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The Ones You Can’t Save
I met a man while walking my dog.
A veteran. A drifter. Just trying to get back on his feet.
For a while, it looked like things were turning around.
Then something changed.
This is the story of trying to help… and realizing you can’t save everyone.
When Obedience Means Turning Around
The Place I Said I’d Never Go Back To There was a time in my life when I said I would never go back. Not casually. Not jokingly. I meant it. I had made up my mind that whatever God had for me, it wouldn’t be there. That chapter was closed. That place belonged to…
The Knock on the Door That Changed Christmas Eve
Christmas Eve Rescue Christmas Eve at our house has always been the big celebration. That’s when we open presents. That’s when the big dinner happens. The house stays loud and full longer than it probably should, and by the end of the night everyone is tired in that good way that comes after a full…
Lessons from the Army: Applying Discipline in Ministry
What the Army Prepared Me For — and What It Didn’t Twenty-two years in the Army prepares you for a lot. It prepares you to wake up early and operate tired. It trains you to make decisions when the information is incomplete and to stay calm when others are not. You learn to assess risk…
When Ministry Meets the Unexpected: A Pig Story
It started as a joke. We had an old tractor sitting around—one of those machines that technically ran, but only if you had patience, tools, and very low expectations. I’d managed to get it running again, but it needed a full overhaul and honestly wasn’t much use to us anymore. At some point I mentioned that…
Standing in the Gap at Midnight
A drunk teenager threatened staff, drove recklessly through campus, and claimed he had a gun. Police never showed up—at least not in time. What followed was a long night of restraint, judgment, and presence that could have ended very differently.
When Leadership Becomes Heavy—and No One Sees It
The Hardest Part of Leadership No One Trains You For Leadership training usually focuses on skills. How to cast vision. How to care for and guide people. How to make decisions under pressure. What it rarely prepares you for is the weight—the quiet, accumulating kind that doesn’t show up in job descriptions or leadership books. The…
When Help is Delayed
The phone rang in the mission office at 8:30 in the morning, the kind of hour when the day is just beginning to take shape and coffee hasn’t fully done its work yet. The woman on the other end did not give her name. She told the office staff that she knew me and that I had been…
Water in the Backcountry
It started with a man we didn’t recognize. He showed up at the mission frantic, agitated, talking fast. He said his wife — or maybe his girlfriend, it wasn’t clear — was missing. He said she had been abducted. He was upset enough that we took him seriously, but there were gaps in the story…
A Shed in the Desert
It wasn’t meant for someone to live in, but it also wasn’t falling apart. The shed was actually well built — solid walls, a real structure — the kind meant for storage, not shelter. At some point, a small wood-burning stove had been installed inside. The stovepipe ran through a crudely cut opening in the…