Squiggled blue and red lines crisscross between Kansas City and our destination. The map divides my screen into roads and rivers. I know where I’m headed, but I don’t know the route. This morning I read the story of King Hezekiah. I have always liked it because he was a man of repentance and prayer. […]
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Scenes of carnage replay across the screen. Footage shows people running, crying, bleeding, images of devastation and grief. Brussels, Paris, even Hesston Kansas, fifteen miles from where I grew up take turn on center stage, like a parade of tragedies. Violence spills through society’s veins, a soul disease. Cain killed Abel, Noah’s earth was filled […]
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My pocket vibrates a split second after Phil’s buzzes. We both reach for our phones, quick on the draw. Our 16-month-old-grandson has the flu and we are anxious. The text reads, “He is so weak now he is hardly moving.” I panic. My heart pounds hard. I look around the room where a small group […]
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“What did Dad give you that for?” my son asked when I pulled out a bright yellow circular sander from a beautifully wrapped box. “I asked for it!” Bewilderment drew his brows together into one of those “looks,” his blue eyes questioned. I used to give the look to my children, now they give it […]
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“It’s not gonna turn out good for you,” Phil tells the young man and his lovely wife sitting close together on our couch. Their lives are about to tumble like clothes in a dryer. Packing and goodbyes fill each remaining day. But Phil’s prediction had nothing to do with the anticipated step into missions, nor […]
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When our children were ten, seven and five, we blitzed throughout America for three months on a church-visiting, supporter-reporting, story-telling, home from Italy ministry tour. Our three girls spent a week with Grandpa and Grandma while Phil and I ran ourselves ragged. We hated to leave them, and rarely did, but they needed a break […]
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“Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.”Hebrews13:8(NASB) Phil and I watched the series, Great Expectations over the holidays. I read the Charles Dicken’s classic in high school. Creepy with ghostly characters and a weird colorless backdrop it ran true to the book, and the hope of great expectations corresponded with ushering in […]
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Today is my son’s birthday. I wrote the following story over 20 years ago after he was born. It may be a little sappy, but is it a taste of the blessing he has been to us ever since the first Christmas we held him in our arms in Modena, Italy. Happy Birthday Justin! The […]
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God’s timeline stretches, a banner of Sovereignty before time and ahead of time farther than any eye can see. Anna, advanced in years, a dot on the expanse of eternity, lived within the massive stone walls of the temple. Day and night she served. She prayed, and she waited for Old Testament promise to be […]
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Can thankfulness really be commanded? “In everything give thanks; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” 1 Thess. 5:18 (NASB) Well, yes, apparently it can. It is the season of giving thanks. I’m glad there is an official day to pause and think of things for which to be grateful, but to […]
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