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    Frogs from San Gabriel Union Church for the “Croaky” Speaker!

    How fun is THIS? The women of San Gabriel Union Church are flooding my real-snail-mail-mailbox with sweet FROGGY get well notes and thank you’s for the world’s CROAKIEST speaker: They are SO gracious and SO fun too! Thanks, ladies. I’m also chuckling at my super adorable girls who like to make up funny movements to kids songs. This morning it was, “Allelu Allelu Allelu Alleluia! Praise Ye the Lord!”   Hope your week is off to a great start too! Love and blessings, Tara B.  

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    Too Tired to Leave Terminal E in SLC

    Even with its facelift, poor ol’ Terminal E in Salt Lake City continues to be one of the least pleasant airport terminals in the USA. Maybe it’s the constant, blaring announcements for flights that are boarding. (All of the planes are the size of tissue boxes, so they’re coming and going literally every few minutes.) Maybe it’s the fact that all of the rows of chairs are crammed together in way too close of proximity to each other. (Again, high volume/high turnover dictates the need.) Or MAYBE it’s the strategically-located, gigantic SMOKER’S ROOM right in the middle of everything. Total Cheech and Chong. Well. Sans the Mary Jane, I assume.…

  • Hope in Suffering

    Where is the hope?

    I was just a teenager when I started reading books by Chuck Colson and I was a total 2L-front-row groupie when I got to hear him speak at a Christian Legal Society meeting during my law school days. It’s so rare to remember anything we hear from anyone, isn’t it? And yet then there are those teachers, pastors, speakers who change our lives forever. That’s the impact Mr. Colson had on me. He spoke with such intelligence and yet such humility. He challenged us to think and work but even more so to believe in Christ and to love. The smartest people I have ever met have also been the…

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    Peacemaker Conference 2012

    Hey! Look! The world’s cutest webmaster (Fred Barthel) just became the world’s cutest video-maker-guy too! (Well, Rachelle might challenge me a bit on that because of our dear Living the Gospel in Relationships video creator, Joe Adams. So let’s call it a draw! 🙂 ) But here is the video Fred just made for this year’s Peacemaker Conference: I can’t wait to be there in September and hope to see you too! Happy Friday from beautiful Mandalay Bay in Oxnard, California:   Your friend, Tara B.  

  • Fear Not!

    Paralyzed by (Unknown) Endings?

    I really appreciated Dave’s post today: Paralyzed by Endings? Mind Present Duties and then Leave Events to God And the CCEF FaceBook update that followed it by just a few minutes: “Can you understand why you worry when you think about tomorrow? You worry because you don’t have what you need yet. If you imagine tomorrow’s misery without tomorrow’s manna, of course you are going to worry. Tomorrow’s manna isn’t on the ground yet. You have manna for today only. In his great wisdom, God doesn’t give you tomorrow’s manna today. Otherwise you would forget him and trust in yourself.” – Ed Welch, “When I Am Afraid” (found by CCEF…

  • Grace in Daily Life

    High School is Still High School

    Due to an accompanying gig, I had the joy of visiting Billings West High School this morning. What an adventure! I hadn’t been inside of a public high school in years and honestly? I kind of expected things to be very different than my 1985-1988 years at MCHS. More George Jetson robots or iPads or something. But instead, I saw paint that must be purchased by all public schools in one giant vat, locker signs (OK, the graphics were way cooler than our Commodore 64 “computers” could create back in the 80’s), announcements attached to bulletin boards with pushpins, and girls in choir dresses warming up their alto lines in…

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    Random . org Chose Melissa, Kristine, Valerie, Dede & Julie

    Many thanks to everyone who participated in our family’s drawing for five free copies of Redeeming Church Conflicts. I was super careful to give everyone LOADS of extra-credit-mention-entries and then let Random.org do the heavy lifting. Melissa, Kristine, Valerie, Dede & Julie were the winners this time, but I hope that you will check back again in the future for more Win Free Stuff giveaways. And truly, we would be so grateful if you would please consider pre-ordering a copy and letting others know about it too. Word-of-mouth “advertising” is so helpful when you’re rolling out a new book. Thanks, all!   Blessings and g’nite, Tara B.