Journal

Tag: Kingdom Action

“Clearing Sacred Space”

“Clearing Sacred Space”

As we gathered up the tools, rain splattered the tarp, stretched tightly across the tools on the Haley’s farm truck.  Rain doused the orange flames, which sizzled and popped among the remaining embers of the burn pile.  Rain drenched like a cleansing shower as I took...
150 Years Later, Honoring The Victims…

150 Years Later, Honoring The Victims…

Clearing the Slave Cemetery at Corhaven Saturday May 16, 12.30pm-4.30pm This month we’ve marked the 150th anniversary of the end of the Civil War and then the assassination of Abraham Lincoln a few days later. Lincoln himself interpreted that bloody war in part as...

Relief for Nepal. . . There is much to grieve over

By: Gabriel Dodd There is much to grieve over. As I found out about the Earthquake in Nepal, I immediately thought of a colleague of mine who is from Nepal, and who’s wife and family are still in Nepal.  Today, I found out that his wife and father have survived,...
Mother Teresa and Spiritual Maturity

Mother Teresa and Spiritual Maturity

Several years ago, I was given the opportunity to teach on how Mother Teresa’s life exhibited spiritual maturity, and it afforded the opportunity to explore the meaning of her long “dark night”.   It was a privilege for me, and this talk became...

“There and Back Again”

Our pilgrimage to Israel and Palestine had several purposes.   We went to meet the peoples of this land.  We went to better understand the reality and complexity of the contemporary Holy Land.  We went to walk where Jesus walked.  Most importantly, we went to learn...

The Slave Cemetery at Corhaven

I’ve been waiting five years for this.  On the property of Corhaven, there is a slave cemetery dating from the mid-1800s.   While we’ve quietly and prayerfully tended it, it’s time to really honor our brothers and sisters who lay there.  This is no small feat, and one...

Prayers for Ferguson, and similar settings

We cannot escape the news and the situation in Ferguson, nor should we.  Lord, have mercy.  These events remind us that there is much work to be done for racial reconciliation in America.  Not only do we pray for peace in Ferguson, but we pray for change in our own...

A Car Dealership Doing the Work of God

“All work is God’s work.”  “Your work matters to God.”  “You are priests in the public square.”  “All church member’s are ministers.”  “Vocation is integral, not incidental, to the mission of God.”   These are assertive phrases one hears a lot around a church that...

A Most Powerful Prayer

Charles de Foucauld (1858-1916) from France was a small and simple man whose unusual life of great faith and sacrifice would come to inspire many Christians and non-Christians alike. Serving in the French army in north Africa, the religious devotion of the Muslims he...

When it’s not just over there, but right here

Recently I participated in discussions on how one in nine in the world lack clean water —the global unrest this creates and what the faith community is doing to respond.  “For me,” said an Arizona senator, “these issues are no longer over there but right...

“1201 in 5” Campaign

Dear friends and fellow-pilgrims, it’s summer so I’m going to keep this short and sweet!  So many good things are going on with Coracle and at Corhaven, and more is coming.   We’re at a place of being more ready and really wanting to invite more people into the...
A Light to the World is the Missio Dei

A Light to the World is the Missio Dei

This post was written by Gabriel Dodd During my first semester studying at Eastern Mennonite Seminary, I have enjoyed a class called Missio Dei in Cultural Context.  I have come to an understanding that if ten people were in a room, and we asked them what the Mission...

An Inspiring Story and Recommended Book

“They tried to put me in solitary confinement but that is actually impossible as God is everywhere.” James Mawdsley   What would you go to jail for in Burma?  Burma itself, in the case of James Mawdsley. Mawdsley is a Brit who, in the late 1990s, got...

Into the Tragic Underknown

“For years, Burma’s plight was one of the most under-reported tragedies in the second half the twentieth century.” Benedict Rogers, Burma: A Nation at the Crossroads I’ve been aware of just how little I know about Burma as the days before entering near.  The world is...

With Half of the World

We arrived after a full day’s journey from Washington to Singapore, 28 hours from door to door via Tokyo, Japan.  Flying over Southeast Asia, the little flight map on the plane showed us the cities that lay sleeping below…Taipei, Taiwan; Manila and the cyclone...