5 Ways to Prepare for an Overseas Mission Trip

Blogging experts tell you to use titles like this one to draw in readers. Well, how in the world am I supposed to know how to prepare for an overseas mission trip!?

I have gotten some good advice from those who have experience, though, so I'll show you what I'm doing to get ready for our big adventure in India.

1.  PRAY. Get your friends to pray. Ask your family to pray. You know your church is praying. PRAY!!!

2.  Memorize Scripture. Some of the girls who are going and I have memorized Psalm 91 so it will be right there in our hearts and minds when we need it.

3.  Leave a note for the kids for every day you're away. I also bought chocolate candy so every night when they read our notes, they can have a little something sweet to go with it. I'm leaving a notebook with them so they can write to us while we're away. I can already anticipate how each one will fill his pages.

4. Shop for clothes that are culturally appropriate. No one had to twist my arm on this one.

5. Meet with friends who have experience and good advice and encouragement and love and practical gifts and who are amazing and whom you want to be like when you grow up.

Here was Jani's most hilarious advice: "Just think like this Jen, 'Where he leads me I will follow. What he feeds me, I will swallow." This went along with her instructions about Tums, Immodium AD and the like. How cute is Jani Ortlund? Seriously. How cute?

Bonus Tip: Collect your supplies little-by-little over a long period of time. 

Here's what we have collected so far:

We're taking soap and soap cases to some of the kids there. This is my share. Have you appreciated your soap lately? How about your warm water?

SUPER DEET!!!

 Clinical strength deoderant? Check. Vitamin D? Check. Tums? Check. Super antibiotic? Check.

I'm taking barrettes and ponytail holders for the girls! Buying girl stuff is totally selfish.

Face wipes, trail mix ...

Some of the women in our church embroidered pillowcases for the children. There are 42 children in the younger kids' home, and each one will receive a pillowcase with his or her name on it, a special verse just for them, a note, and a photo of the person who embroidered the pillowcase. This one was done by my friend Jenny. 

Brenda-I'm-Totally-Amazing Bates came up with this idea and oversaw the whole project. She even taught us to embroider! We also embroidered a few extra cases with a verse and no name because we are praying for more rescues. Four more children were rescued while we were working on these pillow cases!

So there you go. There's the tip of the iceberg. The next part is: Work all of this in around raising your kids and running your home and volunteering at school and overseeing homework and everything else you need to do. (It's totally worth it.)

Need Help With Your Child's Behavior?

Me too.

Our counselor recommended this website, and these behavior charts have been helpful. Since Chicken Little doesn't get official game time, he can earn 10 minutes of time on my phone every day that he fills up his row. There are few things that boy won't do to get his little hands on my phone, let me tell you.

The site has different charts along with instructions on how to best use them, but here's a quick look at the one on our fridge. He can pretty much earn a smiley face by doing ANYTHING I ask him to do without pushing back.

If I say, "Jacob, come eat this ice cream!" and he does it, HE GETS A SMILEY FACE.  I'm not shooting for the moon here, people. Baby steps.

(That missing face on Monday? It was a sticker Jacob removed. You can't lose smiley faces; no, you cannot.)

So, what works in your home?

Healthy Backpack-Snack Solution

Have you ever tried to send a banana in the front pocket your kid's backpack? That can go wrong in so many ways.

It turns out that deli containers are the perfect size to send bananas or other fruit in the boys' backpacks. So there you go.

Are You Spiritually Awkward?

Our oldest son, Sam, is growing a moustache. He's not doing it on purpose; it's just showing up on his upper lip. Sometimes I catch him noticing these changes in the mirror.

I remember being his age, twelve, and looking every bit of ten. I longed to look grown-up and curvy and beautiful. Instead, I had long, skinny limbs and bruises on my legs. My face hadn't grown enough to catch up with my front teeth.

Sometimes I still feel like I'm twelve--especially on the inside. I long to be beautiful--patient, loving, kind, full of grace, selfless. I long to be this way all the way through, not just to appear this way. My spiritual knees are still knobby, though. Parts of me are still awkward. I'm trying to be patient with myself and to understand that that I can't make myself grow on the inside any more than I could make myself grow on the outside. But I still wish I could.

A Healthy Dinner in 30 Minutes

Lately, I've been inspired by my friend and food enthusiast Katie. One of her Pinterest boards gave me the idea for our dinner tonight.

The best part of this meal is that I didn't even have to follow any recipes; I just browsed around Katie's recipes for inspiration and went with it.

Before grilling, I marinated the chicken breasts in:

• 1/2 cup olive oil
• 1/8 cup lemon juice
• a couple of chopped basil leaves
• two chopped garlic cloves
• salt and pepper

For the salad, I tossed the following in a bowl: 

• kale
• soy beans
• 1/2 a chopped yellow pepper
• chopped green onions
• grape tomatoes (halved)
• black olives (halved)
• chopped walnuts
• crumbled queso fresco (Mexican white crumbling cheese)

For the salad dressing, shake up the following in a small jar:

• 1/2 cup olive oil
• 1/3 cup balsamic vinegar (I used raspberry balsamic)
• salt
• pepper
• a generous squeeze of honey

OH. The bread is Naan bread. It is delicious. I get it at Whole Foods. Warm in foil at 400 degrees for five minutes or so.

I wrapped the salad and sliced grilled chicken in the warm flatbread. Yum. Eee. (And easy.)

A Key to Effective Prayer

I found this excerpt from this morning's reading helpful:

"Those who have made the deaf and dumb their study tell us how much the power of speaking depends on that of hearing, and how the loss of hearing in children is followed by that of speaking, too. ... To offer a prayer--to give utterance to certain wishes and to appeal to certain promises--is an easy thing and can be learned of man by human wisdom. But to pray in the Spirit, to speak words that reach and touch God, that affect and influence the powers of the unseen world--such praying, such speaking, depends entirely upon our hearing God's voice."
                                       
                         --Andrew Murray, With Christ in the School of Prayer, copyright 1887

Conversations with Jacob

One of the fun things about having an unpredictable kid is the unpredictable stuff he says.

When learning to ride his bike recently Jacob yelled out, "I feel so ... CHINESE!"

Apparently, the bike was made in China.

When waking up a few days ago, his response to my "Good morning, sweet boy," was, "My sunflower seedling looks like a weinie."

Last night before falling asleep Jacob wandered back into the bonus room and said with great seriousness, "Mom, I have something to say to you. (Pregnant pause.) I love you ... and I hope you have a great day tomorrow. (Another pregnant pause.) Again. I love you."

I love you too, kid--you hilarious, hilarious kid.

Our Trip to India

In a few weeks, Daniel and I will board a plane and fly halfway across the globe to Mumbai, India. When we arrive, we'll be working with an orgainzation called Bombay Teen Challenge. You may have heard about them from recent news coverage about Cy Young Award winner R.A. Dickey. We were able to speak with him a few weeks ago about his experience there, and our friend and fellow team member Ben James helped produce the video featured here. A survivor of sexual abuse himself, R.A. has a heart for BTC and the work they do.

As we travel to this ancient and beautiful country, we pray that our eyes and hearts will be opened in a new way to the suffering of the women and children there. We're asking God to use our meager efforts to help in some small way. We're asking him to continue to raise up revolutionaries like K.K. Devraj in India to do this costly and difficult work.

Who Runs the World? Girls?

Two nights ago, we watched the 2012 film Mirror, Mirror. It is a retelling of the Snow White story. In this version, the women hold all the power and the men are bumbling idiots who need continual rescuing.

The filmmakers' message is clear and intentional: women don't need men. Women are more powerful than men. Men are women's accessories. Is this a message to celebrate? Like Beyonce's "Girls" song ... do we want our girls to have to "run the world"? This just replaces one problem with another. Women are strong, but men are, too; our world and our children need both types of strength.

Movies, books and TV shows that portray men as superfluous and weak are harmful.

I'm grateful that I live in a place where I can be educated and can support myself financially--don't get me wrong. I believe in equal rights for women. But the images of women we see in 2013 are just as manufactured as the images that sold home appliances in the 50's; they're just different images. I think the greatest work we can teach our girls--and our boys--is not how to be independent but how to be interdependent. When men and women learn how to live with mutual respect for one another, I think we'll start getting somewhere.

What princess would want to marry an overgrown infant at the end of her fairy tale, anyway?

A Reminder for Monday

I don't know about you, but sometimes Monday mornings give me knots in my stomach. Weekdays tend to be harder here, and strangely, less predictable. I anticipate meltdowns on weekdays; I try to tiptoe around emotional landmines. I never know what to expect. This morning I'm reminded that it's okay. My emotional well being doesn't depend on those around me. Better yet, it doesn't depend on me.

"The Lord your God is in your midst,

a mighty one who will save;

he will rejoice over you with gladness;

he will quiet you by his love;

he will exult over you with loud singing."

Zephaniah 3:17

A quiet soul. That's what I'm asking for today.