“When the missionaries came, they brought the Bread of Life. But alas, we choked on the cellophane it was wrapped in.” Those were words I heard over and over as a child, my missionary father thoughtfully quoting a Liberian radio preacher. I could tell my father took them very seriously, so I did too, branding [...]
PBS will be airing a documentary based on Half the Sky: Turning Oppression to Opportunity for Women Worldwide by Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn tonight and tomorrow at 8 pm CST. I am SO excited that PBS is airing this! Be sure to tune in tonight and tomorrow!
I’m sharing My Hazardous Faith Story as part of a synchroblog connected with the release of Ed Cyzewski and Derek Cooper’s new book Hazardous: Committing to the Cost of Following Jesus. I’m a big fan of books about radical discipleship. “The Irresistible Revolution” by Shane Claiborne had me sobbing, and “Radical” by David Platt had [...]
I have a confession to make. I’ve always been jealous of my Roman Catholic friend’s rosaries. Actually, it didn’t start with rosaries–it started with a Muslim friend’s prayer staff. He had come to our apartment in Liberia for dinner, and unrolled his prayer mat on our porch during the call to prayer. Afterward, he saw [...]
Pop Quiz: What’s one of the most effective ways to turn the tide on the African AIDS epidemic? A. Fund public health and family planning initiatives. B. Develop better curriculums promoting abstinence and monogamy. C. Provide better medical care, lowering mother-to-infant pass-along rates. D. Send African girls to high school. Ding ding ding! If you [...]
It’s funny how these things come full circle in our lives. While working on the message about the need for women to find their identity in Christ, instead of in their relationships with others, I’ve been thinking a lot about the women I know who have embodied this, particularly the single missionary women I knew [...]
Writing isn’t supposed to be therapy–at least not the kind that happens outside your journal. But sometimes it is. This was certainly the case with my recent post about adoption. I was always a little bit conflicted about it, aware that it didn’t express my whole heart on the matter and could easily be taken [...]
My post about the orphan crisis and world missions is up at Red Letter Christians today. I’ve always struggled a little with that post, feeling that it didn’t quite express what I wanted to get across, so imagine my delight when a commentor said something that clarified the issue for me. “I think something else [...]
It’s been just over two years since a magnitude 7 earthquake hit Haiti, killing more than a quarter of a million people and leaving thousands of children orphaned, overwhelming a nation already in crisis. Kristen Howerton, who has adopted from Haiti and was in the country when the earthquake struck, wrote a great, heartbreaking post on “Rage [...]
I know I wasn’t going to blog this week, but my blogging button got pushed, hard. First, I saw a video of an absolutely adorable little girl who is “donating” her birthday to raise money for the famine in the Horn of Africa. Right after that, I saw a post on Facebook discussing the best [...]
Liberia has not been leaving me alone for the last month or so. I haven’t been there since 1988, since I was a confused, hurting 11-year-old with nut brown skin and white-blonde braids. But it has been chasing me down. I have a post up today at Red Letter Christians that explains my thoughts about [...]
The PBS documentary “Women, War & Peace” will be starting tonight. I never watch television, but I will be watching this. Check your local listings to see what time it will be on in your area. Watch the full episode. See more Women War and Peace.
On Friday, three women were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for their commitment to women’s rights. Two of those women, President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf and Leymah Gbowee, were from Liberia, the country I called home for most of my elementary school years. I haven’t stopped grinning since I heard the news. See, it was in Liberia [...]
Have you heard of Katie Davis? The 19-year-old class president and homecoming queen from Nashville, Tennessee who “quit her life” to begin a ministry in Uganda and become a foster mother to 14 girls? Katie’s new book was released on October 4th, and if I didn’t have a stack of books a mile high to plow through [...]
I linked to a post on her blog once before, but can I just suggest that everyone hop over to Katie Davis’s blog a couple times a month? Oh. My. Gosh. She’s a young, twenty-something girl who followed God’s call to Uganda, and his next call to simply stuff her home full of children who needed help. [...]
Well, I was going to write a blog post today, but I stumbled across one that was FAR better than anything I was going to write, and decided to share that with you instead. It has nothing to do with what I was going to blog about, but these challenging words from a twenty-something American [...]
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about what it really means to be a Christian, and about the challenges of being or calling oneself a Christian in American society. As a missionary kid in Liberia, I had friends from many different nations, cultures, and faiths, and was faced early with the fact that many good, [...]
I am halfway through the book “The Irresistable Revolution” by Shane Claiborne, and it is making me cry. Shane is one of the founders of “The Simple Way” in Philidelphia, a community committed to–well, you’ll have to read the book. Peace. Non-violence. Living in community, friendship, and solidarity with the poor and homeless, while trying [...]
Hi there! I'm Jenny Rae Armstrong, an award-winning writer, speaker, and mommy of four. I live on black coffee and lots of grace (oh, and my husband's incredible cooking). I'm glad you stopped by--stay and chat awhile!
Tim Fall: “Families that don’t talk about money are more likely to end up in a legal dispute.”
Jada and Jon Swanson: “One of the greatest gifts we have given each other is the gift of dreaming BIG!”
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