“We’re from Greenville”

As I heard these words coming out of my mouth this past January, I felt like I was having some sort of out of body experience. I was shocked when I replied to “Where are you from?” with “We’re from Greenville”. From as far back as I can remember, I somewhat hate when someone asks me that because I never know how to answer. 

Should I say “I was born in Florence, SC”?

Or is it better if I say “I was born in Florence, but grew up overseas”?

Maybe I should just say “I grew up in Ethiopia and Bolivia”?

I’m probably overthinking it and should just say “I grew up overseas” and see if they ask where?

Depending on how curious the person looks, I might go all in and say “I was born in Florence, but my parents were missionaries so I grew up in Ethiopia and Bolivia”.

Honestly, this is all too much so it’s probably better if I say “I’m from Florence” even though I don’t really feel like I’m from Florence at all, but I also don’t know where I feel like I’m from. 

I’m from a lot of places. And I’m from nowhere.

So, it’s better if we just don’t cover where we are from and I really hope they don’t bring it up.

I’m not sure when this dilemma began. I moved to Ethiopia at 7-years-old and remember feeling slightly awkward a few times. I looked different and spoke different. I obviously didn’t fit in. Then I came back to the USA and was no longer home there either. I was called “The Ethiopian” by a handful of kids and my new best friend was a girl from South Africa. She felt the most safe because we both didn’t quite fit the mold.

A few years later, I moved to Bolivia and didn’t really fit in there either. Again, I looked different and spoke different. Friends called me Gringa (white girl) and Granjera (farm girl since they assumed South Carolina is just farms and hicks). My best friend was a girl from North Carolina since she felt the most like me.  

When we would take a furlough and spend a few months in Florence, friends called me “The Bolivian” because I didn’t quite fit in with the American girls. To them (and myself), I was a foreigner. I couldn’t wait to get back to Bolivia. It felt better to be a foreigner in a foreign country, rather than in my home country.

Finally, when I graduated high school and moved back to South Carolina for college, I did so kicking and screaming. I didn’t want to be here and only connected with new friends who were also either foreigners or missionary kids. If anyone asked me where I was from, I would never reply “Florence”, which was only an hour away. I would reply “Bolivia” because I felt I belonged there more than I belonged here.

Since 1992, I’ve wondered how to reply to “Where are you from” and my answer changes constantly, depending on who asks, how I feel, who I’ve just caught up with, whether I’ve felt awkward or re-experienced some form of culture shock or almost said a sentence in Spanish while talking in English. It’s a constant mystery, trying to figure out where I’m from because what does that even mean? 

Am I from the place I was born? The place I spent the most years? The place that was my favorite? The place I had the most connections and friendships? The place I want to say I’m from? The place I currently live? 

So, in January when we were onboard the Logos Hope and someone asked “Where are you from?”, I answered “We’re from Greenville” for the first time in my entire life. I couldn’t understand myself for answering that way because I’m not from Greenville. Oh my word now I have another place to add to my list of questions I ask myself when someone wants to know my origins.

I kept replaying my answer in my head, wondering what brought me to say that and realized: Ivy. In a way that I was never rooted anywhere before, Ivy being born in Greenville has grounded me here. Although Nick is from Greenville, I never was. I couldn’t figure out where I was from. But Ivy’s birth turning us into a family gave Greenville a permanent location in my heart.

Ask me on my own, “Where are you from?”, and I’m still not sure. But ask me “Where are y’all from?”, and my answer in “Greenville, my family is my Greenville”. 

Emily's French Bread

I don't cook or bake many things, but when I do it's almost always a hit because I just use the same tried and true recipes over and over and over. Can't go wrong because I've been using some of these same recipes for over a decade. These beloved recipes are my french bread, my cinnamon rolls, my molasses cookies, my quiche and my granola.  Whatever it is we ate, our guests usually ask for my recipe. So, I'm sharing them all here on my blog, for all my readers!

Ingredients:

1.5 cups of warm water

1 tbsp yeast

1 tbsp sugar

3.5 cups all purpose flour

1 tsp salt

Directions:

Whisk together the warm water, yeast and sugar in a bowl and let sit for about 5 minutes. It should bubble up. Add in the flour and salt. Mix all ingredients and let your electric mixer knead the dough for a minute or so. Put the dough on an oiled cast iron pan, cover with a dishcloth and let sit for 20 minutes to an hour.

Preheat the oven to 400, use a sharp knife to cut slits into the top of the risen dough, drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with course sea salt. Bake for 35 minutes or until top of bread is golden brown. 

Enjoy!

Emily’s Molasses Cookies

Not trying to brag, but people love my molasses cookies. They are my go-to dessert when company is coming over and Nick’s favorite for me to whip up when he’s craving a warm, gooey treat.

They never fail. Are always yummy. Even when I don’t follow the recipe exactly, they turn out great. So, don’t be nervous to change the spice measurements and feel free to throw in your Young Living Essential Oils when you have them on hand.

I’ve used YLEO Cinnamon Bark, Ginger, Cardamom, Clove and Nutmeg many times and just a couple drops of each really gives these cookies that extra zing that’s amazing in a molasses cookie. Don’t have the essential oils? Click HERE to order from me!

Ingredients:

2 cups all purpose flour

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tbsp ground cinnamon

1 tsp ground ginger

1 tsp ground cardamom

(Optional: instead of using cinnamon, ginger and cardamom, you can use 1 tbsp Pumpkin Pie Spice)

1/2 cup butter (1 stick), softened (use vegan butter to make this recipe vegan)

2/3 cup brown sugar, packed

1/2 cup molasses

1/2 tsp vanilla

Sugar for rolling

Directions:

If you have an electric mixer, start by putting in the butter. Turn on the mixer and while it’s stirring, slowly add each ingredient. I like to do it in this order: butter, then brown sugar, then molasses, then vanilla, then all the spices, then slowly add the 2 cups of flour with the baking soda. Let the mixer continue stirring until ingredients are fully mixed, stopping to clean the sides of bowl if needed.

If you don’t have an electric mixer and plan to hand mix, combine all the dry ingredients and wet ingredients in two separate bowls and then mix them together into one bowl. 

Once all ingredients are fully mixed, place the ball of dough in the refrigerator for a 30 minutes or so. It’s not required, but the cold dough is easier to form into balls.

When you’re ready to bake, preheat the oven at 350, form the dough into cookie sized balls, roll them in a bowl of sugar and press down with fork. Bake for 9-11 mins.

Enjoy!

My forever water bottle

We’re preparing to serve with OM Ships again this year and it reminded me of sometime back in 2008 when we were volunteering to go overseas with this ministry the first time. We were newly married, graduating university, wrapping things up in Florence, SC and packing what we thought we needed for a couple years of full-time travel.

We didn’t have much, living on love and rarely had money for anything extra other than food, gas and bills. So, I was shocked when Nick came home one day with a little brown paper bag from Naturally Outdoors. I excitedly opened it and found my very first reusable water bottle…a Klean Kanteen. Up until that day, I only remember drinking out of plastic bottles that were supposed to be used once and thrown away. Sounds crazy in today’s world where everyone is carrying water bottles everywhere they go. But back then, my friends and I would buy a Gatorade at the grocery store and use the bottle until it disintegrated or a boy in our class broke it.

Our Klean Kanteen in Aruba 2009

Nick was immediately jealous of the gift he bought me and got himself a matching stainless steel water bottle the very next day. Since the day I got my Klean Kanteen, I’ve gone through many water bottles that have been gifted to me. But, none have lasted. I use them until they break or get lost. But guess what water bottle I still have? My Kleen Kanteen and it’s going with me, yet again, to serve overseas as I volunteer on the Logos Hope. It’s survived, not just sitting safely in the back of the cabinet, but extensively traveling the world with me for over 18 years.

Our Klean Kanteen in Grand Canyon 2012

And because I’m actually so impressed myself, I wanted to put down in writing all the places my Klean Kanteen has been by my side: Trinidad, Tobago, St Lucia, Curaçao, Aruba, Barbados, Jamaica, Guyana, several road trips to Texas, the Faroe Islands, Northern Ireland, Ireland, Denmark, New York City, Scotland, a one-month USA road trip visiting 21 states, camping in the Grand Canyon and the Redwoods, Yellowstone, the Color Run and the Color Vibe races, an Atlanta Braves game, climbed Table Rock in SC and Pinnacle Mountain in AR, been to Shoot the Hooch in Atlanta, camped in the Lavender Farms in Mona Utah, spent three months in Bolivia (South America), kayaked in Murrell’s Inlet, cruised the Caribbean many times over, hiked all over Hawaii, attempted a Triathlon, roadtripped all the way from the Everglades to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter to the Chicago Bean and Niagara Falls to the Creation Museum and Ark Encounter and Mount Rushmore, hiked to the Lake Louise Tea House in Banff, visited the Rose Test Garden in Portland, cruised through Alaska twice, white water rafting in Spokane, camping in Okracoke, touring Colonial Williamsburg, hiking Gettysburg, Animal Kingdom and Epcot, Biltmore again and again, Cabbage Patch Kids Hospital, Dominican Republic several times and all-inclusives in Cancun over and over and over, Dollywood, London, Clearwater, Miami, Nashville, Savannah, West Palm Beach, Key West, Naples, Jacksonville, Charlotte, Columbia, Buckhead, Boston, Orlando, Charleston, Panama City, Chapel Hill, New Jersey, Asheville, Atlanta, playgrounds everywhere, horseback riding, paddle-boarding, boating, a million play dates and 9,482 other places I can’t even recall and recently got “decorated” by my daughter with stickers that apparently don’t come off.

Our Klean Kanteen in Hilton Head 2021

If I’ve been there, where ever there is, so has my Klean Kanteen. And it’s not a fluke because it’s not just mine that’s lasted, but also Nick’s. Both have seen the world with us and both have no signs of it being close to the end of their life. So, as we pack up yet again, for another long-term adventure, our two Klean Kanteens are on the packing list, just like always.

Our Klean Kanteen in Dominican Republic 2023

It just so happens that Ivy, our 5-year-old, is obsessed with water bottles, is often gifted them because she always loves a new one and is always is hoping to shop for just one more. It’s such a thing with her that we tease that maybe she’ll grow up to one day start her own water bottle company because she’s such a connoisseur. Although she’s owned more water bottles than I can even count, she’s never had her own Klean Kanteen. I know it’s silly, but I wonder which water bottle she’ll finally land on that’ll follow her adventures into her 20s and beyond. Her forever water

Our Klean Kanteen in Banff 2018

We're SERVING onboard the LOGOS HOPE starting this AUGUST!

We're returning to the Logos Hope in a few months...in Europe!

If you didn't know, this past January we served onboard the Logos Hope for 1 month as a vision trip. Click HERE to read more about how that trip came together. We enjoyed our time onboard so much that we asked for permission to return to the ship.

So, we're excited to share that we'll be serving onboard the Logos Hope again this August-January, spending those five months in the Faroe Islands, Wales, Northern Ireland, England and the rest of the countries and ports TBD!

Nick will be working in Project Maintenance (think construction). Nick will pause his construction projects in Greenville, SC during our time onboard so that he can offer his gifts and talents to this ministry that we believe in. The ship is aging and in need of upkeep and repairs, so Nick's job onboard will help us keep the World's Largest Floating Bookfair open!

In each port it visits, the ship opens it’s bookfair for hundreds to thousands of visitors each day, offering over 5,000+ titles at discounted prices, including Bibles, resulting in many people buying quality literature for the first time in their lives! The ship also offers practical help like dental and construction teams and partners with local churches, according to the needs of each port. But most importantly, the ship offers hope to each person who comes aboard because they are given the chance to learn about God’s love for them. Click HERE for a 60 second clip about the Logos Hope.

The Logos Hope is the world’s largest floating bookfair, but I like to explain it’s like a floating city. Just like in a city, there are engineers, electricians, plumbers, nurses, teachers (like me), cooks, bakers, a finance department, event planners, maintenance team (like Nick), kids (like Ivy) and many others. It’s a great way to combine a career you enjoy with a calling from God. Right now there are roughly 264 volunteers from over 60 countries serving onboard as unpaid volunteers! We are excited to join and serve in a meaningful way as we use our strengths where there is a need.

Nick, Ivy and I will be in a family cabin. It’s basically 3 rooms: Ivy’s bedroom, a bathroom and a family room with a couch that converts to a bed for Nick and me. It’s extremely tight, but living in a small cabin was actually one of my favorite memories of ship life. And to Ivy's excitement, we will eat all our meals in the Dining Room with everyone else. The ship life is really fun for extraverts, like Ivy!

And Ivy's favorite place onboard...the school! Onboard the Logos Hope, there is a school for all the kids that live onboard with their parents. Ivy loved visiting the boat and attending the school in January and can't wait to get back to her class and her friends in June. Because the school year runs differently, she'll graduate 5K here and go into 5K onboard, until in September when she enters 1st grade when the new term starts.

***We will be serving as unpaid volunteers, so to make this family missions trip possible, we’re raising $8,950 to cover our room and board, plus airfare and emergency medical insurance on top of that. We’d be so grateful if you’d consider partnering with us—through your prayers and, if you’re able, with a financial gift. Every gift, big or small, helps us!

👉 How to Give:

• Click HERE to give online

• Check – Payable to OM USA and mailed to OM USA Finance Dept. PO Box 444 Tyrone, GA 30290.  Put “Nick and Emily Stewart - 2261134” in the Memo Line.

Please reach out and keep in touch...and let me know if you want to get our updates!

nickemily07@gmail.com

Nick (843) 245-4936

Emily (843) 618-1447