Our Journey

I woke up this morning and my body felt different. It is changing. I am running three to four times a week, trying something new and challenging my body. And I’m growing stronger, changing shape and composition. As a gymnast for 15 years I exercised great discipline, learned intense mental focus and a singular commitment [...]

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The Easter tradition in the Malawi United Methodist Church is to celebrate the holiday with a three-day Easter program. The early church and high church traditions today call these three days from Good Friday to Easter Sunday the triidium. The same words are not used here, and would probably raise suspicion as too Catholic, but [...]

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Last year I introduced the members of my local church to foot washing on Maundy Thursday. Only eight or ten of gathered that evening. But as Holy Week approached this year, my pastor in charge asked if I would lead the service again. So on Thursday night, the congregation met for the fourth night of [...]

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Jeff and I have found that marriage can be lonely, even despite the proximity and the daily intimacies. We have so perfected the skills of delegation and scheduling that we can spend entire weeks in productivity without actually sharing life together. I read this morning in reference to being a pastor that “Every gospel truth [...]

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The tragedies in Malawi are not that different from the tragedies in the United States – sickness, car accidents, deaths of children. The shock and the grief are universal. I wrestle to describe how these tragedies are different here. In some ways it comes down to the layers that are missing in Malawi to gloss [...]

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