I was raised Catholic but became a believer in the 1970s. I then became distracted by the world and married a nonbeliever. However, God’s grace brought me back to Him when my first child was born. Becoming a mom pushed me to seek God’s help. Unfortunately as our family grew, my husband struggled with prescription drug addiction and abuse. Due to that and my upbringing, I strived to be perfect and attempted to fix and enable people. The more I did for my husband, the less he did for us. I lost myself being both mom and dad to our… Read More
Loving Your Neighbor
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The Circle of Love is not just a toy drive where we supply Christmas presents each year to 700 children in need. It is a way to give forgotten children a sense of worth and value, a way to give them an ability to dream. We started The Circle of Love in 2004, and over these 19 years, we have touched over 8,000 children who live in shelters and in impoverished areas. You can never fully explain to a child why Santa Claus will not come to visit him and his family. For children in transitional housing, having gifts to open… Read More
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Every part of your life depends on you having good health. When most people think of health, they consider only their physical condition, but as a doctor, I repeatedly see that our spiritual condition is also a huge factor. Hope Health Center was started so that, like Jesus’ examples in the Gospels, we could address both the physical and spiritual needs of those who come to us. Our mission is to share the hope found in Jesus Christ while providing excellent whole-person healthcare to a very medically underserved community. That’s why we placed our medical clinic in the… Read More
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I live with pain every day of my life, and yet my schedule is packed full. If I’m not helping a young mom, I’m running errands with a vision impaired friend, or sending cards of encouragement. People ask, “How do you keep going when you have so much pain?” I tell them if I stop, I will give up. I do fight discouragement because of my pain and limitations. Some days, I feel useless. But God gives me strength to press on. Any good I do or happiness I give to others is only because of God’s grace. I suffer from severe arthritis… Read More
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For more than 10 years, I have enjoyed making small wooden crosses and giving them away to random people. We all run into people from time to time that seem distressed, troubled or overwhelmed. I try to find a way to give them a cross. As I offer the crosses, I usually say, “The cross reminds me that God is good.” I seek opportunities to give them away as often as possible. I hand them to anybody I run into during the course of the day. It might be my waiter at the restaurant or the receptionist at the doctor’s office.… Read More
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Geezer Mowing is a group of old guys who cut grass for free for people in our community going through a difficult time. It began several years ago when our friend's daughter went to Duke University for a double lung transplant. Both parents stayed with her for months, so a couple of us started cutting their grass on the weekends. We didn’t tell anybody but someone saw us mowing and mentioned it to one of our church's pastors. He worked with the senior adults, and would hear of older people that had become ill and unable to take care of their yard.… Read More