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Remember the days before digital cameras and smartphone pictures? We used to buy film and then take the pictures to a lab to develop them before we could see them.

Lena Paahlsson, of central Sweden, lost her wedding ring. Like any happily married wife, she became pretty distressed over losing it, especially since she had designed it herself and had it custom made. It was a beautiful white-gold band with seven diamond studs embedded.

Not every season is the same. Six months ago, I was enjoying my patio almost every early morning and evening. Temperatures soared into the upper 80s during the day and dropped to barely 70 degrees at night.

My only way of having money as a kid was by finding a way to make it myself. When I turned 12, I was old enough to get a paper route, which I did right away. But before that, I mowed lawns, raked leaves, and shoveled snow.

The Italians call it: “il dolce far niente”— the sweetness of doing nothing.

One of the highlights for everyone who has travelled to Israel with us is swimming in the Dead Sea.

Jesus called it. If you build your house on sand, it will eventually fall.

“If you are going through hell, keep going.” — Winston S. Churchill

There are some things you can control. You can control what you say and do. You can control your attitude and how you think. These are responsibilities God gives us and we are accountable for them.

Linda and I were grocery shopping. There were three different moms with their children that we heard all throughout the store. There was a lot of yelling, swearing, and threats. Now I know, grocery shopping with small children can be a challenge. But it was breaking my heart to hear these kids spoken to in the way that they were. I thought, “No child should be talked to this way.”

The silly things church “experts” argue about!

In ATale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens tells the story of a physician who was imprisoned in a French penitentiary for twenty years. Unable to practice medicine, he took up shoe cobbling while incarcerated, making and fixing shoes for his fellow inmates. For twenty years, he could be heard working in his cell late at night, tapping away, repairing the shoes of prisoners.

Five years ago, Maddie Trncic came to work for us at The Bridge. She came to us from a ministry in Honduras. She agreed to work in our church office for just six months because her heart was with students in Honduras who had no means to continue their education. It was a self-perpetuating cycle of poverty because their parents could not afford the cost of schooling and they needed their kids to work in the fields to help support their families. But without education, they wer

If you put a vulture in a 6’x8’ pen that is open on top, the bird, despite its ability to fly, would be a prisoner. Vultures learn to fly by running 10 to 12 feet and lifting off. They are fully capable of taking off in a short span, they just don’t know it. So it wouldn't even attempt to fly out of the pen but would remain a prisoner for life.

You read about people in the Bible praying for long periods of time, and you wish you could do that, but how? Stories of prayer warriors like “Praying John Hyde” and George Muller intrigue you, but you think that kind of praying is only for the super spiritual.

Two sisters, a year apart in middle school, returned from winter break after a week at Disney World with their family. One was down in the dumps and when asked what was wrong, she retorted, “I just came back from a week off school in Florida to this freezing cold weather and homework––that’s what’s wrong.”

This was my third trek to Israel. My last two trips I led tours. They were wonderful excursions, but I had more responsibility in leading and directing.

I stood looking at this pile of rocks. But it obviously was not just a pile of rocks. These were first century carved marble blocks, hundreds of pounds each, that had been transported over a hundred miles to the top of a mountain citadel.

This is the week most people give up on their New Year’s resolutions. Winter feels long. The dreary sky, wet salty roads, and short days get to us. We lose motivation. It’s not that we just quit. We peter out.

In “Tale of Two Cities”, Charles Dickens tells the story of a physician who was imprisoned in a French penitentiary for twenty years. Unable to practice medicine, he took up the trade of shoe cobbler while incarcerated, making and fixing shoes for his fellow inmates.