Our stories

On an overcast and chilly Sunday in January about 75 people gathered to visit with friends and neighbors and share a rib-stickingly good meal.  Food contributions to the potluck buffet did not disappoint!  The contributions were varied and creative and oh so delicious.  Additionally, we were blessed by storyteller Ray Dill who shared heartwarming vignettes from his childhood and words of encouragement to help us identify and embrace our own stories and strengths, and, most im

Since starting my career approximately 40 years ago, I have flown over 1 million miles. Delta Airlines tracks such things… other airlines do as well. (I have a close friend that led international business of his employer for many years of his career. I believe his number approaches 3 million miles!) Mostly, these trips have been for business. Lately, as my wife and I start our next phase of life, they are for pleasure and recreation. After all those trips, many smooth and une

Winter, and very cold, and the night at its deepest. The politicians, as usual, double-tongued. The town chaotic, teeming with strangers. And tonight, as often in winter, in Bethlehem, snow is falling. I always love how each flake, torn from the sky, arrives separately, without sound, almost unnoticed in a flurry of others. How each one (on a clear night) likes there glittering on the swelling breast of snow, crisp and intact, as wholly itself as every radiant star in a sky s

Among the oxen (like an ox I’m slow) I see a glory in the stable grow Which, with the ox’s dullness might at length Give me an ox’s strength. Among the asses (stubborn I as they) I see my Saviour where I looked for hay; So may my beast like folly learn at least The patience of a beast. Among the sheep (I like a sheep have strayed) I watch the manger where my Lord is laid; Oh that my baaing nature would win thence Some woolly innocence! "The Nativity" by C.S. Lewis

Dear Friends at Calvin Church, In my daily meditations for Advent, I have been focusing on Jesus being sent to be the light of the world. Though we see and hear of much darkness in our world, we know that God has given us His son to be our light. We know that darkness is the absence of light. In John 1:4,5 we read, In Him was life, and the life is the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. And in John 1:9 we read, the true light

When the world beats you down to the ground Love abounds between the beams of the cross, When you’re hopeless and lost, Riding waves that carry and toss You farther out to see than your heart ever dared, There’s no reason to be scared. His love is always there, deep enough to bear Cold, iron nails and a crown adorned with thorns. So when your hope is waning and worn, Remember the child that was born To bear all your burdens and to light your way. Remember the price that was p