Easter: One Great Party
Easter is more than one day of celebration, it’s fifty days! Do you know how you will be celebrating? I’d like to share some possibilities with you…
Lent & Eastertide Seasonal Devotions Spiritual Formation
Author: Elizabeth
To avoid stranger danger on our journey. Here’s a little about where I’ve been and where I hope to go.
My name is Elizabeth Forshee, but friends call me Beth.
A born and raised Texan, I grew up in the Piney Woods of East Texas where heat and humidity suffocate everything but the mosquitos and love bugs. As a little girl I went from wanting to be a veterinarian to journalist. One summer I made my siblings (Yes, I am the bossy elder.) design, write and contribute jokes, games and articles to our first family magazine just for fun. My desire to write and the fact that the Holy Scriptures entered my life and wrecked my heart for anything other than God, I got my BA from Baylor in you guessed it; journalism. A lot of good that did when I married my husband and we launched our newlywed selves into full-time ministry. All was not lost. Ministry for me meant leaving for China as soon as possible, or rather six years on God’s time card. Working for a missions agency in communications and alongside my youth director husband in Colorado, we paid our debts to society, a.k.a. Baylor, and packed our six 50 lbs.-bags, one-year old son and set off for the land of Terra Cotta Warriors and the Silk Road. Dreams do come true. And so do hard times. The great thing about being young and in ones’ twenties is stamina. There is a lot more of it to get one through language school, culture stress, an international adoption overseas, visa paperwork, working several ministry roles all while making a new country a new home; until you have to return to the old one. That’s when you realize home is a facade. After serving seven years in China God took our Asia path and redirected us to a strange country called Michigan—for this southern girl I was positive were moving to the Arctic tundra and two winters later I am convinced that’s where I’ve landed. Now in the midwest I am relearning culture, language and the general system of American life. I’m wandering through society with a different lens, trying to make sense of the roads in which God leads us and the pit stops along the way. I’m seeing we are in a world that’s opened globally in countless ways, yet guarded. All the while, wondering how God fits into the greater scheme of it all, how he will redeem what’s been lost, heal the broken, and bring us wanders home.
Reflections & Ponderings
If Tables Could Talk
A few nights ago we sat at our neighbor’s table, might I add, no ordinary table. It was an eight-foot single of slab of maple that he’d hand planed, sanded, and cured with love for their family to enjoy meals and fellowship for years to come. The beauty of the craftsmanship was secondary to the waves of stories marked by the wood’s flowing grain etched throughout the various hues of brown, black, tan and red…
Seasonal Devotions Spiritual Formation
“Don’t Worry, Meet Me at the Cross.”
Nearing the end of Lent and the beginning of Holy Week, my family has been reading the book of John and I can’t help but hearing Jesus asking, “Do you know me?”
Living as a wanderer Seasonal Devotions
Insatiable Love
Happy St. Patrick’s Day! One of my favorite saints is Patrick. If you are not familiar with his story, here is a short video on his life. Patrick, only sixteen, lived in Roman-ruled England during the 4th century. He was taken by Irish raiders and made a slave for six years in Ireland before God made a way for his escape. Though not a person who considered himself committed to the faith, his father and…
As we wander in transition Discernment
The Value of a Grain of Sand
It’s easy to think we do little to advance God’s Kingdom. When we look at the world it can seem discouraging. May I suggest that it’s not that what you do is small, but how you view the life you give to Christ is small. Let’s reflect on what it might mean to have ‘eyes to see’.
