A few days ago, I made a mistake I’ve lately tried hard to avoid: I turned on the news. My senses were immediately inundated with the sights and sounds of our broken world: civil wars, terrorism, violence, racial divisions, epidemics, natural disasters, poverty, hunger, injustice. In that moment, as my heart hurt, I have to […]
The Thailand Journey Continues
We arrived in Thailand on Friday, and we were still on our way to Laytongku on Sunday. It’s one of the interesting things about partnering with ministries in remote locations. Sometimes the journey feels just as long as our time in the destination. This is very true of our partnership with the village of Laytongku […]
Cambodia Team Departs
The team is ready and now we fly off to Incheon, South Korea for our first leg, a 12 hour flight. Cambodia is 15 hours ahead of us in Gig Harbor. After another 6 hour flight we will be in Siem Reap, and if all goes well it will be 10:20 pm Saturday. This will […]
Inauguration and Intercession
I am quite certain that even the biggest political junkies among us reached a point last year when they said, “Enough, already! Let’s vote!” It was as tough and rancorous a campaign as I can remember in my lifetime. Well, the vote has been taken. And whether you agree with the politics of the outgoing president or of […]
Remember Your Baptism
Several years ago I was on business near my birthplace, Martinez, California (also the birthplace of Joe Dimaggio… so I’ve got that going for me!) I decided to find the little Congregational church my family attended while I was a baby. When I did, I went inside and asked the secretary if I could look at […]
Missing Christmas Already
One of the unfortunate things about the holiday season is how quickly it goes by. I did not grow up in the Presbyterian tradition, so the practice of Advent has been a relatively new and welcome one for me that’s made the Christmas season more rich and, better yet, prolonged. Yet, here we are a week later […]
A New Kind of Christmas for the Toones
This will be a different kind of Christmas for my family. For the first time—ever—we will not be celebrating Christmas in our family home. Cyndi and I sold it last spring and,a long with a lifetime of memories, we also left behind the venue that shaped every Christmas my kids ever knew. We won’t have a Christmas tree […]
An Heroic Rescue
It wasn’t a great movie, honestly, but it was an inspiring story. The other night, Cyndi and I watched “The Finest Hours.” It was the account of an unbelievably heroic rescue story. On February 18, 1952, during a severe “nor’easter” off the coast of New England, an oil tanker, Pendleton, broke in half. The bow sank, killing all […]
Christmas Memories
Christmas begins in July for the Dickersons. Choir directors start music research, purchasing and rehearsing long before the average person even thinks about the holiday (unless you are like my grandmother who had her shopping finished by March!). The tree, on the other hand, doesn’t make an appearance until Thanksgiving weekend. This year, our sixteen-year-old […]
Welcome to Advent
This is the first week of Advent! Advent comes from the Greek word adventus which speaks to the second coming of Christ. When was the last time you actively thought— I wonder when Jesus is coming back? I know the things I’ve waited for more recently are for the milk in the bottle to get warm, for […]