New Year reflections for ministry leaders "Come away to a deserted place all by yourselves and rest a while." (Mark 6:31, NRSV) When Jesus spoke those words of reward and guidance to his apostles, they had just reported back to him about their most ambitious training venture to date. He [...]Read More
Rural Surprises
Go to the people... The past 12 months have been a crash course for me on the realities of doing ministry in rural areas and small towns across America... For example, even though I’ve traveled regularly to Jackson, Mississippi to see my friend John Perkins, it wasn’t until last year [...]Read More
A Beautiful View
Coming home to Vista Hermosa When they were teenagers, Suzanne Broetje and Laura Peréz moved with their families to a valley along the Snake River in southeastern Washington State. Their first experiences of the place couldn’t have been more different. Suzanne’s parents, Cheryl and Ralph [...]Read More
To Define a Neighborhood
The CCDA Institute in Augusta, GA Who has the privilege of defining a neighborhood, of naming its assets and its needs? The city of Augusta, Georgia, is eyeing its Harrisburg neighborhood as a potential site for development because of its prime location. The press has defined Harrisburg as a [...]Read More
Rural Justice (Part 2)
Two practitioners share the ins and outs of doing CCD in rural America [In the first part of the series], we interviewed Rev. Tim Olsen of Summit House, part of Sioux Falls Seminary in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. [For part two], we talked with Pat Vander Pol, ministry coordinator of Justice for All [...]Read More
Rural Justice (Part 1)
Two practitioners share the ins and outs of doing CCD in rural America [In this two part series], we ask two rural CCD practitioners—Rev. Tim Olsen of South Dakota and Pat Vander Pol of Iowa—about their ministries, their areas, and about living out the 3R's. We also posed the ultimate question: [...]Read More
In God We Really, Truly Trust
Haiti after the earthquake Hope struggled against despair in the Haitian community where Janet Dorrell was volunteering at a medical clinic after the January 2010 earthquake. People "were wounded, they were injured, they had broken legs, they had lost limbs, they were trying to take care of each [...]Read More
Develop Communities through Art
A client at the shelter where I serve has trouble walking due to a work accident. If it were up to him, he would sit in his wheelchair all day because walking is a painful challenge. For some time, every day was a battle between him and I—me, prodding him to exercise with his walker; him, refusing [...]Read More