by Angele Tanyeri
The Collyde Summit is a gathering of passionate believers in the NY, NJ, and PA area, who love Jesus and are convicted to become world changers. Collyde turned out to be a life-changing experience for me! To gather and worship in this way was profound. It also gave me a chance to ‘collide’ with individuals I may not have had an opportunity to meet otherwise.
by Elise Daly Parker
So for pretty much the 30+ years my beloved and I have been married, we have been “working” on our finances. Initially, it was just a matter of trying to be responsible with our money and not get in over our heads with debt. Truth be told, our success was short term. Some of this was circumstantial – unanticipated life and salary changes threw us for a loop. But, really? We overspent.
by Kathleen Whittam
There is a nickname for people who only go to church on Christmas and Easter--a ChrEaster. My mom has long been a fan of the Christmas cactus, a plant that, oddly enough, blooms around Christmas as well as Easter. I started calling them a ChrEaster Cactus.
By Beth Stiff
I wanted to start from the beginning...
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.~ Genesis 1:1-2
My focal point was going to be on the three words God says over and over again in the first chapter of Genesis: “…it is good."
He looked at all He created and said it was good. ~ Genesis 1:31
Starting from the beginning sounded like a good plan because I’m currently reading from the Book of Genesis and those three words jumped off the pages as I read. If we believe everything He said as truth, and he says those three words several times, I’m thinking those words are rather important. [Continue Reading...]
by Elise Daly Parker
Even if you don’t go for a big New Year’s Eve celebration, the New Year can mark a fresh start, a new beginning, a shift in focus. It’s a good time to take a look back at the past, and consider a vision for the year ahead.
Many people choose a New Year’s resolution or two… [Continue Reading...]
by Beth Stiff
By the time you read, this Thanksgiving will be over and we will be counting down the days until Christmas. However, as I write I’m preparing for Thanksgiving, so stay with me.
I look ahead to both the Thanksgiving and Christmas holiday with mixed emotions.
My family will spend Thanksgiving apart. I will be off to see my husband for the last time before he deploys and our children will both be in different states. [Continue Reading...]
For those who know me well, it comes as no surprise that I’m working on keeping a civil or silent tongue in my head. It's not that I'm mean, just prone to be snarky. I didn’t have the best day yesterday, so rather than succumbing to frustration and the guilt associated with failing (again), I walked the dog. He’s cheaper than therapy and keeps all my secrets. I also use the quiet time (since Sando’s not a chatterbox) to pray, be still, and listen to hear answers to problems I’m facing. [Continue Reading...]
by Diana Jones
My husband started a new position as Dean of Students/School Counselor in a charter school in a low-income and high-risk neighborhood. While a wonderful opportunity for him to serve the community, it means longer hours away from our family. I am now the parent in charge of drop off, pick up, homework, dinner, and after-school activities, plus I’ve got full-time job.
The transition hasn’t been easy for me! [Continue Reading…]
By Noelle Rhodes
I look out my living room window and see shattered glass everywhere. My eyes blur with exhaustion, but for the moment, I am sobered by the sight before me.
The night before, Troy and I had been lying in bed watching a television program together. The plot was set in Venezuela. I turned to Troy and said, “The Lord knows me well. I don’t think I could be a missionary to Venezuela. Thankfully, He sent me to Northern Ireland. I’ll take the rain and the riots over hot weather and big bugs any day.” [Continue Reading…]
By Micalagh Beckwith Moritz
Lately, I have been going to church a lot. Every day, in fact. Several times a day. Not in the way you might think, though. I don’t actually mean I go into a church building, attend a church service, sing worship songs with a congregation several times a day. What I mean is, I have changed my outlook on church. I have been viewing every place I go as a place to meet God. And I have been pleasantly surprised. Now, don’t get me wrong, I love attending a church service on Sunday. I see it as vital to my Christian journey, to connect regularly with the body of Christ, to the larger Christian church. My journey would be incomplete without engaging in such communal worship, singing hymns, receiving Communion, and meeting afterwards for coffee and conversation. But Sunday services are [Continue Reading…]
By Beth Stiff
The only thoughts occupying my mind these days are ones related to my husband’s upcoming deployment. This deployment will be a first for my family. One thing I’m sure of as my family enters this new season—God is with us.
The same God here with me today and always is the same God who will be with my husband while he is miles and miles away from home. The same God happens to be with you too wherever you may be. At times, this can be hard for me to wrap my mind around. [Continue Reading...]
by Chelle Wilson
It’s time for another sermon from the dog.
I’ve been taken to task three times this morning by people who love me for retreating into my miserableness and robbing people who need it of my sunshine (and here I was thinking my miserableness was all about me….hrmph!).
Every morning, I hear the conversely plaintive, playful, pleading cries of our doggy requesting his morning walk. His faith is unassailable, like mine needs to be. There is no quavering uncertainty about whether he will be leashed, walked, watered, fed, played with, or adored. [Continue Reading...]
by Martha Wentz
As a small child, my daughter Kimberly had bronchial asthma. As a result, we were constantly in the doctor’s office. And every other month, we’d have to make a trip to the emergency room. Late one night, she began to experience a severe asthmatic attack. My husband Michael was exhausted and needed to be up early for work so I drove her to the hospital, twenty miles away from our house. [Continue Reading...]
by Kimberly Coyle
When the judges at the dance competition asked him his name, he stuttered. Each question they asked brought on another short, halting answer. The judges smiled, they knew he was there to show off what he could do with his feet, not to give a speech, and they said, “Let’s see what you can do.” What he could do when the music set his body free, brought tears to the eyes of the panel. [Continue Reading...]
By Micalagh Moritz Beckwith
It has been two months since my husband and I packed up and stored most of our earthly belongings, gave as much as we could away, placed what was left into four suitcases, and flew to Belize, Central America. As we said goodbye to friends and family with much reminiscing and tears, we were reminded of just how amazing and supportive our community was. [Continue Reading...]
By Chelle Wilson
When San Fernando joined our family I didn’t have any idea how he would change our lives. I could not know that he would become my ongoing object lesson in Faith. He has taught me in numerous ways that God is everywhere, particularly in the deep brown eyes of a puppy way too big to be a lap dog but still and forever adorably my baby. [Continue Reading...]
By Barbara Ruglio
I reared children and brought them up, but they have rebelled against me (Is 1:2b)
Can you relate? I certainly can! Blessed with compliant elementary-age children, I experienced their coming-of-age years like a death. My sweet children had disappeared and I found myself staring at my defiant teen and wondering, “Who are you and what have you done to my daughter?” [Continue Reading...]
by Chelle Wilson
Our son is an aspiring musician, and he was preparing for a big performance. The night before, we set out a suit, pressed a shirt, debated ties, buffed dress shoes, picked socks, and packed everything including grooming products. Suit bag and tote at the ready, we were all set. [Continue Reading...]
By Kimberly Amici
Last winter I took a 4-week photography class called Understanding Your DSLR. It covered the fundamentals of taking great pictures. I was thrilled to no only learn how to use the numerous buttons on my camera but to cross an item off on last year’s goals list. I learned a lot in that class...and it wasn't just about taking pictures. [Continue Reading...]
By Elise Daly Parker
I thank my God always when I remember you in my prayers, Philemon 1:4 ESV
It was THE day…the day we actually left my baby at her new home, Eastern University, a few miles outside Philadelphia. I was told I was not allowed to cry. “Mom, we’ve done that…no, I don’t want you to cry.” “Okay, I won’t.”
I defined the meaning of stiff upper lip. When the inevitable quivers came, I straightened up, took a deep breath, swallowed hard, and tightened my mouth. [Continue Reading...]
by Noelle Rhodes
Do you know how many people ask me, “Oh, were you born on Christmas Day, Noelle?” Assuming that’s how my parents came up with the name. You should see the look of disappointment on their faces when I break their hearts with my response: “Nope. I was born in August.”
Besides having a name that doesn’t match the season in which I was actually born, there a few complications and misfortunes that comes with having a “summer” birthday. [Continue Reading...]
by Micalagh Beckwith Moritz
In the morning sow your seed, and at evening withhold not your hand, for you do not know which will prosper, this or that, or whether both alike will be good. (Ecc. 11:6, ESV)
At the end of the school year, I was having a conversation with a teacher at one of the schools where I worked as a social worker. We were talking about a student who has had a difficult year academically, and was struggling to keep up with her classmates. [Continue Reading...]
by Beth Stiff
When my son left for boot camp to become a sailor, the only item he was allowed to bring was a Bible. He had never owned one as we had not been a church-going family. I determined that if all he was allowed was a Bible, then a Bible he would have.
I purchased a small Sailor's Bible and stuffed it with photos. Post-it notes were also stuck to various pages telling him how proud we were of him and how much [Continue Reading...]
But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. James 1:6 (NIV)
Author Anne Lamott, whose words regularly bring me to tears, writes that the first two of the three essential prayers are “Help” and “Thanks.”
Interesting. The hospital chapel again.
We’ve spent more than our fair share of time there lately. We are no strangers to praying together, this family. When we walk, when we play, in the car, before we rest, we pray together. [Continue Reading...}
Years ago, I remember my mother laughing at a commercial of a father dancing through the aisles of Staples (office supply store), as he filled his cart with school supplies for his children. The father had a huge smile across his face as he galloped through the store. The music that played in the background was It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year. The commercial aired near the end of August - approaching the coming school year. My mother was laughing so hard, I think I spotted tears escaping her wearied from the summer break eyes. Back then, I was the offended child wondering how my mother could be so coldhearted. Didn’t she enjoy me being off from school all summer long?
Now, I stand as the sympathetic parent secretly wishing that year-round schooling was available. [Continue Reading...]
