From My Front Porch

Life's stories connect lives

First Impressions

I remember my first job interview. It consisted of the manager at our local Burger Chef calling me on my sixteenth birthday to ask me when I was coming to work. Nearly all of my older siblings had worked there, and he had anticipated his new cashier for some time. I showed up, donned my brown and orange polyester uniform, and walked straight into the work force.

Not all interviews are quite that easy. So much can’t be learned from an application or even from a cursory interview. A resume only tells part of the story, but a person’s character is so much more than what a piece of paper can tell. How will this person handle pressure? Is he kind? How will he treat people? [Read more…]

You May Not Deserve Your Church

body-of-christ“Go be a blessing!” Our pastor years ago ended every sermon with this short exhortation. He explained repeatedly over his ten-year tenure that if we come and go to GET a blessing, we’ll likely be disappointed, but if we come and go to BE a blessing, we’ll always GET one.
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Minister is a verb.

ministerTwenty years ago, our little family of four moved from Richmond, VA to Jackson, MI to begin training as missionaries. Eventually, Todd began teaching at the same small Bible college where we began our training, and I worked to coordinate academic policy and practice there. We wanted to be active in the work of ministry, and so we ministered to students in the classroom and in our home, hosting droves of students as often as possible, and we loved guiding them through life’s trials and watching them flourish. We did the act of ministry routinely, and our hearts were full. [Read more…]

Can you hear me now?

weak-signalLiving in the country, I’m no stranger to poor cell phone reception. We’re simply too far away from the signal.

We moved so far out in the country, that when we first moved here, we had to walk the quarter of a mile back to the tree line in the field behind our house and climb a tree stand–hunting stand for those non-hunters out there–to get a signal. We could have been in one of those Verizon commercials like the guy who recently switched to Sprint. [Read more…]

A Tale of Two Teams

Two schools have blessed me with the privilege of coaching their girls’ volleyball teams, and I have Facebook to thank for reconnecting me with some of them recently. It seems God brought them back to my heart and mind “for such a time as this” in order to allow me yet another privilege: to pray for them in their current struggles. [Read more…]