A father left his son, Charlie, in charge of the family business—a huge strawberry farm—because he was getting older and wanted to travel abroad while his health still permitted. The farm was handed down to him by his father forty years earlier and since then he had invested all of his time, energy and resources into raising the best strawberries in a five-state area. Charlie had never seen anyone work so hard and everyone in the family agreed that his father and mother really deserved some time away.
Raising strawberries is not rocket science but even if it was, the son had been well trained. When the day finally arrived, just as the last berries of the season were being shipped, the older couple set off on their journey, but not without the father’s friendly reminder that the family’s entire future rested on whether Charlie would follow his time-tested but simple strategies of raising strawberries. He knew what was at stake, so he determined to Continue reading
Here's a challenging word from Jonny Woodrow over at 
There's a great story, told in the first person, about a young woman in San Diego who was baptized as a child in the Mormon faith, became an atheist through her college years, and softened to agnosticism. While she was pursuing her interests in evolutionary psychology, she began listening to Dr. Laura Schlessinger on the radio and she was intrigued with the "voice of reason" so much so that she became quite conservative in her views.
“So how are things going in South Wales?” an American colleague recently asked me.
Think about your response, and then ask yourself a more penetrating question: "Do I really know Brian McLaren as someone who loves Jesus as much as—perhaps more than—I do; or have I simply listened to his many outspoken critics and/or read his books with a prejudiced mind?"
It seems that a lot of marginalized people have intersected our lives since we moved to Wales, and in almost every case it’s been a good experience for everyone involved. We met Steve, a 32-year-old heroin addict a couple of years ago who had become a Christian but just couldn’t shake the habit. He lived with us for awhile and we helped him find a residential rehab program in Birmingham, England, with 
I hope to interview a new friend of mine named Ben sometime next week: we might even do a podcast together and let him share his story of homelessness as a 21-year-old young man estranged from his family in England. I’ll keep you posted on that development, but he told me today that he would be willing to do it.
