No, pastors and church planters don’t have one-day work weeks, preaching on Sunday and then taking rest of the week off. Sunday is only the end of one week of hard work and the beginning of another. Yesterday was my first full day in Bennington for my internship. In fact, in all my trips out more »

The sun was shining, the snow was melting, and the wind was blowing slightly. A golden ’95 Toyota Camry meandered its way through several wind farms, clipping along at a steady 70 miles per hour. Leaving a growing city of familiarity and comfort, the vehicle’s operator traveled 2 1/2 hours away to a city of more »

The plane began its descent on American soil, and shortly before 6am EST we were on the ground in Atlanta. A new day, a new month, a new city…and a new perspective. My ministry trip to Brasil is over, but life continues on. I could not just come back the same person that I was when more »

Hello, Fortaleza. We arrived at the massive bus station in Fortaleza shortly before 7am and disembarked with our stuff. We found a couple taxi cabs that took us to the BMM apartment office where I stayed during my first night in Brasil, and we dropped off our stuff there so we could go shopping. After more »

So, Tuesday morning I woke up enjoyed Aunt Julie’s homemade carne de sol tapioca for breakfast one last time, and spent the day packing and cleaning up any loose ends in the house. Other than that, not a whole lot went on. For lunch we had mashed potatoes, chicken, and vegetables, and for supper we more »

One of the beautiful things about new experiences are the new relationships you form. Indeed, for an experience to be enjoyable, relationships are one of those necessary elements. Well, I enjoyed several new relationships during my time in Brazil, and it was time to start saying farewell to some of the more significant people I more »

Preface: This post (and the next four) are LONG overdue. I completed my ministry in Brasil in July 2013, but I never finished writing about it. After spending time with Uncle Jim and Aunt Julie tonight in freezing Iowa, and soon to embark on a new ministry experience, I decided I need to get on more »

Wow, what a CrAzY, long, exciting, bittersweet day! Once again, it began shortly after 4am with the crowing of the rooster and lots of prayer until the sun came up. I walked around on the beach for awhile, looking around and enjoying the island. It was really cloudy all morning, so the sunrise wasn’t anything more »

Woke up this morning to a rooster crowing somewhere on the island…shortly after 4am. The one thing about roosters functioning as alarm clocks is that you can’t hit the snooze on them…especially when they are not within reach and don’t belong to you. So I had no choice but to just lie there in my more »

Today’s a day I have been anticipating for a long time…Treasure Island! I ate a quick breakfast of egg casserole and coconut bread and packed everything I would need for three days on the island. With the exception of my hammock, I managed to get it all in a small suitcase. We left Petrolina in more »