Our Fall Retreat with H2O Kent was different this year. We felt it was important to minimize the risks of transmitting COVID-19, so events were organized with just a couple of Life Groups getting away together, instead of the whole … Continue reading
On the original “Easter Sunday,” the disciples of Jesus gathered in homes — isolated from each other and from the general public. They were afraid of local authorities on the rampage to snuff out the fledgling movement of faith. They … Continue reading
Last week, I told my Ohio friends that I was going to be out of town for three days to run the Cowtown Half-Marathon. They asked, “Where’s that?” I responded by saying that it was in Fort Worth. And they … Continue reading
My kids and I love Bubble Tea. Like most Westerners, we had to get used to the idea of solid components (“bubbles”) mixed in with something we’d typically classify as a liquid (tea). But we got over that years ago. … Continue reading
Super Bowl Sunday is an unusual day for ministry. Sundays are usually busy days for church leaders. It’s pretty common that I’ll have some kind of meeting before our weekly worship gathering. The worship gathering itself takes up a couple … Continue reading
The kids had the day off from school yesterday. It was a very cold, wintry day (it seems that the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday weekend is pretty reliably snowy and frozen). So we decided to revive a tradition that’s … Continue reading
Many cultures believe that ethnicity in conferred through their women (I just learned that the word for this is matrilineality). For instance, Jewish tradition (and Israeli law) stipulates that a Jew is someone with a Jewish mother, or someone who … Continue reading
I love a good quest. One of my earliest quests was to set foot in every building on the campus of Bowling Green State University. A little later, I decided to eat at every dining establishment in the city of … Continue reading
Our family’s favorite ice cream shop is currently featuring one of their signature seasonal flavors: Handel’s Peach Ice Cream. It’s only on their menu for a couple of weeks each year because they make it from fresh, fully-ripened peaches. So … Continue reading
Olivia and I just finished a three-day road trip — driving from Kent (Ohio), to West Chicago (Illinois), to Rapid City (South Dakota), to Estes Park (Colorado) — and my heart is happy. I love the wide open spaces of … Continue reading