Mark was in my youth group in California. The youth were planning a mission trip to Mexico to build homes for some of the poorest of the poor. His parents were forcing him to go with us. He was not happy about this. He made his anger very clear to me and Read More...
I was talking with a Music Therapy student at KU the other day, and she told me about one of her clients in a nursing home who had difficulty remembering the names of her children, yet could remember all the words to songs like “You Are My Sunshine” and “Beautiful Dreamer.” Music Read More...
You see the walker in this photo? You made it possible for this woman to have that walker. We met this woman during the first of our two Nicaragua missions this year, the February adult trip. She lived in a remote cluster of houses alongside the dirt road that we traveled Read More...
On Sat., Sept. 17, Paul and I were asked to speak at the Elders and Deacons retreat. We discussed music in worship and our vision for the music program. When Paul and I met to coordinate our thoughts, we came up with these points to share: • We wish to see Read More...
Over the summer I fell in love. My husband was not happy about this. I started texting him pictures of teenagers that I wanted to adopt and bring home. And he politely explained that we could not afford to send another child to college. But since I’ve been home, I haven’t been Read More...
Jonathan Martin, in his book How to Survive a Shipwreck, writes about the work of the Spirit, “The trademark of the Spirit is to first bewilder, not clarify. The fog that comes doesn’t always obscure the Spirit—sometimes it is the Spirit. To welcome Pentecost is to open ourselves to the possibility that God may be working in that Read More...
When I returned in August after being away from the building for almost three weeks (to Christian Community Camp in Colorado and then a few days of vacation) I had over 1,200 emails. Granted, lots of those were junk email but there were lots that weren’t. It took me a couple of Read More...
The day was warm, but the front door had been left open for an appliance delivery for the family who would soon be inhabiting this small home. A team from our church was there, through our partnership with Della Lamb Community Services, cleaning the kitchen and bathroom, setting up beds and putting Read More...
Early on Wednesday of this week I was on my way to the church when I ran into heavy traffic on Ward Parkway. I made a lane change to move past a long line of slow moving cars. I noticed a car coming up behind me at a very high rate of Read More...
By Chuck Pickrel, Director of Student Ministries As a child of the 80s, a Sci-Fi fan, and self-proclaimed “Nerd,” I see a lot of movies. Some of my favorites involve time travel, space travel, and supernatural phenomena like ghosts or super powers. This summer has offered some great reboots like the Read More...
By Rev. Joe Walker, Minister of Congregational Care “It’s hard to put into words how much those visits helped my mother. You know how the time can drag. My mother would count the hours until the next pain medication. Jacqueline helped distract her from the pain. Jacqueline was a real gift Read More...
On a recent flight, I lucked out and got an exit row seat with extra leg room. I’d had a busy couple of days. I was worn out, looking forward to a nap. No such luck. The man next to me wanted to talk. I tried to politely signal that I wanted Read More...
[cs_content][cs_section parallax="false" style="margin: 0px;padding: 45px 0px;"][cs_row inner_container="true" marginless_columns="false" style="margin: 0px auto;padding: 0px;"][cs_column fade="false" fade_animation="in" fade_animation_offset="45px" fade_duration="750" type="1/1" style="padding: 0px;"][cs_text]by Dr. Dina Pannabecker Evans, Co-Director of Music While I’m trained to think of summer as “down time,” we are also taking this time to look ahead as we plan for the direction of Read More...
[cs_content][cs_section parallax="false" style="margin: 0px;padding: 45px 0px;"][cs_row inner_container="true" marginless_columns="false" style="margin: 0px auto;padding: 0px;"][cs_column fade="false" fade_animation="in" fade_animation_offset="45px" fade_duration="750" type="1/1" style="padding: 0px;"][cs_text]By Elizabeth Pfalzgraf, Assistant Director of Children and Student Ministries My husband and I recently became Deacons. We are so excited to start this leadership role and be active during worship. Being church members, Read More...
Helping folks move beyond the cloud of guilt is one of the most important works of the church. Guilt is not a bad thing if it helps you examine mistakes and failures. Guilt can be a bridge from sin and sorrow to new life and a new way of living but if Read More...
