2008 heather campbell essay contest honorable mention I. I FIRST MET THE Rostov region of southern Russia as a missionary at twenty-two. I spent a year and a half wandering the streets, talking to strangers about Jesus: to the woman from Poland, her glasses tied around her head, as she pushed pieces of watermelon into [...]
Contest Honorees, Essays, Winter 2009
God Sees the Truth, but Waits
by Jes S. Curtis
Finding Courage
by Nicole Trone
WHEN I MET SISTER RORDEN I felt dwarfed by her height, but I saw kindness in her toothy smirk. She seemed patient enough with me when I snapped a picture of her sleeping on the night train, so I felt sure we would get along just fine. When we arrived in Odessa, Ukraine, I couldn’t help [...]
Reluctant Sower
by Dalene R. Rowley
LAST NIGHT AFTER MY OLDEST SON, Luke, went to bed, I knocked on his bedroom door. “I need to give you a hug,” I said. I hugged him good night, wanting to sear the memory of that hug, and the few we have remaining, into my heart forever. Or at least for the next two years. [...]
Keeping My Passport
by Lee Ann Setzer
“ . . . and the APs will put your passport in the safe.” My first evening in the mission home, I was introduced to so many new rules, inspirational thoughts, pieces of advice, and types of raw fish that I hardly heard this. In fact, by the time I left for the chilly reaches [...]
Daily Bread
by Emily Milner
AN ENORMOUS PLATE OF RICE sat in front of me, a mountain of rice, rice mixed with peas, an unidentifiable meat, and . . . ants? Yes, ants, the ants that marched many by many in Guayaquil, Ecuador. My food had already been blessed, but I blessed it again, fervently: ”Heavenly Father, I’m a missionary [...]
Book Review: 18 Months
by Emily Milner
18 Months Reviewed by Emily Milner 18 Months, edited by Melissa Baird Carpenter Published by Millennial Press, 2007 softcover, 171 pages ISBN 978-1-932597-46-2 $12.95 ONLY TWO PARAGRAPHS INTO READING Amy Ward McLaughin’s “The Butterfly,” from 18 Months, and I was a greenie again in Ecuador: “Bugs hovered and waded through the soupy air, and our [...]
Contest Honorees, Poetry, Summer 2007
Law of the Harvest
by Melody Newey
Poetry Contest Honorable Mention I curl myself around warm food in my belly— ancient, first and only comfort. I’m supposed to be rejoicing, sending my son into fields of white all ready to harvest. On sky blue sheets my heart tumbles out of my sickled chest, sends hope and sorrow to heaven where the sower [...]