In the town of Carcar in the province of Cebu in the Philippines, we visited The Carcar City Museum, formerly, “The Philippine Health Service Dispensary,” where horrific tortures took place on Filipinos by the Japanese during World War II. That’s not what the two-storied site suggests at first glance. The building is painted white and […]
Weeds, labor-generating and vexing as they are, serve a purpose. Eventually, they break up unworkable soil. Then they are removed or replaced, just like troublesome folks in our lives. Yet we grow from conflict. Twenty years ago, there was a garden patch of dry, clay-like soil when we bought our home. Only weeds sprouted there, […]
I miss my mom, and out in a Heavenly Somewhere she’s giggling because I’ve circled back to faith. It’s been years on the threshing floor separating the chaff from grain. Years ago, my parents Esteban and Josepha emigrated to the U.S. from the Philippines and Americanized themselves as Steve and Josie. My mom practiced her […]
(Webster Correctional Institution in Cheshire, CT where I volunteered.) Visiting prisoners is encouraged in the Bible, along with feeding the hungry and clothing the poor. Yet for many, it’s less scary to collect food and clothes. Comforting prisoners is listed last in Matthew 25:35-36 when Jesus said, “For I was hungry and you gave me […]
(Photo by Suzette Standring. Hawk with a concussion right after its crash) Watching wildlife is a year-round Christmas gift as they scamper, trot, glide, and even slither freely nearby. Our fenced-in back yard abuts an open field where coyotes, turkeys and deer are common. Occasionally, the wild jolts the urban, as when a magnificent hawk […]