Swept Away

Thursday, April 18, 2019. It was Senior Skip Day at Christ’s Church Academy in Jacksonville, Florida. A big deal for 17-year-old friends Heather Brown and Tyler Smith. They had been looking forward to this high school milestone all year. Along with six other seniors, they decided to spend the day at popular Vilano Beach, near St. Augustine. Spurred on by brilliant sunshine and temperatures in the eighties, the teens had planned a full day of swimming, sunbathing and beach volleyball. There was a High Hazard flag—a red flag warning beachgoers of “high surf and/or strong currents”— hoisted on the beach’s parking lot flagpole as the teens arrived, but they rushed past it.

Rescue Dog

What on earth is Jimmy doing?

Fruit of the Spirit

In just over two hours, I was expecting 100 people at my house for my father-in-law Larry’s seventieth birthday. I was right on schedule, putting the finishing touches on my corn casserole, when I froze. Where was the can of corn? I ran to my pantry, thinking I might have left it there. No luck.

News From Around Our Wonderful World

West Deptford Township, New Jersey Some of Austin Schwarz’s favorite childhood memories were spent on his dad’s fishing boat.

The Best Travel Agent

The lake caught my eye in a glint of January sunlight.

Heavenly Scent

It was a Saturday afternoon.

On The Road

I stuck my thumb out into the biting wind. I was somewhere in Utah, trying to hitch a ride as the daylight faded. It was bitterly cold and beginning to snow. I had on a coat and the combat boots I’d worn in Vietnam. But not much else to protect me from the late spring snowstorm.

Lost Trail Road

The truck bumped and jolted as we drove up the steep gravel road through a dense green forest.

Q&A Dr. Charity Virkler Kayembe

A DREAM EXPERT AND AUTHOR ANSWERS OUR MOST PRESSING QUESTIONS.

The Billboard

Take a gun and end it all, Sheryl, said a dark, mocking voice in the back of my mind. End it and all this pain and worry will be over.

The Beekeeper's Dream

Hummmmmm…

Freedom Rings

The night I had the dream began like most nights—with me lying awake on my prison cot, each excruciating detail of my arrest and sentencing running through my head. It had been years since I’d been convicted for a crime I did not commit, but the entire ordeal was still fresh in my mind. As soon as I lay down in my cell to try to sleep, the replay would begin. This particular night started out no differently….

The Abolitionist

The Abolitionist

A Small Corner Of The World

In this world is darkness, so let us shine—You in your small corner and I in mine.

A New Calling

Frank is my acupuncturist.

Not in This World

I was afraid of the water. Always had been. I couldn’t even swim.

Buried Alive

Coins. Bullets. Buckles. Bayonets.

The Search

“Something is following us.”

Wonderful World

Las Vegas, Nevada It’s been more than six years since Larry Giese, a retired Marine and a police officer, lost his 24-year-old son, Lance Cpl. Joseph Ryan “Goose” Giese, in Afghanistan.

the eternal heart

i thought i knew death. i knew its stark finality. i’d seen it up close. a nurse is supposed to get used to death, accept it as a fact of life. but witnessing death come to someone who meant the world to me made me question everything. was death simply a full stop? was there nothing more?

Wonderful World

Camrose, Alberta, Canada When Mary Grams lost her engagement ring while weeding on her family farm in 2004, she was devastated.

That Nagging Feeling

“Hi,” I said into the phone, leaving a message.

The Four Miracles Of Dunkirk

You may have seen the hit movie Dunkirk, director Christopher Nolan’s powerful tribute to the real-life World War II drama that unfolded over 10 days in 1940, on the shores of France. But there’s more to the story than what was shown on the screen. To wit, four miracles that changed the course of the war.