MozamWeek

It has been a long time since I posted here in Mozamweek. This was the blog that I created back in 2008 or so to document our lives as missionaries in Mozambique. I never posted weekly as I'd intended. This has been a place to express my thoughts as a missionary, mom and migrant between the USA, Sweden and Mozambique in ministry and life in general. In December of 2017, we said good-bye to our Mozambique-based ministry. Our part of the Bible translation ministry for Nyungwe was basically complete. Our last child was finishing at the international school in Tete. My new Little Zebra Books groups were becoming more and more independent. A chapter was closing. New plans were forming. Furlough was scheduled and we moved on. Setting up house in Sweden was a transition. We were ready for this move. It had been planned as a practical place to restart ministry in new roles. It was necessary to reconnect with family and our church and invest in friendships back "home". All of

When I need a recipe from the USA, I trust Martha! It's my favorite holiday: Thanksgiving. It's not about some national history for me. It is about thankfulness and family. I love my family and I live thousands of miles away from them. I am immensely thankful for my personal heritage - for my parents and grandparents and all my aunts and uncles. I am thankful for growing up in a place that allowed me to be myself. I am thankful for growing up knowing that "Jesus loves me" and "I'm something special" and even a little of "I can do anything you can do better!" America is like that... we grow up believing in positivity and possibility and individual potential. We grow up learning that God helped us get here... we didn't do everything right... we can still move ahead. We have another chance to make things better. We have a responsibility to make change happen. In today's world, many people think that how I grew up in a small Indi

Good morning from chilly Sweden after a rainy night! We've been thinking a lot about fundraising, support raising, partnership development, PR, project planning, budgets, and all-that-goes-into-getting-us-where-we-can-do-what-we're-called-to-do. Earlier this year I wrote about "selfish" missionaries  here . I've been thinking a lot about all of you lately! I've been reminded of how we met and why we are still in touch with each other. I've smiled and gotten a tear now and then because of some of you. We have been through a lot. I miss some of you. I will see some of you tomorrow! Most of all I am overwhelmed with thankfulness for each of you who follows our mission work, our family life and our growth as followers of Jesus. You make my day! As a missionary in need of the financial commitment of "others" to do my "job", I am often very aware that I could seem ingenuine in a relationship. Some might see me as only keeping in touch

We have too much. I've noticed this as I pack and unpack when moving between countries. We have to weigh and box up our leftovers (stuff we didn't give away and aren't taking with us). The things I keep to remember the life I have lived and hope to live once again someday. Some of it is necessary. Those boxes of past tax records and bank stuff... a Ziploc with about 25 expired passports. (These are actually necessary sometimes, who would guess!) Those two boxes of kitchen stuff came in very handy when setting up house again in Sweden! I needed those nine years after packing and storing that box Some of it is wonderful. Photos and albums of days-gone-by bring true joy when shared with those we love! We don't look at them often enough. We might have too many, but my friend pulled out a picture of my dad she had from our time in high school. If she hadn't saved it, I wouldn't have it. The box with a few baby clothes from our sweet tiny children... or their fi

I know that my other international friends understand that phrase. It makes sense despite looking like it might be a typo of some sort. In June, when school ended here in Sweden, our family traveled home to the USA for the summer break. Now, last week, before school started, we all came home to Sweden. Where is home? We get asked that all the time. We don't have a good answer. There's the short answer: "Wherever we are now!" Sometimes it is more like: "Wherever we are all together." All TCKs (Third Culture Kids- who grow up somewhere outside their parents' home culture/place) understand the problems with questions like "Where's home?" or "Where are you from?" We are home in many places. We are not really "at home" anywhere, either. We don't really make a big deal about it one way or the other. We do kind of miss having a place that feels like home like other people seem to have. BUT we are also very thankfu

Another day of wondering... is this it? Will it happen? Mikael and the team are Skyping again and I hear spurts of Portuguese and Nyungwe dialogue. They discuss a term that might not really match a Greek item in the original. Can they make it better? They discuss verb tenses and discourse markers... It's about 2:30 pm and this is another "last day" for them to check final revision of Luke. They are finally on chapter 24. Around 3:30 pm Mikael comes downstairs.  "We're done." "For the day? Do you have to work on this tomorrow?!?" "No, we are done with the New Testament." Mikael doesn't get excited very easily or visibly. It just doesn't happen. I do! I hugged him. I posted to Facebook. I offered him some coffee. Kids started coming home from school. Mikael's sister saw the post on Facebook and brought a little cake to celebrate when she came to pick up Doris the dog.  We are celebrating in our hearts. Ther