A mission trip adult leader recently mentioned that my predecessor believed that every student (and their friends) should participate in a mission trip. As a result, for years, my church has filled a coach bus with 40-50 students and headed out...
Sarah Bessey is a writer's writer. Her words are beautiful; Her language, poetry. She's someone I read when I need inspiration.
Needless to say, my expectations about her second book, Out of Sorts, were incredibly high, so much so that I...
What the book's about: Cross-Cultural Connections by Duane Elmer is a book designed to prepare people for cross-cultural experiences, and more specifically, for cross-cultural mission trips. While the book is really oriented to long-term...
About a year ago, my husband and I attended a ceremony to remember the atrocities occurring in the Congo. While there, we learned what courage looks like.
We also experienced African hospitality. We were served a bounty of traditional African...
I'm currently knee-deep in mission trip preparations for my team's 2014 trip to Rwanda. As part of this mission trip preparation, I'm working hard to shatter any Messiah complexes my team members might have.
That Messiah complexes exist in teens...
I spent five years working at a multi-ethnic, multi-site congregation.
There was much I loved about this church and my role there. During my time there, I discovered who I was as a youth worker. More importantly, though, serving in a context...
History is written by the victors.
Though true, as a person of faith, this idea has always bothered me. If history is written by the victors, then how will the stories of those who are oppressed be told? How can we fight oppression and injustices...
Where were you on March 21, 2005?
I'm guessing you may not remember. After all, unlike September 11, this is not a date etched in our collective national memory. It is, however, a date on which another tragedy occurred.
On March 21, 2005, a...
When I opened my blog reader Monday morning after a week away, I found blog after blog featuring reactions to the acquittal of George Zimmerman in the shooting of 17-year old Trayvon Martin, an unarmed African-American teenager.
Not surprisingly,...
Almost a decade ago, I was flipping through a youth worker magazine and came across an ad for a Welcome Pack. Unlike most ads, this one wasn't selling something. Instead, it was trying to convince youth workers to have their students complete a ...