Typically, when I think of Thanksgiving I think about mouth-watering food spreads, board games with friends and family, children on sugar highs and long naps on a comfy big couch. But this year, my thoughts and feelings have been different. My Thanksgiving (and my family’s) will look different this year. This will be our first Thanksgiving without my mom. [...]
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Amplify is a day when we all come together for one purpose – to draw closer to the One who loves us most. There are so many distractions throughout the week. We bounce back and forth between meetings, emails, brunches, and the list goes on and on. In the midst of all that, we often struggle to spend time alone with God. That’s where Amplify comes in. It’s a day to [...]
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I learned my mom’s disease was terminal the moment she was diagnosed. I remember the doctor coming out of surgery and ushering me into a quiet room that was just off from the waiting room. I sat anxiously awaiting the results from her surgery. “Your mom is in serious trouble,” he said. He was a kind doctor and his eyes told me he was deeply [...]
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“Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed” (Luke 5:16). That was the verse at the top of the handout. My dinner group was taking a seaside retreat from our everyday lives. Piling into vehicles, we headed down to a member’s beach house for a Saturday of spiritual focus. There had been a storm the day before (with flood warnings), [...]
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Before I ever set foot in Hoboken Grace, I spent an hour or so perusing its website. Hobokengrace.com was drastically different back then, and there wasn’t nearly as much content as there is now. But I got sucked into the video page – or maybe I’d been rerouted to YouTube, I can’t remember – and watched stranger after stranger share their [...]
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We were designing a new set for our stage when someone pointed out that chalkboards are everywhere in Hoboken. Before I could ask any questions, the rest of the group was jumping on board. Our new set debuted several months later, and I soon realized changing the artwork on these giant chalkboards was about to become a regular part of my life. And this [...]
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You know how on social media, they let you set up your profile? It’s a way for people to identify you – a way for people to connect with you. You know what’s hard? When people have other people in their portrait picture. When that happens, I can’t tell who is who. Here’s my picture. Okay, maybe I don’t have a leg to stand on. They say that couples [...]
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Once upon a time, at a college far, far away, a girl met a boy. The boy’s name was Jose, and he was very good at math. The girl’s name was Liliana, and she was… not very good at math. “I had a tutor, but the tutor left. And I kept hearing about this one guy, Jose,” recalls Liliana. “Everyone kept talking about how great he was. At the tutoring [...]
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Sometimes I don’t believe my head and my heart communicate with one another. Do you have this problem? I can tell myself 100 times: You need to get up and exercise because it benefits your health and wellness. Or, pick up that book you’ve been slowly working through, it’s better for your brain and vocabulary than binge-watching Netflix. But often my [...]
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The other day, I felt pretty down in the dumps. I don’t know why, but I just woke up on the wrong side of the bed. Has this ever happened to you? You can’t explain it, but you’re just grumpy. I don’t mean those of you who need a morning coffee before you can speak, much less speak coherently and kindly. I mean just being grumpy — those times [...]
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It had been a long, frustrating day, trying to balance my website expansion with a desire to clean out closets. My life was changing, but this shift seemed to be taking so long. For several years I’d been re-examining priorities, refocusing my goals and working to make my career dreams a reality. But parts of my life still felt out of sync, and I was [...]
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One morning last June, Dario woke up in surprise to a chorus of cicadas. “They were incredibly loud,” he remembers. “They would wake me up every day at 6 a.m. and go for three or four hours straight, and they were like that the whole summer.” It was one of the many things that reminded Dario he was not back home in New Jersey. [...]
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One of the questions most often asked by people embarking on their first mission trip is “What should I bring?” While our varied trips take us around the globe – from Asia to Central America and Africa – there are a few necessities common to the experience no matter where you go. We surveyed some of our veteran mission travelers and [...]
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Spring in Hoboken. Warmer weather, blossoming trees, tulips and jonquils and unnamed flowerets in little unexpected places among the city structures. I opened my bedroom windows during the day to let in all the fresh air and pollen – probably not a good idea since I’ve had a horrible cough for three weeks. It started with a five-day bout of [...]
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The story of New City Kids is one about transformation, and it starts with one couple’s dream to break cycles of poverty by empowering local youth. Seeing a need in Jersey City, Revs. Trevor and Linda Rubingh launched an after-school program that keeps teens off the streets and focuses on their potential. Twelve years later, the organization [...]
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