God’s Visions Are Promises

All Commands are Promises

When I discover a noteworthy truth, I like to paraphrase it and write myself into it. The exercise helps me swallow the passage and critically apply its lesson. It also helps guide my prayers. This week, Oswald Chambers’ devotional, Vision in Reality called for such a rewrite. I am sharing my journal entry with you today (italicized words are Oswald’s)….

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Story Time #3: Hosting a Noonday Collection Trunk Show

Hosting a Noonday Collection trunk show is one great way to make a twofold difference! As Christians, we are called to seek justice by helping the poor, the oppressed and the orphans. Through Noonday Collection, we can do all three when we buy and promote their beautiful products. Noonday Collection started with an adoption journey. Jessica Honegger sold…

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Story Time #1: Making Room for a Homeless Teen

A homeless teen moves in

Ted Haynes, current campaign chair of the Tulsa Area United Way, encourages staff, volunteers and donors by telling his story. Well, it isn’t his story. It’s Sara’s story (name changed for confidentiality), in which Ted and his family played a part. When Sara was 16 years old, her parents dropped a box off at school and told the counselor she could not come…

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“Mommy, can the foolish man come over to my house?” Tonight My Son Taught Me a Lesson in Compassion.

The wise and foolish builders

There’s so much selfishness to teach out of my kids. I feel like I am teaching all the day long. Sometimes though, my kids teach me. Tonight my son’s compassionate little heart taught me a scripture application I had never thought of before. Our bedtime stories are usually about airplanes or horses or Buzz Lightyear. I make up plots…

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The Christian Alliance for Orphans Summit. I’m Going!

Christian Alliance for Orphans Summit CAFO

  April 30-May 1, I’ll be at the 11th annual Christian Alliance for Orphans Summit in Nashville, Tennessee! CAFO is for anyone who cares about orphans. Whether you are drawn to adoption, foster care, mentorship, nonprofit work, policy, Orphan Sunday, church ministry, family support or awareness, you will laud the summit. Check out the list of workshops. Christianity Today…

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Of Faith and Finances: Encouragement for Founders of Nonprofit Organizations

encouragement for nonprofit founders

To the start-up starter uppers out there willing to work years as full-time unpaid staff because you are committed to a calling bigger than yourself, can I (along with nineteenth century evangelist and orphanage director, George Muller) encourage you?  I put down Muller’s biography today to write a letter to two such friends. I hope…

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Free and Crowned, Crowned Free and Other Anti-Human Trafficking Businesses

crowned free

Freedom for the oppressed does not start or stop at their rescue. It starts with funding investigation and intervention by initiatives like IJM and A21. It stops with restoration of hearts and wages. Stigmas, post-traumatic stress and economic realities can hold freed slaves back from living in freedom. Budding organizations like Free & Crowned and Crowned Free give a…

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The Baby Drop Box

The Dropbox film

Have you heard about The Drop Box?  Pastor Lee Jong-rak is a modern day George Muller. His congregation is living out the gospel. When I heard about Jong-rak’s selfless efforts to rescue abandoned babies and his sincere love of each one of them, I remembered some church history. Early Christians were known among their unbelieving neighbors…

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Reverberations: The Power of Your Words in Little Ears

Peggy O'Mara quote

Just type Peggy O’Mara into your Pinterest search bar and see dozens of prettified quotations. Chiefly, The way we talk to our children becomes their inner voice. On reading O’Mara’s words, I was first skeptical then curious. I laughed as I pictured a grown man reviewing his mother’s instructions as he ties his shoe, “Make rabbit ears with the laces… lasso…

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Lessons in Compassion for Kids at Christmas Time

Teaching kids meaning of Christmas

Now that I have a preschooler, that degree in Curriculum Development and Instruction is leaking into my parenting. Today I considered how I could incorporate charity into our Christmas tradition starting this year.  Yes, today. I’m still a procrastinator. I sat down to jot down some ideas and out flowed a step-by-step lesson plan. 1)…

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Hang a Candy Cane on my Sugar Maple and Call Me a Pessimist

“Uhh it’s snowing” I texted Chris in his business school capsule “on November 8.” At lake level, it had been raining but as we ascended the hill, I could distinguish the unexpected floating specks among the cold drops. The ratios flipped and I heard “mommy it’s snowing!” from the backseat. “Mommy, it’s Christmas!” My three-year-old hawed…

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