What is Deryl Fleming’s “call to the ministry” story? Pastor Meg wondered this aloud in a sermon recently, as she described a Bible “B-side” character named Nathan who gets a passing mention in 2 Samuel. “I know Deryl’s a foodie,” Meg said. “I know he’s witty and reads good books … Maybe he has told […]

Mara Ashby’s smile is wide and white. She’s a hugger. She has trouble crossing a crowded room without starting up a conversation. Her light is bright. So when she tells her story, which is full of abuse and addiction, it’s clear that something turned around inside her, helped her shake the darkness she had lived […]

State College, Pennsylvania, may be home to the Nittany Lions and a big, bustling university. But what Ross Venett remembers about his hometown is the smallness of it, the fact that many of the farms surrounding the green valley were owned by families that never left. It was their kids Ross knew through marching band, […]

Justin Pitcock’s roots are in a place called Graham. It was here, in North Texas hill country, that his family generations ago started and still runs Pitcock Oil and Gas. It was here that Justin would ride around in the back of his dad’s ¾-ton Chevy pickup with his dog, scanning the endless grasslands. It […]

At a recent adult Sunday school class devoted to the subject of money and giving, Pat Van Slyke told the group that her perspective on such things has changed as she has aged. Many things that mattered to her 60 years ago matter very little now, she said. It’s freeing in a way, she says. […]