Who is Lorrie Orr?

• I'm a woman who is loved by God. I'm married to a wonderful man, Tim, and we have three children, Cristal, Travis and Ashley. I live on southern Vancouver Island, British Columbia.
  

• Cristal is married to Gerry Alderliesten (She went from a 3-letter last name to one with 12 letters!) She teaches high-school English and beginning Spanish. Travis is a computer-engineering student at the University of Victoria and is married to Katie (Swift). He's the designer and keeper of this website. Ashley is a third-year linguistics student at the University of Victoria. Her goal is to become a speech pathologist.

• From 1981 to 2002 we called Ecuador, South America our home. Tim and I served as missionaries, first with Gospel Missionary Union (now Avant Ministries) and then with HCJB Global. We lived in both in the jungle town of Shell Mera and in the high-altitude capital city of Quito. Tim served as the administrator of two mission hospitals. I had three children, did tons of hospitality, taught school, edited the healthcare division newsletter and cooked everything from scratch! (until the local supermarket started importing Kraft Dinners -  wow, was that exciting!)

• My favorite things to do include being with my family. I love cooking for them and try new recipes all the time. We sit around the table and laugh ourselves silly. Other activities I enjoy are going on hikes with Tim. There are so many beautiful places to explore. I also like to sew and make scrapbooks. Doing things with my hands is restful and satisfying.
  

• The themes I write and speak about have to do with living an abundant and free life in Jesus. These are things I continue to learn as I walk with Him. How do I live a godly life in an ungodly world? How do I make choices deliberately, not letting life carry me along, but choosing what is best? How can I live my life to the fullest? I've discovered that the answers I seek are found in God and in His word and He longs for me to know Him. That's my longing for the women whose lives I touch. It's a journey and if we're alive, we still have further to go. Together we can help each other along the path.
  

Life is short, but wide.

Hmmm, you might be asking. Where did that come from?

Make yourself a cup of tea, sit down and I'll tell you. In 1981, my husband Tim and I went to Ecuador as missionaries. We were oh, so young, with stars in our eyes and dreams in our hearts. We lived in the tiny hamlet of Mera, just where the Andes Mountains taper down into the Amazon jungle. The next largest town was a spine jostling 25 minutes down the road. Shell boasted an airstrip, a missionary hospital and school, and some shopping. It was also the place we attended church.

Once in awhile, after the Sunday morning service, a group of friends would go out for lunch in Puyo, the provincial capital, another 20 minute drive over dusty washboard gravel roads. We would pull up and park in front of the Hotel Europa, the finest establishment in town. It wasn't much by North American standards, but the food was good and there was plenty of it. On Sundays the place was jammed and we often waited for a table.

In those days I was either pregnant or nursing a baby and I would sit on an itchy sofa, hot and sweaty, placating one or more small children with crackers and snacks brought from home. On the wall facing the sofa hung a tapestry. The picture was of a man from bygone days riding a horse along a winding road. On the bottom were these words, La vida es corta, pero ancha. Life is short, but wide.

The saying stuck with me and I pondered it over the years. The length of my life is in God's hands, not my own. But I've realized that the width of it is up to me. In those early years of childbearing I thought my life to be very narrow, although others would have assumed it to be an adventure. After all, there I was, in an exotic place, doing something exciting for the Lord. In reality, my life was an unending circle of diapers, dishes and dirt, all complicated by the facts of life in a humid jungle. I began to understand that the width of my existence, the sense of adventure I craved, started not with the circumstances in which I found myself, but someplace deep inside - in my relationship with my God.

Life is short - but wide with God's love, grace and freedom. It's an adventure beyond your wildest imagination. And it all begins with opening your heart wide to God.
 
"And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge - that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God." Ephesians 3:17-19


Home  Articles  Speaking  Blog  About Me  Links  Contact

Copyright 2006 Lorrie Orr