Summer camp at Lakeshore Center at Okoboji is going to be such fun this year! The theme is “What’s in a name?” Names have great power. We will be reminded that God knows us and calls us each by name into a relationship. Along the journey, we discover who we are and how...
Hi Friends – For the past 4 years! I have served on a task force that prayed and discerned how Presbyterians all across Iowa could become more connectional, to continue to provide a Presbyterian witness in the decades to come. After much discussion, the task force will present a Joint...
Now that it is January, registration is open for summer camp at Lakeshore Center at Okoboji! The theme this year is “Peace it Together!” My daughter tells me that she wants to go to an entire week away, although we might get her to settle for a half-week for her first time away from...
Dear friends, We have an advent wreath on our kitchen table that we light every time we sit down for a meal during advent. I also have a devotional book that we try to read each evening, to help us focus. This helps us ponder different aspects of the Christmas narrative. Sometimes throughout...
It was a joy to hand out Bibles to our 3-year-olds and 3rd graders in August. I loved seeing the excitement on their faces when they received their Bibles. I want to let you in on a little secret. Ready? Illustrated children’s Bibles and Adventure Bibles for teens and tweens don’t...
As I did a yoga-type stretching video the other month, something the instructor said caught me off guard. Of course he was talking about stretching, but his advice it can be applied to any situation in life. He said, “The stretch needs to feel right. These poses may not even feel good to...
We learned a lot during our first season of gardening last year. We learned that growing pumpkins wasn’t the best use of our limited space. We also learned that while it was fun to grow a variety of herbs, it wasn’t very practical to pick, clean, chop, and store all of those herbs...
BE WILLING TO TAKE RISKS & EXPERIMENT ~ Now that another gardening season is upon us, I am learning new lessons from the garden. The first lesson I’ve learned is “be willing to experiment.” Karen Johnson gave me some gardening books and in one of them, a master gardener...
On April 9th I received a puzzled look from 3 and 4 year olds when I told them: “we’re going to plant our garden today!” One of them responded: “but it’s snowing!!” I smiled and nodded. Then, I revealed that we would begin our garden inside in plastic cups...
On March 15th, members of the councils of North Central Iowa Presbytery, Prospect Hill Presbytery, and Des Moines Presbytery met together to hear a vision of collegiality for the future. Over 30 pastors and ruling elders listened to this vision and heard the story of the 3-year-long process of...
