By the time you read this letter, I will officially have completed my Doctor of Ministry degree. I am thrilled to complete this five-year journey. I am thankful beyond words… but I’ll try to use words anyhow. Naively, when I began the D.Min. program at Fuller Theological Seminary...
In 2015, our session decided to contribute financially toward two local youth programs. We contributed to the ecumenical youth center, ICKY’s and to Athletes For Education and Success (AFES). Our mission ministry team visited both organizations and felt strongly that our dollars would make...
Lesson Number Two: BEING REALISTIC... When Heather Peck and I dreamed up our garden last year, we had grand plans. Our original plan included 8 raised beds and multiple large pots for herbs. It included a composting bin made from wood and then also doing a composting-with-worms activity with...
Lesson Number One: Pruning My first lesson from the church garden came from planting the pumpkin plants. Each of our 4-year-old preschoolers planted a pumpkin seed in a cup in March and tended it over the past 6 weeks and now we had 20 pumpkin plants ready to be planted in one 4x8 bed. Any good...
I’m writing this article the day after our big storm. Now they’re saying that tonight we’ll have a big storm too. So by the time you read this, there may be two days after a big storm. The first night of storms took place on our ministry team night. I had finished up at our...
Since August, I have been spending 10% of my time each week at Duncombe Elementary School working in the first grade classrooms. I chose to work in the first grade classrooms for multiple reasons, one of them because my mother is a first grade teacher at Duncombe. (She has been working in the...
Have you ever felt like you’ve just been going through the motions, like you were simply doing what was expected of you? I have to be honest; sometimes worship feels that way. Maybe you’ve heard somebody say something like “I just didn’t get anything out of worship...
I have been spending 10% of my time each week at Hope Sweet Hope Studios. This is the social enterprise of Gateway to Discovery. Gateway to Discovery is a 2-year residential treatment program for women. They learn job skills at Hope Sweet Hope Studios which is helpful upon their graduation from...
I’ll never forget the first time I came home after leaving for college. Having graduated from high school in the San Francisco Bay Area, my college was 811 miles away near downtown Seattle, Washington. After just two months away, I flew home for Thanksgiving break. The evening drive from...
This morning while eating my Multi-Grain Cheerios, I finished reading 1 Kings. The end of the book finds the reader going through a cycle of descriptions about the various kings of Israel and Judah. In the typical way, verses 41 through 44 describe the reign of Jehoshaphat, a king of Judah...
