A few years ago, I hosted a birthday party at Third Degree Glass Factory. With hors d’oeuvres in hand, we casually sidled up to the demonstration area. I was jostled out of my reverie by the site of the largest, hottest, fire blazing oven I’d ever seen. Amazed, we watched…
The longer I sit with people, the more I am convinced that technique, skill, and insight alone cannot really transform without one key ingredient. It is simply love. Getting to the place of being simply loving, however, seems to be a complicated business. It requires that I know my heart,…
The power of gratitude has become a focus of much research in the field of psychology. Much of this research has been done by two psychologists in particular, Dr. Robert A. Emmons and Dr. Michael E. McCullough. In one study, three groups of participants were asked to briefly journal about…
Recently, my daughter injured her back. The doctor showed us a picture of a nicely curved healthy spine. Then, he showed us my daughter’s x-ray. She and I both exchanged alarmed looks. Repetitive blows from years of gymnastics had created misalignment in key areas that were now affecting her body’s…
She came into my office and unfurled the map. Circled in red pen were the communities she knew, home to the people she loves. “I want to bring the kind of counseling CrossRoads offers to my part of Illinois. They don’t have anything like this.” she said. Patty had been…
A few years ago, I reluctantly took up running. Not exactly marathon running – more like couch to 5K running. It worked great for a while . . . . and then it got cold. Really cold. I have some genetic limitations – my people are Floridians. After a long…
There is a particular glory in the way God weaves stories together as the Great Storyteller. Somehow, He’s able to use both deep sadness and great joy to bring about His will. In August of 2014, Becca Brand started the Master of Counseling program at Covenant Seminary after serving an…
My world has expanded greatly since becoming a counselor. Each month I spend some time with people who are providing medical care in Africa, building friendships in an Islamic mosque, pioneering new work in India and building a new community center in South America. In the course of our sessions,…
We are thankful for all the people God has brought through our doors this year and for the ways He has provided financially for our ministry, and we continue to match people with the counselors they need regardless of what they can afford. Thus far in 2017, we have: Held…
She came to us because DCFS had told her she was in danger of losing her children. She loved her children, and having grown up in foster care, she couldn’t let that happen. Never being able to trust that anyone would stay, she had developed a manipulative way of relating…
