“Opperman!” It was my boss. “You have a call on line two. It’s a personal call.” My daughters knew not to call me at work for anything less than an emergency. As I approached the desk, I remember wondering what would constitute an emergency in their world on that particular day. Only it wasn’t my daughters calling. It was Dad. He stammered a bit and asked me to meet him at the emergency room. It wasn’t his words so much as the rhythmic counting of someone doing CPR in the bac

WHAT A WEEK! Christmas always makes me a bit sappy. When I hear the traditional versions of carols by Nat King Cole or Bing Crosby, I can’t help but smile. When I came across the original “Rudolph” while flipping channels, I just had to watch it through to the end; and I still laughed at the lame jokes and cheered when Cornelius made his way back to Santa’s. When I heard Run DMC ‘s “Christmas in Hollis” playing on a radio, it brought a nostalgic tear and a lump in my throat a

The alien who resides with you shall be to you as the citizen among you; you shall love the alien as yourself, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God. –Leviticus 19:34 The family lived in constant fear. They didn’t dare go out at night when roving gangs controlled the roads. Trips to the market by day were occasionally interrupted by the chaos of gunshots too close to ignore. Two members of their family had been killed in the past year. This was not

Without a doubt, I have enjoyed a wonderfully blessed life right from the start. My childhood was pretty darned nice. We always had presents for birthdays and Christmas. There was always food on the table. The only times I didn’t sleep in a warm bed was when I chose not to. I don’t remember ever having old clothes or worn shoes. We lived in a nice safe town in the suburbs. Family and friends came around constantly. So it surprised the heck out of me when I found out just how

“A death is tragedy. A million is a statistic,” -Josef Stalin What would happen if a four-year-old boy in your neighborhood died of measles? An investigation reveals that mom couldn’t afford doctor’s office visits. In fact, she is struggling to put food on the table for her four children, all of whom are malnourished. Local news channels pick up the story and find that the children’s father died three years ago. The woman worked odd jobs where she could, often leaving the chi