A Ridiculously Faithful God

By Tyler Dykstra

2.9 million. That’s how many people live in Chicago, according to the 2010 census, which apparently, didn’t count me. But that’s another story. After four years among the throngs of the urban corridors, I headed west with my newish (10 months) bride in a ’97 Camry. Fifteen hours of yawn inducing flat land later, we arrived among a more hilly country. The population of our town?  2.5 thousand.

We set up camp among a Native American reservation in the Western United States, to begin our lives of ministry. I can throw a stone in every direction and not hit a neighbor, a contrast to constantly closed blinds covering windows merely 10 feet from another apartment dweller’s home.

Orphan

By Tony Robledo

Imagine.

You are a child, small and unnoticed, who wakes every morning to the bustling sounds, chuckles, and shrieks of other orphaned children. It’s the only kind of waking world you’ve ever known. Every morning, the lingering smell of ammonia from the night cleaning crew. Every morning, a nurse wiping up accidents in the hall outside your door. Every morning, alone in a room crowded with other children. You have no parents, no mist of memory, no whisper of a past, no foggy recollections. Only a small, strange mark on your chest. There was no paperwork, just a name tag tucked into a whimpering bundle on the back stoop of an orphanage waiting to be found, to be heard, to be loved. You are a child, small and unnoticed. And today is no different.

The Glory of Grace

By Matt Tully

A few days ago, while driving home from an ice cream date with my wife, Tenth Avenue North’s song “Oh My Dear” began to play on our car stereo.  If you have never heard to the song before, I’d encourage you to listen to it.

The songwriter recalls a difficult time when his future wife, with tear-filled eyes and a trembling voice, confessed past sins to him that had previously been kept hidden.  He sings,