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National Day Of Prayer
Every year on May 1st, in Portsmouth, Ohio, you will find a small table set up in the rotunda of our beautiful courthouse with local volunteers doing something many people would consider quite unremarkable…reading the Bible out loud. Why do we do it? One reason only. Because we still CAN!! It isn’t at all impressive. It isn’t even particularly evangelistic. It’s just one person, reading the Bible into a microphone for one-half hour while people with court business walk past, then that person hands the Bible off to the next person and the next. This goes on all day. Quietly. Seamlessly. No fanfare. My reading started at Mark, chapter 13. I read through the betrayal by Judas, the scourging of Christ, the horrific crucifixion, the doubt of the believers, and then the amazing resurrection. I stumbled over some of the King James words–a translation I rarely read–but I read aloud the Word of God for a half-hour and then handed off to my friend, Steve Williams, who then handed off to our friend, JoAnn Miller, who handed it off to my husband. Funny thing. Even written in the archaic words of King James English, in an echoing rotunda, in an […]
The Best Christmas Present Ever!
I’ve been bawling off and on all day after seeing a video my friend Kendra posted online of her husband giving their newly adopted daughter a bottle this morning. They had just arrived at the orphanage in China where Anna Mei has been waiting these many months for them to cut through all the red tape and get to her. The little girl is most definitely a fighter. We could see it in her eyes the first time we got pictures. With a cleft palate, eating was extremely difficult and she was underweight–she needed to be a fighter. There have been so many seemingly insurmountable problems to overcome. Breathless, prayer-filled days when we didn’t know if the paperwork would come through on time. Terror over a surgery she had to endure–while Kendra and Matt ached to be with her. And then early this morning, they got to hold her in their arms for the first time. The thing that set me into such a crying jag wasn’t just the pictures, but it was hearing Kendra from behind the camera saying “She’s okay! She’s okay! She’s okay!” The great relief in her voice broke my heart. I’m looking forward, someday, to […]