Christmas is our day to celebrate Jesus’ birthday. But in the shuffle of the holiday season, the original intent of the holiday can also get swept up in holiday busy work, no matter how well-intended we are. But we can take out a page from the cultural traditions of Mexico to reflect upon this Christmas. […]
BEING A GOOD SAMARITAN
A DVD series about making a difference
If someone were to sit down and contemplate the state of the world right now, it would be easy to find sadness, unfairness, and inexplicably awful things that can’t fully be comprehended. We have mass poverty, pandemic diseases, social injustice, gender inequality and political oppression, just to name a few ills. Then on top of […]
HARBOR HOUSE
Harbor House meets the spiritual, physical and educational needs of their community.
Since 1972, Harbor House has worked with over 100,000 individuals in the San Antonio community of Oakland, California. The ministry began with a single person—schoolteacher and First Covenant Church member, Olive Freeman. Freeman began offering assistance to her students and their families, providing books, food, clothing, and educational tutoring out of the trunk of her […]
DISASTER RELIEF
The best ways to help out those in need when nature erupts
Lately it feels like so much of the news has been filled with reports of natural disasters. In September 2009, there were ravaging typhoons, earthquakes, and tsunamis that hit parts of Southeast Asia and the Pacific Islands, affecting countries like Samoa, American Samoa, Tonga, Burma, the Philippines, and Indonesia. Then early this year, a 7.0 […]
KNOW WHEN TO SPEAK
Fighting injustices and working toward change around the globe
When people want to give back to the community, looking for an organization to help support is often the first step. Giving time by volunteering at your local hospice or giving funds to a worthy organization is always needed. But a different route of giving back and pushing for change is through advocacy. The same […]
ANNIE LOBERT AND HOOKERS FOR JESUS
Saving Sin City
Hookers for Jesus. Yes, you read the name correctly. Hookers for Jesus: a bold name, rivaling only the boldness of its endeavors and its fearless founder. Annie Lobért began the international, faith-based organization in January 2005 to address the realities of sex trafficking, sexual violence, and exploitation linked to pornography and the sex industry, “fishing” […]
BREAKING BREAD AND BREAKING BARRIERS IN SOUTH AFRICA
My arrival in Durban, South Africa was a very particular brand of disorientation. Nothing seemed familiar. Rand. Paranoia. Koombis. Xhosa. The remnants of apartheid. Humidity. Food-stealing monkeys. All of it felt foreign. I decided to study abroad for one year in college to get some field research experience in another country. But underneath the academic […]
GOSPEL FOR ASIA
He was only a teenager when he answered God’s calling. Feeling an overwhelming, unconditional love for the physically and spiritually impoverished population of India, he stood on an elevated rock amongst a bustling Bangalore bus station. He was only 16 years old, skinny, too young to even be part of the mission teams that proselytized […]
LOVING ONE BY ONE
Living a lifetime of one life at a time
Everywhere you turned there was something or someone that needed help. Everywhere there was a need,” explains Christine Plaza Bermudez. Wrapping one’s head around the very apparent needs of so many others at one time can be overwhelming for just one person, especially one who wants to make a difference. This is what Sherry Roberts, […]
SENSITIVITY TOWARDS ALTERNATIVE MEDICINE
Taking a look at the pros and cons of alternative medicine and what it means for Christians with the help of Dόnal O’Mathúna and Walt Larimore’s book Alternative Medicine: The Christian Handbook.
When I was younger, I had chronic stomach pains. At one point, the pain lasted for a full week without subsiding, seesawing between a sharp or dull pain. After countless X-rays and tests, doctors could only agree on one diagnosis: inconclusive results. The body is an amazing piece of work, functioning with complexity and beauty, […]