Hope in Suffering
Matt Bodden has bright eyes; he is affable and frank. He is an evangelist at heart, and his demeanor is warm and experienced without being hardened. Bodden has faced genuine adversity; his path to salvation was long and difficult and in 2016, Matt and his wife, Stacy, lost their third child to illness. Yet, for […]
Seeing the Unseen
They can feel invisible and their voices unheard. Misunderstood and sometimes dismissed, the marginalized are all around us. They represent various ethnic groups, individuals and families with special needs, families living with poverty and housing challenges, etc. Sometimes women and children can also fit this category. Jesus made it a practice to see those who […]
A Love for Scripture
What is love but the constant pursuit of something you deem valuable? A pursuit that is paradoxically delightful and uncomfortable. To love something outside of ourselves, as fallen beings, means to resist molding the object we are pursuing into something easy for us to love. True love considers something’s true nature. The nature of Scripture […]
Excerpt — Another Move God?
With three moves in her first year of marriage, Beth quickly became a bitter, reluctant, and selfish wife who hated most aspects of the military lifestyle and regularly let her husband know of her resentment. Belief in Christ transformed Beth into joyfully accepting the military lifestyle and embracing the mission to reach the military and […]
The Incarcerated Church
Editor’s Note: This article was originally published in the winter 2019 issue of The Gateway magazine as “Ministry Through Competition,” but I recently saw an update on social media from the subject of this story: Cornell Swain. He commemorated ten years of ministry service at San Quentin Rehabilitation Center with a short story about about […]
To Live Biblically – My Family
What does it look like for our family to live biblically? My husband, Wayne, and I have two sons: A 15-year-old named Gabe and a 19-year-old named Micah. Our oldest son, Micah, has Tuberous Sclerosis Complex, a neurological disorder he was diagnosed with at 5 months of age. He is non-verbal, cognitively around 3-4 years […]
Prayer Sparks
Every once in a while you stumble across something that is simultaneously simple and extremely impactful; something that alters the way you do things beyond what you would ever expect. Several years ago I had just such an occurrence. I had recently started a new Bible reading plan which had me reading through each book […]
When God Works Before Your Very Eyes
There can be certain subconscious expectations we have when preparing to go on an overseas mission trip. Perhaps we want to see a certain number of souls saved, or we expect to see a healing or a miraculous work of God. To see the tangible evidence of God’s working is not promised; God does not […]
Choosing Worship This Christmas
My favorite time of the year is the Christmas season. I love the lights, the smells, hearing familiar carols in various places, and going shopping in attempts to find just the right gifts for my kids and others. I am thankful that we get to spend a few days leading up to, and the day […]
Missional Living is Obedient Living
South Asia is a beautiful, vibrant region that stretches from the (literal) sky-scraping Himalayas to the white-sand beaches of the Maldives. Spanning seven countries, South Asia is home to 1.8 billion people living in major urban areas and in rural villages. It is the birthplace of Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism and Jainism, and nearly one-third of […]