If you’ve ever been to Montreat, North Carolina, it’s easy to get caught up in the beauty of the mountains, trees and streams. The small community has drawn many visitors for spiritual re-awakening, prayer and a place to call home.
As technology and medicine keep us alive longer and longer, we face challenging questions: How do we glorify God in our last few years of life? How can we respond faithfully with failing bodies?
I feel the presence of Jesus in a lot of different places: hiking in the woods, walking on the beach, singing “Silent Night” on Christmas Eve. But I never expected to meet Jesus under a musty, old kitchen sink.
It was dark, really dark. And it is not always the wisest choice to drive through the rough bush roads when the sky is black and evening has turned to night. But the radiator was leaking and the starter motor was broken.
The past year has been a challenging one for communities dealing with contaminated water supplies. Flint, Michigan has garnered national attention for nearly three years after improper source treatment caused lead from aging pipes to leach into the water. Between 6,000 and 12,000 residents have experienced a series of health problems including high levels of lead in the blood.
The Presbyterian Mission Agency Board (PMAB), gathered as the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) A Corporation, met this afternoon to vote on Tony De La Rosa’s contract extension as PMA interim executive director and finalize details of the transfer of Ghost Ranch Education and Retreat Center to the National Ghost Ranch Foundation (NGRF).
As we move through traffic, I think how much we must seem like ants scrambling to find space as they rush through each other. I am back in Guatemala City, and each time I come here I am struck by how dense and congested this city is.
If you talk with people living along the coastline of North and South Carolina, they will be quick to tell you, they’ve had enough rain to last a lifetime. Hurricane Matthew and 2015’s “one-thousand-year rain” have caused some significant problems for many, especially in the Charleston area.
When it comes to conversations about church, most of us imagine sitting around a table and engaging face-to-face. Maybe it’s in a church basement, conference center, coffee shop, or a local bar. But lately Presbyterians have been gathering for a weekly conversation around their phones or computers, using Twitter and a common hashtag.
In a newly published video message, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) Stated Clerk, J. Herbert Nelson II says the mission of PC(USA) related racial-ethnic schools and colleges “are more critical now, than they’ve ever been.”
