My new job!!

Hello Villagers, I'm sure I haven't had a chance to talk to all of you about the job that God has given me.  I have the opportunity to work for AZ Baptist Children's Services in their New Life Transitional Program. The program is designed for men and women who are struggling financially and need help becoming self-sufficient.  Many of our clients are homeless or facing homelessness when they come…

Sometimes you just have to laugh…

Sometimes you just have to laugh. Not the polite little chuckle or a polite smiling nod. No, you have to really laugh. Laugh so hard you cry. Laugh in the face of pain and suffering and hopelessness and helplessness. Laugh what Dad used to call a 'good old fashioned belly laugh'. Sometimes you have to laugh like that because if you don't, the depths of despair would suck you…

Flowers at the Side of the Road

Withered flowers beside the road, muddied bouquets of memories, tattered stuffed animals, cards of scribbled regret, stand like slaughtered soldiers, weather beaten sentinels, awaiting the slow slog of justice, a murky tide to come rolling in, if it ever does, bringing justice for all. Meanwhile cries for retribution echo, hoping somehow vengeance satisfies, though it never does, only pouring more cut flowers onto other piles of grief, multiplying screams…

a hierarchy of needs and thoughts from rod’s sermon

I've been thinking about this idea of service and the idea of sin. Philippians 2 is a high calling. Specifically, " if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, 2 then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one…