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St. Paul Lutheran Church will offer its Blue Christmas worship on Friday, Dec. 21, at 6 p.m. This service of hope is designed for anyone in the community who may not feel like celebrating. During the holidays, grief, illness, aging, depression, lonel…
I’m a “big picture” person. Details aren’t my strength. This is best exemplified by a trip I took by myself to Minnesota – or more specifically, the trip I took home. I had attended a conference in Minneapolis and, since it was fall, I decided to fol…
Just before Thanksgiving, my family and I traveled to Denver to see my parents and sister. Though we live in the Quad Cities, we flew out of Cedar Rapids on an airline known for its affordability. This limited our travel days, shortened our trip, but…
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My father, Terry, was a true outdoorsman. He loved to hunt, fish, work outdoors, and particularly to be on his cattle ranch in southern Missouri. It was obvious to all who knew him that he had faith in God. He was community-minded and always willing…
Hearing an unexpected voice can evoke a range of emotions – from extreme fright to joyous comfort. I have lived in the rural countryside for 47 years on a small family farm. We are the third generation on the 200 acres that have been lovingly cultiva…
Southern Utah, Death Valley, the Badlands and, closer to home, Wildcat Den, come to mind when I think of wilderness. For many, the term “wilderness” conjures up images of desolation and isolation. Because of their isolation, they also sometimes have…
Thirty years ago, our family went through a very tough few months. It began when Art’s dad was killed in a crash. Then, our Tupperware franchise was closed by the home office without warning. Art and I had no job or income. Art went into a deep depre…
While most of us were rolling over on the couch the day after Thanksgiving, or lining up outside a big box store to land a deal on a vacuum cleaner, a church community in Durham, North Carolina was struggling mightily. One of its own, an undocumented…
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Early Tuesday morning, just as the chilly day began, several teenagers pulled into the parking lot at St. Paul. They were there to see a project they worked on do its job. At the request of Matt Spencer, building manager, this welding class from Dave…
The Boys in the Bunkhouse: Servitude and Salvation in the Heartland is the 2019 All St. Paul Reads book. All St. Paul Reads is encouragement for all to read and talk about a single book title in the same year. In 2019, this dinner and discussion even…
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Editor’s note: Martha Barnds created a stippling of the north side of St. Paul. A notecard-sized reproduction is available at the Info Center through December. St. Paul has been my church home since we moved here from Pennsylvania. As a child, I spen…
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Advent is my favorite liturgical season, not as an expansion of Christmas, but as a time during which the church honors those seasons of our lives when God seems far off and silent, and gives a symbol to our longing for a communion that is yet unreal…