic provides endless opportunities for discontent, particularly comparison to how things used to be. But perspective is powerful.   I could think about snow, which reminds me that Summer is by far my least favorite season (especially in pregnancy), we don’t have a yard/lawn/parks, and the kids have been stuck inside for months (and now can’t go three minutes without fighting). We can’t bake Christmas cookies because we made the difficult but correct decision not to have an oven in our 90 degree kitchen. Our kids miss soccer, gym class, running, and having friends. And if my thoughts go in that direction, my jaw tenses up and frustration mounts.  Or I could think about how we have everything we need and so many things we want. A huge fan blowing. Christmas music streaming on internet better than we oft

We are now Christian Health Service Corps missionaries. We’ve had people ask about the best ways to support us, which we will list below. Thank you for considering joining us on this mission!  If you have any questions we would love to hear from you. By Check Make payable to:              Christian Health Service Corps or CHSC Memo line:                             Project Number #176/Helm Mail to:                       Christian Health Service Corps PO Box 132 Fruitvale, TX 75127   Via Bill Pay Set up an automatic Bill Pay instruction through your bank/financial institution with donations mailed to the address above, giving your “ Project Number 176/Helm ” as the account number.   Via CHSC’s Website – for credit card donations Donate online at: _ https://www.healthservicecorps.org/author/helm/ (Please note when donating online that the Recurring Frequency default is monthly .   Use the drop down box to choose your preference.    Also, when donating online,

As a kid, I loved reading and re-reading Choose Your Own Adventure books to find the best possible outcome. Eaten by a shark? No problem. Return to page 65 and make a better choice. But there are no take-backs in real life. We are who we are in part because of the choices we made.  Taking my kids around places I grew up reminds me of how my choices intersected with God’s sovereignty to give me the life I am so grateful for today. What if I had chosen a different school? Another major? What if I had dated other people or hadn’t dated the people I did? We make thousands of decisions every day, and some seemingly inconsequential choices can have rippling effects.  I don’t often wonder about whether our kids should be growing up overseas. Someone once told us God’s will for us is God’s will for our young children, and that makes sense. But every so often I do find myself thinking about what their lives would look like on this side of the ocean.  Like when we visit my primary sc

One of my favorite moments: when a U.S. customs officer looks up, smiles, and says, "Welcome back." After days (years?) of travel, something inside me heaves a contented sigh. The past few days, I've been collecting similar moments. Flushing toilet paper. A flight attendant with an American accent, which means neither of us are straining to understand or be understood. Driving a vehicle. Feeling cold (or anything except sweaty). Watching seasons change. Our kids splashing in a bathtub. Thick carpet under tired feet. An engagement ring back on my finger after traveling half way around the world with my parents for repair. Our kids jamming to the radio in the backseat. Silence. Setting up conversations without having to calculate time zone differences. Snuggling under a thick blanket. The joy of children seeing snowflakes again (in May). A fresh breeze of clean air. Sunlight after 6 P.M. As we find ourselves unexpectedly in the U.S. for medical treatment, we are thankfu

“Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” the Lord asked (Acts 9:4).  In Saul’s conversion, the Lord revealed to Saul the depths of his own depravity, which was eclipsed by the subsequent revelation of the infinite Grace of God.   Saul, now blind, realized the extent to which he had been spiritually blind.  Formerly, he held to the law of Moses. He did not understand the wonderful love and grace of God as demonstrated on the Cross of Jesus Christ.  God blinded Paul to force him to realize that he was already blind.  God wants us all to learn this same lesson through Paul’s story.  Believers and unbelievers are both guilty of blasphemy.  Christians persecute the Lord by disobeying Him, daily contributing to the wrath against sin Jesus experienced on the cross.  Our disobedience literally hurts our Lord.  Unbelievers persecute Jesus by serving false gods.  Believers persecute Jesus by failing to obey Him.  This truth should guard believers against hypocrisy.    Jesus did not save beli

A look of alarm crossed his face as my son looked more closely at my eyes. "Mom! Why is there a tear in your eye? Why are you crying?" I'm not a crier, so he was legitimately concerned. "Because God's so good to us, bud." As the world approaches lockdown, we are all in increasing danger of myopia. So today we took some time to watch hymns sung in the beauty of nature. Every so often, it is good to remember how small we are next to everything God has created. This song started with one of the most amazing voices I've ever heard, and continued with haunting harmonies. But watching kids of every race singing about grace that transcends all heartache: wrecked me. A little bit of Heaven on earth.

Yesterday, Dr. James Njeng’ere took a car ride to heaven. I met Dr. James twenty years ago. At the time, I was an iconoclastic Christian with blue hair and a big beard struggling to understand why God let me have cancer and why the church seemed so hypocritical (later I discovered my own hypocrisy, but that’s another story). Dr. James was my science teacher, and I gravitated to his faith and character. My senior year, the most popular teacher at our school had a moral failure. He was arrested. I struggled with the situation: the man deserved punishment, and my heart ached for him. His decisions cost him his career and marriage, and he was facing incarceration. Yet Jesus had not stopped loving him. The school advised students and faculty not to contact him. I confided in Dr. James my desire to reach out, and he suggested we go together to meet the disgraced teacher. We told him Jesus loved him, we loved him, and the forgiveness of God isn’t something we can earn. Mercy and gr