The essays in Finding Father are both tender and troubled. Some are loving, elegiac tributes to men who nurtured their daughters. Others seem almost confused: “How do I love a man I don’t really...
[read more]
Our last two faith stories in October take place some 800 years after our visit with Elijah on Oct. 13. We are back in northern Israel, although now Roman domination replaces an Israelite king. Both this story...
[read more]
The Dome of the Rock in Old Jerusalem enshrines faith stories, including the almost-sacrifice of Isaac. By Jewish and Muslim tradition, the bedrock protruding inside this seventh-century structure is the top...
[read more]
October is Pastor Appreciation Month. While one month is not enough to show appreciation to pastors, it’s an opportunity to focus on the work, ministry and difficulty of being a pastor. I was called to a...
[read more]
Every year, when Nov. 11 (Remembrance Day, the anniversary of the World War I armistice) rolls around, Canadians reflect on the many who gave their lives during that war and the dwindling number of World War...
[read more]
“Watch your step! Behave yourself! Remember the rules I told you!” September’s lessons focused on God’s faithfulness to Israel. October’s theme includes human responses to God’s faithfulness. Our...
[read more]
Aaron Janzen believed passionately in missions. A member of the Mennonite Brethren from Mountain Lake, Minn., he wrote of the value of leaving “homeland, kin and kindred, ease, comfort, physical and...
[read more]
Mennonite daughters through the years have lived very different lives depending on where their ancestors came from. Regardless of cultural and ethnic backgrounds, whether urban or rural, rich or poor, old or...
[read more]
When Halita Gambo’s baby, Janada, was born with a low birth weight, she turned to a Mennonite Central Committee-supported organization in northeastern Nigeria for assistance. Women and Youth Empowerment for...
[read more]
Earlier this year, the family-friendly streaming service Vidangel and Christian filmmaker Dallas Jenkins made Hollywood history after raising more than $10 million dollars in a crowdfunding campaign to fund...
[read more]
Amid the tsunamis of cruelty drowning the planet, the day of endless kindness began as Joan and I watched Maine waves roll in for the last time. We unwrapped the breakfast sandwiches we had bought at the...
[read more]
In the summer of 2014, Liz Jansen set out on a solo cross-country motorcycle trip, hoping to trace her ancestors’ migration across Canada nearly a century earlier. But a serious accident cut her journey...
[read more]
Imagine your family has been excitedly preparing for a two-week camping trip. You have a new tent and lots of supplies and food. The first few days are great fun — hiking, watching birds, swimming and eating...
[read more]
When I am sad or lonely, I like to hold a little bear my fiance gave me, whom I call DanDee after the name on his tag. I like to look at the red heart on DanDee’s chest. When I place four fingers on his back...
[read more]
The white-supremacy attacks in Dayton, Ohio, and El Paso, Texas, have communities on edge. We wonder where the next attacks will happen. Is our community next? These mass murders, incited by the national...
[read more]
China and the United States are in a trade war. Yet the real issues at stake are bigger than trade. We might describe it as competing globalizations. (Though globalization does not imply competition, we might...
[read more]
Is it ever OK to nag about injustices? Do we remain too quiet when all around us vulnerable children, the marginalized and widows find no justice or are even ridiculed? Does Jesus’ parable of the unrelenting...
[read more]
If you love geek culture — Harry Potter, Doctor Who, Battlestar Galactica, Lord of the Rings and more — and you’re a Christian looking for devotional material that combines the two, you are in luck. In...
[read more]
When teaching classes on Mennonite polity, I say “Gelassenheit is all we have.” In our hyper-individualized world, it’s both risky and countercultural. This gelassenheit — or yieldedness, as it’s...
[read more]
How much offensive conduct by a government official does it take until religious and political leaders protest or help turn the culprit out of office? The antiquities department at the Louvre museum in Paris...
[read more]
“God Is Faithful” is the Uniform Series lesson theme for September. The five examples of God’s faithfulness are the rescue of Lot’s family, Hannah’s prayer for a son and three texts from the Exodus...
[read more]
Even before climate change emerged as an existential threat, the Amish were lauded for their environmentally friendly, off-the-grid lifestyle. Horse-drawn transportation, huge vegetable gardens, emphasis on...
[read more]
Not long ago I received a brochure from a charitable organization. On the front was the headline, “Leave a Legacy.” I soon discovered “Leave a Legacy” meant “write a big check.” If the check was...
[read more]
Mass shootings get most of the attention in the conversation around gun violence. The numbers are indeed staggering. There have been more than 2,000 mass shootings in the United States since the Sandy Hook...
[read more]
In the 1950s, dictator Fulgencio Batista and the rich and powerful of Cuba oppressed countless Cubans. On April 9, 1958, rebels against Batista called a strike. Batista fought back, including in Sagua la...
[read more]