As I begin writing again, I can’t help but recognize the books that have impacted me this year and share my book list with you.

It has been a year of growth, introspection, counseling, truth-telling and learning to simply have compassion on myself.

I’ve learned that the lessons of just keep going have truly kept me going for the past 10 years but, to sustain the going, I need to stop.

I need to let myself tap out, ask for help, set boundaries and say no.

God has been asking this of me for a few years and, in 2022, I’ve slowly let myself answer his stop with a willing yes.

Journals full of prayers, tear drops, writings, truths, verses and quotes.

Stickers to mark pages, highlights, screenshots, folders, and notebooks.

A Bible that I’ve read word-for-word, allowing God to speak from every single page in a new way.

I want to share my book list with you in case you are on your own journey of moving from “just keep going” to “Lord, light the next step. I’ll stop and wait until you show me where, how, what and when.”

The books {a few podcasts and other resources} that have impacted my 2022:

1} The Bible Recap.

Continue reading The Books That Impacted My Year 2022 at Our Goodwin Journey.

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“She will be with you just now,” said the sister {nurse} taking Jeremy’s blood in the emergency unit.

With a laugh, we knew that meant we wouldn’t see the doctor for a while. Jeremy looked at the sister and said, “An American now or a South African now?”

That began a lively discussion on what the different words are used for and how much time they really mean. There’s now, now now, and just now. Which all basically mean NOT now.

Whether something is getting sorted or someone is making a plan, these new little phrases have worked their way into our hearts.

The hadadas loudly calling at 4:30am as the sun rises, the go-away birds cawing during dinner, or the click of a lizard getting zapped in our electric fence, there are a whole new set of sounds, sights and smells in South Africa that we love. Just ask the girls… they can do a pretty amazing rendition of hadadas and go-aways. And, that click will send Jeremy out to find the poor lizard on the fence.

South Africa is a fun blend of many cultures, languages, people groups, foods, plants and animals.

Continue reading 12 Things We Love About South Africa at Our Goodwin Journey.

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I was sitting at my desk, on a call with a friend, and she asked, “Where have you been?”

I wasn’t sure exactly what she meant… South Africa? Working? Homeschooling my girls?

She said, “Well, another friend at church was asking about you because we don’t see you online much anymore. We see brief updates but not the inside look and fun posts that we’re used to seeing. She just wanted to know if you were ok.”

It’s hard to explain how hard being in missions and being online is sometimes. The longer we’re in missions, the longer we’re on this incredibly, amazingly hard journey, the harder it gets to explain.

I could keep telling you about how our house leaks, the ants are everywhere, about the language funnies and cultural misunderstandings, the weird feeling of driving on the opposite side of the road from the opposite side of the car… passport adventures, paperwork, currencies… that’s all still happening. All the things I write about are still there.

But, maybe that’s it. It’s daily now. It’s not new anymore.

It’s our life.

A life that is taking me on a deeper personal journey than I ever anticipated.

Continue reading Finding the Courage to Ask for Help at Our Goodwin Journey.

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Last year, I took some time to gather the posts that I’d written through the year and put them in one place.

It’s amazing how much of a journey, a story is told through listing one writing after another, seeing God at work in the different months and moments of a year.

As I sit here now, I find myself in a new country, new season of ministry, new time of parenting and a new journey of growth with Jesus.

A place I didn’t know I’d be yet a place that I know God has directed, planned and designed for such a time as this.

Isn’t life with Jesus that way sometimes?

Looking back at 2021, I can see Him at work.

Each post tells part of the story, part of the adventure we’re on in this crazy, emotional, transitional, overseas life.

In January, the world was still so full of unknowns. We all held our breath to see what another year of a pandemic might look like. We wondered and hoped and waited and prayed. A little bit like Noah sitting on the ark in the middle of a flood.

Continue reading A Look Back Through 2021 at Our Goodwin Journey.

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It must have been a verse that was used in our overseas training or in a long ago chapel service as we prepared to begin our overseas career.

I don’t remember the speaker or the moment I first heard this version of it.

I’m not sure who I was sitting with or what I wore or the time of day.

But I’d posted this verse as my facebook status many years ago. I can imagine my pre-missions self hearing it, typing it and hitting post while the message continued around me.

As I recently drank my coffee in the early morning hours, scrolling through facebook memories, seeing an old, forgotten status update, the verse I’d posted stood out to me in a deep, full, gut-wrenching way.

“I did all this because of the Message. I didn’t just want to talk about it; I wanted to be in on it!” 1 Corinthians 9:23 The Message

Whenever it was that I first heard this verse, I know what I heard in the phrase all this because.

I heard language struggles and bugs in the house and hot days in the sand and packing our belongings to go and saying goodbye to family.

Continue reading All This Because at Our Goodwin Journey.

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