Growing up in a Chinese American refugee immigrant family, I was taught (among many things) to be both grateful and proud of being American. As a small child, I remember learning to proudly say, “I’m an ABC: American-Born Chinese.” Emphasis on American. I...
By Yannan Shi, Prismacolor markers on sketchbook paper This year I’ve finally decided I would read the Bible from cover to cover. I have been avoiding it for a long time but I felt like God nudging me and saying, “Just read. I have a story to tell you.” When I...
In a little less than three months, my firstborn will put elementary school in his rearview mirror and look ahead to the wild and widening world of middle school. Yikes! And so, I become another in a long string of parents who waited endlessly each day for the bedtime that seemed...
“I never win anything.” How many times have we all said that? How about “Winner, winner chicken dinner!” Or, for you poker aficionados, “One time!” Do you know someone who’s related to someone who dated someone who knew someone who used...
Our friends are missionaries at Fort Bragg, a military installation in North Carolina. Due to army regulations, they will be losing their contract and permission to work on the base, effective immediately. Their recent newsletter chronicles their path and ends with how God has...
My small group has been together for some years. We’ve known some of the folks in there for more than ten years. We all have kids now and look back fondly on our days of youth when we were “on fire” for God. As young adults, possibilities to change the world...
The first time I entered the healing journey with God was when I came to The River three years ago. It felt like a huge leap of faith to place the care of my soul in an un-seeable and untouchable God. Two years earlier, I became a Christian in college and placed my identity...
I grew up in communities where hymns were sung in the home, church, and social gatherings. Now that I am older, it’s not surprising that my earworms (songs remembered again and again) are verses from hymns and choruses that I learned as a child and young adult. Image...
I’m a pretty joyful worshiper. Whether on stage or from my seat, I can usually be seen and heard bursting with praise for our Savior. There’s something about worship music that has always stirred my soul. As if words set to music are the language of my...
Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil—and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death...