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One cold Saturday morning when I was 8, my Grandpa Jennings tried to show me how to milk a cow by hand. The old cow didn’t like it, and neither did I. After trying hard to get the milk flowing, less than an ounce of milk had landed in the bottom of the 2-gallon galvanizedContinueContinue reading “Remembering that it happened once…”

Every Advent season I think of Sikolastiki from the Republic of Congo. Sikolastiki was a co-worker of my missionary friend Carolyn Butler who, along with her husband Ron, served 35 years in the Congo. In “Under African Skies – Reflections for Advent and Christmas,” Carolyn writes about Sikolastiki: “During the years I knew her, IContinueContinue reading “Advent Shows that God is in Charge of All of History”

Joseph was engaged to Mary when she told Joseph she was pregnant. Her “found to be pregnant by the Holy Spirit” explanation didn’t work for Joseph or surely his parents. I can only imagine how Mary might have broken the news to her parents. Equally, I can only imagine how Joseph broke the news toContinueContinue reading “The most dramatic reveal party in history”

On Sunday November 6 I sat in Living Faith Anglican Church in Tempe, Arizona, celebrating All Saints Day. The first Sunday in November many churches take time to celebrate and remember the saints of the church, past and present. I liked doing that. It reminded me where I came from and of those who pouredContinueContinue reading “Praying for the guys in the Circle K”

Starting in 1985, now more than 35 years ago, I started praying here in St. John’s Catholic Chapel on the University of Illinois campus. (Most of the time I entered between 2 and 4pm, when the chapel was empty, like it is in this photo. In all my years of ministry in Champaign-Urbana over theContinueContinue reading “My sweet grandma was wrong about the Catholic Church”

At the end of our Sunday services we congregants at Living Faith Anglican Church in Tempe move our hands toward the cross and repeat what we learned from a church in Kenya… “All our problems, we send to the cross of Christ.” “All our difficulties, we send to the cross of Christ.” “All the devil’sContinueContinue reading “All Our problems…”

When the Russian bombing in Ukraine started, my mind went back to early on the morning of September 4, 2015. After shaving and showering, I sat down in my office with my coffee to read, pray and write in my journal. After I closed my journal, I turned to the front page of the NewContinueContinue reading “Taking each day as it comes, even during wartime — good advice from C.S. Lewis”

The Superstition Mountains border Phoenix on the east. Jennifer grew to love hiking in the Superstitions when she was a teen-ager. Forty-three and a half years ago on a hot Phoenix afternoon, I guided my 1974 baby-blue Ford LTD north on the Black Canyon Freeway. Jennifer, my new bride, was snuggled up next to meContinueContinue reading “Back in the valley of the sun”