As my first term is drawing to a close, a new chapter is beginning in my life abroad @ Valor.  My housemate and colleague Indy Jung and I have been moved out of our first campus house and moved into our second just across the street.  Since we had already dubbed the first residence "Bruderhof," we decided that our new digs would be known as "Bruderhof II" While the move was not far in distance, it did locate us higher in elevation on the mountain side.  As a result, the view from Bruderhof II's balcony is quite spectacular!  On a clear autumn's crisp morning, I can watch the day break over the distant mountains in the east.  I'm usually the only one up before the dawn, so I typically try to capture the moment as best a camera can, but I must confess, that all too often the camera simply gets in the way of appreciating the absolute glory of the new day's dawning. I find myself needing to be regularly reminded that each day does indeed bring a new be...

When I encounter periods of discouragement here along the path of seeking to teach the next generation the Way of Christ, I find that I receive a gift of encouragement often from the most unexpected of events.  Just this morning I was reviewing the "memories" that Facebook generates on my page and discovered this most heartening of testimonies from a student I was priviledged to teach some twenty years ago during my days on the faculty of Missouri Baptist University. "When my wife and I lived in St. Louis, I served as a youth and music pastor at a little dying church. We loved the people of that church and they loved us as well. However, the church was struggling under the leadership of a pastor who had lost his heart for ministry. I did the best I could as a 20-something to love my pastor, and support him. To help mitigate the pastor's stress, the head of deacons and I took on extra responsibilities to try to give him margin to care for himself. In the midst of this...