“Settle down, kids,” I heard myself yell above the din. I felt like I had tumbled into a Charles Dickens novel, visiting the holiday celebration with Scrooge and the Ghost of Christmas Past where there were “not forty children conducting themselve...

Encouragement visits in many different forms. A card, a note, a text, a gift, kind words or acts, or even a smile or touch. We usually think of it as something that makes us feel good. Whether it happens in our host country or “at home,” encourage...