Humble Boldness

By Kim Brannian and Becky Reed Today was the most amazing day of our trip so far. This morning we helped the teachers with tutoring students in their classrooms at Llamado Eterno. We taught them the English words for Spanish words by acting them out. Then students wrote the words and reviewed them. Kolby did his famous yo-yo tricks and Holly's hair was a hit with everyone wanting to touch it.   In the afternoon we were so blessed to have the opportunity to be a blessing to the families of El Chacon when we delivered 20 lb. food bags door to door in teams. We worked together to carry the bags up steep terrain in pouring rain to enable us to ask these families how we could pray for them and invite them to church Saturday evening, Sunday school Sunday morning, and the celebration in the community Sunday afternoon. The people were so thankful and welcoming, inviting us to stay and pulling up chairs for us to come in out of the rain a...

Honduras Day 1               The whole trip to Honduras was a whirlwind. I came with the group that left Sunday morning to drive to Chicago. From Chicago we flew to Miami and stayed the night in Miami before making the last leg of the trip to Honduras. In Tegucigalpa we met up with Kevin and his group. We all got on a bus together for a 2 hour ride from Tegucigalpa to Danli where we are staying .The 2 hour bus ride was my favorite part. It was so beautiful to see all the mountains and getting to experience driving in a foreign country was quite the experience.               Today was our first full day in Honduras. We had breakfast in the courtyard area of the hotel before splitting up to do our activities. Part of the team went to Llamado Eterno Church to build bunk beds while the other part of the team visited one of the schools near our hotel. Visi...

By April White Funny thing, words. There are so many. Different meanings, origins, context, and relevancy. According to the Global Language Monitor as of January 2016 there were 1,035,877.3 words in the English language alone. However, there is a new word created every 98 minutes or about 14.7 words per day. So yeah…A LOT of words! How many words on average do you think you speak in a day? I am guessing for me that would be as hard as counting my freckles. I think I may invent a word counter, you know like a pedometer for my big fat mouth. I shall call it “mouthometer” I am words girl. Love language: Words of affirmation. I LOVE words. (Well most) Prayer sign next to my bed: “Dear Lord, Please place your arm around my shoulder and your hand over my mouth.” I have so many of them flying through my brain on any given day. It would be an air traffic controller’s nightmare to take a looksy. I express myself with words; I sing them, I write them, I ...

A number of years ago I came to terms with the fact that I had depression.  My wife had advised me to see a Christian counselor for some different issues, depression being one of them (side note, I am more and more convinced that everyone needs counseling; whether that is professional, pastoral, or from a friend).   I remember when I first went and talked to my doctor about depression, he recommended that I take medication.  I felt relieved but also unsure.  Questions raced through my head like: should a Christian have depression?  should a pastor have depression?  if I'm free from sin as a believer in Jesus Christ, why do I need medicine to treat this?  To be honest I don't know If I have all the answers to those questions yet.  Depression is a hard thing to describe.  It's in your head.  It's dark.  Lonely.  I often describe it to Adrianne as being stuck inside my head.  I'm naturally introverted and a thinker so...

By Luis Ubinas Renewing ones mind is done through a daily relationship with God. God desires that relationship with us. He wants to grow close to us and wants us to share that love and relationship with others. Now, I love my wife and kids. I enjoy every moment with them. I love growing with my wife, the joking around and the authenticity of our relationship. My daughters complete me. I can never stay mad at them for more than a few minutes. Once I look into their eyes I tend to remember the grace the Lord has on me. Why not express that to my children? But there are moments that I want to walk for a little while and get lost somewhere. Just come back when everyone is asleep. The truth is sometimes I come home from work and it is crazy. My daughter wants all the attention and my wife needs my assistance with house chores. I just want time to myself. However, I deep down think to myself, "Why am I being selfish with my time when I get home from work and even become irri...

"Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ." 1 Corinthians 11:1 I have been blessed to have many amazing mentors in my life.  From high school, to college, to seminary, to ministry.  Names like Tim Kurth, Bill McClure, Mark Hallock, George Dockery, Marc Galaske, Steve Johnson, Mike Warner, and Andy Veith.  These men have pushed me, challenged me, encouraged me, loved me, prayed for me, and simply been an example to me. Some of theses people I have personally sought out, others were naturally in my life, like my dad.  In Seminary I was given two mentors: a ministry mentor and character mentor.  In fact, my Seminary tried to specialize in mentor-ships instead of internships.  To be honest, I think mentoring and discipling are lost arts in some ways.  Why has the church and so many pastors given up on one to one discipleship and mentoring?  It's easier to just be ok with mass discipleship and programs.  But we need to do one on one disci...

Let me say first off, that I like the Olympics, I cheered for Michael Phelps, and I own a watch.  That being said, there was a commercial that aired recently that ticked me off and showed our culture's misunderstanding of Jesus. Omega watches did a commercial, you can watch it for reference below, with a number of athletes training and competing, interspersed with pictures of Rio and watches.  At about 8 seconds into the commercial Michael Phelps stands up with his hands outstretched with a picture of the Christ the Redeemer Statue behind him.  Making a visual reference to Michael Phelps being like Jesus as the song in the background sings "you can be the hero, you can get the gold." Here are my two issues: comparison and misunderstanding.  First, let's compare Michael Phelps and Jesus a little bit.  Michael Phelps can swim really fast; Jesus can walk on water.  Michael Phelps has won 28 Olympic medals; Jesus can control a storm, heal people of disea...