Palm trees in the desert - coming into Lake Havasu City, AZ

At the London Bridge - in Arizona!

With Faron and Debbie Eckelbarger at KNLB

Stopping at a Diners, Drive Ins and Dives spot on Route 66

At the Crystal Cathedral - I'm the little black and teal dot to the lower left of the choir

The Crystal Cathedral

Mom and I hiked up near the Hollywood sign

Me and my cool mom on the set of Friends at the Warner Brothers Studio

This weekend I headed out of town with my mom for the West coast. I haven’t been out there in a while, and I was so glad my mom could come with me. We had a little issue with our flights, and ended up landing in Los Angeles about midnight their time (which was three in the morning for us!) where we waited for an hour for our rental car (another mix-up!) and finally drove about an hour and a half to our hotel. Sheesh. Then we had to get up early to head out across the Mojave Desert, since I was supposed to be at KNLB in Lake Havasu City, AZ, just across the California border, by 11 that morning. Not our best planning ever, but we made it.

I’ve never been in the Mojave Desert, and it was such a surprise. It was just gorgeous! I was thinking of a flat, sandy desert, but it was full of mountains and plantlife and colors – it was stunning. I was so glad we had to get up early to see some of what the sun was doing to the vistas. God is so good, and in a place like that, you just can’t miss His work at every turn. Unfortunately, I couldn’t stop and take pictures since we were in a time crunch, so my mom snapped a few through the window. I’m so glad she did since I was thinking I would take some on the way back, but we ended up driving back through the dark (and basically a monsoon!) so I wouldn’t have gotten a chance.

We got to KNLB at 11 and met the station manager Faron Eckelbarger and his wife, Debbie, who is also the afternoon host at the station. We chatted, and then went to lunch where they asked me if I would go live that afternoon on their Treehouse One show. Mom and I took a quick detour to see the London Bridge (yes, the actual London Bridge. I guess when they replaced it, they sent the original to Lake Havasu City piece by piece – you can still see some of the numberings on the blocks where they were marking how to put it back together), because you can’t miss that!!

Then we headed back to the station, and I went live on air with Debbie for the rest of the afternoon. We took calls from quite a few kids and adults, and it’s a really neat ministry – kids would call in and say Scriptures they had memorized and ask for music or ask a question, and I couldn’t believe how much Scripture these kids knew!

After that I recorded a few liners and things for the station and then we went to dinner. By the time we left there, it was starting to rain just a little and it was dark. By the time we got back to the desert, it was pitch black and gale force winds and buckets of rain. In the desert. Yep. Faron told me that happens once every year or two. Glad we got to experience it. 😉 And since our body clocks were off, mom and I drove in that until what felt like four in the morning. I was never so happy to see my hotel room!

Fortunately we had the next day off, so we slept in and only had to drive a couple of hours. We went to a Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives place we found on the L.A. side of the desert, and it was really fun, although definitely not health food. We drove a bit on Route 66 just because we could. Then we went shopping since I really needed a new outfit for the Crystal Cathedral. Have I mentioned that I hate, hate, hate shopping? I would much rather do just about anything else. That might explain why I was looking for my outfit the day before the service!!

The next morning we got up early and got to the church for sound check before the early service. It’s really quite a production. There were several stage managers and we had to check all our marks for the television cameras and obviously we had to sound check too. I haven’t been there since I sang there in college, and it was just as beautiful inside as I remembered. All that L.A. sun just poured in.

I did about a 10 minute interview and then sang “Before the Throne of God Above.” Then they took me out to sign books and CDs between services and then back to do it the second time. It was a gorgeous day, and I had a lot of great conversations with people afterwards. The service will be broadcast on “The Hour of Power” in two weeks.

Since this trip seemed to be full of mix-ups, we had one more. We were supposed to do another radio visit up north, but the dates got switched, so mom and I found ourselves with a couple of free days in L.A. Hey, worse things have happened. So we decided to be kids and go to Disneyland for a day, and on the Warner Brothers tour. Had a great time, and it was fun just to get that downtime with my mom! She’s pretty cool. 🙂

There have been quite a lot of articles coming out lately about my book “Life Not Typical” which is just great – I love that we are getting the word about SPD and special needs parenting, and I hope it will give a lot of families hope! I just wanted to link to a couple of them in case you’d like to see them.

This article came out this morning in Autism News Today.

And this article came out in my home paper, the Columbus Dispatch, a few days ago.

Waiting on the set of Atlanta Live!

With the incomparable Babbie Mason

At WMVV radio

The ridiculous white/chocolate/red velvet/cheese/carrot/ganache/raspberry cake Donna and I shared

At South Venice Baptist Church for the concert

Leading worship at the women's retreat at First Presbyterian St. Pete.

Singing on the service at First Presbyterian St. Pete

With Kate Bruington at Moody Radio Florida

I’m sitting here on the other side of a crazy week, and I am so grateful for so many things. 1) All the work God did. 2) All the work He’s going to do. 3) All the doors He opened for me this past week. 4) A little time off! I have a couple weeks here where I don’t have to go anywhere and plan to hang out with my fam on their spring break. 🙂

I left last Tuesday and flew to Atlanta with Donna. We were staying with her friends down there, and let’s face it, she wanted to go just to see her friends and meet Babbie Mason – I’m not very cool to her anymore. 🙂 We had such a fun moment on the plane. I noticed the woman next to me looked very nervous before take-off, so I started talking with her to distract her, and we found out we were neighbors! Then she mentioned that her husband had passed away the year before and she was nervous about traveling alone and got confused, etc. So Donna and I asked if she’d like us to help her find her connection in Atlanta (it’s a huge and confusing airport) and she was so sweet and thanked us over and over, and called us her angels. I think that’s just the way God connects people, and I’m so glad we met! I’m hoping I’ll see her this summer when she’s back up north.

Donna and I got in around lunch and killed a little time before heading to WATC studios to do their TV show, Atlanta Live! That was a lot of fun because it’s two hours long, so there are several guests and I always like to meet people and see what the Lord is doing in their lives. It was a two hour show, and I had about a half an hour of it.

Then we headed to Donna’s friends’ house (hi Sandy and family!) and in the morning we headed back to WATC to film Babbie’s House. This is Babbie Mason’s show, and it was such an honor to meet her and be with her. She was just down to earth and fabulous. We were laughing because she was fixing the pillows on her set and we were saying, “Yep, this is your house!” She was an amazing woman, and I’m so glad I met her. I also met Kristen Feola who was taping the next show, and we realized we had the same publicist and I had just looked at her page the day before! She was a sweetie.

Then we raced out of there to make it down to WMMV, a radio station south of Atlanta who has been so supportive of my music and ministry. I taped an interview about my new book and some liners for the station and got caught up on their ministry. They are such sweet guys with great hearts for the Lord!

The next morning we got up very early and drove to Toccoa Falls, which is up in the mountains Northeast of Atlanta to do the morning show on WRAF, another radio station who has been really supportive for years. I’ve been there before as well, and it was great to see Mike Shelley again and sit in with him on the show! He posted our interview here if you’d like to listen.

Then it was back to drop Donna off (she stayed in Atlanta a bit longer) and I headed for the airport. That is quite a hoopla there with returning cars, etc. Jeesh. But I made it to Tampa, and went to my Grandma’s house. It’s fun that I sing in the Tampa area so much because I get to see a lot more of my Grandma! She rocks. She’s 93 and still riding her bike. My mom had flown down a few days earlier and was helping me that weekend and my uncle lives there too, so we had a little reunion going on. 🙂

The next morning I went and sound checked at First Presbyterian in St. Pete where I had a women’s retreat the next day and then we drove down to Venice. I did a concert there Friday night, and that was so fun. Before the concert, I met with some women who wanted to talk to me about a women’s retreat the following winter, and so we got to see a little more of Venice as well. I’ve never been there. That night, the concert was at the church of an old friend who had moved to Florida from my home church, so it was also great to catch up with her and meet her kids.

Then mom and I drove back to St. Pete and stayed there so we could get up early for the women’s retreat. I taught Esther, which I love, and led the worship, and it was just a special day. Great women, and so excited to study the Word! We also just loved getting to know Marie Huber, the coordinator. She did a beautiful job.

The next morning I went back to that church again and sang special music on their services and told a story about World Vision, and then that afternoon they had a concert as well. The music director there, Tom Lippert, is such a sweet guy, and I have truly loved getting to know everyone I’ve met at this church – they’re just lovely.

Finally, we went back to Grandma’s and Monday morning got up early again to be on the morning show at Moody Radio Florida. I’ve been here before and it was great, but I hadn’t been with this morning host, Kate Bruington before. We just loved her. She and I did an interview about the new book and Thailand and the ministry, and when we were done she said she wants to have me back in the next couple months to do a full interview on the book, and also talked to my mom about doing an interview about hers, so that would be wonderful!

Then, we kind of crashed in a pile. 🙂 Mom and I hung out, went out to dinner with my uncle and grandma, and got up early the next morning to fly home. Busy, busy, and I can’t say I like it when the schedule is that packed, but I am also so grateful for all the opportunities to share the Lord.

Setting up at Grace Church in Powell, OH

Well, we’ve been home almost two weeks, and I am just starting to feel like myself again. I have had jet lag before, but nothing compares to the jet lag we had coming home from Thailand! I was just worthless for a full week. Several times I had to eat dinner standing up just so I could stay awake! Yikes.

We had some great news last week, though. My new single, “Life Not Typical” was on the Most Added list for the Billboard chart! We’re still gaining ground, and I hope to see it chart in the Top 40 soon. So that was really exciting for us!

I also had a couple of events this past weekend. I was so blessed to have both of them be local events, and I was so grateful because with the jet lag, I was still struggling a bit! They say it’s a day for every time zone, and we were 12 hours off, so I should finally be back to me.

Last Thursday I spent a great night with the ladies at Grace Church in Powell. I got to share some of what we had seen in Thailand as well as my new video and our story and songs. They were a wonderful group, and I hope to see them again soon!

Last night I also did a very interesting event unlike anything I’ve done before. A church just north of us was doing a spa night as an outreach event, and they asked me to come in and present the Gospel. It’s a fundraiser for a different charity every year (this year it was for a group that helps women who are experiencing domestic violence) and all the women come and get spa treatments such as manicures or chair massages, and hear a short talk on the charity and then the Gospel from me. It was a super fun night, but I have to say, it’s not easy to transition to the Gospel from eyebrow waxing! And yet, we did it. 🙂 It was fun, and yes, I got a chair massage.

The girls playing outside the main home

With Nhu (left) and Lida, who became so dear to us

The girls showing us a dance they had made up

Some of the girls out back washing their laundry at the main home

A rice field, newly planted

One of the girls walking from the smaller house to the big house

Two sisters in their tribal dresses ready for worship

A few of the girls showing their tribal clothes for worship

Everyone's getting settled for the service

Leading worship with two wonderful young women, them in Thai, me in English

Two of the girls sharing a dance during service

Mho gah tuk!!

Bangkok

It was hard to believe as the days went by that we were actually getting close to the end of our trip. We were gone two weeks, but when you spend two days on either end just traveling, the time goes so fast!

On Saturday, we split up. Nathan and the other men took the boys on a special outing involving lunch, video games, and “The Green Lantern” in Thai. I stayed at the main girls’ home on Saturday and took advantage of the time to teach some more music to several of the girls. We also played more Uno, ninja, badminton, and jump rope. It was amazing to watch how the home ran like clockwork. All the girls had chores and they all just went and did whatever their job was without complaining, and everyone working together made the house run. It’s no small thing to feed three meals a day to 50 or 60 people and to keep the house clean and organized.

I was also impressed by how the girls cared for each other. There are house parents at all the homes and they were very loving and excellent at their jobs, but it is not really possible to give individual attention all the time with that many children. The girls watched out for each other and the older girls cared for the younger ones. They weren’t assigned smaller children, it just happened. Culturally, they all considered themselves sisters. I was struck several times by how this kind of home really wouldn’t work in the States, but here, with their culture, it worked really well. There was one particular girl who had some learning problems and issues, and when we would play games, she could never keep the rules straight, but all the other girls were just patient with her and helped her until her turn was finished. Disagreements were very uncommon. I asked what kind of punishment was used if someone needed correction and the answer was, “Dishes. We obviously have tons of dishes and they really dislike that job, so the worst punishment we can give is dish duty.”

The next day we had worship at the main house. That was just a precious, precious day to me. Every week all the houses gather at the main house because they have the biggest space. There are also a few people from the community who come because Christian churches are rare. One of the permanent missionaries here spent four years learning the language which is very complicated so that he could preach and translate. It’s also complicated by the fact that many of the girls and boys here have tribal backgrounds and their own languages, and there were other internationals there as well.

When we arrived, many of the children were wearing their tribal dress, and we were told it was because it was a special occasion – they did it in honor of us and our last day with them, and also because it was the pastor’s birthday. They looked so beautiful, and we could tell which tribe they represented and were able to start picking out biological brothers and sisters a bit too.

The service began with a team of girls from the main house who led worship. We knew several of the songs and sang along in English. Then they asked me to come and lead some worship which I did with two of the girls I had worked with the day before. Then there was a time of open sharing, and all three houses as well as other groups of children came forward one by one and presented special things they had prepared. There were a few choral pieces, a couple of dances, and several songs. Finally, we heard a testimony from someone who had become our dear friend of how God had first spoken to her heart and was working to help her save her daughter. The pastor translated, and it was just beautiful.

After the service we had an amazing afternoon celebration. The houses had all made us special cards and pictures, and they had prepared several songs for us as well. Then we had a huge feast of Mookata (mho gah tuk), or Thai barbeque. They set out pots all over the yard with wood charcoal in them and with a pan over the top. Around the edge of the pan was chicken stock and they cooked vegetables and rice noodles in that, and in the raised center there was a piece of fat to grease the pan and all around that they cooked pork and chicken and fish cake. Apparently the goal is to eat everything. And to feed your guests until they explode. The girls we were with thought it was hilarious to keep sneaking food into our bowls after we’d said we were full, and in the end, we ate for two hours with them.

We played all afternoon with the girls, and then it was time to say goodbye. That was so hard. For every member of the team I think there were a few children who had really touched their hearts, and for me, there were two in particular to whom I had a very hard time saying goodbye. They were both my older daughter’s age, and were so sweet. They stood together holding hands as we were loading the van, and then one ran to the van and came in for one last hug even though we had been hugging for half an hour already. They both still have surviving parents, so neither is adoptable, but it broke my heart to drive away. I hope I can visit them again.

That night we all had dinner together and then we got ready to leave in the morning. Nathan and I were headed back to Bangkok for a day before going home, and the other couples were staying another week in a different location. It was hard to say goodbye to the rest of the team as well – that is an amazing bonding experience! But it’s different since I know I will see them again.

We left early the next morning, and spent the afternoon at the hotel. That night we went to dinner at the Baiyoke Sky Hotel which is the tallest building in Thailand. We went to the top and took in the view.

The next morning we were on our way by 3:45am. Six and a half hours back to Narita, layover, and then the long flight back to Washington D.C. When we finally got back to our house in Columbus on Tuesday night, it felt like forever. It was so good to see our kids! And after what we’d learned, we held them closer even than we might have. Now we are praying through how God will use this trip, and how He would like to use us to help.

Want to see lots more pictures? Check out the full album here!

Young monks at the temple

You can see the incense they are burning to these gold statues of monks

One of the myriad of altars

This young man was just pleading for something

Women selling things on the steps to the temple

Watching one of our umbrellas being painted

Some of the boys having their dinner at the boys' home

The market where we shopped for cooking class

A taste of the gorgeous gardens all around us

Some of the girls I came to love

The gifts and supplies brought by the team

Riding an elephant

This girl taught me how to make flower chains

Remember Nhu’s land here has three children’s homes on it, although they are moving soon and plan to open more. While we were there, there had been over 90 applications for children, not including the ones who come in from referrals through pastors and social workers and just word of mouth. They only had room to take about 10. It’s a big problem, and one they hope the new land will help with. The biggest problem is finding indigenous house parents who are Christians since the country is 97% Buddhist.

We heard a few stories of some of the children. One had come to them because when a house parent was shopping at the market, a couple approached her and offered to sell her their two-year-old daughter. They both had HIV and needed money for medicine. She talked them into a visit from a social worker and they signed their daughter over to R-Nhu and got medical help themselves as well. Another girl’s parents had been running drugs and were caught. They were immediately incarcerated, and no one checked their home. This little eighteen-month-old girl had lived for a year literally going house to house in the village begging food. No one took her in, and finally someone told R-Nhu about her. When they brought her in, they described her as a “feral child”. She has been with them a year and is doing wonderfully now.

Many of the stories were so similar. Extreme poverty, parents who had died and left their children at the mercy of grandparents or aunts and uncles who could not afford to care for them anyway, abuse, remarriage and the refusal of the new husband to care for his wife’s children. All I saw when we were with these children was their potential – they were amazing, and they deserved more than life had dealt them. There were a few girls in particular with whom I spent a lot of time, and they really touched my heart. How could anyone want to hurt these children?

I have to say, in this whole issue, people keep asking me, “How can someone sell their own child? Who are these parents?? Who are these grandparents??” That is a good question. I have seen how they live, though, and sometimes when you are choosing between starvation for your child and selling that child, there isn’t a good choice. I would say a better question is, “Who is buying these children? Why is there a market for child prostitution? Who is there to protect these children??” Most of them are sold, at least at first, to a particular person for a week or two weeks or whatever. Who is that person? Who is that evil? I cannot imagine it. Jesus, come soon.

During the week days, all the children were in school. So during the school day, we would go and see cultural things in the area, and then come back after school and hang out with the kids, play with them, have dinner, until they had to go to work on homework and bedtime.

Our first day out, we were taken to a Buddhist temple. They wanted us to understand the culture here. It was packed and very busy, I would say with about half tourists, and half locals who had come to worship. The architecture and craftsmanship were breathtaking. We ascended a massive staircase to the top of a mountain with carvings along the entire length to the outer and inner temple and it was stunning. I was taken aback in the temple to see so many Hindu gods as well – apparently there is a connection in the past that I did not previously know about.

For me, though, it was also heartbreaking. Here we were, surrounded on all sides by people who were praying to, and in some cases, literally lying on the ground in front of wood carvings that someone had made. It took me back to Isaiah 44: “Half of the wood [a man] burns in the fire; over it he prepares his meal, he roasts his meat and eats his fill. From the rest he makes a god, his idol; he bows down to it and worships. He prays to it and says, ‘Save me; you are my god.'”

This is a nation that needs to hear about what Jesus has done for them. They don’t know. Romans 10:14 says, “How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them?”

That night the girls at the main house showed me a book of worship songs in Thai. Of course, I can’t read any of it, but the chord notations were the same, so I could play them (they thought I was brilliant, and when they realized I wasn’t actually reading the Thai, just the chords, they thought it was a great joke). I was listening to them singing praise to Jesus, and telling me that Jesus was the one who saved them, and it gave me such hope. He is our hope. And He is theirs.

The next day was lighter. We went to an umbrella factory, and then to a silk factory and a silver factory. At the umbrella factory, the process has been almost unchanged for 100’s of years. We got umbrellas painted for our kids and were so impressed with the artists. That night we spent the evening at the boys home, and Nathan wore himself out playing soccer (with quite a few very impressive martial arts moves thrown in by the boys!) and making lego towns with them.

The next day I went with a few others from our team and took a Thai cooking class. That was fun and interesting, and very, very spicy, even when I tried to make it less so because I am a wimp. Let’s just say that in one of her recipes, she called for 10 chiles a serving. At the class she said that because we were American, we should use 4 chiles. I used 2 chiles and I was dying. That night, we ate at the smaller girls home and I noticed that at every meal, the condiments set out were brown sugar (sweet), fish sauce (salty), and chile flakes (spicy). To watch a 6-year-old girl take a tablespoon of chile flakes and nonchalantly spread it over her meal is humbling. I would be crying.

The next day we went back to the home and took the littlest kids, who were not in school yet, out to lunch and for some playtime and the local mall. Then we went back to the home and distributed the things we’d all brought to the different homes. Nathan and I had brought a lot of school supplies and hygiene items and some toys, and the other couples had brought tons of clothing. We sorted it all with the house parents, and they keep a supply for new kids coming in as well. That night, we went to a different night market, this one a lot more crowded and touristy, and the people watching was pretty amazing.

Our last school day was Friday, and this turned out to be one of my personal favorite days just because I had never done anything like it. We went to an elephant camp and we all got to ride elephants. Then we watched them bathe in the river and I got generally mauled by one who was looking for bananas on my person which I did not have. Glad he didn’t eat my camera. Then we watched an amazing show where they played soccer and painted paintings and hula-hooped. They are so smart. That evening we went to a cultural dinner where we ate traditional food on the ground and watched dances from many different parts of the country, and they were beautiful. The English translations were pretty funny, though. One, in explaining the story of Hanuman said, “Meeting her, he intendance to make her died, but when he saw her, he decided not to.” Gripping.

Want to see lots more pictures? Check out the full album here!

Trying to find our connector flight was harder when the signs were in Japanese

Such a contrast in Bangkok airport - ultra modern with a shrine right in the middle of check-in

In the notorious PatPong district - these are some of the signs we can show

In the village

Someone's kitchen

An interview - all of the children followed us to see what would happen

These boys are all waiting to hear what will happen next during an interview

One of the nicer homes in the village

Dinner at the main girls' home

The menu at the lunch place. Hmmm, I'll take...yellow.

Some of our team out for lunch with some of the the permanent workers

The night market

Nathan and I left on Wednesday morning and flew to Washington D.C. After a bit of a layover, we got on the 14 hour flight to Narita (Tokyo), Japan. I have done long flights before, but that is the longest one I have ever done, and it sure felt like it. One interesting thing was that we were following the sun, so it never set, and we just leaped into the next day. The airport in Narita is big, and we didn’t have a ton of time to change flights, so it was a little disconcerting when we raced out to find our connector and realized all the signs were in Japanese. Of course they would be, but I guess I hadn’t thought about that. When I’ve been in Europe or Africa or Central America, at least I recognize the city names, but I am lost with the characters. This became a theme for our whole trip. Fortunately we realized one sign was flipping through several languages, one of them English, and we were on our way.

We were delayed on our 6.5 hour flight to Bangkok, and got in at 1 in the morning. Waiting for our shuttle to the hotel, we met the rest of our team for the first time – 3 couples from Portland, Oregon who support Remember Nhu’s ministry – and they turned out to be lovely as we got to know them on the trip. We got to the hotel at about 2 in the morning, and slept hard because we hadn’t slept at all for the previous 30ish hours.

After breakfast, Carl, the founder of Remember Nhu, took us to the PatPong district in Bangkok which is notorious for sex tourism and trafficking. I can’t even share some of the pictures I took because the language on the signage is too graphic. We started to realize the scope of the issue. Some estimate that 15% of the GDP here is prostitution. Remember Nhu is trying to prevent children from ever being trafficked, and it was very difficult as a parent to know that there were children living behind those windows who were in slavery and being abused in ways I don’t even want to think of. All along, the children we met who were impacted by this were the ages of our children, and that just broke my heart even more.

That afternoon we left for another destination which would be our home base for much of our time. When we came out of the airport, the pollution, which had been terrible in Bangkok, seemed even thicker. We were told, though, that in Bangkok it is permanent pollution whereas here it was because they had just burned all the rice fields, something they do after every harvest, and that was making the smog. I can’t say it cleared much in the time we were there, and many of my pictures have a mysterious mistiness about them.

After trying very hard to sleep that night even though we were 12 hours off from our timezone, we spent our first full day at one of the homes run by Remember Nhu. The children who live there have come for many reasons. Some are orphans or effectively orphaned (for example, if the parents are incarcerated), some were in danger in their homes, some are so poor their parents cannot keep them, but all were at risk for trafficking.

These children are amazing. We played a lot of Uno, and “Ninja” and jump-rope. Then we realized a previous team had left the children a keyboard, but no one knew how to play it. Several of the kids were learning guitar, but when they realized I knew how to play the keyboard, I was swamped with kids who wanted me to teach them. It’s hard to teach when you don’t share language, but I’ve never seen such persistence in children, and was able to teach several songs.

One of the sweetest moments of the week was when I realized that we knew several of the same worship songs – I would sing in English, and they would sing in their language. All praising the same God. Many of the kids in the homes have become Christians even though this is an almost entirely Buddhist nation. Some of them spoke some English, and when I asked them why they had become Christians, they said that they had seen “love” from both sides, and that Christian love was a different love – it was real.

The next day we went to a small tribal village to interview some of the children who were candidates to come to R-Nhu. Carl has told us that he has been to villages where there are no children left. The main risk factors for a child are severe poverty, if a relative is in the trade, if there is sexual abuse occurring in the home, if the child is orphaned or effectively orphaned, or if the mother remarries and the new husband refuses to take her children. The families are not usually told what will really happen to their child if they are sold. Often they are told they will become maids or servants in a wealthy home where they will be well cared for, and even if they suspect that this might not be true, it’s compelling, especially when the alternative for many of them is starvation.

We saw a lot of poverty here, and really, a lot of disparity. When we were in Kenya, when we went to a poor village, everyone was poor. Here, everyone was poor by U.S. standards, but some were desperately poor, living in bamboo huts and cooking over open fires, while others had concrete walls and even some electricity or a truck. We interviewed several children, and the stories were heartbreaking. I was impressed with many of the mothers. They loved their children so much, and desperately wanted what was best for them – they just couldn’t provide it. R-Nhu helps in many ways, only one of which is taking the children in.

After interviewing all afternoon, we went back to the girls’ home before going to see the night market. It’s hard to get those kids out of my head and heart, and perhaps I won’t try too hard.

Want to see lots more pictures? Check out the full album here!

This morning I did a radio interview for WMPC in Lapeer, MI on my new book. I always enjoy talking to them, and it was a good interview – I so appreciate their help in getting the word out about my book!

I can’t ignore, though, that I am leaving for Thailand in two days! It’s been a ridiculous amount of planning, not so much for our going, but for our kids while we are gone. There have been a few hiccups where plans had to change and then change again, but we think it’s all nailed down, and just leaving a list of everything that needs to happen at home is pretty daunting.

Early Wednesday morning, Nathan and I fly first to Washington D.C., then to Narita, Japan, and then to Bangkok, Thailand. We’ll be in several parts of Southeast Asia, and I’m looking forward to seeing it, and dreading it a bit at the same time. Don’t get me wrong – I love travel, and I know I will love the people we’ll be with, but I am not really looking forward to facing some of the realities of human trafficking. There are things I’m pretty sure I won’t want to know. But, I don’t think we can turn a blind eye to injustice just because it makes us uncomfortable.

We’ll try to keep things up to date while we’re there, but we don’t have any sense of our internet situation or even how much time we will have. If we can’t get too much out there, we’ll catch you up when we get home! Please be praying for us – we so appreciate that!

Here it is! We’re finally up, and can’t wait to hear what you think. 🙂

My sentimental gift from the choir for my service as director

So, I have resigned at the church, and my last Sunday is this coming one, February 12th. I’ve cried quite a bit, really. It’s different to leave a job you don’t like anymore, but I really do love leading worship and I love this church. I just know, though, that this is the way God is leading and I’m trying to be obedient.

One of the things I love about my job at the church is the choir. I have the best choir ever, period. There are about 25 of us, and every person in there is wonderful. We are not a large church, and many of these people never sang before they joined the choir. Some of them have been with me for over 10 years. I’ve been trying to strike a balance between teaching and making sure it’s a lot of fun. And, frankly, they sound great. But, they have heard me say a million times to “lift your eyebrows” and “spin your sound” and “blend with your neighbor” and “no r colors please” etc., and etc., and etc.

There is a balcony in our church and at the back of it is a door. One classical technique I use with them is to pick a focal point at the back of the room and higher up and then “send” your sound spinning to it. So, for over 10 years I have told them to “just sing to the doorknob” in the balcony. Last night they gave me a plaque, and proved that their sense of humor is as warped as mine. And yes, that is the actual doorknob I have pointed to this whole time – they replaced it at the church because I had to have that actual doorknob. This is one of the reasons why I will miss them so much.