It is less than a week before Douglas and I will begin our great adventure. Like the swallows, we will be long-distance migrants, flying a great distances have our soul needs met. For me, traveling seems to be in my blood. I need to experience life in different places, to feel truly connected to the... Continue Reading →
Rendered Faceless No More
I was having a beautiful day at work, waiting for lunch to come so that I could go to the fast-food place across the road from my job for my daily portion of potatoes. The road that separated us from the place of heavenly fries was a very busy one, and you risked life and... Continue Reading →
When Your Mind Becomes a Foriegn Country
I woke up, looked in the mirror, and, although the face was the same, something was different. I did not feel like myself. It seemed as though, sometime during the night, I had become separated from myself. Felt as though my mind had become a foreign country, and I did not speak the language there.... Continue Reading →
No Greater Talisman than Love
Using the definition of talisman as anything whose presence (and by extension, lack of presence) exercises a remarkable or powerful influence on human feelings and actions, I believe that love, by its presence or its absence, is the greatest talisman. This is why it so important that children learn that their parents love them. When... Continue Reading →
Driving Saints into Invisibility
We were in the midst of a three week intensive class training missionaries. The day on group dynamics was almost finished, with everyone giving all the appropriate answers. Then a visitor appeared, a strong shift from the ordinary. He told us that he had taken the class in a previous year, his experience with the... Continue Reading →
Unique, Not Identical, Is Beautiful
To compare oneself to someone else is a recipe for unhappiness and anxiety. One of my fellow Sunday School teachers refers to this behavior as "compare-tinitis." It is like an illness that invades the mind and the spirit, and the only cure is to come to see that not being identical to anyone else makes... Continue Reading →
No Blush for Me
I married into a family of wine connoisseurs. My sister-in-law wins medals for her wines. During visits to Douglas's family, wine is on the table and everyone is partaking of them and complimenting the different qualities of the reds or the whites,discussing the bouquet or the level of dryness. I never have a clue what... Continue Reading →
At the First Blush of Dawn
At the first blush of dawn, my hiking partner rudely woke me up saying, “It is too cold to sleep. Let’s forget breakfast and hike down to the camp.” We were bivouacking near the summit, which meant that we were only sleeping in our jackets with our ponchos wrapped around us. He had consumed all... Continue Reading →
It’s Hard to Have Patience When You’re Lonely
I would imagine that the right person to date and marry has been one of the most frequent requests of God that women have shared with me. As a preacher who often speaks on the faithfulness of God in hearing and answering prayers, I have had many a woman tell me that they have given... Continue Reading →
Impatient prayer
I had a very mean father. Every time I wanted to do something fun, he said, “you have to finish your chores first.” He didn’t skimp on what we needed, though. Meals were always there, as was clothes and housing. He told me, “don’t worry about these things, You just need to worry about... Continue Reading →
Help from Heaven 