Belonging through DNA. Everybody wants to belong and feel important. Evidenced by the new DNA studies that are available, people (including myself) spit into a cup and send off samples so they can learn from where their ancestors really hailed. We want to know where we fit in – and how we got to here from there. [I’ve yet to find relatives I didn’t know I had, but it’s been interesting to learn that the … Read more
Who IS coming to dinner?!. This story was first published in 1995 in The South Boston Banner. It was later printed in a book of compilations of my columns, Southside Glimmers in 2007. This dinner party of unannounced guests is a great way for kids to learn about people in the Bible and their stories. They have the opportunity to guess who each character is. We often had this event in the fall of the year, when our kids were inundated … Read more
The story behind the photo. This is a boring photo, but it has a story to tell. It was the most bizarre experience I’ve ever had. In the middle of a dusty, Iraqi village, I found myself face to face with an ISIS fighter. Let me explain. This spring, coalition forces were battering the last territorial stronghold of ISIS. Several thousand of their fighters were forced into a tiny portion of land in Baghouz, Syria. … Read more
The Story Someone asked me again recently how I became deaf. I always feel slightly awkward answering the question because the answer is complicated. Also, how do I speak of such a traumatic thing so casually, as if I’m discussing the weather? The short version of the story is that I was born completely deaf in one ear and moderately deaf in the other. With a good hearing aid and speech therapy, I functioned much … Read more
When Life is Hard. There are days when life is great and nothing could be better. On other days, waiting for Heaven seems to be taking forever. The good days make us forget that we’re longing (or should be longing) for Heaven. But those sad, weary, dreary, woeful days are what makes me long for Heaven, which seems so far away. Have you been there? When life is hard, we suffer because of the injustices … Read more