By Tiffani McCormick It's crazy how quickly two and a half months can go by. I feel like we just got off the ferry and landed in North Africa, and now here we are leaving the continent, sitting in the airport in Bahrain (an island kingdom I didn't know existed until a few months ago). Truth be told, I've neglected blogging like I should for a few different reasons: One, limited access to Wifi (especially on our compound in Ethiopia for the last month); two, an abundance of caution as we travel to some closed countries and meet local believers who could get in trouble from what we post; and thr ..read more

By Matt Meier Let me introduce ourselves again for those who may not know us well. My name is Matt Meier and my wife is Amanda. We have two sons: 2-year-old Jesse and our youngest, Benjamin, who was just born a few months ago here in Berlin, Germany. We were serving with Cru working with university students in Indianapolis for several years before we decided to move overseas and serve with Cru in Berlin on the university campuses in Germany.  We've been here just over a year, and I'd like to share a few things God has been teaching us over that time and hope it may encourage you as well. As I ..read more

By Hannah Welch This past year, I’ve had the privilege to serve alongside several medical teams, two special needs focus teams, and several church partners, and I’ve served in several other areas of the ministry of Nicaragua Resource Network (NRN). Words cannot describe the joy I have experienced serving here in Nicaragua over the past 15 months, and the last few months of the summer season were not to be excluded from that. I have witnessed lives coming to Christ, hardened hearts softening, people living into the hope of heaven, and prayers being answered. I have continued to be amazed by peo ..read more

By Jacob OrrOver and over in the Scripture series, and just in church in general, you’ve probably heard the phrase, “God’s word is for us.” The part of the Bible where that often feels most true for people is in the Psalms.The Psalms give us language to express how we feel both toward God and toward our present situation. Reading the Psalms can also give us greater clarity to the rest of Scripture. The Psalms were written throughout Israel’s history, with the earliest written by Moses and the latest written at some point after the exile to Babylon (sometime between 538–516 B.C.). They are also ..read more

By Drew BoganIt wasn’t until I was nearing 29 years old that I believed in God. It happened at the funeral of a young man who had played high school lacrosse for me. I went from agnostic to believer in a flash, but my previous life hadn’t provided me with any knowledge of the God I now knew to be real. I was desperate to know more. I left the funeral simultaneously sad, elated, lonely, and confused.I had made one professing Christian friend a few months before the funeral (God’s providence), and I sought her out. She loaded me up with books. I knew my long-time barber to be a Christian, and wh ..read more

By Rebecca CoreCan you think of a letter that you received that meant a lot to you? Maybe it was a letter from a family member, a letter of recommendation, or a love letter. When you received that letter, what did you do? Did you read it once and throw it away, or did you read it, share it, and save it?One letter that comes to mind in my life is a letter my grandfather wrote me when I was 18. He wrote it giving me advice and instruction about the woman he hoped I would be. I have two cousins who are also my age. We all received a copy of the same letter. We each read it a little differently an ..read more

By Jacob OrrIf I’m honest, reading the Bible can seem like a daunting task. It’s an ancient book that can be hard to understand, and if you have been in church for more than 15 minutes, then you probably feel an obligation to read it. I definitely have felt this guilt about not reading my Bible, and that was compounded when I didn’t understand what was being said or what relevance it has to twenty-first century America.Two Bible verses that have helped me in this area are found in 2 Timothy and the Gospel of John: All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, f ..read more

By Jonathan & Beth CollordJesus cried out with a loud voice, and breathed His last. Then the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. – Mark 15:37–38. The curtain in the temple, separating the common worshiper from the presence of God, was torn in two. No longer was it only restricted to priests to go to God on behalf of the people. Jesus’ death on the cross removed the barrier between our infinitely holy God and his finite sinful people. We, in faith, have been granted access to the throne of grace. Friends, who but God, would not only make His enemies His friends, but adopt ..read more

By Will BaudI first became curious about prayer when I realized that it was the most neglected spiritual practice in my life. I was a junior in college and was actively seeking to grow in my faith. I attended church regularly and was very involved in a campus ministry. My list of Christian activities was long: Sunday services, campus gatherings, dormitory Bible studies, ministry planning meetings, initiative evangelism, discipleship relationships, personal quiet times. Yet, the length of the list did not seem to correlate with my intimacy with God. In the busyness of it all, I noticed a strang ..read more

By Deb DunlevyGod is nothing like me. He is eternal, always was and always will be; I am finite, bound to this moment in time for these few years of life. He is the all-knowing God in complete control of everything and everyone; I can’t be sure I’ll finish writing this sentence and certainly can’t make anyone read it. He is powerfully able to do all things; I get tired out from climbing a few flights of stairs. He is the definition of love; I have a hard time sharing a piece of cake with a friend.I want so much to be close to God, but what does it mean to have a relationship with a being so fa ..read more