I became a Christian at the age of 32. All my life, I thought God was mad at me because of the lifestyle I was living. I thought I had to be perfect. I thought people in the Bible were perfect. And I thought God was going to punish me sooner or later. So, I never opened the Bible to read it.
Francine came into my life when she and her husband moved from International Falls to Minneapolis. They left the city they knew, along with their friends and families. I could relate to how lonely and lost that can feel. We, too, had moved to a new city in 1995. I remember my first meeting with Francine. We were at a coffee shop.
The kingdom of God is made up of many nations, tribes and tongues. While the U.S. is a melting pot of different people and cultures, it’s easy to miss the unique way God works in our lives when caught up in the grind of day-to-day life. When I turned 30, God invited me to step out of my daily routine and join
In March, at the start of the pandemic, I was laid off from work. Immediately, I prayed and asked God how He could use me. I was speaking with a local ministry partner of Wooddale Church when they mentioned that the demands to feed people experiencing homelessness in south Minneapolis was growing. They needed help. Realizing God was answering my prayer, I
Over the past 10 years, God has put men in search of Him before me, that I may bring them to know Christ and help build a relationship with Him. I’ve had the opportunity to work with men in their teens through men in their 60s, men struggling with issues in college to men who are powerful CEOs. Some simply want to
I didn’t want to do another workbook study. I didn’t want to read more books, articles or mountains of other information typically provided by the medical community. I just wanted hope and healing. I grew up in a home with a parent who was undiagnosed with a mental health condition. So when one of my family members began showing similar signs, it
I rarely find meeting new people an easy or comfortable experience. It feels more like a strenuous game of dodgeball. If I know I’ll be with new people, I dust off my often-used script with its litany of tried and true answers (honest but edited), double check the condition of my emotional armor, put on my best game face and press ahead.
There was a time not so long ago when life at home was marked by one traumatic crisis after another. Throughout their childhood, both of our children had been active in church youth groups but somehow, that all fell away when low self-esteem and peer pressure entered the scene. They stopped attending and instead gravitated to fringe groups in school, and were
