In the art of blogging, (which I’m still learning!), the pros say that having a provocative headline question can gain readers. Did it work? Does this headline cause you to feel a degree of pushback, especially if you are from the USA? Some may immediately disagree, wanting to say how friendly and polite the nation… Read More Is the United States a Cruel Nation?
I’ve been thinking lately about kindness. Actually about how unkind we are in our public and political discourse. I’m writing this post in the USA, but it is certainly true in other nations as well. Yesterday, with the graves of the Normandy D-Day invasion in the background, the US President in an interview savaged his… Read More How low will our public discourse go? The importance of kindness.
Being in-between destinations, not part really of either one, has a special pain to it. Another word for it is transition, and transitions can be of durations as short as a day to ones lasting many years. Living in the in-between space is living in the margins, hoping that somehow there is hope ahead and… Read More The Pain of In-betweenness
In three days a new year will start. Time for fresh grace, fresh opportunities. Leaving behind the regrets of 2018, taking stock of life anew. This coming year is a milestone one for me: turning 60 years old, celebrating 30 years of marriage, and 40 years in the mission I serve with. Arriving at 60… Read More How would you like to receive a blessing from a 101 year old Genocide survivor?
Humpty Dumpty’s great fall resulted in a whole lot of broken pieces. And as the English nursery rhyme goes that first appeared in the late nineteenth century, “All the King’s horses and all the King’s men, couldn’t put Humpty Dumpty together again.” The image of broken Humpty Dumpty at the bottom of a wall has… Read More Humpty Dumpty and the broken pieces
Competition, this never-ending desire to be the best, is a heartless master. It drives us, seeps into our daily lives and national discourse and doesn’t let go. It is in our educational system, our media, our churches, our national holidays. Self and national promotion has become so normal that we don’t think twice about, never… Read More Why does it matter if America is or isn’t the greatest country in the world?
Isolation is an enemy that causes a great amount of pain. It places us in a box, often of our own choosing, and yields few ways out. At times in my life, I have known periods of isolation. I hope I never live in it again. This is different from the need for solitude,… Read More Never Train Alone
Irregardless of the politics involved in the present issues in North and Central America, there is something very wrong about the nature of a ‘zero-tolerance’ policy. In anything. I do not pretend to understand the complexities of the immigration issues on the US southern borders. I know that illegal immigration has been a problem for… Read More No ‘Zero-Tolerance’ Policy
In the news lately, in several fields of life, has been the courage of ‘whistle-blowers’. People who usually at great cost to themselves, say ‘no more’ to denial and are willing to come forward about injustice, personal or corporate wrongdoing. They ‘blow a whistle’ to say stop, no more, this can’t go on anymore. What… Read More The Deadly Danger of Loyalty that Leads to Denial
When we receive a physical wound, a scar remains, however small or large. Healing does happen, over time, but the scars remain. In 1982 in the weeks before I went to work in India, a nail pierced the top of my right foot while some of us were removing an old structure near our YWAM… Read More Our scars remain
An Invitation to Pause, Encounter & Grow Together.
a global story
learning life and leadership in Thailand
Our Journey Into Justice, Compassion, and Action
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Thoughts From a Resident Alien
COMMUNICATING ACROSS BOUNDARIES
Thinking Christianly about the American Past
Encounters of Faith in Asia: Past, Present and Future 