Author: CW Spencer

My wife and I used to volunteer once a month at a local nursing home, equipped only with conversation and Kleenex. Not that we expected our room visits would bring any tears; it was just that the residents always appreciated the opportunity to add another box of tissues to their stash. Another stash the residents treasured was prizes via bingo: sunglasses, necklaces, bracelets, and hats. There were other prizes I can’t recall, except that they were colorful and glitzy like the others. A yearly carnival was held that offered more prizes, just in case there was …

It was six in the morning. The thermometer, as it had every morning so far, hovered stubbornly around 80. The sauna-like air wrapped around me and wrung out the first drops of what would be copious amounts of perspiration that day. The effect was magnified by the cup of scalding Starbucks I had just poured from the French press. I tolerate heat fairly well, though, so I was almost enjoying it. I hadn’t been in Ghana a week yet, but an early morning front porch quiet time had already become part of my routine. Seven, …

I had just spent a fantastic week in Orlando with my son. Matt and I watched a launch of the Falcon 9 at Cape Canaveral from cozy chairs on the warm, breezy beach. We said hey to Marilyn Monroe, Scooby Doo, and the Abominable Snowman at Universal Studios. We fed sea lions at Seaworld. Just throw food within 10 feet of them and they’ll snag it. Kind of like me that week. We even had an empty pickleball court behind our condo. Are they ever empty in Florida—or anywhere? Bonnie and a couple of our …

I’ve been camped in one ministry for over four decades. I’m a preacher of sorts, if you want to call me that. And if you don’t, that’s OK too. I’m a volunteer for Campers for Christ, an organization formed to bring church to campers. I take charge of a service at a local state park six or seven weekends a summer.  Dad was hoping I’d become a preacher like he was. However, I didn’t make it over to the seminary across the road from the college I graduated from.  He gave me a hard time at …