Author: Kathy Sheldon Davis
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What if I’m Too Old?- Isaiah 46:3-11
Nurse Doris lost her patience with me as I counted the pills and placed them in tiny plastic bags. We were working in a bush clinic made of straw bales and thatch, and though I wanted to be helpful I struggled to understand her unfamiliar pronunciations of the medications we dispensed. I was especially intimidated…
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When I was the Stranger to Avoid
Why should she be suspicious of me? Can’t she tell by looking that I’m a good person and only want to help? And who pinned a BEWARE OF THE STRANGER sign on my shirt? How quickly I forgot that earning trust is work. As I searched for mushrooms in a crowded produce department last year, I maneuvered…
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How to Fall Sleep Anywhere, or Not – Psalm 4:8
Don’t expect me to fall sleep in public. Before our trip to Zambia I stayed up all night mending clothes and packing, convinced I would have no trouble sleeping on the twelve-hour flight across the Atlantic. But, you guessed it, sleep never came. On another trip I had the same problem. After flying into Delhi on a…
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Welcome the Stranger – Leviticus 19:34
We didn’t know anyone in our new community when we moved into our country home. Both my husband and I had lived in Eugene since elementary school, not realizing how deep our roots had grown—or how important they were. We’d stayed in the same school district for decades, taking part in athletic competitions, after school clubs, community events, and church…
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Help Comes from God – Psalm 121:1-4
We were sick with the flu last week. Both of us. At the same time. In one of Laura Ingalls Wilder’s “Little House” books there’s a story about Laura being delirious with fever and her mother spooning drops of water into her mouth. As her disease progressed Laura realized her mother’s care had stopped. When…
