Amy came to Riverview-Fisk Park at her wits’ end. She’d had a huge fight with her boyfriend and needed to leave her apartment a few blocks away. Weighed down and worn out by the emotions of the past four years of an abusive relationship, she sat on a bench and thought she was done with her life in this [...]
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“Remember who you are and who you represent.” Jon’s mom always said the same thing to him as he headed out the door to hang out with friends, and the words trailed after him and echoed in his head. “Remember who you are and who you represent.” “She meant for those words to keep me grounded and focused on what was really important,” said Jon.
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Traffic was terrible that day. They were going to be late. Emma stared out the window deep in thought as Craig tried to maneuver the car to creep ahead an extra inch or two. Giving up on their usual route, Craig took a detour. Jersey City scrolled monotonously past the window, and then Emma saw it: the word “ADOPT” spray-painted on the side of a building, as they drove to the clinic to start a cycle of IVF.
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“I couldn’t understand," says Luisa. "How could God do this to me? How could He do this to my kids? Was it punishment? What did I do? How could He take Neil away? We had just had a baby.” People told Luisa to cling to her faith after her husband died, but that just made her angrier. She wanted nothing to do with God. If God cared about her heart He wouldn’t have broken it, she thought. She went from desperate anger to having nothing to say to Him.
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“God kept on coming back to me and telling me that we could get through this together,” says Jen. “He said it would be hard, but that it was time for me to stretch, time for me to grow, time for me to trust Him. And He promised me that I would learn a whole lot about Him and myself in the process.”
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Shivering in Harvard Yard might not be everyone’s dream, but it was Chloe’s. And just a few years ago that dream of visiting an iconic Ivy League school seemed completely out of reach. That’s because Chloe was born in North Korea, a country that labels those who leave as defectors and imposes harsh punishments on any family members who stay behind.
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In the seven years after graduating from college, Diane has moved four times. And as she moved in and out of apartments, up and down the East Coast, her sense of self-worth was just as unsettled as her living situation.
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For years as a kid, Brandon Black would lie in bed at night and stare up at a miniature replica fighter plane hung above his bed. The plane was an F4U Corsair, the exact model flown by Mr. Vander Horst in World War II. “He wasn’t just a fighter pilot," says Brandon.
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The more than 100 blog posts written on this site in 2015 chronicle a year of hope, courage, vulnerability, trust, obedience and gratitude. They demonstrate growth in faith, growth in character and the expansion of our church community. But most of all, these are stories of love – about the ways we have learned to love one another and the […]
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Baby Gabriel has his dad’s bright, solemn blue eyes. And it isn’t hard to tell from the way Ben Broerman looks at his son that Gabriel is the center of his world. Ben describes Gabriel as his special little friend and says he’s grateful and honored to be his father. “Gabriel is a gift, and I can never take for […]
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When the bus pulled up in front of the huge gates, no one on board knew quite what to expect. Everyone was tired and anxious. And then it happened. Nearly 80 children came streaming through the gates to welcome the bus and the dozen travel-weary visitors.
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In 2010, Rico Mangalindan lost his job of 12 years and was almost deported. He talks about it very openly, because those experiences have become a huge part of his testimony. “Phillipians 4:12 is one of my favorite verses,” he explains. “Because I can relate to knowing what it is like to be in need and knowing what it is […]
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