BLOG––Finding Faith in Narrative

Vulnerable

Posted by April Bumgardner on

Last month Jean Vanier passed away at the age of 90. Vanier is the founder of L’Arche communities throughout the world in which individuals with and without physical, intellectual or emotional disabilities live alongside one another. His gentleness and counter-cultural love for others...

A Dirty Hope

Posted by April Bumgardner on

Recently, I read Shusaku Endo’s Silence and Graham Greene’s The Power and the Glory one right after the other. The first is a fictionalized account of the historically true persecutions Christian missionaries endured in Japan during the end of the Medieval period. The second takes...

Reading as a Church–for the sake of the world

Posted by April Bumgardner on

As I was growing up in the 1970s and 1980s, many people encouraged me to be involved in personal Bible study, as they phrased it. Finding time to read Scripture on my own and have my individual time with God was crucial in growing my faith. I believe in this deeply. However, a few years ago...

Culture Care

Posted by April Bumgardner on

  In 2009 Japanese-American artist Makoto Fujimura was commissioned by Crossway to create an illuminated manuscript, The Four Holy Gospels, in commemoration of the 400th anniversary of the King James Bible. It was published in 2011 as part of the English Standard Version. The abstract...

The Green Ember: A Book Review

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Posted by April Bumgardner on

“The Green Ember burns; the seed of the New World smolders. Healing is on the horizon, but a fire comes first. Bear the flame.” -S. D. Smith in The Green Ember, p. 364 Reading aloud with a beloved child in your life is just about one of the most enriching past times. It is...