The St. Paul kitchen, where countless meals are made each year, now has a new stove. This is exciting news for those who make food for the Churches United meal site, bread crosses on Good Fridays, and muffins for preschool events, among others. The o…
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The dedicated volunteers who lead the St. Paul Library are reporting a very good year for 2018, with 452 checkouts – up from 293 in 2017. The number of children’s books and adult fiction books checked out in 2018 doubled over 2017. 2018 Total Bi…
Her favorite places to shop are the Salvation Army thrift store on Brady Street in Davenport, and Goodwill in Bettendorf. Sue Grove is masterful at finding a good deal, especially on coats for the kids at Madison Elementary School. “We find great coa…
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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…