“What on earth has happened to 2020?” I thought as I hung laundry on our balcony.

At the end of December, after a particularly intense year full of travel, sickness, family crisis and grief, I’d told Jeremy that I was praying and hoping for an awesomely NORMAL year in 2020.

#ohdearbetsy, that has NOT happened.

From the first coronavirus rumblings in January which have now become a pandemic that is slowly taking over the world, this year has been consuming, overwhelming, stressful, sad and completely unexpected.

I’m a 6 on the enneagram and even for me, this is bigger and far outside any of my worst case scenario ponderings. I did not expect, plan for or even imagine a pandemic hitting the world. And, honestly, if I had thought of it, I wouldn’t have ever expected to be riding it out in the developing world.

For those of us living overseas, a pandemic has brought unbelievably hard decisions, choosing to stay or go, weighing the repercussions of each decision. It’s meant families being separated in different countries, worry about our family back home, closed borders and airports, shaky governments trying to mandate impossible guidelines, economies crumbling, plans changing, ministry looking different and schools closing.

Continue reading A Guide for Overseas Workers During a Pandemic at Our Goodwin Journey.

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I wrote about stepping outside your comfort zone a few years ago and it was originally published on Grit & Virtue for International Women’s Day. This year, I thought I’d republish here for you.

Learning to keep a soft strength while also learning to step outside your comfort zone, do big things for God and let Him use you in ways you didn’t know were possible.

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Princess. That has been my nickname for as long as I can remember. My sister coined the nickname at some point in our childhood.

Sadly, the princess part really was (and is) somewhat true. I do tend to be soft, enjoying the easier things of life with hobbies of coffee drinking, blog writing, beach sitting and book reading.

It’s almost embarrassing to admit that part of myself but I can’t help but acknowledge my more “princess” like qualities. Nor can I help but acknowledge that God created me that way.

He put an innate softness in my soul. He formed me to feel, to sense, to breathe the things happening around me. This softness longs for Hallmark moments rather than Lord of the Rings battles.

Continue reading A Soft Strength – Stepping Outside Your Comfort Zone at Our Goodwin Journey.

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Savor the moment

Enjoy the journey

Stop and smell the roses

Capture the fluffy moments

These are simple phrases that are not always so simple to live out in our day-to-day lives.

I find myself in a season of constant change, transition and growth. From language school to West Africa to living stateside for a year of furlough to starting our second term in West Africa, we find ourselves just starting to feel settled when things change and transition comes.

Yet, we are trying to enjoy the sights, tastes and sounds around us while knowing we can’t get too attached because all things change every so often and we must go through the transition all over again.

The constant motion of our lives means looking ahead, thinking through, making plans, and continuously checking off to-do list boxes.  It means being one step ahead of something you can’t really know, planning for things without all the details and making decisions based on incomplete information.

This overseas, transitional life is full of daily battles. Battles to stay on top of a plethora of tasks, places, people and situations.

Continue reading 6 Ways to Savor the Moment at Our Goodwin Journey.

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There are moments in our lives for building resilience in ways we never expected or knew we needed.

Moments that remind us to trust, hope and move forward in faith.

One such moment happened on our flight from West Africa to Michigan at the end of our first term overseas. We only had about 20 minutes left after traveling for over 24 grueling hours.

We were in a small express plane with our family of five sitting all in one long row of single window seats. Our noses were plastered to the windows as we looked at the land below us. Everything was clean, beautiful, green and in perfect lines. So clean.

I watched and listened as my girls pointed out the things they were seeing for the first time in almost 3 years. I could hear the joy, nervousness and excitement clearly apparent in their sweet voices.

We sat suspended in the transition between air and land, our home in Africa and our home in America. A well-planned moment we’d cried over and happily anticipated… a moment that was taking us into our next season of overseas life.

Continue reading How to Return, Recover and Rebound at Our Goodwin Journey.

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Betrayal is a very strong word.

In fact, just looking at that word in print, thinking about it, remembering how it feels, maybe even sensing guilt over being the betrayer in a situation… it brings up emotions and feelings and painful memories for many of us.

Friendships lost

Marriage fights

Work tensions

Ministry failures

Family letdowns

Unmet expectations

Unavoidable circumstances

Colleague misunderstandings

False perceptions

Wagging tongues

Honestly, I wasn’t sure how to write about betrayal. I wasn’t sure how to put into words my own experiences. There isn’t always a happy ending, a quick how-to or easy answer for dealing with betrayal. I was talking to Jesus about it and not sure where he was leading me on this topic.

But I sat down to write anyway, which as a multitasking person, looks like having two or three or five things going at one time. Numerous tabs on my web browser, a couple notebooks, to do lists, piles of papers and even open apps on my phone can be seen quite often on my desk at home, not to mention dinner and laundry.

Continue reading When There is No Happy Ending to Betrayal at Our Goodwin Journey.

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