Ministry Updates

Don't you just love the Fall?  I think it's my favorite time of year!  Some of my fondest memories with my family are centered around activities we did every Fall - driving out to the apple farms to go apple picking, and visits to the pumpkin patch to try to find the biggest pumpkin we could!  

Emilie Barnes says that the memories and lessons that come from family traditions are important to children.  It's the reinforcement of love to one another, and creating of values that they can pass down to their own families some day.  

She feels ...

Did you see Courageous this past weekend? 

After hearing "FamilyLife Today's" interview with Alex and Stephen Kendrick (the movie's producers), my husband and I were eager to give it our support.  We weren't alone.  USA Today reported that Courageous grossed $8.8 million in its opening weekend at the box office, taking fifth place!  That's an incredible showing for a faith-based movie (although you and I know, not impossible). 

If you haven't yet seen it, I'd encourage you to do that soon ... and take your spouse with you.  Not only does it challenge men ...

Indeed, the LORD will comfort Zion; He will comfort all her waste places.  And her wilderness He will make like Eden, And her desert like the garden of the LORD; Joy and gladness will be found in her, Thanksgiving and sound of a melody. (Isaiah 51:3)

With hopefully no offense to our many friends from Texas, a recent trek to Austin reminded me of the juxtaposition of a Southern California coastal landscape to that of the Lone Star State's vast prairies.  Even though it was officially Fall, during my visit the weather remained at the 100 degree mark ...

I don't know about you, but in our present culture, it's not always easy to know what "doing the right thing" is!

Francis Schaeffer once said Americans have to learn to act like missionaries in their own culture.  If you're a missionary, you learn the language of the people in the mission field.  Many of us spend most of our time in church at Bible study but never figure out how to relate what we learn to the culture, or to even understand the culture in the first place.  Well, this new series from Chuck Colson and ...

Recently I've been thinking a lot about the 23^rd Psalm. Yeah, the famous one from David that starts off by saying, "The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want." What exactly did David mean? I turned to Max's book, Travelling Light, to gain some insight but I didn't expect this question:

"Are you in prison? You are if you feel better when you have more and worse when you have less. You are if joy is one delivery away, one transfer away, one award away, or one makeover away. If your happiness comes from something ...

By the time you have three children, as I do, you think you know a thing or two about being a parent. 

Of course, it doesn't start out that way.  When my oldest was born, I bought a "mini library" of resource books. Then, your children grow and you find you have more answers to everyday parenting challenges than you ever imagined you would! 

Still, there can be surprises  . . . as the "not-so-everyday" parenting challenges arise.  That's why so many parents (like me!) are so appreciative of "Family Talk with Dr. James Dobson."  

Along with lots of prayer, I ...