My big summer trip was great, but it has me thinking about when and where I might go next — On Sunday, July 10, I returned from a two-week mission trip to Uganda with Raise The Roof Academy. I’m more and more of the opinion that this was the best of my 10 foreign mission trips. As I explained in the post linked to above, some of my teammates from…

A trip to Uganda turns out better than my anxieties — NOTE: I was an individual volunteer for a mission trip sponsored by Raise The Roof Academy. Views expressed here are my own and do not necessarily represent those of RTRA or any of my individual teammates. Raise The Roof Academy is a little miracle located in a place called Bwandaseku…

Mission Possible, Bell Buckle United Methodist Church, June 20, 2022 — Mission Possible is a short-term mission event for youth at Bell Buckle UMC. The youth, most of whom spend the night at the church, spend several days going out during the day to do projects for individuals or families in the community. In the evening, they fellowship and worship. …

The first-ever Tennessee-Western Kentucky UMC Annual Conference begins — Well, the first day of Annual Conference was a success, I think. I got to Brentwood United Methodist Church early, and helped welcome people to a Stones River breakout session. The district breakout sessions, and the large group session that immediately followed them, were on the topic of transitions. Until…

Chex mix, or “nuts and bolts” as we always called it, can be a big holiday project — but it can also be an anytime, year-round treat — Each year on Thanksgiving, my parents’ house was packed with various family members, and as some of us sat in the living room watching parades or football, we passed the time cracking nuts. …

In this transition period, as cable gives way to streaming, there’s a hiccup that can be really annoying to the individual viewer. — The recent upfront presentations to advertisers included a lot of mention of streaming services. When Netflix first changed the way the world watches television, its ad-free presentation was one of its selling points. But as streaming services have proliferated, it’s become the case that you can’t afford to subscribe to…

Forget Disney’s princesses; the Disney heroine you want to see is a queen — of the chess board. — In the fall of 2020, with many Americans cooped up during the global pandemic, the Netflix series “The Queen’s Gambit” got a lot of attention, and brought a renewed attention to the game of chess. …

There are both in-story and behind-the-scenes explanations for the character starring in “Star Trek: Strange New Worlds.” — Back in the 1960s, the original “Star Trek” was kind of a hard sell. When it was first proposed, the board of Desilu Productions thought it would be too expensive, that even if a network picked it up it would lose money for the studio— and in the short term…

A story of how my favorite TV show prompted a culinary addition — One of my favorite, perhaps my all-time favorite, episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000 is based on the tedious, near-plotless Air Force drama “The Starfighters.” The movie stars future Congressman Bob Dornan as he learns to fly a specific model of fighter jet, the Lockheed F-104 Starfighter, while romancing a…