How Does Your Garden Grow?

“It sure growed!” Peggy exclaimed, looking around. We were standing in Selah Community Garden at the beginning of another session of Senior Seeds, our health initiative to get local seniors involved in the garden. I smiled, feeling my head swell just a little bit, because she was right; it sure growed. Last year, in our […]

What Have You Been Reading? Scouting the Divine

Margaret Feinberg set out to do something I myself have attempted to do: better understand the Bible (and thereby better understand God) by observing the agrarian mainstays that repeatedly crop up in scripture. Specifically, she visited a shepherd, a farmer, a beekeeper, and a vintner with Bible in hand, asking their thoughts on Bible […]

Established: 1776

Anytime I see those stars, I remember that night. I was maybe four or five years old when my father took me out to show me the Big Dipper. We were at my grandparents’ house on the family farm, and it was dark and cloudless. I cannot say why he took me and my brother […]

Recipe: Sweet Potato Taco Bake

Yes, I know it sounds weird. Jessica and I eat a lot of sweet potatoes, primarily for three reasons. 1) Sweet potatoes are the easiest, most abundant crop I’ve ever grown, so we have on multiple occasions had an abundance of them. 2) Sweet potatoes are pretty healthy for you. 3) Sweet potatoes are delicious. […]

Making Room

“I would love to be a part of this,” I was told, numerous times. “I used to garden and always loved it. But I can’t do it anymore. I can’t bend over like I used to. I’m not as strong as I used to be. My knees and my back won’t allow it.” I can’t […]

What Have You Been Reading?: The Shepherd’s Life

I picked up this book in order to learn about sheep. The Bible has a good amount of references to sheep, and I am thoroughly convinced by the amount of questionable sermons I have heard that pastors and preachers don’t really know much about sheep. I don’t want to be one of these ignorant pastors […]

A Filthy Place for Kids

On Palm Sunday of this year, my wife left me, and took the kids. Honestly, I’m the one who drove her away… all the way to Charlotte-Douglas airport, where they boarded a plane and flew to San Diego to spend Easter with her family, giving me that most rare and precious gift: solitude. My […]

Recipe: Hamburger Casserole

Jessica, my wife, regularly returns to San Diego to see her family, leaving me behind, alone. I like it that way. I am a very introverted person, and with two small children in the house, alone time is at an all time premium. If I did not have church services and meetings while Jessica and […]

I’m a Bee-liever!

When I told my oldest daughter, Cas, that we were getting bees last year, she was thrilled. I was worried that the girls would be scared of the bees, or would treat them in a way that would lead to stinging, so I talked about them with Cas. I told her about the bees, shared […]

At Jesus’ Table: Holy Saturday, Eggs

So Joseph took the body and wrapped it in a clean linen cloth and laid it in his own new tomb, which he had hewn in the rock. He then rolled a great stone to the door of the tomb and went away. Matthew 27:59-60 Tomorrow is Easter. Tonight the Easter Bunny visits, dropping […]