Last year, I led a small Ash Wednesday service at my church. I placed ashes on foreheads as I spoke the words, “Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” I reminded everyone that the season of Lent invites us to slow down—to pray, fast, repent and be...
Convict. Inmate. Thief. Prisoner 24601. Maybe you recognize this number from the Broadway musical-turned-film Les Misérables, based on Victor Hugo’s book about a former prisoner, Jean Valjean, who experiences redemption. Valjean served time for stealing bread during...
Bahaa was born into a Catholic family in Iraq. From an early age, his artistic abilities were evident, but because artistic expression was not considered masculine in Iraq’s patriarchal society, he was discouraged from creating art. When Bahaa was 7, his family of six...
Michael was trying to mask the hurt. He tried pornography, sex and alcohol to fill the void. After dropping out of high school and getting into deep trouble at home, Michael’s mom gave him two choices: move in with his dad or join the military. He chose to enlist in...
Feeling alone, unloved and hurt, Lamarr turned to the streets. Even though, when he was a child, his mother took him to church each Sunday, at home he experienced abuse from a stepfather. What he searched for in family, he found in gangs. Around gang members and drug...
Sitting at home on a Tuesday evening, I logged on to Zoom and watched as my face slowly shrank to accommodate the growing number of faces on my computer screen. As Doug Cupery, Crossroads’ Church Mobilization Director, began sharing the purpose of the night’s meeting...
