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 [...]
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 [...]
My friend Anne Jackson has been asked by an organization to travel with them to Haiti to help their work, but also to gain insight and report as a writer.. I’ve asked Anne to guest blog for me both before, during and after her trip. Here is her first entry: When I turned twenty, I was your typical former pastor’s kid living in rebellion – alcohol, clubs, bands, and a peer group nobody’s parents would approve of. Two months before my twentieth birthday, I had just ended a long term relationship – a month before we were supposed to get married. It was rough. I remember returning home the night of my twentieth birthday after having friends visiting throughout the week. My apartment door was wide open and nobody was inside. Littered on the floor were liquor bottles and pizza boxes. It took me three trips to the shared dumpster to empty out all the trash. Exhausted, I collapsed in my bed and cried myself to sleep. I was alone. I was twenty. And I needed to grow up. As I drifted off, I wondered what the week leading up to my thirtieth birthday would look like. Would I be [...]
I love this video from Fancis Chan about how we seek safety instead of taking risks. Terrific:
