Living Behind the Veil

I'm often asked what I wear in Afghanistan and what it's like to wear a veil. It's freedom. Freedom to have a bad hair day, freedom to arrange my chadar to conceal the curve of my breasts and backside, freedom to not be an expatriate for a little while. It means freedom to hide even on the street from the Afghan men's eyes which seem to strip me naked.
When I relax my shoulders and walk less purposefully, less confidently, my eyes downcast and covered by sunglasses, I pass for an Afghan woman. I hear the men whisper in Dari, "Is she a foreigner or local woman?" I chuckle but am silent. On the street, I'm also a free target....freely exposed to groping, sexual innuendos whispered to me as a man bicycles by, free to have stones thrown at me, freely seen as no one's wife, daughter, sister, mother, friend, or boss. I step inside my gate, and remove my chapan and chadar. Now I'm someone's boss, motherhood returns to me as little steps run to greet me, and I receive a kiss from my adoring husband. Now I'm free to his loving and gentle eyes which know and enjoy my curves, free to once again be under the protective umbrella of being a wife, mother, friend, colleague, boss, niece, sister, daughter, woman.

Sunday, April 15, 2018

Belly-Shaking Laughter in Kenya


Two grueling 8-hour-each flights there. Two grueling 8-hour-each flights back...all in the space of 7 days.

Four intense days, including 2 days facilitating the RAM Training with one of only a few indigenous sending mission organizations in Kenya: Africans sending Africans to unreached people groups in 3 countries!

Our newest RAM Trainers are amazing facilitators with both experience and gifting in facilitating. What a joy to work with Esther and Eliud!

God answered a life-long prayer for me personally while I was there and He answered a question I've been asking Him for at least ten years now.

The RAM Training was deeply encouraging to our African Family-in-Christ, and I love how His Spirit binds us together even when we are newly acquainted.

The last night we were at the training facility in Nairobi, I could relax and sit with my African sisters-now-friends. 

We traded stories and laughed together.

Belly-shaking-laughter. 

The kind that heals the soul and reminds one of Heaven. 

Laughter and friendship that crosses culture because people who know how to face risk and death also know how to laugh; because Kenyans are fun people; because we have the same Spirit, the same Mind, the same Vision and Purpose, the same Lord.

I missed them before I even said goodbye...Those warrior-women-for-Christ, going back to their fields of service among the unreached for love of people and our King.