I stood at the airport desk, my heart pounding in fear as the security agent rooted through my suitcase. A friend had asked me to bring some Bibles in the local language. That was not illegal, but I suddenly remembered other friends, jailed for sh...

Household duties are mundane, but on this particular morning, I had the cleaning supplies in tow ready to tackle the job I least enjoyed. Everyone was where they needed to be: my husband and younger daughter were in the north part of the island, a...

“What were you thinking?! You could have been kidnapped and smuggled to Russia!”

Slipping the rain parkas over our heads, the tour guide gave us a few last-minute instructions. Our four kids wiggled and giggled as they clung to their grandparents who they hadn’t seen for several years.