Bags Packed, Hearts Ready

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Bags Packed, Hearts Ready

Stories of God's Faithfulness in Cross-Cultural Ministry

Sue Eenigenburg

Navigating the Unexpected Far from Home

Life’s constant changes and relocations can be exciting and fun, but they can also be overwhelming, leaving one grappling with fear, regret, and moments of despair. What happens when the familiar comforts are stripped away, and you’re left to confront the raw realities of your calling?

In Bags Packed, Hearts Ready, Sue Eenigenburg shares heartfelt reflections that delve into her experiences as a cross-cultural worker and mother. Through personal anecdotes, humor, and scriptural insight, she reveals how grace, gratitude, and trust in God can transform even the most challenging times into testimonies of divine provision and strength.

Each story in this book ends with questions and a space to reflect and pray. Discover how to find stability and laughter amid chaos, draw strength from vulnerability, and see God’s unwavering hand in every chapter of your journey.

Endorsements

Those who are familiar with Sue Eenigenburg’s writing will be delighted to learn she has gifted us with another collection of stories. And those who haven’t yet discovered her are in for a treat. Sue's conversational style filled with laugh-out-loud anecdotes is present on every page. Mingling Scripture with her extensive global experience, she points followers of Jesus back to the Savior for their source of help and purpose. Her topics are those we all relate to—transition, fear, health, raising children, missing grandchildren, and leaving a legacy. While focused primarily on cross-cultural life, those who haven’t lived overseas will also benefit from this daily devotional. Let these real-life testimonies and mini-Bible studies give you the strength you need to face your everyday life.

Eva Burkholder Member Care Lead, Christar US Co-author Grit to Stay Grace to Go
Sue is a gifted communicator with breadth of experience and depth of insight! Her godly wisdom is an encouragement to women in all stages of life. She always adds a bit of humor that is both relatable and honest. As a cross-cultural worker myself, a mom of young children, and someone in the midst of many transitions, reading Sue’s words acted like a healing balm and always pointed me back to the person and work of Jesus. I’d highly recommend this book for all women in ministry!

Lynnie GrayCross-cultural worker
Reading Sue's Bags Packed, Hearts Ready is like having coffee with a missionary mentor. This book is largely about the transition back "home" at the end of her career, a topic not as written about as often as a missionary's first transition overseas. Her insightful stories are filled with honesty, humor, and spiritual wisdom. Anyone feeling alone in a similar transition will find a friend in this book. 

Karla H.Cross-cultural worker
Sue Eenigenburg has not disappointed in choosing this needed topic of Bags Packed, Hearts Ready, giving us a fresh resource—especially for her comrades in global ministry. With her signature humor and ability to tell a story, she gifts us by tethering the truths of her experiences to Scripture. Each vignette welcomes and invites us to relate the topics and truths to our own experiences. Readers are centered by her vulnerability and global perspective, encouraging us to lean into those promises of God. Because legacy begins when we share our stories, we are inspired to write and share our own. Thank you, Sue.

Dorcas HarbinExecutive Vice President, One Another Ministries International
Uprooting and rooting again in a foreign land can be isolating. It's a gift when you encounter a sister on the journey who gets the cross-cultural life. Sue is that friend who comes alongside you through her wit and wisdom in the pages of this book to offer her wealth of experiences and the gentle reminder that we all need to hold tight to Jesus through every twist and turn.

Sarah HilkemannProgram Director, Velvet Ashes
As Sue crosses the ocean for yet another transition, she shares a delightful collection of life stories to mentor her readers through the lens of her experiences in the latter season of cross-cultural ministry. As always, she writes each chapter with creative candor and a wonderful sense of humor followed by three practical questions to help us identify where the Lord might be working in our own lives.  I have witnessed time and again how the Lord has used Sue’s teaching and writing to encourage hundreds of women on the field in their spiritual journeys. Praise God that she pressed into her God-given passion to teach God’s Word! I pray many women will feel known within the community of global women as they see themselves in her stories! 

Lorrie Lindgren CEO/President, Thrive Ministry
Bags Packed, Hearts Ready is a book that I would recommend, not only for missionaries, but for those who want to understand more of the life of a missionary.  Missionaries will read and shake their heads, yes, because they totally understand what's written here.  Those who haven't been missionaries will shake their heads in disbelief as they read some of the struggles told about in this book. So, a book for all to read, no matter what place in life you are in.

Beverly Richardson, PhDA Lodging Place
If you’re looking for a book from a great story-telling mentor who’s been where you are, you’ve found it. Bags Packed, Hearts Ready is a compilation of stories that will find you nodding your head in recognition as you read them. Each story comes with a companion Scripture, three questions, and a prayer. This book is ideal for those who want to journal responses to the questions, discuss with a friend or spouse, or use for team time. Thank you Sue for sharing your wisdom with us! 

Amy YoungAuthor, Looming TransitionsFounder, Global Trellis