(a Steve Orr Advent reflection)   The full moon was the brightest light in a cloudless sky. Countless stars glittered around it, gilding the winter night all the way down to the mountaintops. We could hear the swish of the sleigh’s runners through the powdery snow and the faint rhythmic jingle of bells on the horse’s collar.    We were actually “dashing through the snow in a one-horse open sleigh.” It’s one of the main reasons we chose Franconia, New Hampshire, for our winter

By 1965 we had two children, with Karol only 3 months old. We went to NZ to start the first summer school of SIL in that country and Joice carried Karol to her teaching classes in a large woven New Guinea basket. We had some amazing things happen and we needed them because we knew nothing about starting a school.  One example happened quite unexpectedly, like such things do, and I referred to it in an earlier essay. A professor of linguistics from the University of Michigan a

(a Steve Orr Bible Reflection for Advent)  In the Charles Yu short story collection,  Third Class Superhero , Nathan lives in a world full of super-powered beings. But Nathan is not good enough to be one of them. Oh, he has a power—of sorts. But it’s too meager to qualify for full-time heroics. So, instead of zooming to the rescue of someone in desperate need of saving, he works a thankless job that barely covers room and board.   What’s a third-class superhero to do? I know

I have taken you, the reader, through 23 chapters of “On Missionaries: A Personal View,” many of them dealing with Joice’s experience with cancer.    I started the series by reflecting on how I “became” a missionary, not called in the sense of St. Paul or most of the great missionaries, but somehow convinced that I should “become” one. I really had no idea what that would mean. I was a 17-year-old senior in High School, about to go to college, which I thought would prepare me

(a Steve Orr Bible reflection)   The radial saw operator was cutting wood to needed lengths and widths. Closer to where I was wielding a hammer, some folks were standing about waiting for some of those sawn pieces. My own crew had finished assembling a few of the larger all-wood set pieces and now had nothing to do until more wood arrived.   We were  supposed  to be building the set for our annual musical. If we didn’t get it built, the actors were going to be singing  Camelo