This is from Brother Michael, my friend in Kenya: We would like to say thank you and thank you let our Almighty God bless you for having a Godly and caring heart. The Lord has given you the same love and I would like to say your books have changed the whole of my life [...]

I received this email today from our brothers and sisters in Kenya: “Yesterday we managed to distribute to 27 families. I shared with them that this is the help where they need to depend in God because we have some brethren who need to be helped too. We are buying the mats for the children. [...]

I love how Father intersects people. Just a few moments ago I received this from a man named Sam, with whom I’ve corresponded in the past. He’s preparing to leave for Uganda to help with the thousands of Kenyans fleeing the country into Uganda. Here’s what he wrote: I wanted to let you know that [...]

First of all let me thank those of you who have sent in finances to help with the growing need in Kenya, due to the tribal conflicts that have resurged in the aftermath of a disputed presidential election. We were able to get some money in yesterday to ensure that the procedure would work. We’ll [...]

For the past year I’ve been in touch with someone in Kenya who helps coordinate a number of fellowships throughout Kenya and neighboring countries. I wrote him this past week in view of the increasing instability and violence in Kenya due to a disputed Presidential election held on December 27. The unrest that has resulted [...]

The man who sent me the pictures of the roadside memorial with a copy of The Shack posted on a one-way pole, wrote me to fill in a bit more of the details: There was a father and his little girl killed at this spot within the last 2 or possibly 3 years. Their first [...]

Someone from Alberta, Canada sent us these photos today. A few days ago he’d driven by a makeshift roadside memorial to a recent death on the highway. When he passed by it yesterday he noticed something had been added. Do you see it there on the post? Let’s zoom in by looking at the picture [...]

Just got this yesterday and couldn’t resist passing it on—both for a reality check for us all, and for your prayers on behalf of these brothers and sisters in a Muslim-dominated area of Ethiopia. What an amazing story of the raw reality of the kingdom unfolding in people who from the first days of faith [...]

I love this. It was sent to me by a good friend A good friend of mine from Virginia, wrote the other day to share something she learned from her little dog.. Yesterday God used my faithful furry friend to remind me of something very important. Fiona and I were in the car running an [...]

I have been way too busy since getting back from DC. Things have a way of piling up around here. Tomorrow I speak in Anaheim at the national convention of the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development on “Sexual Orientation and Public Schools.” This is similar to what I did last week in DC, but [...]

This feels like one of the longest trips of my life, just because of the ever-changing nature of the meetings I am into. I started over the weekend with some brothers and sisters from the Nashville area (and some that came in from further distances) sharing the life of Jesus together. Then it was off [...]

I hope you don’t mind reading over my shoulder again. It came in an email from someone in Iowa who has recently discovered our website. He told me about a friend of his that he is watching Jesus change before his eyes and the joy of it. I thought you’d love this story and it [...]

Living this journey isn’t an always thing to get since most of us have been brought up in religious environments where our lives are based on obligation instead of friendship with him. Learning to live in freedom and watch him do things in far better ways than we ever could on our own is one [...]

I wrote this column for our local paper on the recent exposure of one of America’s religious leaders and wanted to include it here as well… Wouldn’t it be awesome if we could ask the larger questions inherent in this crisis rather than grabbing the duct tape and sealing up the illusion once again? Last [...]

I guess this is a milestone. This is the first YouTube link I’ve ever put on my blog. But you will be deeply touched by this. An outreach team from New Jerusalem Mission (see below) just returned from a trip to Central Africa and here is a video that some on that team put together. [...]

The events in Lancaster County, PA this week were as gruesome as one can witness. A deranged man took ten Amish elementary school girls hostage, ties them up with plans on molesting them. But police arrived sooner than he expected and he quickly shot all of them in the head, execution style, before he killed [...]

I’ve sung it since I was a child. It’s a happy little tune about the second coming of Jesus. But this time I really heard it for the first time, and it shocked me! A couple of weeks ago I was in New York with some incredible folks. One afternoon afteroon a group of us [...]

Perhaps you’ll enjoy reading over my shoulder again. This is an email exchange that came up yesterday. I think his questions and passion speak volumes for us and some of his questions might help us take a fresh look at how we all live in the world… Just listened to the latest podcast Why are [...]

If you missed yesterday’s blog, go back and read it before continuing the saga here. This is an amazing story of a man who came to Jesus days before returning to Africa and how God is making himself known through this man as he simply follows Jesus each day. If you want to read the [...]

I have to be a bit vague on some of the details here, because the writer of these emails, Jamal (not his real name), lives in an area of Ethiopia dominated by Muslims who persecute those known to be Christians in that region. He was in the States on an education visa, and at the [...]

I just got back from Kansas and a week with New Jerusalem Mission which is spearheading the conversion of a hospital into a care facility for the homeless and for those afflicted with HIV/AIDs. How this came to be is the an incredible story about a woman loving her ex-husband through his death with AIDs, [...]

I often think Christianity Today misses the important realities of what God does in the world, so when they hit one out of the park I’m not only surprised, I want to share it. In the March 2006 issue of Christianity Today, they printed an article on the influence of believers on culture entitled, Loving [...]

One more day here and then we will get on a plane Easter Sunday morning to head on home… and sometime on Easter afternoon I will get another hug from Aimee, my 16 month-0ld-granddaughter who is just learning to ‘hug back’. She gave me one on the day before I left and it was so [...]

Someone sent me a link they other day to test to self-diagnose how much like a Pharisee you are in your thinking. It’s cute and makes some incredible points. I like the first one best of all and referred to it in our most recent podcast, “A Death Worth Dying.” But it bears repeating here [...]

U-2 lead singer, Bono, recently addressed the National Prayer Breakfast where President Bush and other national and international leaders gathered in Washington, DC. I am not much of a rock fan, but I find his remarks refreshing, authentic and a real call to action. Of course I did not agree with everything he said, but [...]

I’m finishing up today in Harrisburg, PA, where I’ve spent the weekend with a broad spectrum of folks sorting out what it means to live deeply in the life of Jesus and how to share in that life with other believers and how to share it with people around us who do not know him. [...]