Not all theology survives contact with reality. What I mean is that theology can sound clear in a classroom or feel settled in familiar environments. Yet, once you step into a place that doesn’t share your assumptions, your pace, or your resources, what you believe gets tested quickly. For the past few years, I’ve had the privilege of serving on Manna Missions trips to island nations in … Read more
On the northeast side of the Bay of Bengal sits one of Southeast Asia’s hidden jewels: Myanmar (Burma). Myanmar is home to more than 55 million people and 135 ethnic groups. If London is the “whole world in one place,” then Myanmar is one place with hundreds of worlds. Different faces. Different foods. Deep sociological and economic divides. … Read more
I do not like to be late. I tend to believe punctuality is next to godliness…unless it involves me showing up late to Jiu-Jitsu, in which case I fully support missing warmups. I plan ahead. I think in contingencies. I want to know every possible scenario before it happens. I’m wired for information, analysis, and research. I check accounts more … Read more
Summer has a way of loosening things. Schedules relax. Deadlines soften. Rhythms shift. For many college students, summer feels like an exhale. For those who do not take summer courses, it means papers are submitted, exams are done, and the pace slows. And that is good. As I’ve said in previous posts, rest is not … Read more
There is a stretch of road I travel often. We call it the Military Highway. It runs through places like Fort Leonard Wood, Killeen, Newport News, West Florida, Hawaii (I know it’s in the middle of the ocean), Sanford, the NC Capital Area, and Colorado Springs. Soon, it will run through Clarksville, TN. The time … Read more
Commencement is a strange word. In higher education, we use it to describe the end of something. But it actually means beginning. Every May at Manna U, we gather to celebrate degrees earned, assignments submitted, research defended, and perseverance proven. Families fill the room. Names are called. Applause rises. It feels like an arrival. But commencement is not an arrival at all It is a … Read more
Every year, someone asks me a version of the same question: Why the UK? It is a fair question. In a world of digital classrooms, Zoom lectures, and AI-driven research tools, why put students on a plane and fly them across the Atlantic? Why invest the time, money, and energy required for international travel? Simple. Because formation requires exposure. At … Read more
Family has a way of exposing us. I come from a large one. Two brothers. Two sisters. Fourteen nieces and nephews. A growing collection of grand-nieces and nephews. Add in aunts, uncles, cousins, and in-laws and you get a room full of people who know exactly how to push each other’s buttons. There is no argument quite … Read more
Division is not new. In the twentieth century alone, we watched governments weaponize difference with devastating efficiency. Nazi Germany built citizenship around bloodline. Apartheid South Africa organized daily life around racial hierarchy. Belgian colonial policies in Rwanda hardened ethnic distinctions into permanent identity categories, setting the stage for unimaginable violence in 1994. Each of these systems relied on … Read more
Hope may be one of the most misused words in Christian leadership. We often talk about hope as optimism, relief, or resolution. Hope becomes shorthand for things working out, pressure lifting, or circumstances improving. In that framing, hope functions like escapism. Resurrection hope is something different. In Scripture, resurrection does not erase suffering or rush past it. It … Read more
