I blogged for years. Anonymous. No name. No blog tied to my Facebook. Just words, bubbling forth. Deep from the soul. Uncoated. Untamed. Fearless. Real. And now, there is a name, Jen Avellaneda. The name I’d always hidden from. Run from. Unowned, because I never wanted to be seen or known….by anyone… Let alone the millions […]
“According to Persecution.org, 200 million Christians are being persecuted in the world today for their faith.” Yet, for the most part the media is silent. While in the mountains of Guatemala, I met an arm-less man filled with Jesus. A missionary there explained to us, a “neighbor” cut it off with a machete because he converted to […]
There is nothing like laying flat on your back for two days straight to put your mind in perspective. For sometimes standing straight up and plowing full force forward can delude ourselves to what we think we need to do…. And as my brother who has a large ministry for troubled teens continually says, “Humility isn’t […]
The red coated stranger. In loafers. And mustache. Puts his palm out. Turns head away from….The Hope-filled One….Passing out tracts. And last time I came here…. There were no tracts. No Jesus. No noticeable believers. So bold in a city. Unmasking. Christianity. Only…. Palm readers. Beggars. Buildings of Scientology, asking you to pay […]
I don’t know what came over her. Like a seed, lying dormant. Coming alive. In that in-between. Child exiting to women-hood. This morning. Not speaking. Her silence. Deafening. Like the white page I look at. Before typing. Pure. Barren. Sacred. Holy. Careful, so as not to stain a page….Waiting for answers. And why is…. Wonder always […]
I have a confession to make. I know it’s true….simply because of the discomfort I feel. As I spit out this unflattering, unChristlike, prideful rising truth…. “I am a perfectionist.” I often have this unsettled insistence that things be just perfect. In fact, when I was little….I used to go up and down the isles. Aligning boxes […]