Training, Learning & Living In this part of Hyomi’s Adventures we are going to give you snippets of 2 posts. The first one is a week after she has moved in with her first host family, where she stays while completing her training. This is a time of dealing with culture shock, learning how to […]
The Love of Music My wife and I became parents 25 years ago and it’s clearly a vast world, requiring long-term learning and growth. It’s apparent now that the next 25 years of our lives will be full of opportunities to learn things that we don’t yet know. But there’s one experience that I have […]
Some Memories Stick for a Lifetime Excerpt from Tales of Love and Service: Stories from the Heart, by John W. Gehring. The following story took place on a Religious Youth Service (RYS) project in the Philippines. I have been carrying with me for decades certain recurring memories; some are rich in emotional warmth while others carry with […]
Screaming Baby When my son was 4 months old, he giggled. When he was 6 months old, he crawled. At 8 months, he was pulling himself up and pre-walking. By the time he was 9 months old, he was screaming at me. It wasn’t just that he screamed because he was upset. It was that […]
True Religion: To care for the needy, the widows and the orphans The words of Sandra (from last weeks post) were a powerful reminder of what young people are expecting from religion. Religion needs to be relevant, it needs to be driven by a desire to improve the lives of people and link them to […]
Reflections on the Path of Love When I was growing up, the idea of love was of the romantic relationship between a couple. That was the primary focus of all the TV, music, movies, books, magazines and ads. Sure, there was an acknowledgement of the other types of affection available in a family, but the […]
A little illusion goes a long way. Perfect Homes and Gardens Larry Moffitt I drive past the giant homes, hard-bodied estates of Balmoray Valhalla Sunset Parkway Drive asking aloud, “What is it you people do? How is it you get to have one of these places?” I slather myself, first with loathsome envy and […]
A Time of Great Transition In the summer of 1991, the European nation of Hungary was in the early stages of a massive transition from a communist state to something refreshingly new. People who had been longing for change found themselves empowered with new freedoms and opportunities. A vitality and optimism filled the air when […]
Forgiveness can begin by simply refraining from killing the bastards. A man steals $10,000 from the loose change basket on his father’s dresser. He spends most of it on blackjack, vodka shooters and fast women. The rest he squanders. Too ashamed to go home, he becomes a drifter. After sinking to the depths of degradation, […]
Desiring Faith Relationships One of the hardest parts of living abroad has been being removed from my support system, my relationships, and my usual sacred connections with other people. Recently, I’ve been really missing the sense of communal worship and family that going to church regularly provides. As my last blog post described, I’m a […]
