One of my responsibilities as part of my new job as Director of Children and Family Ministry is to teach preschool chapel once a month. Like many churches, we have a thriving preschool on our campus and it’s a delight to see all those 3- and 4-year-olds gathered together in a squirmy mob on chapel […]
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One spring day in San Diego, I took the boys on a choose-your-own adventure walk. They took their scooters and a nickel. Every time we came to a fork in the road, they flipped their coin: heads to the right, tails to the left. They were excited about the prospect and eager to see where […]
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Last week, I joined the boys in the pond – a welcome relief from the heat and humidity. We splashed around, they climbed me like a jungle gym, they begged me to throw them into the water. When I got tired, I climbed onto the floating dock. I untied the yellow rope from the post […]
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This pandemic is a storm, and all of us are out on the open sea. Some of us are in row boats, and we feel every wave that comes crashing against us. we are rowing as hard as we can towards the shore, drenched, exhausted, and worried we’ll sink before we ever get there. Some […]
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It seems that our world has changed overnight, and we are now living in an alternate reality. Schools, churches, and businesses have closed for an indeterminate amount of time. Everything is uncertain, causing widespread anxiety. We are facing a crisis that no living being has encountered before and we grope in the dark, trying to […]
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We moved to France when I was seven. My parents had signed on to become lifetime missionaries and I was along for the ride. There were moments I definitely wanted to get off that missionary kid ride, and other moments when I wouldn’t trade the thrill of it for anything. But every October 31st that […]
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It’s the fresh start of a new school year. Last week, we caught a whiff of new beginnings as we milled about the school for Meet the Teacher night. It smelled of fresh paint, rubber blacktop, and dry erase markers. The nervous excitement among the Kindergarten parents was mirrored back to us by the Kindergarten […]
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Many years ago, I had a summer job as a night nanny for newborn triplets. The parents hired me to help with night feedings so one of them could sleep! Two girls and a boy… these were this couple’s only children. I remember one morning, in the moments just as the sun was beginning to […]
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It rained last month in San Diego. As is usually the case, TV journalists were on the scene, standing in front of puddles and cautioning drivers everywhere. In our family, wet weather means my husband can’t ride his bike to work, so we all pile into the family car to drop him off then bring […]
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Sarah K. Butterfield 