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. […]
Magazine
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. […]
South Sudan: Caught In The Conflict
The numbers of people who have been forced to leave their homes throughout the world are staggering and growing—imagine the entire population of the United Kingdom or half the population of Mexico having to leave their homeland. How do we begin to understand what that means? […]
Torn from Home
According to the most recent statistics, more than 65 million people-close to the population of France-are forcibly displaced from their homes and communities worldwide. […]
Tali’s Song
Tali Johnson grew up in a strongly religious, conservative Muslim family in Kermanshah, Iran. Just as all the women in her family did, she married at age fifteen. […]
Whatever Happened to Pietism?
In their wonderful new book, The Pietist Option, Covenanters Mark Pattie and Chris Gehrz frequently cite Dale Brown, a major historian of the Pietist movement. […]
Courageous Defiance
The central thesis of Braving the Wilderness, poignantly illustrated by the author through her own personal stories and a series of curated thoughts from notable guests, is that belonging is something that cannot be found among others but must be cultivated from within. […]
Mission Musings: How I Got Here
In my role as executive minister of Serve Globally, people often ask me how I got into missions. I answer this question differently depending on who’s asking, but my response usually includes the following elements in some form. God saved […]
What Do We Want?
All my life I’ve been an avid reader, and as a long-time blogger, I’ve built up an online community with other writers, many of whom are published. So I often get a chance to read early copies of their latest […]
On the Road to the Next President
Last August, Covenant president Gary Walter announced his retirement as of summer 2018, setting in motion the process for electing a new president of the Evangelical Covenant Church. […]
January/February Cov Sparks Now Available
The COV Sparks downloadable discussion guide is now available for the January/February issue of The Covenant Companion. Based on articles from the current issue of the magazine, COV Sparks provides stimulating questions for Sunday-school classes, small-group discussions, and personal reflection. […]