Author Archives: joyocala

Autumn started last Sunday, not that you’d notice in Florida. Where I’m from in Chicago the leaves are starting to change colors. Soon they’ll fall off the trees, and you have to rake them up. When I was a kid … Continue reading →

A student in my statistics class had come to my office for help. He was plenty capable, but since he was very active in student government and his fraternity, he hadn’t put in the time needed to master the material. … Continue reading →

Albert Schweitzer (1875-1965) was already a renowned organist and theologian when at age 30 he decided to become a medical missionary. He commented on his decision: “For years I had been giving of myself in words . . . But … Continue reading →

My calendar tells me that today, September 23, is the International Day of Sign Languages.  This wouldn’t have caught my eye, except that I have been taken classes in American Sign Language.  My new neighbor is deaf. If I want … Continue reading →

Yes, I am old enough to remember our family getting its first tv and the “rabbit ear” antennas that helped to fine tune the few channels we received. Apparently, car engines can be fine-tuned also, though that is out of … Continue reading →

While going through some papers and deciding what I would keep and what would be discarded, I ran across this piece written by Charles Swindoll, evangelical Christian pastor, author, educator and radio preacher who founded Insight for Living in Fresco, … Continue reading →

I learned a new fact during the Sunday sermon, as I often do. This fact involved the origin of the Sign of the Cross. Here I thought that after 20+ years of Christian formal education and almost 77 years of … Continue reading →

I am writing this on the last day I am receiving a newspaper delivered to my home. The Ocala Star Banner has decided no longer to deliver papers to customers. They still print newspapers, but I wonder how long that … Continue reading →

According to mythology, when St. Patrick was a missionary in Ireland in the 5th century, King Logaire of Tara decreed that no one was allowed to light any fires until a pagan festival was begun by the lighting of a … Continue reading →

What follows is my wife Debbie’s story. I share it with her permission. When Debbie was two, she suffered a penetrating brain injury. It was so horrific that the doctor told her parents she had maybe forty-eight hours to live. … Continue reading →