When we visited the Mercy Ship in Pointe Noire, Republic of Congo last March we learned there were a number of “off ship” ministry opportunities in the community surrounding the port. One of those ministries was a trip to the Hope (Hospital Out-Patient Extension) Center about 20 minutes away from the port. It was a 116-bed convalescent center for Mercy... READ MORE >
For a week last March we visited our son, Jeremiah, who is an X-ray technician on the Mercy Ship. The Mercy Ship is a surgical, hospital ship that offers free medical services to the forgotten poor of west central Africa. Two weeks ago the Mercy Ship completed a nine-month mission in the port city of Pointe Noire, Republic of Congo.... READ MORE >
It is summer in Grand Marais and once again we will be saying hello to young people who have traveled thousands of miles to work on the housekeeping staffs of our area resorts and the wait staffs and kitchens of our restaurants. The international students who come to Cook County from all over the world are remarkable young people. The... READ MORE >
As I write this reflection our country is, once again, considering military intervention in the affairs of a country on the verge of social implosion. Once again, we are tempted to believe that we can improve a desperate situation by applying our technological genius for destruction. It seems to me like trying to extinguish a fire with gasoline. This is... READ MORE >
A soldier, far from home on a moonscape of rock and sand, prays to be a good warrior without hardening his heart against the loving and gracious Spirit of his God. He presses hard in prayer to the Maker and Humbler of nations to be the husband and father he cannot be while he follows the life he believes is... READ MORE >
A conversation I was having with one of our international student workers turned to religion. She was from a culture unfamiliar with any but the most stereotypic characterizations of Christianity. Like all of the young people I have met who have come from the other side of the globe to clean our resorts and help in our restaurants, she was... READ MORE >
During my last year at college, several of my friends and I decided to change our Sunday morning worship habits. We had all grown up in evangelical homes and churches. We were all well acquainted with what we believed and why we believed it but we found worshipping as we had been brought up to be, well, boring. Evangelical worship... READ MORE >
There are two popular bumper stickers in town. One says “Tolerance” using a clever combination of religious symbols. Another states unequivocally, “Zero tolerance for child abuse.” Both have a point that most of us endorse, even though they appear to be mutually exclusive. We can accept them both because they are both expressions of a more complex matrix of values... READ MORE >
The forest that surrounded our house in Crosslake, Minnesota was predominately oak…red oak. The original trees, red and white pine, spruce and balsam, had been logged off and then burned off decades ago. The soil was very poor for oak…all sand. Not enough of the right nutrients and moisture for sustaining healthy trees. Consequently, by the time a tree had... READ MORE >
When you reap the harvest of your land, moreover, you shall not reap to the very corners of your field nor gather the gleaning of your harvest; you are to leave them for the needy and the alien. I am the LORD your God. Leviticus 23:22 Cursed is he who distorts the justice due an alien, orphan, and widow.’ And... READ MORE >
