By Shannon Dunlap
October 30, 2006

 

“Once you know who you are, you don’t have to worry any more.” –Nikki Giovanni, Poet

 

By Jill Bland Fierge

 

Last October was my personal favorite. Because it was Clergy Appreciation Month our church honored us in special ways I’ll never forget.

Our ladies auxiliary president took a calendar around to everyone in the church. Her goal was to honor the pastor, pastor’s wife, and pastor’s children in some way, every day of October. It was wonderful!  Someone did something special for at least one of us every day that month. We were humbled by it, and the love that was shown to our children and us was overwhelming.  Here are some examples: 

 

By Mitchell Whitt

By T.J. Clayton

 

By Jennifer Harpole

 

The key word here is “seem.” We parents may seem clueless, but there seemed to me a ton of judgment passed in many of the responses to the Big Question of Why parents seem clueless about their teen’s activities. It’s an easy mistake to make. I was judgmental about some teenagers in the past when my kids were younger—now, as a parent of teens, I’m finding out how wrong I was! Please have mercy on parents who are trying to raise teens in this society, and please give us the benefit of the doubt. If you don’t have teens yet, I feel like I can say with authority that you don’t have a clue what you’re talking about and if you had teens a long time ago you probably need a refresher course!   

 

College Again: Kingdom Minded And Earthly Good

By Kent d Curry

 

So, what do you think—do we look a bit different?

 

By Daniel Koren

The corrections officer led me down the hall, past one-way windows and racks of food trays. Turning the key in the cold, steel door, he gestured for me to enter. With trepidation I entered the concrete and steel compound. The door slammed shut behind me. It was a sickening sound. This was a new environment for me, and I didn’t know what was supposed to happen next.  I had heard of people being beat up and even killed by inmates before. 

By Martha Jaynes

 

I am an Apostolic woman.  I dress distinctively.  I am easily identifiable in public settings.  I have been called old fashioned, legalistic, bound, Amish, and plain old weird.  People who don’t understand me think of me as strange.  The most common question I am asked is—why?  Get me in public with a group of other Apostolic women and we will almost always be asked if we are sisters. 

By Jaime McGarvey
August 21, 2006

Link to Pictures

We’ve all read the book of Acts at least once in our lives and attempted to digest all the miraculous tales of the apostles Jesus personally commissioned before he left Earth.  All my life I’ve visualized Peter preaching his first sermon to a crowd of unbelievers, Philip witnessing to the Ethiopian, Cornelius’s house receiving the Holy Ghost, and the lame man at the gate Beautiful asking for alms and receiving so much more than silver and gold.  It must have been so amazing to be living and working for God with such a unified group of believers in those early days (Acts 2:42-47).