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Aside from having several great visitors over the past few months and the business of the medical campaign, I have also not been blogging very much because I have been reading instead.  A lot.  And we are moving in a week and a half, so there’s another excuse in advance.

Even though we just passed our one year mark in Peru (woohoo!) and it is winter here, I still am thinking of the months of June, July and August as summer.  For the past several years I have always looked forward to a good book to read over the summer.  This year I read three.  (I’m not a HUGE reader, so three is a lot for me.)  Third Culture Kids, Love and Respect, and Searching for God Knows What.  I highly recommend all three.

Third Culture Kids by David C. Pollock and Ruth E. Van Reken  is a book about growing up in more than one culture.

Since the time we decided to be missionaries and move to another country, we have heard about this book, because Jake and Derek are now “third culture kids” or “TCKs.”  They are not fully American, they are not fully Peruvian.  They make up a culture of their own–a childhood cross-cultural experience.  This book explains and describes so well the challenges and rewards families face because of their different cultural experiences.  At first I thought that this was something I needed to read about later on, but then a friend recommended I read it now and mailed it to me (All the way from Singapore!  Thanks, Jenn).  The wisdom and knowledge and personal stories in this book are invaluable.  It covers the board–it’s not just for parents.  It speaks to adult TCKs, family members, sponsoring organizations, and anyone else who wants to understand how being born or raised in a different culture can shape someone and impact them differently.  I find this stuff pretty fascinating (which probably explains why I chose a degree in Psychology).  I realized after reading this book that you don’t have to leave the country to have a cross-cultural experience.  I think the newest edition of the book explains in more detail what that means and looks like.

Love and Respect by Emerson Eggerich is a marriage book.

This is actually the second time I’ve gone through this book.  It’s divided into three sections–the first is written to both husband and wife, and then it’s split into the “how to love your wife” and “how to respect your husband” parts.  I think the strongest message of this book is how little we know (us wives) about the importance of respecting our husbands.  It’s pretty revolutionary, actually.  I’ll probably be re-visiting this one throughout our different stages of marriage and life as a fresh reminder.

Searching for God Knows What by Donald Miller is a book that has set me free in a lot of ways.

I mentioned this one on Facebook a while back.  It is the kind of book that, as a Christian, you can be proud of and actually want to share it with everyone you know.  And it’s the kind of book for people who believe in God or want to believe in God, and who can respect Jesus but want nothing to do with Christianity or the church.  It set me free, like I said, because I am understanding the message of Jesus in a way I never have before.