At my last church I was working late one evening while preparing for a youth ministry trip.  The only other staff member in the office suites of our building was our gentle and kind administrative pastor, John, who was diligently working the church budget numbers on his computer. I had gathered a few items from… Read More »

So, I saw something kind of funny here in town this week.  I witnessed someone driving alone in their car… wearing a mask… and pulling said mask off to the side so they could take a drag on a cigarette, and then putting their mask back in place.  Now, I’m no expert, I will admit,… Read More »

— Written July, 2016 I thought this PS’s Ponderings from my youth ministry days, just about 8 months before I came to Willard, related so well to the message for this week on encouragement. I quit youth ministry yesterday. Mired in the middle of a 5th week in a row of 60+ hour work weeks… Read More »

Our Daughter, Alyssa, has been helping us out by power washing our house — and boy did it need it! My guess is that it had been years since it had been done… and it is even possible, that it had never been done. The results are beyond noticeable – they are actually startling. The… Read More »

I have been pondering this week how quickly culture can change. I mean, just think about the last three months! In March, we were encouraged to “social distance” from others. What the world! I had never even heard of that term before then. Suddenly, if you wanted to spend time with extended family or friends… Read More »

It was a sneak attack. I should have been prepared. I should have used more caution. But the day was hot and the ditch in my front yard was too wet to mow, so it was time to use the weed whacker. The grass and weeds in the ditch and around our woods hadn’t been… Read More »

I have really been struggling this week. On Tuesday morning I watched the video of the woman who refused to leash her dog when asked to do so by an avid bird-watcher; who happened to be a black man. At first, I simply could not understand why she objected so strongly to a request that… Read More »

We will probably forget. It’s in our nature to forget. History should be our greatest teacher, yet the lessons of History are easily overlooked due to the tendency of the selfishness of Humanity. Lessons learned are often dismissed as moments specific to certain events, but not adopted as societal change. So the status quo remains.… Read More »

Lauri and I just returned from a week of vacation in Deltona, Florida. It was a bit cool last week for this time of year, but believe me, Lauri and I did not mind wearing a sweatshirt — 62 degrees was just fine for us for a couple of days — ya’ll got a snowstorm.… Read More »

There once was a man who had achieved a certain level of worldly success and truly had all of his earthly needs met. He could afford to buy whatever he wanted or needed, but there was something missing from his life. Religion hadn’t met the overarching desire of finding meaning and purpose for life, and… Read More »