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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…
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As mom waved good-bye to us in the doorway of her farmhouse last June, I looked longingly at her through the car window. Living alone on our family farm at age 88 was becoming more difficult for her, and it was becoming harder for me to leave with ea…
The prophet Isaiah foretold of the ministry of Jesus when he declared a voice of one calling: “In the wilderness prepare the way for the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be raised up, every mountain and hill…
We were so overwhelmed with our transition to the Quad Cities 27 years ago that we decided to tell my husband’s parents that we wouldn’t be traveling to visit with them on Christmas. We felt we needed to spend our last Christmas in the only house our…
I struggle with control. I’m the first person in the room to pull out my planner. To use the word micromanaging is a bit of an understatement when it comes to the preferred method of living my life. These acts give me some sense of calmness and some…