Sister Suzanne from Lebanon is spending more than six weeks with the ABC family to improve her conversational English. Various people have hosted her and helped her experience LA by taking her to a Dodgers game, Disneyland, Olvera Street, Huntington Gardens, etc. In the process, we have all been blessed by her warm personality, her […]

“I’m not an early bird or a night owl. I’m some form of permanently exhausted pigeon.” Most of our lives are not very dramatic. There may be high points we look forward to, and they tend to fly by pretty quickly. And there are sure to be some low periods, which are very hard to […]

Some days I can, and some days I cannot. When I can, it’s great! All of my energy is focused, I feel in control. I feel worth the air I breathe, Worth the space I take up. When I cannot, my chest is full of sand. My heart struggles to keep me alive. There are […]

We didn’t intentionally choose the hottest week of the year for Vacation Bible School, but that’s the way it has worked out. Fortunately, the air conditioners were repaired recently, so all the indoor spaces are quite comfortable. Recreational games have been played mostly in shaded areas, have been less energetic than usual and have featured […]

Vacation Bible School has been ABC’s most productive summer outreach program for more than fifty years. Just about the entire congregation is involved in one way or another in providing a welcoming atmosphere, solid content and child-centered activities. Many adults look back and mark the beginning of their spiritual journey from simple, happy songs learned […]

There was a family in the first church I pastored — father, mother, three kids about 8 to 15. One day at a meal in their dining room, they told me about Green Trees. They pointed to a large painting on the wall which was of a serene New England landscape. They had had a […]

In the sixth century before Jesus lived, Israel’s glory days were over. The land had been sacked by the mighty Babylonian Empire, and the majority of the people were expelled from their homeland. For the next hundred years, the Israelites, God’s People, were virtually refugees. Through the Old Testament prophets, the Lord kept promising their […]

A jacket like this caused quite a stir recently because of who was wearing it and where it was being worn. I don’t intend to make a political statement in this article, but I think the message on the jacket raises an important moral dilemma. Honestly, as a finite human being, I can’t care about […]

The geeky guys in TV’s Big Bang Theory can’t wait for the next Comic-Con. These comic book conventions have been held annually in San Diego since the 1970s, and several episodes of the T.V. series have centered around the four guys’ obsession with immersing themselves in this comic world of fantasy. Penny just shakes her […]

From Pastor Connie: Altadena/Pasadena is in the midst of a sea change, spurred by a hot housing market. When real estate prices boom, there is a lot of movement — literally. Renters are squeezed out, those trying to buy their first home have to look further afield, retirees feel the pressure to move to capitalize their retirement […]