Category: Family
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Did God the Father Abandon Jesus on the Cross?
Read More: Did God the Father Abandon Jesus on the Cross?“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” guest post by Russell Joyner Why would Jesus say something that sounds so discouraging? In Jewish tradition, in a moment of great distress, one should pray. When all looks hopeless, pray. When you can’t think of what to pray, then recite one of the pre-approved inspired…
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Church not Childcare
Read More: Church not ChildcareI believe the words and titles we use for things convey messages of value. That’s how language works. For example, take “wedding ceremony” versus “wedding celebration.” Both terms tell people that a wedding is happening, but the first phrase sends messages of formality, tradition, and even the sacredness of it. The second phrase sends the…
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First Night Virginia!
Read More: First Night Virginia!I’m happy to announce that I will be returning to perform at First Night Virginia this New Year’s Eve in Charlottesville, VA. The shows will be at 6:30pm, 9pm, and 10:15pm at the First United Methodist Church in Charlottesville, VA on December 31, 2017. I hope to see you all there! Click on the link…
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Stewards of the Story
Read More: Stewards of the StoryLast night, I was working with my seven year-old daughter on a Bible verse that she is trying to memorize. The verse spoke about the “fear of God” and we had a good discussion about the definition of the word “fear” in that context. While that alone is a whole other discussion, the point I…
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The Idea of Invitation in Worship
Read More: The Idea of Invitation in Worship“Let the little children come to me.” – Jesus of Nazareth This past Sunday was a snow day in our part of the country. Most churches closed due to weather. When my wife, daughter, and I made our way downstairs to make some breakfast together, my wife suggested that we have a family devotional time.…
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Do you do Santa Claus?
Read More: Do you do Santa Claus?This is a common question I hear parents asking one another at Christmas time. The question comes from different perspectives and experiences that people have had with the story, tradition, and character of that jolly man, Santa. We’ve all heard stories of the proverbial thirteen year-old kid (or older) who finds out from their friends…
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The Thanksgiving Tree
Read More: The Thanksgiving TreeMy wife and I had a debate a few nights ago over the meaning of the Christmas Tree. What ensued was a discussion about the “why” behind traditions that we often just take for granted. She doesn’t want to do things just because “we’ve always done it that way.” She likes to know the meaning…
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Faith Development Resources: Early Childhood
Read More: Faith Development Resources: Early ChildhoodINTRODUCTION Finding quality resources that help nurture the faith development of children and families can sometimes be difficult. This is the first post in a series, broken up by age-level focus, that can be of help to children, family members, and ministry leaders as they navigate the pilgrimage of the Christian faith. I will start…
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Fun in the Snow!
Read More: Fun in the Snow!Happy Monday and enjoy this little video my daughter took of me trying out the fire during this past weekend’s snowstorm….
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Talking to Kids About Martin Luther King, Jr.
Read More: Talking to Kids About Martin Luther King, Jr.The great thing about a holiday is not just the fact that many people get the day off, but it also carves a memorial into the annual calendar that commemorates something or someone that we as a society deem important. When children see that they have a day off of school and that people are…
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Longest Celebrity Marriage?
Read More: Longest Celebrity Marriage?Celebrities, including Hollywood stars, music icons, and famous people around the world have a reputation for short and numerous marriages. But there are always examples to the contrary, and I write this to show that lifelong monogamy is still possible. I personally believe it is only possible by the grace of God. I think I…
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Super Easy Scripture Slides and Images
Read More: Super Easy Scripture Slides and ImagesI recently stumbled upon a fast and free way to make Scripture slides for Children’s Ministry (or any other ministry, for that matter) with an array of free and attractive backgrounds. And it may already be in your phone/device. It’s built into one of the popular apps out there – the free YouVersion app of the…
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Bring Me Game Ideas
Read More: Bring Me Game IdeasThe ‘Bring Me’ game is a group activity ideal for engaging children. The leader requests random items, and the first person or group to bring the item gets a point. The game uses technology as it allows for internet-based scavenger hunt challenges. The leader needs to adapt the items according to the group’s characteristics. The…
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Teaching Kids About Street Performing
Read More: Teaching Kids About Street PerformingI performed for a small group of three to five year-olds at my daughter’s school today. They were studying about Europe, so I figured I would teach them about Europe’s rich tradition of busking (another term for street performing). I showed them a picture of a busker at the Fringe Festival in Edinburgh, Scotland as…
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Teaching Kids About Money
Read More: Teaching Kids About MoneyThanks to Dave Ramsey and other financial teachers, we were inspired to use clear labeled jars to show our daughter how much money she has and how to categorize it. I know that she will grow up in an even more digital world than we did, which means money will become more and more “invisible”…
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Remembering the Sabbath
Read More: Remembering the SabbathLast week was a very busy week. There was office work, family obligations, booking events, and the ongoing process of fixing up our old house. And right now we are fixing up the kitchen! It will be great when it is done, but the process can seem long and laborious. So I try to find…
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Worship Response Stations
Read More: Worship Response StationsI recently returned from Pine Creek Camp in Gore, VA. I was the camp pastor for two weeks with several hundred preteen kids and their chaperones from Assembly of God churches around Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, D.C., and West Virginia. I speak at many camps each summer, but this one stuck out because of the format…
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Whatever is Lovely
Read More: Whatever is LovelyGod is love (1 John 4:8,16). So anything that is of God is lovely. And all things lovely are of God. This includes, but is not limited to, the love we share between one another in various relationships such as friends and family. In fact, all people are God’s creation and we are called to…
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Life as a Professional Juggler: FAQ’s
Read More: Life as a Professional Juggler: FAQ’sBy God’s grace, I am living a dream. I get to do what I love and I don’t even feel like I work. But what I do is serious “work” at the same time. I get a lot of questions from people about what I do, so I thought I would try to consolidate the…
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The National Gallery of Art
Read More: The National Gallery of ArtIt’s a shame that we have lived in Richmond, VA for the past six years and it was only a few weeks ago that we took our first trip to the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C. Just 110 miles away, this treasure of a museum has got to be one of the greatest…
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How to Build a Portable Puppet Theater
Read More: How to Build a Portable Puppet TheaterSeveral years ago I built a portable puppet theater out of PVC and black fabric. We have used it since then for puppet shows at our church. Our church has different locations, so this is perfect for moving the theater back and forth to different spots where we have children’s worship services and summer activities.…
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Joyn the Journey
Read More: Joyn the JourneyThis is a shameless plug for my wife’s blog (Sarah Joyner). She just updated the blog with some summer pics and a list of Kezzie’s favorite things. Enjoy! http://joynerjourney.blogspot.com/2013/09/here-it-is-month-our-family-waits-for.html
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A Retreat for the Whole Church
Read More: A Retreat for the Whole ChurchThis past weekend, I had the privilege of speaking and entertaining at a church-wide retreat at a camp in the middle of Nebraska. What I witnessed in the dynamics of this retreat was one of the most powerful forms of the church being the church I’ve seen before. And I’m not talking about how they…
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Visiting Israel with a Toddler
Read More: Visiting Israel with a ToddlerMy wife and I celebrated our 10 years of marriage this past May by visiting Israel and the West Bank. It was a two and a half week trip and we have a daughter who is two. We decided that we did not want to be away from her for that long of a trip,…
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The Wordless Book
Read More: The Wordless BookI have created a Power Point presentation that follows a version of The Wordless Book, sometimes known as the Colors of Salvation, or the Salvation Colors. This presentation is technically not “wordless” because I put the Scripture references in there. But that’s all. Each color is shown by a colored circle, then the corresponding Scripture…
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10 Ways to Know You are the Parent of a Toddler
Read More: 10 Ways to Know You are the Parent of a Toddler10. You can have an entire conversation with your spouse while spelling out all the key words. 9. Your trips to Lowe’s or the grocery store always begin with a choice between red race car cart or blue race car cart. 8. Your diaper-changing skills have immensely improved over the past two years: from 2-minute/5…
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How to Kick Off Easter Week
Read More: How to Kick Off Easter WeekDespite the current weather conditions around here (SNOW, SNOW, SNOW), it is actually Easter week. I can’t remember the last time there was snow on Palm Sunday in Virginia (or any other state I’ve lived in for that matter). While snow may be a unique way to kick off Easter week, I found a more…
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The Best Family Ministry Event
Read More: The Best Family Ministry EventIn my opinion, the best family ministry event a church can host surprisingly doesn’t include the whole family. But in a way, it does. I’m talking about the Father/Daughter Banquet. Some churches call it the Daddy/Daughter Dance or some other similar title. My own church in Richmond, VA has been doing this for 3 years…
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Top 5 Games for Summer Camp
Read More: Top 5 Games for Summer CampI travel to a lot of summer camps around the country each year. I have seen with my own eyes what games kids are drawn to the most throughout their given week of camp. And they are the same games no matter where you go. Kids are kids! Here are the 5 games that I…
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Children and Animals in Eternity
Read More: Children and Animals in EternityI am intrigued with the fascination that children have with animals. Is it because many domestic animals are more approachable and manageable (size-wise) for children? Is it because the animals are fuzzy and furry? Are there a variety of factors? Regardless, I think we all have a little kid in us when we interact with…
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Less is More
Read More: Less is MoreWhen I was in Port-au-Prince, Haiti last month, I had the privilege of visiting a children’s home/orphanage of about 30 kids between the ages of 10-17. My host, Scott, asked if I would be willing to teach the kids how to juggle. I was happy to do so. The only problem is that I did…
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This Is Why I Love My Job
Read More: This Is Why I Love My JobEvery so often I hear feedback from people who see my show. And over the years, I’ve heard the good, the bad, and the ugly. It’s amazing, though, just how powerful some stories can be in inspiring you to continue doing the job/ministry/vocation you do. This is one of those letters….. I recently got this…
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When Children Grieve: From Bethlehem to Newtown
Read More: When Children Grieve: From Bethlehem to NewtownOn a mild autumn morning twelve years ago, I found myself in front of a primary school class full of grieving children. I was their entertainment for the day – a juggler from halfway across the world, doing whatever I could to bring a little joy to their lives. The children were Palestinian kids from…
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How to Win at Heads or Tails
Read More: How to Win at Heads or TailsI can teach you a secret to winning at heads or tails – every single time. You can flip the coin a thousand times and call the heads or tails to your friends before you all look at the coin. And this is all using a real quarter. There are a few conditions: This works…
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My Take: Dumb Ways to Die
Read More: My Take: Dumb Ways to DieThis catchy and artsy music video will either make you laugh or make you a little creeped out, depending on your sense of humor. I thought it was hilarious, especially the character who “sold both kidneys on the internet.” Would you believe that this is a public service announcement from the rail Metro in Melbourne,…
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Risking My Life for Food
Read More: Risking My Life for FoodJoin me this Wednesday night at the Robinson Theater in Richmond, VA (2903 Q St, Richmond, VA 23223) from 7pm to 8pm as I do my first indoor performance of the chainsaw juggling act. This is a comedy juggling show for all ages. Admission is one canned or non-perishable food OR $1. All the food…
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How to Save Three Dollars
Read More: How to Save Three DollarsSo you want to learn how to juggle but you don’t quite have the budget to go out and buy $5 balls, $7 rings, and $30 clubs. I have the answer for you. You could just use anything currently lying around the house, like balled-up socks, tomatoes, or kittens. But if you use socks, you…
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Why It Helps for Children’s Church to Be Fun
Read More: Why It Helps for Children’s Church to Be FunLet me be clear: The message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ does not need a circus of pizazz to penetrate the heart of a child (or anyone for that matter). The love and grace of Jesus stands fine on its own to regenerate the hearts of children. But it sure does help to present…
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Captivating the Attention of Children
Read More: Captivating the Attention of ChildrenAnyone can captivate the attention of a child – or a group of children. All it takes is a smile and a little energy in your face. And those things come from a sincere heart to connect with the child/children. It helps to be able to perform some astonishing feat like a magic trick or…
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Every Child is a Winner by McCaslin and Biehl
Read More: Every Child is a Winner by McCaslin and BiehlCaz McCaslin runs Upward Sports, a global youth sports organization that promotes Biblical values, equal play time, and ultimately, the person and work of Jesus Christ. He wrote what he considers a “parent playbook” called Every Child is a Winner (Broadman and Holman: Nashville, 2002). My family and I got to visit the main headquarters…
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Faith Like a Child
Read More: Faith Like a ChildMy wife, Sarah, broke her pinky toe last week. Then she gouged the underside of her other foot on a broken piece of wood flooring (we have an old house – and I’m fixing the problem area today). So she’s limping around, ever-so-courageously, chasing our toddler and living normal life. Our toddler, Kezzie, has clearly…
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The Engage Children’s Ministry Conference
Read More: The Engage Children’s Ministry ConferenceI was just invited to teach a workshop at The Engage Conference up in Pennsylvania in November. If you work in Children’s Ministry in any capacity (pastor, leader, volunteer, etc.), please see if you can make this great one-day conference. Its only twenty bucks! Click Here for all the info.
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Fall Festival Ideas
Read More: Fall Festival IdeasIf you’re a Children’s Pastor or leader of a community program for families, you’re probably somewhere on the spectrum of planning for your annual Fall Festival. If you haven’t started planning for one, its still not too late, but you only have about a month left, depending on when you hold it. Before I list…
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Nine Reasons Why I Love My Wife
Read More: Nine Reasons Why I Love My WifeSarah and I celebrate our 9th wedding anniversary today. When we were engaged, we somehow came up with a joke that we would be married for 60 years before one of us died. But when you do the math, that leaves us dead at 82 or 83 and I’d like to live at least 20…
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Including the Children
Read More: Including the ChildrenThe battle of Jericho has been immortalized in the Judeo-Christian conscience as the epic moment when “the walls came tumblin’ down.” So why don’t we remember the dramatic battle after Jericho? It is known as the battle of Ai. Ai was a city further into the Promised Land from Jericho. Joshua tried sending a small force…
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God and Money
Read More: God and MoneyWhen I was in college, I remember having a cloud of worry parked over my psyche every single day because I knew that I was taking out a LOT of money for school and I was going to have to pay it back. And it was during college that I decided my life theme verse…
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3,470 Hours Per Year
Read More: 3,470 Hours Per Year3,470 hours. If you’re a parent, that’s about how many hours per year that your children are awake and not in school or church. Church-going kids spend anywhere from an hour to five hours a week in church or doing church-related activities. Another 50-100 hours is spent sleeping, depending on the age of the child.…
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The Princess Problem
Read More: The Princess ProblemCheck out this article written by a professor at my alma mater, Taylor University. Her name is Amy Lepine Peterson and she offers a critique of Karen Kingsbury’s children’s books about princes and princesses. Here is the link to the article: http://tinyurl.com/9nbmofh Now that you’ve read it, here’s my thought: The character of a princess in…
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Be a Kid
Read More: Be a KidIn the words of my friend Dr. Richard Allen Farmer, try something bold and outrageous today. Hope this encourages you this weekend:
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Kids in Church: Children’s Service or Adult Service?
Read More: Kids in Church: Children’s Service or Adult Service?Think of all the “all-ages” events we go to in this life: baseball games, community festivals, museums, parks, shopping, concerts, movies, zoos, many restaurants, and volunteering in the community. Then there’s church – and in most churches, the first thing parents do when they arrive is check their kids into a parallel universe of Sunday…
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My Worst Juggling Injuries
Read More: My Worst Juggling InjuriesI get this question a lot. And the answers will probably surprise you. I have injured myself a handful of times while juggling (whether practicing or performing). By the grace of God, none of these injuries have been career-ending. I hope this list is an encouragement to you to keep going in work, ministry, family,…
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Family Night Idea for Your Church: “Family Connect”
Read More: Family Night Idea for Your Church: “Family Connect”On a Sunday morning when I was the Children’s Pastor at our church, two dads of kids in our children’s ministry bumped into each other in the foyer. Now, before I go on, let me say that at the time we were a medium sized church (about 450 people), so not everybody knew everybody else.…
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The Greatest Half-Birthday Ever
Read More: The Greatest Half-Birthday EverToday is my sister’s birthday (happy birthday, Rachael). But that also means it is my half-birthday, since I was born on September 27th, as I proudly announced to the kids in church this morning (I made them sing “Happy Half-Birthday” to me). They forgot the cake. This has been a wonderful day for many reasons…
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Daddy’s Little Princess
Read More: Daddy’s Little PrincessI think Keziah’s smile brings me so much joy because I love seeing her enjoy life and respond to my talking and smiling. Her smile is also just like her Mommy’s smile. Thank you Jesus for such an unexpected joy and blessing in our lives.
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Any De-Clutter Advice?
Read More: Any De-Clutter Advice?I’ve been reading and thinking a lot about simplicity and the elimination of clutter recently – maybe because the holidays and having a new child are two events that somehow create a mass of “stuff” around the house – and we just had both events happen in our lives recently. The holidays and our new…
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Transformers Have Always Been Cool
Read More: Transformers Have Always Been CoolAt least since the mid-80’s. I’m the one on the right. My sister Rachael in the middle and my cousin on the left. We were so proud of our little Optimus Prime and Megatron.
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Who Does She Look Like?
Read More: Who Does She Look Like?When Kezzie was born, one of my first reactions was “who’s child is this?” in regards to her looks. She was and is beautiful. And so is my wife Sarah. But I was having a hard time finding a likeness to Sarah or myself. So you get to weigh in. Who does Kezzie look like,…
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Teaching Kids Godly Character at Home
Read More: Teaching Kids Godly Character at HomeHere is a great real-life example of a family in our church who is living out Deuteronomy 6:7 in their home (“Impress them [God’s commands] on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.”). Click on the…
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4 Benefits to Being a One Car Family
Read More: 4 Benefits to Being a One Car FamilyI once read a book about living happily without a car. But Sarah and I like having at least one around. We own a 2001 Toyota Corolla with 176,000 miles on it. Sarah brought it into the marriage fully paid for and it currently shows no signs of dying soon. We change the oil and…
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Keziah Grace Joyner
Read More: Keziah Grace JoynerWelcome Keziah Grace Joyner, 7 pounds, 1 ounce, September 30th, 2010 at 6:50am. Mom and baby are safe and healthy.
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Waiting
Read More: WaitingNo baby yet – but taking guesses on the name; your only clue is that it is an uncommon female’s name in the Old Testament – I can neither confirm nor deny any guesses – but I might consider a prize if someone gets it – one submission per person 🙂
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Thoughts from a First-Time Dad-To-Be
Read More: Thoughts from a First-Time Dad-To-BeMy beautiful wife Sarah is due with our first child next month (3rd week of September). We tried, waited, and prayed for 4 and a half years to have a child before we got pregnant. We experienced the pains of infertility, such as seeing so many happy families with children all around us, some of…
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My Consumeristic Baby
Read More: My Consumeristic BabyMy unborn child currently owns about 3 times as many garments of clothing as I do. And we have not even paid a penny for any of them. Welcome to the world of receiving baby hand-me-downs.
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A Date With My Mother-In-Law
Read More: A Date With My Mother-In-LawI love my mother-in-law. Sometimes I actually feel like I get along better with her than my own wife does. Today, my wife spent the day with a friend and I was left to chill with Carolyn. We went up to Barr Lake State Park just northeast of Denver in hopes of catching some good…
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Christmas with Carolyn
Read More: Christmas with CarolynSarah’s Mom, Carolyn, visited us all the way from Denver, CO. We had a great time walking the streets of Richmond, VA and taking a few pictures along the way. Sarah and I have lived here for 2 years and pass some of these tourist sites all the time. It takes an out of town…
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Popular Posts
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“Holy Fools”: Exploring the Journey of Calling for Christian Variety Performers
I am happy to announce that my PhD dissertation has been published to ProQuest, an academic database for published research. I have made the dissertation open source, which means anyone anywhere can access the full content free of charge. Here is the full dissertation: https://www.proquest.com/dissertations-theses/holy-fools-exploring-journey-calling-christian/docview/2622316783/se-2 Please share far and wide. I am very much excited…
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The Easiest Large Group Game Ever
This is probably the easiest large group game ever invented. If you can think of an easier one, please let me know in the comments. Heads or Tails! This game of heads or tails involves EVERYONE in your large group. It is actually better the larger the group gets. There is an elimination factor to…
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Merry Christmas from the Joyners!
Greetings from our family in Richmond, Virginia! We are thankful for you, our friends and family. We are also thankful to the Lord for His gift of the love to us all this season. This past year has been a roller coaster of experiences and emotions, specifically regarding our spunky little Annie, who is now…
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Book Release! Incredibly Bad Dad Jokes
I have been writing down my original Dad jokes for several years now, but recently they dramatically increased. While the past five months of my life have been the toughest for me as a Dad (with Annie’s medical crisis), the Dad jokes actually came out in full force during this season. You see, in my…
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A Children’s Ministry Poem
From the mouths of children come questions galore about heaven and angels and Satan and more. They speak what their hearts say without holding back, so the wonder of God is something they never lack. Oh God, who are you? Who inspires the minds of little ones many, so that they may find this Jesus…