By Vanita Joines I’m sitting in front of the TV watching the ever-entertaining Smallville. Okay, okay, I know, get a life, right? I guess it just intrigues me. Superman. Lex Luthor. The storyline and all that stuff. I remember as a child running around playing super man. Now, I am hoping I wasn’t pretending to … Continue reading Steel: An Overrated Commodity
By Jesse Medina Leaving the church is nothing new; Christians have been doing it since its inception. In the early days, it was usually due to heresy, an out-casting of sorts. Or sometimes, perhaps, it was the result of dissension: one person or group of people felt that their leaders or fellow Christians were off-base … Continue reading Stop Leaving the Church
By Brooke Luby I wish I had words to tell how the light filters through the tree branches in the forest, or how quickly my anchored soul takes flight from this acknowledgment. I wish I knew how to capture moments of contentment and store them up like dried lavender, pulling them out when I need … Continue reading A Poem: Wishes of Simplicity
By Sarah Fujimoto Supporter of Wrecked for the Ordinary, Julia LoVan made the headlines and front cover of California Apparel News. After her recent appearance at Project Ethos, Julia LoVan garnered significant media attention due to her passion for justice and fashion. California Apparel News, the voice of California’s apparel industry since 1945, has a weekly … Continue reading California Apparel News Featuring Julia LoVan
By Isabel Maldonado From Swaziland, Africa: When I’m not buying groceries for the mission team to eat, hanging out and pouring into the people I live with, or fetching them from ministry projects, I usually find myself in the office or going to some of the “care points” (a feeding place for orphans) Adventures In … Continue reading A Day-in-the-Life of a Missionary in Africa
By Lacey Gustavsen No one ever wakes up in the morning thinking that life as they know it will change overnight for them. Life changing events tend to make a habit of sneaking up when you are unawares, grabbing you by the throat and never letting go. The day my life changed forever, it wasn’t … Continue reading Tennis Balls: Why Money Cannot Change The World
By Seth Barnes, Founder of Adventures in Missions We hurt people when we lead them to Christ and then fail to continue the caring process. It is the ugly backside of student missions, the result of our American quick-fix mentality. I first became aware of the hurt we can unwittingly inflict when some co-workers … Continue reading Following Up On Your Mission Trip
By Jeff Goins, Editor I just saw a moving news piece called “Children for Sale” on CNBC. It broached the issue of human trafficking, as reporters went undercover to expose the sex trade in Cambodia, where adults are selling young children as sex slaves. It turns your stomach as you come face-to-face with the reality … Continue reading Trafficking Children in Cambodia and Christian Compassion
By Jonathan Foster “We have vastly underestimated how deeply ingrained are the organizational and cultural rigidities that hamper our ability to execute.” -Elmer Johnson as quoted by David Brooks in NY Times Sounds like church. I’ve been receiving quite a few negative comments about church leadership, staff, or internal dynamics lately. These things, I believe, … Continue reading Planting and Cultivating Ethos in a Church
By Jesse Medina I’m not much of an artist. I’ve painted or drawn a couple of things here and there and I’ve acted some, but for the most part I’m not very…cultured…when it comes to these sorts of things. One of the things that I love about paintings is the way the big picture is … Continue reading Brushstrokes: Stop Judging Culture’s Art by the Imperfections