A couple days after Christmas I noticed one fella’ tossed his tree, lights and all in the dumpster. Sometimes it’s a little hard to adjust to life after Christmas.

The day after Christmas… lights and all…

Recently we visited Chicago. On the basis of my Moody Alumni status I was able to secure parking on the campus while Lois and I walked to Michigan Ave. to shop and eat at Giardanos. Lois took a couple pictures before we vetured forth.
The Famous Moody Arch

On This Spot… (This plaque always stirrs my heart)

The American Girl Place
This little stop is becoming an expensive tradition, but it was fun to be out before Christmas in the bustle with my beautiful wife. She was so happy. …

Lois and I were married in September. By July we were living in Celina, Ohio and I was pastoring a little country church they called Beaver Chapel. We celebrated our first wedding anniversary there in our neat little white parsonage across Swamp Road from the church. That is where we would celebrate our second Christmas. The next October Kyle would come into our lives changing them for good and forever. We were happy there. I had pastured a church in high school for a …

One blustery winter day a few years ago Lois and I were purring along in our car. We were listening to Christmas music on our way to do some shopping. It was a few days before Christmas. We were thinking about how good God had been to us. We were in good health. We had eight children who love us. We had fulfilling ministry. So many blessings. Our hearts were full and happy. Things were close but we had all we …

About fifteen years ago when the Christmas season was approaching weather reports predicted a heavy snow on Thanksgiving eve. At the time I was the pastor of a village church in Ohio. On thanksgiving eve we joined with the other village church for a Thanksgiving service. Lois was in Newark shopping for the day. I was concerned that she would not arrive in time for the service. As night fell snow began to fall, too. Thick, wet snow. Festive as it was …

The story of Skipper is a true story. It happened in about 1988 when Kyle was only seven years old. Today Kyle is a husband, and father, and pastor. One of the reasons he serves the Lord today is because the lessons God taught him as a boy. The best way to read this story is to gather the family around, settle into a comfortable chair, and read it aloud. Let me know what you think…

In the spring of 1987 we moved to Mt. Vernon, Ohio to pastor a little village church. The church custodian was a widow named Dorothy Hall. Dorothy was a servant like Dorcas in the Bible. (Acts 9:36-42) She was a true friend to me and to my family. She would ask us what foods we liked and fix them for the family. Almost every Wednesday evening of our pastorate she fixed us a full evening meal even though it was hard for her to stand …

We all have our fears and phobias. For some of us it is heights. Children are usually a little afraid of the dark. Most of us are at least a little uncomfortable around snakes. We have read that most of them are harmless. They eat rats and mice and they are good to have around, but we still are a little uneasy around them.

One day I was driving a group of friends to a family seminar in Holmes County, Ohio. The village of Berlin was about an hour from our home. The seminar was held at a Mennonite Church. It is my favorite setting for a Basic Seminar.

I have been a student of Christian teaching almost all my life and I have noticed that Jesus usually introduced a truth in the form of a paradox and illustrated it using a parable. A paradox is abstract, a truth that seems false on the surface. A parable is concrete. It is a simple story, a word picture you can usually enter into yourself.