December 2011
2 posts
11 tags
Ever read The Giver?
Have you ever read The Giver by Lois Lowry? If yes, then you were probably a product of the American public school system at some point in the 1990s. If not, then go get a copy at your local library. The Book it! stickers and Pizza Hut personal pan pizzas may no longer exist as rewards and you probably can’t buy it through Scholastic book fairs but it is readable in one sitting. I’m a sucker for...
Dec 22nd
83 notes
8 tags
Ever missed a miracle?
I screwed up recently. I didn’t do something that I clearly should have done. I blame Bruce Wilkinson and his book You Were Born for This: The Seven Keys to a Life of Predictable Miracles. Now, it should be known that I don’t normally partake in books with titles that could be mistaken for the latest Joel Osteen bestseller. However, as a Christian, as someone who believes in miracles, and as...
Dec 19th
November 2011
1 post
7 tags
What is the purpose of short-term mission trips?...
Why do Christians participate in short-term mission trips? Is there need for such jaunts to urban environs and foreign lands? If so, is the need founded in God’s will? The missionary’s wanderlust? The mission destination’s material or spiritual weakness? I initiated this blog with the intention of writing about subjects that are beyond me with an awareness and affinity for the intersection between...
Nov 15th
October 2011
1 post
8 tags
Why Do You Volunteer?
Why do people volunteer? If you’ve ever had the tasking to organize and mobilize individuals for action, you may have prodded yourself and others for an answer to such a cerebral question that on the surface would seem artless. But the question is just as pertinent for the rest of us who may be interested in volunteering our own time and resources. Do we volunteer out of love? Sense of purpose?...
Oct 7th
6 notes
January 2011
1 post
3 tags
Stones Into Schools: Delaying My Immediate...
What have I done to better another’s life? While recently reading through Stones Into Schools by Greg Mortenson, I could not resist the urge to ask myself this question…throughout the entire book. The man has assisted in the building of over 150 schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan with the help of the non-profit he co-founded, Central Asia Institute. For anyone who has read Three Cups of Tea...
Jan 5th
December 2010
2 posts
5 tags
Two Percent of Two Percent
I picked up a book last year that changed my whole paradigm on life. The scandalous title of The Hole in Our Gospel invited me to peek inside. Once I saw it was written by the President of World Vision, Richard Stearns, my hands were tied – I had to read it. As a Christian, the Hole in our Gospel  was fairly sobering but also fairly sickening. Of all the suffering described by a man who left the...
Dec 29th
4 tags
Prelude to Myself - If Eric Sheptock Can Do It...
My first blog. How cute. I suppose I should feel some sort of triumph in putting flesh to plastic as I pound away on the keyboard. Instead, I almost feel contrite for believing I can add meaningful observations to the world in which we live. For it is the world in which we live that I feel coerced to build a vault that will house my questions, ponderings, amplifications and maybe even answers.   ...
Dec 28th