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I recently came across the tale of Yuri Gagarin, a Russian cosmonaut and the first person to travel into space. Though the ship that launched Gagarin up into Earth’s atmosphere was quite large, his quarters were quite small – coat closest small. The…
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My wife, K.D.’s, car battery died a few days before the new year. The engine teased her with a few sputters before it decided to give up. I gave K.D. a ride to and from work that day, and we let the car sit for the weekend. There was a part of me tha…
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The house on Charlotte Street in Davenport was in bad shape. The bank had taken it back from a previous owner. It needed pretty much everything – plumbing, electrical, HVAC, a roof, and all sorts of drywall, painting, flooring, and appliances. Along…
On Sunday, while I sat on the floor coloring giant Disney posters with my children, I overheard my parents telling John what I was like as a child. There were a few chuckles, stories about the oddball things that would come out of my mouth, and the o…
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Do you remember the first time you walked into St. Paul? It’s so…big. The building, the crowds, the organ. Big. If you walk in by yourself and you don’t know anyone around you, it takes a lot of courage not to turn around and walk back out the door….
How did you end up as pastor? This is a question I get a lot. So I don’t take up too much of people’s time, I often tell an abridged version of the story. I talk about how there were different points in my life where different people planted the seed…
Have you ever heard a love song That set your spirit free Have you ever watched a sunrise And felt you could not breathe What if it’s Him What if it’s God speaking – Mandisa, “God Speaking” For as long as I can remember, God has spoken to me through…
My mother died during surgery when I was five years old, the middle child. My siblings were 3 and 8 years old. An aunt and an uncle mostly raised me. We shifted around a lot from one house to another. Life was not easy during those younger years, but…
I was stuck in a forest. As a career counseling professional, I was beside myself. After years in a job I loved and found fulfilling, everything seemed to change. The changes were gradual; I cannot pinpoint a particular time when things started going…
One day, Dan Dickens was listening to National Public Radio’s eTown podcast. Every week, the podcast features someone who is doing good in their community. This particular week, the story was about a woman who started collecting socks for the homeles…
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Most experiences in my life have been educational, exciting, and positive. For example, when I left home to attend college it was the first time I had been away from home to be on my own. Like walking through a wilderness, I was unsure what my experi…
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I can’t seem to get enough Christmas music this time of year. One album I always come back to is Christmas Together by John Denver and The Muppets. The album holds a special place in my heart because it was the one CD my mom had in the car that my si…