About Us

Currently, my family of five has bid goodbye to the mountains of the West to say hello to the jungles of Thailand.  My husband and our three small children (ages 8, 6, and 4) live in the Northern city of Chiang Mai, where rice is at every meal and squatty-potties are very real. We spent our first year overseas directing a Christian Humanitarian Foundation {NGO}, Joy to the World.  One of our primary roles was managing a Children’s Home, Breanna’s House of Joy, which houses and educates 42 impoverished and at-risk girls from the hilltribes of Northern Thailand. While Matt is still the Chairman of that organization, our attention these days lies in two main areas:

1. Directing a short-term missions agency at DestinedTraveler.com. We have a huge heart for mentorship, and we focus on creating experiences that are culturally-sensitive and relevant. We lead teams of families, churches, secular groups, and young adults in short and longer-but-still-short-term trips. You can read about our “missions philosophy” over there at Destined Traveler.

2. Fighting human trafficking. Predominately using education, we are attempting to raise the cultural awareness of the issues surrounding human trafficking and the harmful affects it has on children, women, and the entire society. Matt is also networking with several agencies here on the ground in a variety of avenues to combat modern day slavery. Some new initiatives will launch prayerfully in the late Spring of 2012.

Interested in More on That?

More on Me, On the Off-Chance You’re Interested.  I was born to a family of sweet-tea drinkers in North Carolina.  I was a preacher’s kid and learned to accept my fate of hand-me-downs and attendance at every potluck dinner.  Cancer was a part of my childhood, claiming my dad’s life and stealing some years from my mom, as well.  My highschool years then introduced me to my husband, Matt, and I was actually his date for our senior prom (you can laugh at the picture here).  We got married young, after our junior year of college at Appalachian State University in NC, where I majored in Middle Grades Education with a minor in English.  Wanting adventure, we spent a year on a tiny island you probably won’t recognize (called Saipan) teaching, then headed back to North Carolina where we worked with students at a local church.  After a brief trip back around the world to New Zealand to live (which regretfully didn’t work out), we landed out in the tiny mountain town of Woodland Park, Colorado, where my husband worked as a pastor for a Community Church.   For nearly five years, I reveled in glorious summers and endured cold winters as a stay-at-home to our three little people.  It was here in the shadow of Pike’s Peak that a passion for speaking about spiritual things to others searching for authentic faith developed, and it was here that a desire to love the global poor was cultivated.

And, eventually, in April of 2010, we loaded nine suitcases and three kids on a plane, endured 30 hours of travel, and began calling Thailand, home.

{You can read the entire experience of my first year overseas in a category of the blog entitled First Year Missionary  . . . Though I’ll warn you, it’s not all that pretty.}

My Writing.  I have found blogging to be a lifeline for me in more ways than one during my time overseas.  I write a fairly full-monty version of our journey here, which is often humorous and begs for video documentation, including the time when my husband rode an ostrich and the time when my daughter gagged after she tried a local snack of bamboo worms.  I write lots about spirituality, with more questions than answers, and I’ll occasionally throw in a post or two of the more practical nature– like how to survive an insanely long plane ride with children or ways to fight depression.

I am currently a freelance writer for Compassion International Thailand. I’ve also enjoyed being featured online at {In}Courage, RELEVANT Magazine, and Deeper Story, along with several other blogs hosted by individuals.  I was also asked to be a contributor for the 2011 IdeaCamp on Orphan Care, a collaborative conference in Arkansas.  I’m currently working on a children’s book, and I also run an inspirational site for teachers called, INSPIREDTEACHER.NET. 

But, mostly, I just write because I’m a happier person when I do.  And, also, because I have a terrible memory.

Regardless of where you find yourself on the globe, thank you for taking the time to visit me here at ALifeOverseas.com 

{which you can also get to by typing in www.LauraParkerBlog.com }. 

I hope you leave a little more hopeful than when you arrived.

Feel free to email me with any personal questions or comments at lauraleighparker {at} gmail {dot} com .

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