When my twin sister called me from Los Angeles to tell me that her 10-year-old son, Jackson, had a brain tumor. I was completely numb. It didn’t seem real. Within 24 hours, he had gone from a basic MRI…
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I wanted to be the pastor of a church, but I ended up being an Uber and Lyft driver. Yet I wouldn’t change a thing. I now truly believe I’m just pastoring a very different kind of church and…
I lost my baby girl when she was just three days old. I think about her every day and I have for 44 years. When it happened, there weren’t a lot of people I could reach out to, and…
I was at the funeral for a two-year-old child of a dear friend. The child’s father preached an amazing eulogy, and said 93% of Christians never share their faith. I was so moved. That’s when I prayed and asked…
For several years, I battled an eating disorder that consumed my days. I was dieting or binging, and always hating who I was. One day, I promised a friend that I would come and serve the homeless with her,…
I’ve been hand throwing pottery for nine years, beginning in high school. It has always come naturally to me and is a meditative, sweet time for me to quietly sit and talk to God. Being behind the pottery wheel,…
I am a transplant patient. So there are many days I feel weak or tired. This could give me a great excuse not to do much, but God has been too good for me to sit still! I absolutely…
My friend calls me a mission worker in the sky. After graduating college with a bachelor’s degree in mathematics, the last thing I expected was to become a flight attendant. Yet here I am. My typical day involves welcoming…
For most of my life, I never would have imagined I would be the director of a nonprofit helping our homeless neighbors get back on their feet. Twelve years ago, my seemingly ideal life and marriage ended in divorce.…
I never thought my calling in life would be to dress up as Spider-Man and visit sick children in hospitals all around the country. But that is where God has led me. In real life, I’ve been a corrections…
I’m always amazed at God’s plan. When I was young, I saw my mom go through abusive relationships, homelessness and other hardships. She walked through and overcame tragic challenges. Two seeds were planted in me: a drive to succeed…
Infertility affects so many couples but is rarely discussed. My husband and I married in 2011 and a year later, we tried to start a family. But we couldn’t get pregnant. We got tested, and were told we’d never…
‘There’s a 10-day old baby girl and she has a disease,’ I was told. ‘I’ll take her,’ I said without hesitation. Just hours later, the social worker was at our door in Guatemala, holding a bundle wrapped in a…
We need to care and be kind to one another. I was blown away when I learned how America has failed older kids in the foster care system. Once foster kids reach the age of 18, they “age out”.…
When I was a child, my family was visited by people from a local church. We didn’t go to church at the time. The people who knocked on our door came with an invitation, and a bus that would…
The parable of the Good Samaritan really hit me during this pandemic. Jesus expects us to help each other, not look the other way. When the Coronavirus started to spread, I was worried about the people on the frontlines…
I wanted to find a special way to honor our veterans. I got a little tired of the media showing people disrespecting our flag, although I value their right to protest. Veterans put their life on the line to…
Staying at home during this pandemic is not easy. We all need to be finding some meaningful things to do with our time. Since we were coming up on Easter week, I decided to make our two grown sons…
When I retired from my job, I knew I wanted to serve the Lord with my gifts and volunteer at my church. I went to a meeting at my church. A leadership position needed to be filled. I was…
I never expected to be doing the things that I’ve been doing at my church for the last ten years. When I first joined the praise team, I said I’d help create the PowerPoint slides for the contemporary song…
From the first time I walked through the door at The River, I had a feeling of hope. I didn’t know what to expect, but forming relationships and watching lives change right before my eyes was not what I…
I have always loved helping people. As a young black teacher, I want to be a role model to the youth in my community, my church, and my classroom. So many children go through life without a father or…
I felt called to serve the Lord when I was in high school, and that’s when I went on my first mission trip. Then during physician assistant school, I started going on mission trips with the Christian Medical and…
My wife and I opened an ice cream shop three years ago, and it’s been an amazing experience for our family. Not just the ice cream, although that’s good! It’s our 12 employees. All but one are young adults…
I founded Sufficient Grace Ministries for Women in 2004, eight years after the loss of my twin daughters Faith and Grace and about six years after the loss of my son, Thomas. Faith and Grace were born still in…
Most people look forward to the day they retire. I suppose I was no different. At first, I wanted a typical sit-around-and-lounge retirement, but the fantasy of that wore off quickly. It didn’t take long before I was bored…
I remember a time when family not only meant that which you were born into, but also the people around us who we “do life” with. God is the greatest advocate for community, and I do not believe it…
I have always loved missions. I attribute a lot of that love to my mother. From a young age, she encouraged my brothers and me to go on short-term mission trips. I was in 6th grade when I took…
It was 1998 when my wife and I went on our first medical mission trip to Venezuela. I had been a surgeon and in practice with my brother for 17 years. As we worked in a make-shift clinic on…
Who am I riding in the car with? He’s cursing, doing drugs and has a gun. He pulled up to visit a friend, leaving me in the passenger seat, puzzled. The music was blasting, it lacked compassion, promoted drugs,…