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I heard a pastor once boasting that the congregation he served had the world’s most uncomfortable pews. I’d never sat on the wooden benches in that sanctuary, but supposedly they were not just cushionless and hard. They were squeezed close together s…
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I happen to enjoy feeling secure. The last thing I do before falling into bed every night is check that the door on our attached garage is closed. Doors with locks are a great invention. So are seatbelts and computer passwords and childproof caps and…
Faith stories, the culmination of the confirmation experience, are a 2-3 minute presentation. During this time, teenagers will speak about how they see God at work in the world and in their individual lives. Faith stories will be shared during the Su…
St. Paul will host church leaders from the Southeastern Iowa Synod of the ELCA for the annual Fall Theological Conference, Sept. 23-25. “Leadership and Innovation” is the theme. From Sunday evening-Tuesday afternoon, clergy will take part in a variet…
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Crammed into a taxi, then a van, then a bus bumping along the roads of Uganda, Todd Byerly and a friend Yoeza Mnzava, made their way from the airport in the capitol city of Kampala to the Kyaka II refugee settlement. Pronounced Chaka Two, the settlem…
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One of my fondest childhood memories with my Nana is going to Hardee’s for apple cinnamon raisin biscuits every Wednesday morning. After we finished our breakfast, seated at the high top table by the window, we would drive across the parking lot to t…
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Last weekend St. Paul made room in its gathering spaces for an annual garden share. All shapes, sizes, and colors of food were carried in from the church’s community garden. Box-loads were brought in from personal gardens, too. Even if fresh fruits a…
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Editor’s note: Thompson Teasdale is a student at Grinnell College. He is spending the semester in a humanities research seminar at Chicago’s Newberry Library, an independent research library. This summer, he completed a mural for Madison Elementary S…
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A kid at school first introduced Liam Peitscher to Pokemon, a game with all sorts of whimsical characters, a couple of years ago. Then, this past year, when construction at his school meant no playground, Liam and a group of friends played a lot of P…
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A little less than a month ago, a pregnant, endangered whale captured international attention. The mother orca is part of a pod being observed by the Center for Whale Research near San Juan Island, just northwest of Seattle. The organization works to…
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Six nights a week, 52 weeks a year, people gather at the Salvation Army at 6th and Harrison Streets for a warm meal. Spaghetti and cheesy potatoes and chili and countless other dishes fill the stomachs and the souls of people experiencing hunger. Sev…
With summer camp now over, Camp Shalom will begin a noticeable change. The camp, near Maquoketa, Iowa, has approximately 30 acres of grass that staff and volunteers mow each week with a supply of fuel and sturdy mowers. But this fall, about a third o…