Year: 2018

Things have not been going very well in my little town. There has been much dissension over the replacement of a necessary facility. For more than two years, a group of volunteers has put a tremendous amount of planning, fundraising, and … Read more

When I was a child, I loved the sound of mail being pushed through the letterbox and landing whisper-soft on the doormat. I had several pen pals all over the world. I did not know their language, but they all wrote fairly good English. I … Read more

Vena Poole was totally British, even though she became a Canadian citizen years ago. I wonder how she is taking to her new citizenship in heaven. I hope that they serve high tea there! At one time, Vena and her husband Ronald sailed a … Read more

I have always liked classical, operetta, and opera music. When I was young, we did not have access to it, other than what we may have heard on the radio occasionally. But when we moved to Vienna, Austria, that great capital of the music … Read more

"The church failed me!" I used to say. My two sons were abused by their choirmaster. The youngest died, and my eldest lives with the impact. I saw that church as a body of sinners, the kind of blame that much of the outside world gives to … Read more

For Hester Prynne in Nathanial Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter, it was an A; for many others, it is a D. In a puritanical time period, Hester Prynne made the mistake of having a sexual relationship outside of marriage and getting … Read more

When I read about the fruits of the Holy Spirit, I quickly realize how shallow I am, and that despite my best intentions, I can never display all of these blessings on any given day. I recognize my sinful shortcomings and become fully … Read more

It looked rather decrepit, past its best-before date — that vintage Heintzman piano in the sanctuary. Several keys were unplayable. To make this glaringly obvious, permanent X's were scribbled on each broken key, perhaps by a child who … Read more

As I was doing my daily Bible reading in 1 Samuel 15, I came to the part where Saul is confronted by Samuel because, instead of destroying the Amalekites as the Lord commanded, he didn't finish the job. He got "creative" by sparing King … Read more

This is a verse that I particularly like to share when I am mentoring prisoners by mail through Crossroads Prison Ministries. I mark the Bible lessons that they send me, and then, I write each of them an encouraging letter. It seems to me … Read more