by Teri Ong   My husband and I have made frequent trips to England since our first one together in 1999. But every first time experience is especially memorable, and our trip in ‘99 was no exception. In his masterful tale, At the Villa of Reduced Circumstances, Alexander McCall Smith through his character Moritz Maria Von Igelfeld, observes, “Why is that everyone expects that one has had a good journey, when traveling is notorious for hardships. One is often forced to see things one doesn’t want to see, smell things one doesn’t want smell, sleep places one doesn’t want to […]

By Teri Ong My husband and I are on a two-day Valentine retreat. He saw some cut white roses and a pot of live red roses and couldn’t decide which to get me, so he got both! While he was at the store getting flowers, the checkout person wanted to know if he was playing the mega-million supermarket game, and if he wanted pieces. This led to our discussion of what we really want from a retail store– the lowest prices without a percentage of OUR money going to prize pay outs. This thought led to evaluating the common practice […]

By Teri Ong Today is New Year’s Day 2017. It also happens to be Sunday. Today we worshiped the Lord on His day as we always do – corporately – in church – with brothers and sisters in Christ who also believe it honors the Lord to honor His day. Today, as on other Sundays, we prayed together, sang together, read Scripture together, heard God’s Word taught and expounded together, ate together, shared our lives together, and celebrated the Lord’s Supper together. Today it happened that we had a couple from another city join with our little church family because […]

by Teri Ong The backwoods of northwestern Ontario in 1972 is my story of long ago and far, far away. I was to spend my summer there that year, and several others after that. I was going to be a kitchen helper, counselor, story teller, puppeteer, musician and all-around go-fer at a mission camp well off the beaten path between Dinorwic and Sioux Lookout. Camp-of-the-Woods was still in the development stage in those years. More cabins were needed to replace the cabin-sized tents on wooden platforms. A workshop/shed/barn was in the planning phase, as was a house for the missionary […]

by Teri Ong   The senior missionary and founder of Camp-of-the Woods, Garland Cofield, had two sons and two daughters quite near to me in age. All of the family members were good musicians. But Father wanted Daughters to learn to play violin. At the age of 17, I had already been playing for over 12 years. It was natural that I would be asked to give lessons since I was going to be there for the whole summer. They had a “copy of a Stradivarius” – $59.95 straight out of the Sears and Roebuck catalog by way of Japan. […]

by Teri Ong   What are clouds like? The clouds piled up heavy – like a double scoop of steaming hot mashed potatoes. The clouds wrapped the frosty landscape in a layer of cotton wool. The cloud looked like a tooth extracted under the influence of laughing gas.   Describe the morning glories. The morning glories shivered in the morning air and bundled up in leaves, knotting their hoodies with vine-y laces. The tendrils of vine hung casually over the shoulder of the fence, festive like a native girl with bright blossoms tucked in each curl and behind both ears. […]

by Teri Ong When most people, and I daresay, even most “evangelical” people, consider this one of the Ten Commandments, they think of “swear words” and various forms of God’s name attached to imprecations for damnation. While those abuses of human language are certainly covered by the command, “You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain” (Ex. 20:7), I believe being a “cheap swearer,” a description used by the poet George Herbert, is just the tip of the legal iceberg. The New Oxford American Dictionary defines “vain” as “producing no result, useless, having no meaning […]

In September 2013 Colorado experienced a “hundred year flood.” We’ve had several of them in the 40 years I have lived in Colorado. Usually a storm front will stall or move slowly along a particular river basin, dumping enough rain in one area that the rocky canyon drains more into the river than it can handle. Consequently, the excess water gushes down the canyon in a flash flood. Major catastrophes have arisen in a matter of hours causing great cost in lost property, and sometimes in lost lives. But in 2013, the storm front that stalled wasn’t over one river […]

I am a cloud, A vapor animated By the Breath of God. I rise up new On currents warmed by the Sun, Always pushed higher. White, I reflect Brilliant Light, or gold fired Past the horizon; Yet my shadow May ominously obscure Or give cooling shelter. I can produce Disappointing drought, or floods Out of my belly. On wings of Wind, I’m pushed high and higher still Til I evaporate In heavenly air.   Teri Ong August 2015 ~Written on the occasion of watching the cloud shows every evening from a cabin in Clark,  Colorado.~

by Teri Ong In mid-June we attended the Christian Home Educators of Colorado statewide conference in Denver. We have attended all or part of every conference since 1993. We enjoy being together with a good contingent of “old timers,” some of whom even pre-date our participation. Because we see longevity of relationships as a blessing and gift of God, renewing old friendships is the best part of the conference every year. One of our longstanding friendships is with the Bloom family, which runs a wonderful used book company called “Books Bloom.” Their business is NOT a second hand curriculum table; […]