In response to some of the posts on this blog about helping the homeless, a woman named Beth sent me the following message on Facebook. It was so encouraging, I asked her if I could share it with all of you as well. She said yes, so here is what she wrote:

It’s so refreshing to find out there are more like my family out there!

I was adopted by missionaries in the early 1960’s, and, in the following decade my Dad became a pastor. His degrees were in Theology, Philosophy, and Business. My dad was the type of man who would bring homeless folks home and sit them at our dinner table. As a teenager, I have to confess it embarrassed me. These folks smelled like urine, body odor, and booze. At some point, I grew up and realized that it was not about giving them a meal, he could have bought them a hamburger. By bringing them home, he gave them their dignity and treated them like any other guest.

As much as I adored my folks and their love for Christ, as well as the way they showed their love in how they treated others, especially those considered unlovable (or invisible) by most…the fact is, their religion — Pentecostal Holiness — was a huge turn-off and as a result, I struggled for 20 years over my faith.

In the Pentecostal Holiness church, one almost has to be perfect to make it to heaven. I wasn’t allowed to have my ears pierced, go to movies, swim with boys, dance, etc. As an adult, I attended various non-denominational churches, but so many of them were more about growing the congregation and offering entertainment choices, then about teaching folks to have relationships with Christ and each other. None of them taught how to treat one another.

[Read more…]

I heard of a woman today who got attacked by a dog, climbed a telephone pole, fell out of a tree, was yelled at by a police officer on a 911 call, got patched in to the State Police in New York, was almost arrested and sent to jail, trespassed on several people’s property, hurtled fences and hedges in a mad dash through a neighborhood, and even convinced a former mayor of our town to call in some favors to the local power company.

It sounds like a crazy plot out of some action movie, but it is just another day in the life of Wendy Myers…whom I am proud to call my wife!

What was she trying to do?

Rescue a cat named Christmas.

Yes, he is our cat. We got him for our girls at Christmas. He has been missing for four days, and Wendy found him perched 30 feet up in the air on a telephone pole, and… well, take all the events I described above and fit them together into some sort of story (any crazy story will do) and you pretty much have what happened today as she tried to rescue Christmas.

So one thing is for sure: today my wife is the talk of the town! And after the events of today, I would not at all be surprised if the police show up at our house to give her a stern lecture. Of course, she will probably lecture him right back. But that’s my Wendy!

I love you, Wendy! Never change.

I am so proud of my three daughters… A daddy has got to boast a bit.

Each of them recently had birthdays, and for their birthday parties, they told their friends not to bring gifts, but to make donations instead to help rescue girls from slavery.

Altogether, they raised nearly $300!

The ministry we are sending the money to is Children’s Hope Chest. They work with children in many parts of the world, and one of the areas they specialize in is with rescuing children for the horrors of sex slavery. For example, they recently launched an effort in Moldova to provide a home and round-the-clock care for survivors of sex trafficking.

[Read more…]

My daughters have started to make fun of me about my coffee addiction.

My oldest daughter sent me an email the other day with this picture in it:

I printed it off and hung it on my wall.

[Read more…]