http://www.lauraleighparker.com Life Overseas {a missionary blogs of life in Asia} Fri, 24 Feb 2012 13:09:48 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 http://0.gravatar.com/avatar/88ea54a0b2c7b923e211db41c950105b.png?s=48 http://www.lauraleighparker.com LauraParkerhttp://feedburner.google.com http://www.lauraleighparker.com/2012/02/amy-africa/ http://www.lauraleighparker.com/2012/02/amy-africa/#comments Fri, 24 Feb 2012 11:54:08 +0000 Laura http://www.lauraleighparker.com/?p=6254 I am running a new occasional feature on the blog that highlights other ministries or missionaries I hear about, rub shoulders with, feel inspired by, or bump into in the blogworld. I have a hunch that most of you reading are genuinely interested in living and working overseas, and I’d love for you to get [...]]]> http://www.lauraleighparker.com/2012/02/amy-africa/feed/ 2 http://www.lauraleighparker.com/2012/02/putting/ http://www.lauraleighparker.com/2012/02/putting/#comments Thu, 23 Feb 2012 13:23:29 +0000 Laura http://www.lauraleighparker.com/?p=6269 Sometimes, we all need a healthy dose of reality– {Subscribers will need to click through to the site to see the video, featuring Rob Bell.} ****************** Related Posts: The River of Human Trafficking.  We Were Wrong {Orphan Care}.   Nights.]]> http://www.lauraleighparker.com/2012/02/putting/feed/ 2 http://www.lauraleighparker.com/2012/02/missionaries-talk/ http://www.lauraleighparker.com/2012/02/missionaries-talk/#comments Tue, 21 Feb 2012 15:27:29 +0000 Laura http://www.lauraleighparker.com/?p=6241 The following is a typical conversation I have found myself in more times than I can count during my {short} two years on the “mission field.” And, yes, some of it is a tad-exaggerated {emphasis on the words some and tad}. ********************** When Missionaries Meet Setting.  It’s a sweltering-hot day in the tropics. New Missionary and Better Missionary find [...]]]> http://www.lauraleighparker.com/2012/02/missionaries-talk/feed/ 21 http://www.lauraleighparker.com/2012/02/swimming-upstream/ http://www.lauraleighparker.com/2012/02/swimming-upstream/#comments Sat, 18 Feb 2012 12:02:47 +0000 Laura http://www.lauraleighparker.com/?p=6234 I wrote the following post about struggling a year and a half ago, and I returned to it this week. Because, honestly, it’s been one of  those-- when the computer virus infected all of our websites, when the details of launching a new site caused late nights, when it became official that some of our [...]]]> http://www.lauraleighparker.com/2012/02/swimming-upstream/feed/ 13 http://www.lauraleighparker.com/2012/02/missionary-mom-blog-returns-to-field/ http://www.lauraleighparker.com/2012/02/missionary-mom-blog-returns-to-field/#comments Sun, 12 Feb 2012 12:35:53 +0000 Laura http://www.lauraleighparker.com/?p=5041 In honor of all the hearts floating around these days, I am re-posting a piece I wrote about eight months ago. We were just returning to Asia after a glorious six weeks in the U.S. with family and friends, good bread and better coffee, and I was wrestling with what love looks like, in a [...]]]> http://www.lauraleighparker.com/2012/02/missionary-mom-blog-returns-to-field/feed/ 33 http://www.lauraleighparker.com/2012/02/eating-local/ http://www.lauraleighparker.com/2012/02/eating-local/#comments Thu, 09 Feb 2012 13:37:43 +0000 Laura http://www.lauraleighparker.com/?p=6212 One of the benefits of living in Asia is all the hole-in-the-wall restaurants that serve entire meals for a dollar a plate. Honestly, it takes about the same amount of money to fix a Western meal as it does to buy a Thai one. Now, if I really had it together, I would cook Thai [...]]]> http://www.lauraleighparker.com/2012/02/eating-local/feed/ 8 http://www.lauraleighparker.com/2012/02/find-rock-paint/ http://www.lauraleighparker.com/2012/02/find-rock-paint/#comments Mon, 06 Feb 2012 12:38:28 +0000 Laura http://www.lauraleighparker.com/?p=6201 My amazing writer-artist-friend Kelley Leigh has begun writing again. Her words are simple and powerful over at her new blog, Forming Sentences, and just recently she posted an inspirational video from a girl she knew several years back. The girl’s name is Katie, and the story of her life screams redemption in the midst of [...]]]> http://www.lauraleighparker.com/2012/02/find-rock-paint/feed/ 7 http://www.lauraleighparker.com/2012/02/missionary-blog/ http://www.lauraleighparker.com/2012/02/missionary-blog/#comments Sat, 04 Feb 2012 16:05:08 +0000 Laura http://www.lauraleighparker.com/?p=6186 The following is my humble, quick attempt to convince my fellow missionary-types to jump the hurdles of fear, time and know-how and just go ahead and start a blog of some sort.  {That is, of course, unless you are one of those super-amazing people living in a closed country where blogs are illegal or in [...]]]> http://www.lauraleighparker.com/2012/02/missionary-blog/feed/ 13 http://www.lauraleighparker.com/2012/02/week-fractured/ http://www.lauraleighparker.com/2012/02/week-fractured/#comments Thu, 02 Feb 2012 12:17:35 +0000 Laura http://www.lauraleighparker.com/?p=6158 It’s Thursday morning, and I wake up with my mind racing. The balls are spinning in the air, and it seems the faster I juggle, the more likely I am to drop one, or two, or seven for that matter. I have about twelve too many projects going on at once, no consistent childcare help, [...]]]> http://www.lauraleighparker.com/2012/02/week-fractured/feed/ 19 http://www.lauraleighparker.com/2012/01/interview-urban-missionary-bangkok/ http://www.lauraleighparker.com/2012/01/interview-urban-missionary-bangkok/#comments Sat, 28 Jan 2012 05:52:43 +0000 Laura http://www.lauraleighparker.com/?p=6141 So I met a family last week that suddenly made me want to sell all my stuff and go live in the red-light district of Bangkok, buying rice for the homeless crazy woman in the mornings and giving warm socks to the male prostitute on the street corner, trying to make a buck. Their story [...]]]> http://www.lauraleighparker.com/2012/01/interview-urban-missionary-bangkok/feed/ 5 http://www.lauraleighparker.com/2012/01/mustard-seed/ http://www.lauraleighparker.com/2012/01/mustard-seed/#comments Thu, 26 Jan 2012 15:10:10 +0000 Laura http://www.lauraleighparker.com/?p=6136 If my spiritual life were a dashboard in a flight cockpit, I’m pretty sure the red lights screaming danger, crash-and-burn-imminent! would be angrily blinking. Because my faith has taken a beating this year, a battering. . . ********* But, here’s the thing I am {re}learning about this God I started following 25 years ago. He [...]]]> http://www.lauraleighparker.com/2012/01/mustard-seed/feed/ 1 http://www.lauraleighparker.com/2012/01/8-reasons-becomingmissionary/ http://www.lauraleighparker.com/2012/01/8-reasons-becomingmissionary/#comments Tue, 24 Jan 2012 07:26:13 +0000 Laura http://www.lauraleighparker.com/?p=6123 1. Don’t Become a Missionary if You Think You Are Going to Change the World. First, high expectations doom to disappoint, but, also, maybe your desire to change the world is trumping your desire to serve. Ask yourself if you would be happy moving overseas to a much harsher environment in order to quietly help [...]]]> http://www.lauraleighparker.com/2012/01/8-reasons-becomingmissionary/feed/ 60