I laid out pictures of several women from the village for my next language-learning game. Then I put 1–4 pieces of candy next to most of the photos, leaving a few without any. In the simplest Indonesian I could manage (since my language helper’s Indonesian is very limited), I explained that she should tell me to take one, two, or three red, green, or orange candies from one person and give them to another. I was happy when she seemed to understand right away. In Murkim she to

You know, when you have an idea that’s great till it’s not. This is one of those stories. One day, I joined one of my Murkim friends in his garden and found out I’d be planting cassava. Cassava is a tuber, a root vegetable, kind of like a potato. The edible part grows underground, while a tall, skinny stalk grows above. My friend, Tarson, showed me how to plant it. You cut the stalk into 8–10 inch pieces, called “starts,” and jab holes in the dirt with a stick. Then, you plan

Since before Azariah was born, Matthew and I knew we wanted him to grow up bilingual. We wanted him to speak both the language of his host country and his passport country. We also knew that this wouldn’t just happen automatically, especially in a place with a large missionary community and an international school. So, we made a conscious decision to be intentional about it, Matthew would speak Indonesian to him, and I would speak English. Watching Azariah learn language has

Matthew and I had been in Indonesia as missionaries for almost three months and were sitting at the kitchen table eating our breakfast on...

It had been a long day. We were up at 5:00 am as usual. We set about our day after having quiet time and breakfast. I put my hand to...