Rick Millikin, pastor of Mat-Su Covenant Church in Wasilla, Alaska, was on the phone talking about his congregation’s new disaster preparedness ministry while sixty-mile-per-hour winds were ripping a quarter of the tiles from his office roof. […]
Features
Jesus in the Mocking Robe
Entering Chicago’s Queen of All Saints Basilica, I feel small. The towering ceiling, the formal stained-glass windows, the ornate interior of carved wood and gold leaf—and especially the acoustics—all point me to a big and majestic God. […]
Disaster Relief: The Help Network
Recent natural disasters leave us all wondering how to help. The Companion asked Cecilia Williams, executive minister of Love Mercy Do Justice, and Dave Husby, director of Covenant World Relief, to answer questions about disaster response, donor fatigue, and long-term recovery plans. […]
Disaster Relief: Ashes of Lent
Late in the evening of October 8, 2017, a fire started near Tubbs Lane in Calistoga, California. Fueled by years of drought and extremely windy conditions, the fire made its way through the Mayacamas Mountains to Santa Rosa in a matter of hours. […]
Catastrophic Grace
It was the middle of August, the end of a busy season for Mario Valdes, who leads mission trips with Merge Ministries of Serve Globally […]
Lament in a Time of Worship
We should lament to be comforted, bear one another’s burdens, be vulnerable and […]
Colombia: Starting Over
Colombia is no stranger to the global crisis of forced displacement. According to the United Nations refugee agency, Colombia hosts the most internally displaced people in the world […]
From Congo to Chicago: Finding Her Identity
When Triphose Khonde was a small child, her parents left her to live with their grandmother. Triphose, who graduated from North Park University last spring, was born in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and in the midst of ongoing civil conflict at home, her parents were looking for jobs and safety in neighboring Rwanda. […]
Grand Rapids, Michigan: Praying with Purni
Purni was born and raised in Bhutan in a family of ethnic Nepali farmers called Lhotshampas or Southerners. She was married in her late teens. […]
Sacramento, California: Journey to Friendship
The first time we met Hassan he said to us, “In Sha’ Allah (God willing) some day we can go back to Syria.” It was November 10, 2016, and my husband, Alex, and I had entered the address into our GPS and followed the instructions to Hassan’s family’s home in Sacramento. […]
Strathmore, Alberta: Preparing Room
In the summer of 2015 I heard a CBC radio story about Canadians who formed small groups to sponsor Vietnamese refugees in the 1970s. […]
Sacramento, California: Safe Arrival
Two volunteers, one a college student, the other a small business owner, accompany me on one of the church’s twenty-five-passenger buses to make a late-night trek to Sacramento International Airport. […]