Before going out on the river, I spent several hours instructing teenage campers on how to maneuver a canoe through white water. When we launched our canoes, I took the lead....

My yard was nothing but grass when I started to fill it with native trees, shrubs, and wildflowers. These new plants are small and rather spindly now; some have seed heads...

For a long time, I had wanted a change and to create a better future for myself. I was contemplating moving to another country. I knew I was not alone; Christ...

From time to time a ewe will abandon her healthy lamb. Shepherds call such orphans “bummer lambs.” When a shepherd encounters one, he picks it up, adopting it as his own....

I was afraid when I first went to boarding school because I had heard nasty stories about boarding-school life. But as our parents dropped my sister and me off at school,...

After countless hours of use on hot, dusty baseball fields, my two sons’ baseball mitts would invariably wear out. The leather would dry out and crack, and the laces would fray,...

Our family is large. I am the youngest of six siblings — three girls and three boys. I lost both my mother and my father when I was very young, and...

A few years ago, my family was struggling financially. I was jobless, and we had two sons to support. Most days we had only rice and eggs to eat. Sometimes a...

Preparing to meet my former boyfriend Mike’s friends for the first time, he advised me to hide my cross tattoo adorned with “Christ is King.” His friends, he warned, were atheists...

In the bleak midwinter as I look out my window, I long for the joy of a beautiful sunny day. However, I know that one day the singing of the birds...