This Advent season has been a time of preparation for the coming of Jesus. As we began this Advent with our theme, “The Heart of Christmas”, we have shared messages including the four elements Hope, Peace, Joy and Love. The specific titles being, 1. HOPE Is At The Heart of Christmas; 2. PEACE In The…

During this Advent Season, we have experienced our church adjusting to the new norms and bringing back the Christmas Cantata on last Sunday. Those Joyful sounds ringing through the air along with the wonderfully decorated sanctuary was simply beautiful. The labor of Love in preparation began months (in reality years) ago and after many hours…

During the Advent Season, we have shared inspirational messages on Hope and Peace in keeping with this year’s theme, “The Heart of Christmas.” This weekend continues with Joy building on both Hope and Peace. There’s so much Joy when our hearts are filled with Hope and Peace. While reading a beautiful Christmas story to the Agapè children, this week I had one of those experiences of…

During this special time of the year, our anxiety levels can become elevated as we navigate the ever multiplexing and evolving days leading to Christmas. The business merchants are aggressively seeking to direct our attention to the newest, greatest and must have items for this Christmas. There’s a special sale day for everything Christmas, another…

In the Thanksgiving Season, the time of gathering with family and friends, God brought us together one more time. For some it was opportunity to make new acquaintances and establish new connections. While for others, it was a time for reconciliation in hope of the restoration with loved ones with whom there may have been…

The other day I was sitting outside near a little corner of creation that looked like a patch of weeds though I’m pretty sure it was really an overgrown garden. Whatever it was, it didn’t look like much—at first. There weren’t any colorful blossoms or well-defined edges. But then, as I sat there, I started to notice…

There are two Easter lilies in the front flowerbed at the parsonage that are just now blooming. I planted them a few years after someone gifted me two of their lilies from our Annual Easter Memorial Garden. Maybe I planted them at the wrong time because they’re more like Independence Day lilies than Easter lilies. Because of their…

This week I had the opportunity to attend a conference up at Green Lake. Somehow, I still don’t know how, but somehow in the almost fifteen years I’ve spent in American Baptist circles, I’ve never been to Green Lake. But this week was the Radical. Redeemed. Ready Conference celebrating 40 years of American Baptist Women in…

This is what I wanted to write about last week. This video is a clip of Naelyn Pike, a young Apache activist, testifying before a House of Representatives subcommittee to advocate for the protection of Oak Flat, a part of the Tonto National Forest east of Phoenix, Arizona and land that’s sacred to the Apache…

Today I wanted to write about a powerful testimony from a young Apache activist working to protect the sacred land of her tribe. I wanted to share her words with you because her call to action resonated with a piece of the purpose statement our Visioning Team presented at our annual meeting. But that reflection will…