If I have any worth, it is to live my life for God so as to teach these peoples; even though some of them still look down on me. A quote attributed to St. Patrick 387 – 461 Given my heritage is German and English, with maybe a touch of Scottish from many generations ago, I don’t pay much attention to St Patrick’s Day. Though I do enjoy the many beautiful Irish blessings. The saint […]

A week ago it was my honor and challenge to preach at the memorial service for a woman who became a dear friend to me. She died a few days before her 74th birthday after slowly declining from dementia. We met when she was the office administrator for the Synod Office and I was the director of our Synod’s church camp. Many times she came to my aid – helping with administrative details, reminding me […]

These were the ones chosen from the congregation, the leaders of their ancestral tribes, the heads of the divisions of Israel. (Numbers 1:15) Good leadership matters. Great leaders make life much better for people they’ll never meet. I consider Angela Merkel such a leader. I’m a little behind in my reading so I’ve just finished the December Time article about Angela Merkel: Chancellor of the Free World. Time selected her Person of the Year for […]

Two days before I was scheduled to fly to El Salvador for my third Thrivent Builds-Habitat for Humanity trip I got an e-mail from our State Department warning me of escalating concerns about safety there for U.S.A. travelers. Were this my first trip I might have canceled my flight. Since this was not my first trip, I deleted the e-mail and continued packing. Both Thrivent (a not-for-profit financial services organization for Christians) and Habitat in […]

Now the whole earth had one language and the same words. (Gen. 11:1) I’ve just returned from my third trip to El Salvador through the Thrivent – Habitat for Humanity partnership. I’ve met some terrific people – like Betty (L) and Glenda (R) pictured above. Glenda came to our work site each day to help because she wanted to practice her English. I wanted to practice my Spanish so we helped each other. One of […]