In my four-plus decades of ministry, I haven’t had many opportunities to go on missions trips. My first experience, 22 years ago, took my wife and me on a two-week visit to Singapore and Malaysia. I had the opportunity to speak about 20 times to families and young people at…
Winter in our neck of the woods has been relatively mild thus far. In fact, I think Destin, Florida, has received more snow this year than we have! Nevertheless, the day we took our annual winter break to Lake Geneva wasn’t so mild. For this time of year, the temperatures…
When our country was young, we had a far different perspective on the end of November. I don’t know about you, but for the past couple of weeks, my inbox has been flooded with various appeals to take advantage of “Black Friday Deals.” Wasn’t too long ago that “black Friday”…
October 1992 marked our first autumn living in Vermont. Up to that point, the farthest east I had been is Washington, D.C., and no farther north than Cooks Forest State Park in western Pennsylvania. But as the leaves began to change in late September and peak in early October, we…
In a pastors’ Facebook group, one colleague posed an intriguing question, “When do you take your day off?” Now, to most that wouldn’t hold much interest. Days off are typically dictated by one’s employer in the hiring process (or in weekly scheduling), and the employee doesn’t think much about it….
On January 1 of this year (2024), my wife and I signed up for the Hiker’s 365 Challenge. Simple concept, actually. All you have to do is hike 365 miles in a year. Easy-peasy—just hike an average of a mile a day. Not like through-hiking the Appalachian Trail or Pacific…
My wife’s work as an Administrative Assistant for the Reformed Baptist Network requires her to attend the annual General Assembly. This year it was held in Riverside, California. Aw, shucks! Now, we couldn’t fly all the way to California and spend just the three days required for the conference, now,…
Just before Independence Day, a friend and I hiked less than 2% of the Ice Age Trail in Wisconsin on an overnight backpacking trek. Sounds rather insignificant, I know. But keep in mind the Ice Age Trail is 1,000 miles long—and all in Wisconsin! Hiking west to east, the trail…
Unless you were born after 2010, you’ve lived through the technology revolution that began with the personal computer in the last two decades of the 20th century, but really conquered the world with the “smartphone.” In less than a decade, these portable hand-held devices went from being communication tools (used…
That’d make an interesting “man-on-the-street” question, wouldn’t it? And you could follow it up with, “How about yours? Was he a ‘good dad’—by your definition?” I’m guessing some might answer the first question with a reactive set of criteria. That is, their answer to the second question would be “no,”…
