By Kandy Persall Old Man Winter has his place. He brings us holidays, vacations and our anniversary. Blankets of snow and crystals of ice are beautiful, but after a while, we are ready for spring. There is a larger purpose for winter. It’s necessary for growth. Winter is an ugly time for most trees. They shed their leaves and reveal …
“Be ready with a meal or a bed when it’s needed. Why, some have extended hospitality to angels without ever knowing it!” (Hebrews 13:2, The Message) Just so you know, we weren’t the angels. We were, however, the strangest of strangers when Llwlyn took us into her home. We’d spent four years in Asia and needed her mothering more than …
I grew up in a small, rural church as the only “regular” under the age of 45. From the time my mother began taking me to Pansy Church, Bobbie Trull was my mentor. Bobbie unfolded the Gospels to me during my impressional elementary years. She believed in me during my awkward middle school years. She taught …
See those red pod things sprouting off the tree bark? Know what that is? It’s the seeds of the cacao tree. Or in layman’s terms: the beginnings of chocolate. Honestly, it’s very odd looking. Like no tree I had ever seen before. All around the bark of this fairly large tree, there are outgrowths of blooms which, …
“Abide in Me, and I in you” (John 15:4). As Christians, we spend an inordinate amount of time worrying about whether or not we are “abiding.” Well, I have some good news for you: You are. Just look at the Greek verb for our English word “abide”. For one thing, it’s in the imperative mood, …
“Every branch that does bear fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit.” (John 15:2) Think about the spiritual fruit that you most desire to bear – let’s say joy, for instance. What happens when He nips our bud of joy? I’m discovering that it gives me a perfect opportunity to truly know the source of …
Okay, I’ve been kinda stuck with something that we talked about during our last blog. Granted, it was the one that my five-year-old grandson helped with, but still I can’t seem to get away from the fact that “fruit never consumes itself”. As I think about the nine fruits of the Spirit that Paul describes in Galatians …
We have a special blogger today: my grandson, Noah. Let’s see what insights he has about fruit bearing. ——————————- I know that you recently went to pick wild blackberries. How did you know which blackberries to pick? Noah: cause they were black. not the red ones. Did you eat any of them while you were picking them? Noah: yeah What …
An orchid named Iris. She was a very special plant given to me by a very special friend. I’d never had an orchid before, but I did a little research and decided to give her a go. I discovered that this variety liked heat and humidity, so I put her on my Taiwan balcony beside the washer and dryer. …
We recently had the opportunity to visit one of our favorite spots in South Carolina: The Cooley Brothers Peach Shed. When we lived nearby, we were some of their regulars. From mid-June to September, Mark and I lived on a daily regimen of what the ancient Romans called the “Persian apple”. We just called it delicious. …
