These were all reader submissions. Thanks for contributing! May they deepen your faith and expand your prayer life. Presence Isaiah 54:10 “For the mountains may be removed and the hills may shake, But My lovingkindness will not be removed from you, And My covenant of peace will not be shaken,” says the Lord who has […]
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Travel Journal: Thailand
My connecting domestic flight was delayed in the Bangkok airport. Tired and ready to be at the conference as I was, I felt the strong pull of the secluded food court. I had not gotten used to the exchange rate of US dollars to Thai baht, so I didn’t realize until I was signing the […]
Process through Your Heartache WITH God: 4 Steps
What do you do when life knocks the breath out of you? How do you handle heartache and discouragement? I’ve dealt with low-level chronic pain for more than a decade. Rather than ignoring the pain, do what I learned. Process through the pain with God. 1. Tantrum – This first step may surprise you. Whether […]
My Infatuation with Miss Mystery
“What I think you really want is God,” my friend said to me. What a slap in the face. No, I want the girl! The protest nearly made it out of my mouth, but I caught it when it was still in the back of my throat. Surprised at me? I wasn’t talking about my […]
What My Church Never Told Me (Cont.)
In college, I got a group of friends around me that were like me in that they believed in Jesus, but they were different in some surprising ways. They talked about relationship with God in a different way than I’d ever considered. For them, the Christian walk was not so much about getting from spiritual […]
Hosted Amongst the Tribesmen: a Descriptive, if not Humorous, Anecdotal Recollection (Part Four)
– I wish you could be standing here with me right now. I’m far outside any signal that my cell phone could pick up, where a dirt opening before me stretches with a few trees, and then behind me lies a community of manyattas. This particular community is called Tubcha 3, where we don’t know […]
Hosted Amongst the Tribesmen: a Descriptive, if not Humorous, Anecdotal Recollection (Part Three)
Under the tree were a small group of wazee (“wah-zay,” that is, older men). They were sitting around in a circle as we shared with them. One man gazed intensely through his glassy cataract-covered eyes. His forehead was covered with so many wrinkles it looked like a topographical map. We sat with the men as […]
Hosted Amongst the Tribesmen: a Descriptive, if not Humorous, Anecdotal Recollection (Part Two)
– I didn’t think we were risking our lives bringing the seemingly unknown stranger atop our vehicle. There’s such a honor culture here that we knew he legitimately just wanted a lift. The people in East Africa are quite friendly and content it as a whole, and the tribal individuals in this area especially so. […]
Hosted Amongst the Tribesmen: a Descriptive, if not Humorous, Anecdotal Recollection (Part One)
– Arrival. It wasn’t that I spent half the ride crammed in the back of a 4 x 4. It wasn’t that the dirt roads were bumpy. It wasn’t even that one of our vans got stuck in the mud and had to be winched out. It was that departure had been delayed several hours […]
A Guy’s Take: Beauty is a Choice
I am going to marry the most beautiful woman in the world. Just watch me. Who is it, you may ask? Well, I can’t tell you. Why? Because I don’t know who it is. How can I be so confident I’ll get such a beautiful woman? Now that is something I can tell you. First, […]
A Guy’s Take: Beauty is Not
Can’t we just give the ladies a break? I live and work in what is perhaps the Middle East’s capital of consumerism. I can’t go a single day without driving by numerous billboards of flawlessly airbrushed models promoting real estate and all manner of clothing brands. Every time I walk through one of the city’s […]
One Day at a Time (Healing School 9)
I think uncertainty is a gift when dealing with God's promises of healing. If you had told Abraham the day after he received the promise from God that he would have to wait 25 years to see its fulfillment, he might have given up then and there. I probably would have as well. I think […]