Dear Olivia, The story of your birth is by far the craziest and coolest in our family. Jeetje! I remember riding my bicycle home from an early-morning meeting, heart leaping into my throat as I pedaled over the Amstel River, … Continue reading
We’ve made it to the end of our busiest, sweatiest, most strategic season of the Collegiate ministry year! I’ve been taking some time to reflect and recreate this weekend, and when I saw the above sign in the Cuyahoga Valley … Continue reading
Dear Cor, You are a marvelous human being. I’ve marveled at you since the day you were born: eleven years ago, in the wee hours of the morning, in the hospital across the street from the Oosterpark in Amsterdam. And … Continue reading
What a week it’s been! Today is the first day of classes for Kent State University students, but for those of us at H2O Kent, things have already been going full-tilt for a few days now. As students started moving … Continue reading
The movie opens with a familiar face in an unfamiliar setting: Mister (Fred) Rogers sitting at a grand piano, sleeves rolled up, talking to the camera about his philosophy regarding children’s television. The footage is black-and-white, poorly-lit. The tone and … Continue reading
I’m back from a summer of worship. It’s hard to explain, hard to encapsulate. But when I think back on everything I’ve experienced over the past couple of months — both on vacation and on assignment at Estes Park Leadership … Continue reading
We weren’t fully prepared for the cold and wind. I mean, we knew the weather forecast ahead of time and packed sufficient layers. We had talked to park rangers and mapped out our plan. We were logistically prepared. But we … Continue reading
The Glass City Half-Marathon was hard. I went out fast, and I stayed fast through the first ten miles: splits consistently between 7:00 and 7:15 minutes per mile. I was pushing the pace, keeping myself in the upper echelons of my … Continue reading
We’re back from H2O’s Spring Break trip to the Great Smoky Mountains! Fifty-four of us traveled from Ohio to Tennessee to learn and practice spiritual disciplines in the wilderness, like Moses, and Elijah, and John the Baptist, and countless others … Continue reading
Dear Elliot, It’s a pretty decent possibility that this is the last year of me being taller than you. Probably also the last year (and maybe even the last month!) of me being a faster runner than you. You’re already … Continue reading
