Over 1000 of you are now supporting a mentor/mentee relationship through The Mentoring Project. I wanted you to see a quick video spotlighting yet another of these relationships. Your support means the world to us, but it REALLY means the world to the young men who are being provided positive male role models. This video spotlights Bil (intentionally spelled with one “l”) and Shawn. Thanks so much, Bil. You’re our hero. And Shawn’s hero too. Beneath the video, I’ll give you a quick update on The Mentoring Project and let you know how you can support if you haven’t already. What is The Mentoring Project? The Mentoring Project is a non-profit organization working to create hundreds of thousands of relationships just like the one between Bil and Shawn. We do this by partnering with churches to create a small, localized mentoring program. Churches either run the program independently, or utilize their men’s ministry or college ministry to run a mentoring branch. Right now, we are working with nine churches in Portland, Oregon. When we start a new program, we provide extensive mentor training that involves not just the mentors, but the entire church. The pastor preaches a sermon that launches [...]
I’ll be honored to read stories from old and new work (my first novel, in process) in Nashville this coming Monday. The event is a benefit for Porters Call, a counseling service in Nashville. It’s a tad spendy ($100) but the night will be unforgettable, I’m sure. So if you’re in Nashville, and want to hear from a writer, a priest and a songwriter, come on out. There are only a few seats left. You can purchase tickets here.
My friend Anne Jackson, who blogs at flowerdust, sent in another report from Haiti. She’ll send us one more recapping her visit. But this is what she was experiencing just a couple days ago on the ground: We went into the tent city today wondering what would happen. Thousands of people last night had flooded Twitter with pleas to media and NGOs to help get food, supplies, and medicine to this community we had found yesterday. Thank you for so quickly falling in love with the families we met that needed so much. When we arrived shortly before 9 am, the people had planted a church – various tarps and sheets with a small area to use as a stage. Music began immediately, and people filed in singing, dancing, and thanking God for the help that was to come. The tent city is in a valley, a flood area. To get to it, you walk down a paved road and turn down a dirt road full of rocks and head down an incline. As people kept singing“God is my provision” and “I have no other source but God” I kept looking up from the valley, up the hill, waiting for a caravan [...]
Last week I had the privilege of talking with Max Lucado. I was trying to make some career decisions and asked Max if I could run some things by him. He was waiting to get a root canal and for some reason was still willing (and even happy) to talk to me. I can’t imagine. Nevertheless, we talked, and I’m glad we did. One of the decisions I was in the middle of making regarded walking away from a great career opportunity because it just didn’t feel like it fit my personality. I felt like I needed to stay home and write books and not do a whole lot more. The opportunity I was declining was remarkable and it would offer me a larger platform. Max told me he’d made a similar decision years before, to stop doing a radio show because, even though it was a very good project, it just wasn’t his sweet spot. He needed to stay home and write books. It would be hard to argue he made a bad business decision. Even though he’s let go of perhaps many opportunities to expand his platform he’s remained focussed on what God has gifted him to do, [...]
Dr. Cloud was kind enough to write a guest blog just for this website. I’m honored. And even more honored because it’s a great one. Sorry I got this up a bit late. We had something of an e-mail mixup. But here are some things to reflect upon as you prepare for bed…. A Few Valentine’s Day Thoughts By Henry Cloud, Ph.D. When I first became a Christian, I remember a wise older man told me he wasn’t going to church on Easter. I was surprised, especially in my newfound excitement about the faith. “What? Why not?” I asked. “It’s amateur day,” he said. “People go who never go any other day of the year and really aren’t serious about it. So, it is too crowded and I just stay home with God.” I walked away thinking, “weird.” But there was a point to it…..sometimes “special days” take on a meaning to people as if they are the essence of what they are meant to symbolize and commemorate. Easter should be a day that symbolizes what we realized each and every 365 days: we have a risen Savior. He is alive every day. And then on that day, we celebrate [...]
