Rattins living Coram Deo

My sister introduced me to the term "first world problem." I've been gnawing on this concept all day. We live in the "third world" or whatever the politically correct term is these days... I call it "low-resource setting." But we still have what I would classify as first world problems. I have to make my own cheese to make lasagna.  'sigh'  ( I have figured out how to make amazing lasagna here AND I have an oven!! ) 60% of the time, there's no running water from my kitchen tap so I have to do dishes from a tap that comes from our water tank.  'sigh' ( I still have running water 80% of the year!! ) I can't do laundry when the power is out ( because I have a washing machine!!).  'sigh' But, additionally, our community has "NGO-world problems." It's really the same concept.  But created by the presence of Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) who have given hand-outs for a decade  (or longer) due...

"Mama, when Gracie's in heaven, she won't need a wheelchair anymore, right? And she'll be able to talk to me, right?" (5 year old Ana, this week) Our Gracie is our first-born child.  We've been a family for nearly 7 years now.  We couldn't imagine life without her.  God has used her to shape us in so many ways.   But being on the mission field with a growing nonverbal daughter with spastic quadriplegia cerebral palsy, epilepsy, significant development delays, GERD, constipation, and a swallow disorder is not always easy.  God had it all planned out, though.  He directed me to medical school so that Gracie could have her own personal doctor! (She LOVES her HOL friends and is very popular!) Our daily challenges with her include: - No special education so she's homeschooled.  She much prefers that someone BESIDES Mama teach her, so this summer I hired a dear friend who is in university for education.  I've trained her to be Gracie...

Money is a difficult thing.  Anywhere. " For you always have the poor with you, and whenever you want, you can do good for them. But you will not always have me" (Mark 14:7, ESV). On many foreign mission fields, a missionary who is living on a salary well below the poverty threshold in their country of origin, is viewed as wealthy in their host country.  Since they are foreign, they surely have immediate access to unending streams of money. Giving money in these settings is simply a bad idea.  I can write more about that later. Even giving THINGS is often a bad idea. So, here we are, trying to be responsible with our money, trying to live sacrificially, trying to demonstrate to our children that the riches of this world hold nothing for us... but we have to wrestle daily with how to spend our money. YOU have to wrestle daily with how to spend your money.   As I boiled it down, it came down to one principle: am I spending my money to invest in people? ...