Some Things Are Just Hard to Talk About in Any Language

After twelve hours of travel, the Boyds and Byerses arrived in Rio de Janiero.  And so did all of our luggage!

Our family's eleventh Let's Start Talking mission project is underway!  We have safely arrived in Natal, Brazil where we will spend the next six weeks offering free English conversation practice using the book of Luke from the Bible as our text.  We arrived Tuesday afternoon in time to do some grocery shopping and unpacking before meeting with our first readers Wednesday afternoon.  

Josh, Kinley, Knox, and I make up half of our eight-person team with Josh's sister, Kelsey, and her family making up the rest.  The four adults will have up to fifteen readers each, and we'll meet with each of them for one-on-one English conversation practice.  Kinley will have seven or eight readers of her, and she'll spend the rest of her time helping with childcare since Knox, Finn, and Landry will need some supervision while the adults are with readers.  

And for the first time this year, Knox will get to have readers!  When Kinley was nine years old, we went to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on a Let's Start Talking mission project.  She had her first readers that year, and since Knox is now nine, he gets to begin sharing Jesus with others this year.

In Malasia in 2010, Kinley met with her very first readers.

Knox met with his first reader, Lucia, yesterday.

I'm so proud of Knox and Kinley for wanting to share Jesus's love with others, and I'm grateful to the very patient Malaysians and Brazilians who have been willing to let my children practice on them.  Studying English with an American can be intimidating, and it takes extra humility to be willing to learn from a nine-year-old!

I;m excited to start sharing my faith as well, and yesterday I met with three readers.  One of them had been my reader in 2014 while the other two were men I hadn't met before.  As Let's Start Talking workers, we come to each mission site ready to have deep conversations with people we've never met before.  We know that our new friends will only share their true feelings and thoughts with us if we're willing to be open and honest as well.  We are prepared to talk about specific ways that we have seen Christ at work in our lives, but we're also ready to acknowledge personal doubts and struggles.  I've prepared to myself to talk about difficult times in my life like my parents' divorce, my miscarriage, and my daddy's death to illustrate the ways God had cared for me even then.  I've even prepared myself to have to talk about the incredibly uncomfortable topic of American politics and the 2016 election.  But I still wan't prepared for the conversations I had with two of my readers yesterday.

My first session of the day was with a returning reader who had already completed the Luke book and is now studying in the book of John.  We read a lesson together which tells about the woman that was caught in the act of adultery and dragged before Jesus.  Her accusers reminded Jesus that the law said this woman was to be stoned to death for her sins, and then they asked Jesus what should be done.  They were intentionally trying to trick him, but Jesus was wiser than they expected.  He famously replied, "Let him who is without sin cast the first stone."  Since no one on the planet is sinless, all of the accusers left.  Jesus showed mercy to the woman and forgave her sins.

At the end of the lesson, I asked my reader to rethink this story with a present-day setting.  I asked him who would be dragged before Jesus today if the story were re-imagined.  I don't know what I expected him to say - a lying politician?  A greedy billionaire?  An unscrupulous policeman?  But I certainly didn't expect him to say the mass murderer responsible for the recent shooting at an Orlando nightclub.

Wow.  As you can imagine, I was a little stunned.  The horror in Orlando occurred just before we left the US.  I was in complete it's-time-to-pack-for-six-weeks-and-prepare-our-house-to-be-unoccupied-for-the-summer mode, and so I hadn't watched the news a single time in more than a week.  Beyond reading a few posts on Facebook, I knew precious few details.  I only knew the basics of the terrible crime, but that was enough to know that the shooter was not the person I'd imagine receiving forgiveness from Jesus without even asking for it.  So it took me a moment to process what my reader was implying.  My reader was suggesting that our precious Savior would show mercy to this monster.  Whoa.  That gave me food for thought.

And that wasn't the only time yesterday that I was asked about Orlando.  As soon as I sat down with my second reader of the day, even before the typical pleasantries, he said, "First let me ask you this.  I think many Christians and churches in the US don't like gay people.  How do you feel about what happened in Orlando?"

I sat there knowing that I needed to respond quickly but not sure how to express my true feelings in the basic English that my new friend was sure to understand.  My feelings are so complex!  They're a mix of disbelief and helplessness and grief and shock and confusion and discouragement and paralysis and worry and embarrassment and so many other feelings that to try to reduce them to the basic English that my reader could understand seemed impossible!  So, after a brief pause, I simply said, "Sad.  Really, really sad."

I don't know what he expected me to say, but evidently, I had passed his test.  We continued with our session and even found common ground in our love of Madonna.  (He squealed with delight at all of my pictures from her concert in January!  Who says the Material Girl can't be a pathway to the love and mercy of Jesus??!!)

All of my training, years of experience with Let's Start Talking, and preparedness didn't prepare me for talking about Orlando.  Thankfully, God gave me the words to say to respond to my readers in a way that seemed reasonable, if simplistic, to them.  

And, I guess I should just be happy that at least they didn't ask me about the election.

My Travel Must-Haves #1: Mission Projects

I have already mentioned in my first post my love of my Aerosole heels and long, flowy skirts for travel, but there are several other items that are musts on my packing list.  This post is dedicated to the items I take when my family does mission work with a faith-based organization called Let's Start Talking.

Every other year we raise funds so that we can spend six weeks in a foreign country helping people improve their English conversation skills.  We use the Book of Luke from the Bible as our workbook, and we each have about fifteen students (actually, we refer to them as readers) who come for one-on-one practice several times a week.  We love sharing our faith and meeting new friends while seeing the world.

And while I can give up many things for the sake of Christ, what follows is my list of deal breakers.

1). My Let's Start Talking Luke book

I have been doing LST missions since 1996.  There are a lot of things written in the margins of my book that would be difficult to replace.  Sometimes I jot down my readers' interesting comments or questions.  Sometimes I draw pictures of hard-to-describe words such as "wheat".  Sometimes I list related vocabulary words to discuss.  But the most valuable parts of my book are the many questions I've written over the years.  These are open-ended and designed to lead to good conversation with my readers.  I could function without it, but I'd be super bummed to have to start from scratch.

      

                                                     Pages from my tattered Luke book


2).  My new zippy wallet made many my neighbor, Kirsten, over at LoveSpunStudios

      

This wallet is awesome!  It is custom made just for me, and it has 6 zippered compartments.  I am our team's accountant, so I need to keep track of my own personal spending money as well as our team's mission money.  Sometimes when we do LST we end up using multiple currencies.  For example, several times we've had  to fly through Japan to get to Thailand.  I've had to juggle team US dollars, team Japanese Yen, team Thai Baht, personal US dollars, personal Japanese Yen, and personal Thai Baht all on the same project.  It can get confusing, but I also don't want to haul two separate wallets all over the planet.

My friend Kirsten solved all my problems!  Now I have separate pockets for three different team currencies and three different personal currencies all in one adorable wallet!  And it has a place for my passport (you can't change money without showing that) and slots for the team receipts I keep for accounting.

                                      

Interested in one of your own?  The little labels can be customized.  Just click to get yours from Etsy!

         

3).  My NookColor ereader

Before I got my ereader, I had to take 12-15 books in my suitcase for a mission project.  We usually have 5-7 readers per day, but we're still left with some down time during the project.  During that time, I like to read.  But books are heavy, and I'm rarely willing to leave them behind when I've finished them (a practice Josh has adopted to lighten his suitcases on the way home).  So my ereader is priceless for the luggage space and weight it saves.  I still take some actual books, but far fewer than I used to.

                                        

                                    This year's suitcase of books is far less full thanks to my NookColor!

                                       

                                       

                                   Knox reads his Nook Simple Touch in the hammock in our room in Brazil.

4). My black cashmere wrap

This item is so versatile that it earns a coveted spot in my carry on bag.  It is perfect for using as a lightweight but luxurious blanket on the plane or as a wrap over a dress on a cool evening out.  It can be a scarf or even a pillow in a pinch.  Before I scored my cashmere version deeply discounted from Banana Republic, I used a similar one made of a polyester blend.  

5).  Taco seasoning packets

We cook most meals for ourselves on mission projects (except in Thailand where it's cheaper - and yummier - to just eat out every meal), so it's helpful to bring some ingredients from home.  You may be surprised to learn that most of the rest of the world has not yet discovered the deliciousness of Mexican food.  That means no salsa, no tacos, and no guacamole unless we bring the spices to make it ourselves.  Since our family can't go six weeks without some south-of-the-border goodness, we bring some Ortega along for the trip.  We have bought avocados, cilantro, and limes in almost every country we've lived, but yellow cheese and sour cream are harder to find.  Sadly, these two items are not luggage-friendly, so white cheese and plain yogurt usually have to stand in.

6). A short-sleeved summer robe

When I first wore this robe on an LST project, my fashion-forward thirteen-year-old asked with guileless sincerity, "Mom, isn't that what people in nursing homes wear?"  

                                   

I had to admit that she was right.  But this one meets my mission project needs, so it's staying on the list.  On LST projects, we almost always live with other people.  Sometimes it is a family from the local church; sometimes it's college students who are on our team.  Living in close quarters with people who aren't in your immediate family raises some privacy issues, of course, so I feel more comfortable going to and from the shared shower in a robe.  At home, I have a long-sleeved cashmere robe that my in-laws spoiled me with one Christmas.  But it's simply too hot for that one in the countries where LST tends to send us.  And I like the snaps on the "nursing-home" one because it's less likely to come untied and fall open when I'm passing a teammate in the hallway.  I get the heeby-jeebies just thinking about how scarred-for-life that poor teammate would be if that scene ever played itself out.  Ew.

7).  A vegetable peeler

I have no idea why the rest of the world (even the Italians!) cannot seem to produce a decent vegetable peeler, but I have had zero luck finding one in most places.  So now I just buy one and take it with me.  My kids eat lots of raw carrots and cucumbers, so this item is a must for us.  (NOTE:  In fairness, I did once buy a fantastic vegetable peeler in Switzerland, but I nearly had to take out a second mortgage on our house to pay for it.  I'd rather not have to do that again.)

There you have it - my deal breakers!  Granted, there are many other items we take with us each time such as a new box of Crayola markers, Sharpies, straight pins, scissors, dependable but expendable paring and chef's knives, church clothes, Luke workbooks for our readers, decorations for the parties we throw for our readers, etc.  But since we split these items up among the whole team, I decided that they don't really count.

Look for my upcoming post on my general travel must-haves.  And in the meantime tell me your travel necessities below!