As the air ambulance landed on the tarmac in Paris, France, I was placed on a gurney and rushed to a major hospital in downtown Paris. The icy February air bit at my cheeks, so different from the balmy warm air of Bokoro, Chad, where I’d been just a few days earlier.

Gospel partnership is a vital part of the ministry at Triumph Lutheran Brethren Church (Moorhead, MN and West Fargo, ND). God has equipped Triumph to do many things in his kingdom, but we can’t do it all! Strategic partnerships are essential to extend our reach across the street and around the world.

We need the meat and potatoes that Scripture can offer. The deeper we dig into the Bible, the more we learn we don’t know it all. So, dig deep for great riches and even greater understanding.

What benefit is there to accreditation? And, why do we believe it is important for LBS to be accredited?

In late 2023, LBIM was blessed to facilitate, for the first time ever, a global LBIM missionary retreat. Our missionary families from Chad, Japan, and Taiwan made their way to the Suan Bua resort outside of Chiang Mai, Thailand.

January/February 2024 issue of Faith & Fellowship

Some of my fondest childhood memories are of Christmas at my grandparents’ house. We lived about two hours north of them, so visiting them was always a treat, but Christmas was the highlight of the year. My grandparents’ home was like a magnet, pulling together our extended family to reconnect with one another and to celebrate the birth of the Christ child.

This past summer, I did something I had never done before: on two separate occasions, I set off on a 3-day, 2-night solo backpacking trip into the wilderness of a regional state park. More than once, friends asked me, “Are you sure you want to do this?

During the four hundred years of prophetic silence between the Old and New Testaments, generations of people like us were waiting and wondering and hoping for something. They believed there was more to life than what they saw around them. People were hurting, fighting, not loving, not trusting.

Do you trust God? Your initial response is probably, “Yes, of course I do.” But what about trusting God when you don’t understand what he’s doing? What about trusting God when he asks you to do something you fear? Do you trust God then?

I have been an Elder at Hope Community Church in Nanuet, New York since 1999. Currently, I serve as the Church Chairman. I reside in Stony Point, NY with my wife Linda, and we have three children: Collin (engaged to be married to Gianna in July 2024), Brendan (married  Katari in August 2023), and Olivia.

All five of my kids are coming home for Christmas this year; I can hardly contain my excitement! With one missionary family and two pastors in the mix, merging our Christmas schedules is challenging. It has been thirteen years since we were all together on Christmas. Admittedly, I inwardly sigh with contentment whenever I picture them all here!

I grew up in a culturally Christian home, but it was a home that ultimately lacked any real devotion to Jesus Christ and his Word. Nevertheless, from a young age I believed there was a God and thought of myself as a Christian, though most of my Canadian peers did not.

Once upon a time, my heroes had been cowboys and crime fighters. Today, they are all connected to Jesus and his mission.

When God sent his Son to dwell among us, Jesus not only stepped into our world as God incarnate, but humbled himself to a position where others were invited to step into his world. The baby Jesus grew up learning how to live like the people around him—how to speak, eat, walk, laugh, and pray like they did.

November/December 2023 issue of Faith & Fellowship

The words of Jesus are a stark reminder of how impressionable children are. They watch, learn, and mimic all that they see. This is why Jesus warns us against causing them to stumble. It is also why he praises them for their faith. When Jesus called, the child came.

Jesus welcomes people as they are, and children are not the exception. It doesn’t matter if they have never heard of him, or they grew up on the wrong (or right) side of the tracks, or they smell funny because their mom uses their bathtub as a kitty litter box. Jesus takes them in his arms and blesses them. He lays his hands on them.

Children appear small, weak, and unimportant in many ways. Maybe the disciples thought, “Why welcome children? What’s the benefit of receiving them?” God’s kingdom—even Jesus himself—can also appear to be small, weak, and unimportant. If Jesus wants his disciples to receive the kingdom like they would receive a child, perhaps the disciples don’t understand what God’s kingdom is really like.

We’ve been there; it’s a crushingly painful reality. It feels much like Kubler-Ross’ Five Stages of Grief: Denial; Anger; Bargaining; Depression; Acceptance. At the first signs of trouble, we want to believe it’s just a phase they are going through. They tell us everything is fine, and we hope it’s true. But it isn’t fine.