The other night as I was cleaning the corral, I got such a laugh. I had just finished locking the animals in the stable because a lone wolf had been about again. Due to the long summer days and warm evenings, I left the top half of the …( read more )

Direction determines destination. MapQuest is one of my favourite driving directions applications. Siri is nice, but she tends to misunderstand my southern accent. With MapQuest, I simply plug in my desired destination, and it takes me …( read more )

As I write, I am typing this with one finger at a time, as my left arm is badly hurt and too painful to use. Yes, I was careless and fell down on my left side on my arm. Thank the Lord, the arm wasn't broken, just terribly sore. I have …( read more )

Albert put me to shame. At the ripe age of 89, he slogged to church every Sunday through deep snows and sub-zero temperatures. We offered him drives multiple times, but he declined each one, saying that he needed his exercise. His …( read more )

Sharing the gospel these days is very different from how it was done during the apostle Paul's time. Some people try to encapsulate the whole gospel into a couple of phrases like "love one another" or "do not judge", making it easy to …( read more )

One of the places that we visited on our cruise last February and March did not have a large enough harbour to accommodate our ship. So we dropped anchor offshore, and then, people were taken to the shore in small boats. We stayed on …( read more )

Recently, I wrote a devotional about how concerned I had been about a little black squirrel sitting alone all day on a bare branch in the drizzling rain. I couldn't get it out of my mind, and I kept wondering why its mate had deserted …( read more )

Have you ever found yourself listening to something — maybe you've heard it many times before — and noticing something entirely new and unexpected? I had that experience on a recent Sunday. We were singing Hymn of Promise, written by …( read more )

Can you imagine the sorrow that Florida is feeling as they go through an epidemic of violence? Do you recall the promising young singer shot, the mass shootings at a nightclub, and a two-year-old child snatched by an alligator in a lagoon? …( read more )

My friend attended a gospel convention in the United States and stood in line afterwards to have a word with one of the speakers. As she waited, she noticed a young man approaching her. He was a stranger to her, but he was making eye …( read more )

My five-pound Yorkshire terrier, Sienna, made me laugh the other day when I glanced up and saw her struggling and staggering around the yard carrying a bone. The bone was meant for the large, outside dogs who weigh seventy to eighty …( read more )

At my birthday party recently, I wanted to read Scripture, and looking for a verse about hope and the future, I found this one: What a wonderful birthday present from Jesus: new birth and an inheritance that can never perish! I could not …( read more )

What I'm known for is as important as why I'm known for it. White was a well-known family name throughout certain portions of West Virginia, USA, and beyond. The family patriarch — and the one who initially brought the family's …( read more )

Recently, I watched an interesting movie that brought back memories of a certain kind of pop art. The film portrayed the true story of "Big Eyes" artist, Margret Keane, who was famous in the 1960s and '70s. Her paintings depicted sorrowful …( read more )

The summer is a great time to do things around the house or yard, but each time, it takes me a mountain of coaxing and unrelenting reasoning simply to commit to paint the deck, mow the lawn, or clean out and vacuum the car. Does the word …( read more )

One morning, I decided simply to gaze at some blue jays just outside our window. I did that for a reason: I felt that I was becoming too complacent about blue jays. They're always around — plenty of them. I saw them mostly as raucous …( read more )

During the early days of my working career, I was the project accountant on a big pipeline project. One day, I was talking to the instrumentation engineer, the person who designed the instruments which could remotely operate the various …( read more )

Have you noticed lately a growing trend among store clerks to drop those "three little magic words": "please" and "thank you"? The cashier simply states what we owe, with no eye contact and no smile. If she were a child, we'd prompt her …( read more )

Toddlers toddle forward unsteadily on chubby legs. One in diapers suddenly sits. Some wear big-boy pants, and some twirl in a skirt. All are not yet two years old. One lone toddler scurries after them, and nearing the minister, he sits …( read more )

This spring, we were able to install a Toyo stove — a small oil furnace — in our home. This new addition meant that during the shoulder seasons, spring and fall, instead of trying to regulate the wood stove, as the temperatures vary so …( read more )

Each day, for about four weeks, while enjoying my first cup of morning coffee, I have been watching the constant antics of two black squirrels. It didn't matter when I happened to glance out the window, rain or shine, they were tearing up …( read more )

The church these days faces a changing world. We are trying to reach out to neighbours who have a "me-centered approach". How does the gospel meet them? Are we welcomed now when we knock on the door of a stranger's house? There may be …( read more )

Sometimes, what's ahead and behind is just as important as what's in the middle. My wife and I took a vacation to visit my brother and sister-in-law, who recently moved to West Virginia, USA. They live in an area where coal mines are …( read more )

My wife loves the challenge of doing jigsaw puzzles. She handpicks each piece and ponderingly places it somewhere on the board. The individual piece may fit, or she may set it nearby for an eventual link to some other piece of the puzzle. …( read more )

My grandparents in England had a parlour at the front of their house that was never used. It contained their best furniture and their most valued knick-knacks. Although the room was dusted, it wasn't heated. It was cold and uninviting. …( read more )

One day, a truck burning diesel fuel passed us, and the smell of the diesel reminded me of two events many years ago. When I was a little boy, some of my aunts lived on a road beside a big canal in the Netherlands. Whenever my mother would …( read more )

Recently, I'd been feeling sorry for myself, when my mentally-challenged son called. As he usually does, before he hung up, he said, "Mom, I love you. Huggies and kissies." He lightened my spirits, making me feel a lot less lonely. No …( read more )

Mom's five-month local hospital stay started with two fractured vertebrae. After some X-rays and MRIs, the doctors decided that she needed to get the fractured vertebrae fixed, so she was transferred to another hospital that was …( read more )

Some weeks ago, I had the opportunity to participate in a day-long video workshop on a sensitive topic that can be divisive and difficult for some people to talk about. So the opportunity to discuss it with others in a safe environment …( read more )

I have a scrap pail beside my sink. Apple peelings, pear cores, old lettuce, stale bread, carrot ends and such get tossed into it for the horses. These scraps don't seem like much to me, compared to the whole fruit or fresh bread, but the …( read more )