Author: John Smith

By Rae Barnes The lyrics of the song “Oceans Deep” are running through my mind often these days. It is played so often on K-Love that it could just become background noise: a mundane hum that you hear over and over, day after day. This isn’t too unlike my life right now. I have four...

By Melanie Kauffman Among New Life’s many ministries is the young adult ministry called Crossroads. We meet every Tuesday night for worship, prayer, and to study God’s word. Over the years we’ve also had nerf battles, bonfires, holiday parties, retreats, camping trips, and more movie and game nights than I can count. As we often...

By Linda Ruth Paskell This most recent New Life Women’s Retreat was the first one I have been to in over 20 years! Some things never change. The warm welcome, the creativity, the worship and teaching were all so reflective of the gospel warmth and hospitality that New Life has always been known for. The...

By Anna Morrow In March my family visited my brother in Santa Monica, right outside of LA. As he drove us around, we marveled at the green leaves and beautiful houses. One day he pointed out a narrow set of stairs. I saw about twenty steps that led straight up to even more steps hidden...

By Anita Anderson I’ve never been disciplined at writing in journals. Yes, as a teen I wrote in a diary…for a while. When traveling as an adult, I recorded the sights and events of my days…for a while. But I’ve never felt comfortable writing down my thoughts and ideas. Like my journal writing, I haven’t...

By George Caruso “Six days you shall labor and do all your work” – Exodus 20:9 Could you imagine our society if God set up a rhythm of six days’ rest and one day work? Of course we see just the opposite pattern established in creation. God is introduced to us in Scripture as a...

By Melanie Kauffman I have a distinct memory from a weekend retreat I attended as a junior-higher. Someone had set up a blackboard with two halves: “Things we want to talk about this weekend, ” and “Let’s not talk about this.” Naturally, someone wrote “sex” in big capital letters in the “not” half. The room...

By Jane Highley Last month, I attended a Harvest USA workshop called “Women Helping Women.” I knew that, as a youth group volunteer, I should attend. But I also had a few other reasons to go. But when I arrived to the packed room upstairs, I wondered why all these women were here. What were...

By Lisa Leahy We’ve been studying Esther in Women’s Bible Study. It’s been stunning to see God’s sovereign hand directing the lives of each person in the story, including a young adopted Jewish girl, her uncle and a pagan king. I wonder at how God’s power is so often with the weak, marginalized and powerless,...

By Sharon Brennan For Christmas break in my second year of college, I went home to spend the holidays with my parents. Shortly after New Year’s Day, we experienced a house fire. I knew they needed help, so instead of returning to college, I got a job. The biggest challenge for me was buying clothing...

By Elise Elise is a member of our Sr. High Youth Group I had the wonderful opportunity to attend the Senior High Winter Retreat for the first time this year. Jim Lovelady spoke over the weekend and I was able to take important lessons away from it all. He mainly spoke about how “We Are...

By Katie Ruby InterVarsity Christian Fellowship exposed me to many people in college who chose urban ministry. But I thought to myself, “That’s nice, but not my calling.” I guess you shouldn’t say that unless you’d like it to be your calling. Then one summer I served with InterVarsity in the inner city of Lancaster,...