One of the most powerful and strategic ways God is at work right now building his church is not in any one location – it’s online. The constant access we have to everything offered online can be viewed negatively. The enemy is certainly using it for evil, particularly through the increase of internet pornography, public…
Tradition! To some, this word brings up images of Tevye dancing in the streets in Fiddler on the Roof. Though we laughed at his insistence that tradition meant everything, many feel the same way now about the musical church traditions with which they grew up. I was raised in a Catholic Church in my youngest…
Congress designated March as National Women’s History Month in 1987, but of course, women have long been making history. Consider trailblazers, such as Belva Lockwood, the first female admitted to the U.S. bar in 1873. Madeleine Albright, Condoleezza Rice, and Hillary Clinton have each served as U.S. Secretary of State, a position third in presidential…
We’ve heard about her, sewing late into the night by a lamp that does not go out, gorgeous toned arms planting a vineyard, a prominent husband, self-designed purple clothing, and children that get up in the morning and praise her. All of that sounds like an unattainable biblical ideal. Reflecting on who you know that…
I believe girls can do almost anything boys can do. They might just do it differently. The news agency holds a prominent spot in our village’s downtown area on the south side of the railroad tracks, directly across the street from the train station. Housed in one of the low brick buildings that line the…
I was nine years old when it happened, peering out the window of our second-story apartment in Monrovia, Liberia. The multiplex we lived in was in a good area, popular with internationals; the families on the top story were from India, the Peace Corps volunteers across the hall were American like us, and Mrs. Richards, the…
It was one of those mornings that I awoke to my own second guessing. I was not sure why I agreed to take a three-hour round trip to a church in a small town on the New Hampshire border, population of about 12,000, with only 4.39 percent people of color. A friend called me brave….
It was a cold and rainy night in early February. I stood in the dark, on the property of Mr. Jacob Burkle, whose home was a depot on the Underground Railroad. I shivered from the cold but also from a fear that had suddenly come over me from out of nowhere. Was I as safe…
The holidays have always been a time of togetherness and feasting for my family. When crispness enters the air, bringing relief from the stifling Georgia summer, my mind turns to standing in my mom’s kitchen and making noodles or pound cake, pulling out the card table to make room for everyone in the kitchen. The…
I trade my shorts for blue jeans, even though it is 90 degrees inside and out. It has been so long since I wore long pants, I’ve forgotten what it feels like. I print out a short note, translated by Google into Arabic. I arrange a few freshly baked cookies on a plate and take…
A few years ago, when my daughter had just reached her first birthday, we took her on our church’s family mission trip. Those words don’t always go together: family and mission trip. But our church is committed to ministry that is done with the entire family, which I love, and which also makes me feel…
From the beginning, my husband, Dana, and I planned to keep Christmas simple. Yes, we hung stockings, decorated a tree, and celebrated with gifts. But there were no extravagant wish lists. No blockbuster toys under the tree. No credit card bills lingering into spring. Don’t get me wrong, I love Christmas. I love watching ridiculously…
“’The day will come’, says the Lord ‘when I will do for Israel and Judah all the good things I have promised them. In those days and at that time I will raise up a righteous descendant from King David’s line. He will do what is just and right throughout the land. In that day…
Every fall, I choose one Christmas decoration to add to my stash. This year, I bought a brass menorah, and I’m not even Jewish. My menorah sits proudly in the middle of my dining room table, a reminder of the Old Testament heritage I share as a Christ-follower. I’ve long wanted to understand more about…