More Than Rubies

My wife and I have an arranged marriage. Not arranged in the traditional sense by well intentioned parents who betrothed us as children, but arranged by each other in the aftermath of failed relationships.  Hers irreparably broken by her first husband’s unrepentant infidelity and mine a crushed heart in the aftermath of a long distance [...]

Of Fish and Taxes

I have been raising funds for our ministry during the “Great Recession”.  We were on a 12 day trip out west to meet with interested friends and churches last September when the stock market crashed and the economic collapse fully revealed itself. Did I mention that our ministry involves a move to the Middle East [...]

Seek First

But seek first His Kingdom and His Righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. Matt. 6:33
We have American friends who have lived in the Middle East for many years.  In fact, their kids were born there. As our friends were preparing to bring their children to the United States for the first [...]

The Man With The Sword

“I am so glad you are going”.  We were at church and I was speaking with James, a combat marine who was standing tall in his dress blue uniform.  He was home on leave after completing a tour of duty in Iraq and he was getting ready to go back. I am sure similar statements [...]

Twilight and What The Movie Is Really About

Twilight is a word that often evokes pleasant memories of beautiful sunsets and peaceful evenings. One definition:the transitional “light from the sky between sunset and full night (Webster’s Dictionary).
The book “Twilight” and it’s movie version of the latest spin on vampire mythology have become a cultural phenomenon in recent months. When the movie came out [...]

Flowery Beds of Ease

“Must I be carried to the skies on flowery beds of ease, while others fought to win the prize and sailed through bloody seas?”  Isaac Watts
Have you ever been haunted?  I’m not talking about ghosts, I’m referring to words or a phrase that sticks with you, sometimes for years. It pops up like those annoying [...]

Born Again

I was baptized as an infant, confirmed at 14 and I got saved at age 52!  Norm grinned widely as he made this declaration. We were visitors to Norm’s church and we were discussing an anomaly we had both experienced in the American church. We had noticed that there are religious people and there are [...]

Lord Send Us Anywhere To Do Anything

“Lord send us anywhere to do anything.”  It was a prayer.  My wife and I prayed this together as we started out on a journey that is leading us to a part of the world where our sanity has been questioned for even considering the possibility of going there.
We are moving to the Middle [...]

Sequim’s Steven Fry Making a Difference

Steven Fry shared an incredible story this week in Sequim of how childrens’ lives are being saved in the Amazon.  It’s a story that is so stunning, so unusual and shocking, it keeps you on the edge of your seat, and yet the story has a happy ending that delights the soul.  Steven who works [...]

Is Anything New Under the Sun? The Roots of Assisted Suicide

About 35 years after the crucifixion of Christ a group of Jewish nationals had taken over a fortress in Southern Judea known as Masada. This was a nearly impenetrable rock with sheer cliffs on all sides 440 feet above the valley floor. There King Herod the Great, a descendent of Essau, had built a fortress [...]

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