Hope Children’s Center in Africa

Those of you from our church will be encouraged to know that you can read more about the orphanage project that Jeff Dodge described in church Sunday here.

I think Jeff did a great job identifying the central challenge of the parable of the Good Samaritan: (my words) True-Christlike love takes action.  We must move beyond head knowledge and cross the road and tend to the wounds of those who are hurting.

Again, for our church family - - will you help point others to this link? 

 See also: Ipods or Africa?

A Slice of Stillman Valley

Eugene Peterson wrote in Under the Unpredictable Plant that pastoral visits are:

. . . occasions for original research on the stories being shaped in their lives by the living Christ.  I go to these appointments with the same diligence and curiousity that I bring to a page of Isaiah’s oracles, a tangled argument in St. Paul . . .

 I love doing the original research of studying the lives of our people.  Exegeting the stories of our small town is one of my greatest joys.  I wrote the following newsletter article after a visit last week.

Being a Pastor in Stillman Valley

The seminary I attended for a Masters of Divinity asked me to write an update . . . that’s a tough thing to do.  What does one choose?  You can see my answer on the Grand Rapids Theological Seminary web page.