We had occasion on one of our trips to England to be entertained by a vivacious and imaginative boy of five years. He wanted us to play the old fashioned, and now out of favor, card game similar to “Old Maid” or “Go Fish” called “Happy Family.” We feigned ignorance of the rules of the game and gave him free rein in guiding us through it. In startlingly adult fashion, he made up the rules as we went along, which always seemed to favor him! On a later visit, the little fellow’s grandparents patiently shepherded us around Barnstaple, Devon until […]

By Teri Ong The current big deal in our national church association is “planned giving.” I think that term might fit G. K. Chesterton’s profile of an “evil euphemism.” It amounts to giving to a financial institution now what you might have planned to still have left at the end of retirement (which is a euphemism for “when you die”). The program is being touted as a great boon to the church over the next decade as we oldsters leave the vale of tears, and leave behind what we can’t take with us. Money, especially lots of money, is a […]

by Teri Ong  In January, a lovely lady from the Congo, who now lives in our city, visited our church. Her visit gave me an opportunity to dust off my very dusty skills in speaking French. Working my way through what is left of my conversational vocabulary caused me to review in my mind some of the lessons I learned in French history back in the day. As a result of this exercise, I have been struck by some of the dangerous parallels between what happened in France about 200 years ago, and what is happening in our own society […]

by Teri Ong We have been subjected to an almost unprecedented uproar in American society for the past three weeks. Some of us stopped holding our breath on Saturday afternoon (Oct. 6) when Justice Kavanaugh was approved by the U.S. Senate to serve on the Supreme Court. Others have been, and some continue screaming without ever seeming to stop and take a breath, because of the confirmation. There is a segment of society, predominantly vociferous women and some men with a particular political agenda, who are trying to convince the rest of us that all women who claim to have […]

Steve and I were blessed to experience the unlikely fulfillment of a longstanding dream this summer. I say “dream” because it was too lofty to be a “bucket list” item that we set out to do sometime in our life; it was something that existed only in our wildest imaginations. We made a crossing of the North Atlantic on the Queen Mary 2! I have been in love with the sea and ships since my earliest ferry boat rides from my childhood home in Seattle to the Olympic Peninsula and the various islands in Puget Sound. Later, on a visit […]

by Teri Ong We have had several serious-minded discussions this summer with our millennial son about how “millennials” think and analyze the pop culture of the moment. This has been in the context of churches making choices to use certain styles and genres in the arts in order to “connect” with the millennial generation. This has been a topic of discussion because the association of churches that our church is part of has been grappling with the issue of “conservative” versus “contemporary” worship recently. Grappling with the issue now, however, feels likes swinging late at a ball that is already […]