When you look at Avis Goodhart’s life and ministry today, you might not guess that she, like many of the children she serves in Peru, has suffered the unspeakable. Here’s another in our continuing series of devotionals taken from Out of the Dust: Story of an Unlikely Missionary, which will release November 1. Enjoy, and don’t forget to check out the links at the end. Keep watching for other Out of the Dust devotions all month. Scripture Reading: Trust in him at all times, you people; pour out your hearts to him, for God is our refuge (Psalm 62:8). Thought: Even when things seem hopeless, we can cry out to God, our refuge. Excerpt, Out of the Dust: During our early years, my sister Rada and I sometimes stayed with my maternal grandfather, two aunts, and an uncle. But for me, Pop’s comfortable home brought with it the unspeakable injury of sexual abuse. Christmas this year looked different than ever before. We helped decorate the sparkling tree in the living room. Our aunts took us shopping, urging, “Don’t peek” as they smuggled in all sorts of mysterious gifts. They also began talking about us staying to live with them full-time. “When we go to court, make sure to tell the judge you want to live here,” Aunt Ruth urged. I didn’t want to hurt her, but the terrible secret locked inside me refused to go away. One night during dinner, Uncle Jim looked at me, and I knew. No one else saw, no one else noticed – but I did. I couldn’t talk about it, didn’t know what to call it or why it was wrong, but I knew. Leaving my mashed potatoes and gravy to grow cold, I jumped up and ran out the door. Leaping over the ditch, I darted into the fields behind the barn. I ran, and ran, and ran, unaware that my frantic aunts and uncle were searching for me. The whole time I ran, I kept watching for Mom and Dad to come driving down the road. I know they’ll come. They’ll make everything all right. Instead, only Aunt Alice came after what seemed like hours. She found me lying in the weeds, exhausted and hopeless. “Avis! Why would you want to run away?” she puffed. “We’re giving you and your sister such a good home. Come with me right now!” When we got back to the house, all the adults seemed so upset. And they all had questions I couldn’t answer. All except Uncle Jim. He stayed quiet while the others talked to me about “responsibility” and “gratitude” and other big words I didn’t know. I still couldn’t answer their questions. I...

Today, I’m continuing the series of devotionals taken from Out of the Dust: Story of an Unlikely Missionary (ANEKO Press, 2014), which will release November 1. Enjoy, and don’t forget to check out the links at the end. Keep watching for other Out of the Dust devotions all month. #2 True Compassion Scripture Reading: Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God (2 Corinthians 1:3-4). Thought: When our desire to help flows from godly compassion, we will preserve others’ dignity while offering them assistance. Excerpt, Out of the Dust: When I was about nine years old, Mom and I were both hospitalized with hepatitis. Doctors feared I had permanent heart and liver damage, and the recovery took time. Right after the hospital released me, a television personality learned of our family’s plight. Dad hauled us up to the studio, certain we’d hit the big time. Not quite. The television people lined us up in birth order for an appeal: “If anyone has a job for this deserving veteran, call us at KLAC-13. We’ll put you in touch.” A huge car whisked us off after the interview to the mansion owned by one of the bigwig television producers. Realizing we were both the oddballs and the centerpiece of the evening, I didn’t like the situation one bit. “How old are you?” “Do you like living in a cabin?” “Since your mom is sick, do you handle the cooking?” The too-kind people in the too-fancy clothes spewed all these questions and more. Dad and the younger kids enjoyed the attention, but I recognized pity when I saw it. Mom’s right. It’s better to work hard than ask for handouts. But I’m not old enough to help. How can I make them understand? In despair, I crept down the carpeted hallway. Locking the bathroom door, I buried my head in the plush towel hanging from the rack. How can the world have so much and some people so little? By the time a kind lady found me, I was sitting on the floor, head in my hands. They don’t understand. We’re no different from rich kids. On the inside, we’re all the same. I hadn’t noticed, but I’d torn the towel rack right off the wall. (Chapter 3) Prayer: Holy Father, when we have the opportunity to help others, teach us to do it in a way that does not humiliate them. Use the hurts in our lives to give us hearts of compassion and kindness. Do you have a question,...

Although the overarching theme of this blog is “Read. Write. Pray,” missions and mission trips take a prominent place here. The necessity of taking the gospel to the nations has become my heartbeat, and I’ve been blessed to serve overseas as well as to help send many of my family members on mission trips across the world. This blog has gone silent for a while in part due to the pre-publication work on a book I wrote that will release November 1. Out of the Dust: Story of an Unlikely Missionary is already available for pre-order. (If you live in my area and want to buy a copy, let me know.) This book shares the amazing memoir of Avis Goodhart, servant of Jesus Christ and missionary to Peru. Everyone has a story, but not every story needs to become a book. Avis’s challenging, inspiring story did. For the next few weeks, this blog will feature devotionals that include excerpts from our book. These provide both what I hope will be a thoughtful read and an intriguing sample of a book you’ll want to own. Avis and I donate all the proceeds from Out of the Dust to her nonprofit, Go Ye Ministries. I encourage you to sign up for her mailing list here. After we finish the devotional series (and about the time of the book release), I’ll share more about Avis and her passion for the least of these. But for now, let the devotions begin. Out of the Dust Devotionals By Avis Goodhart with Marti Pieper  All excerpts are taken from the book Out of the Dust by Avis Goodhart with Marti Pieper (ANEKO Press, 11/1/14).  All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide.www.zondervan.com The “NIV” and “New International Version” are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.™  #1 Obstacle Course  Scripture Reading: While walking by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon (who is called Peter) and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen. And he said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” Immediately they left their nets and followed him. (Matthew 4:18-20) Thought: Following God requires faith (and persistence). Excerpt, Out of the Dust: When I set out at the age of fifty to make my first international mission trip, I met some obstacles even before I landed in Honduras: “I’m sorry,” the man at the ticket counter said when we attempted to check our unusual baggage. “You can’t travel with all these. You’ll have to choose what to...

It’s no secret: we’ve raised a family of missionaries. Over the years, all five of our children—plus Tom and me—have taken multiple mission trips. In 2014 alone, five of us have served in East Asia (Karissa, five months); Slovenia (Andrew, one week); New York City (Tom, five days); Nicaragua (Melanie, five weeks); Panama (Karissa, five weeks); and Costa Rica (Tom and Marti, ten days). Because Tom and I just returned from Costa Rica on July 20 and our girls also returned from Central America on July 25, there’s a whole lot of readjusting going on at the Pieper home. I present this list as both a humorous and serious look at the aftermath of short-term missions service. And no, I won’t identify who is exhibiting which sign. You know you’ve just returned from a short-term mission trip when. . . 10. The house fills with the smell of unwashed (or less-than-well-washed) socks and sweaty T-shirts. 9. That salad/milkshake/hamburger/Starbucks/Chipotle/Chick-fil-A/other Western food you missed most tastes really good. 8. You begin every other sentence with, “One time in (insert name of international city or village).” 7. You go to your neighborhood grocery store and all you can think about are the children you met who lived on rice and beans—if their parents could afford them.                                                                                                                                                                                                             6.  You open one of your 27 Bibles and remember the people who were so eager to receive their first one. 5. You can’t forget the looks on the faces of those who received Christ. Or the tears on yours for those who didn’t. 4. You missed your family while you were gone, but now that you’re home, you miss your fellow missionaries more. 3. You realize that the same God who works in power overseas cares just as much for the people at home. 2. You can’t listen to comments about how wonderful you are for going to the mission field because you’ve met the real heroes who serve there every day. 1. You’re not sure you should unpack your suitcase. After all, you know God will call you to go again soon....

The maxim “opposites attract” is almost too obvious in the almost-thirty-one-year marriage between my husband and me. He’s loud and boisterous. I’m quiet and (so they tell me) gentle. He loves action movies. I prefer old-fashioned musicals and romances. A military brat, he tells people he’s from “everywhere,” but none of his family’s many homes were above the Mason-Dixon line.  Until I moved to Texas during our engagement, I had never lived anywhere but southwestern or central Ohio. He loves coffee. I never touch the stuff. I love to garden. He stays as far away from anything related to flowers and plants as he can. But despite our many differences, we believe we have the most important things in common: a love for God. A commitment to relationships. A passion for missions and ministry. And of course, the five incredible young adult (our youngest two begin college this fall) children with whom God entrusted us. We also share a love for the arts. Tom is wired for music in the same way I am for words. Our children know that when we watch a movie, we never leave/turn it off until their dad sees all the music credits.  Most of the time, he and I understand and respect our individual needs to study, practice, and express our artistic passions. So when he told me the day before we left on our mission trip that he didn’t plan to bring his trumpet along, I was more than concerned. “You’re kidding. Why not?” I knew he had expressed some frustration with his practice since returning from a music mission trip to New York a few weeks earlier. What I didn’t know was that his practices had gone so poorly and his lip was so unresponsive that he thought he might have to give up playing forever. My former TRUTH member, nearly 50 years of trumpet-playing, professional musician husband not play his horn anymore? Unthinkable. “I just don’t think I’ll be able to do anything.” We talked a little more as I ever-so-gently reminded him that God had used his music on every international trip he’s taken. I couldn’t  imagine him leaving his horn behind, but I also knew the decision belonged to him. I prayed. In a few more minutes, I heard him practicing.  I kept on praying. And the next day, Tom’s trumpet went with us to training. Soon, I asked our prayer team (totaling more than 100) to pray. Somehow, my still-a-music-man made time to practice even on our busiest days. Writers write. Musicians practice. And Tom is the consummate musician. During our time here, he has played for two of our FUAGNEM (Fired Up And Going Nuts Every Minute) worship services. He’s interacted with several other musicians. And all...

Publication deadlines and a busy travel/teaching schedule have kept me off the blog grid for several weeks, but I’m excited to write you tonight from San Jose, Costa Rica and the Never the Same missions trip. I’m traveling with this group for the fifth year as the writer for Sisterhood Magazine, which means I have the privilege of writing the story of the trip. I take great delight in encouraging the students to watch for the story God is writing through them, then come and share it with me. Because I do need to save some special stories for the magazine, this blog will contain more personal than student stories. And as I have  learned on previous mission trips, the best stories come when I not only listen but allow God to make me a part of them. Today, God gave both my husband and me that privilege. Our trip coordinator, Steve Goley, suggested I travel with Tom’s team today because our traveling medical clinic was scheduled to work alongside them. We began our first official ministry day about twenty minutes from our hotel in a poor area of the city. Traveling that twenty minutes took about twice that long because of stop-and-go traffic. Through the windows of our bus, we watched the landscape change from more affluent homes and businesses to narrow streets, broken pavement, and concrete block homes with corrugated tin roofs. The team performed two dramas today at two different sites in this neighborhood. At the first, the narrow street was barely adequate for the movement needed. At the second, the noise of nearby construction work threatened to drown out the narration and testimonies. But none of these concerns or even the rain that fell steadily during the second drama prevented God from moving. After each performance, Tom had the privilege of sharing the good news of Christ with the crowd, and several each time indicated they had chosen to follow Him. When the students walked out to speak with the people, I went out to collect stories. And at least a few times, Tom and I had the privilege of ministering together. He and I spoke with (among others): ? Ana, a woman in a wheelchair who told us she was ninety-four years old. Already a follower of Christ, she said God had led her to the drama site and that her faith sustained her. She asked prayer for her health. We were blessed to share a Bible with her, one of the 1,000 the teams bought and send ahead to Costa Rica. She beamed as she clutched it to her chest. ? Raphael, an amputee who was also in a wheelchair and showed us the scars from...