This is how we arrived at Hope Heals Camp -- my daughter surveying the welcome party with a satisfied smile -- we were BACK! Getting to go as campers two years in a row is a rare blessing. (I heard camp had a waitlist of 1,000 people!)  After I returned home and began processing it, this voxology podcast reminded me how truly upside-down Hope Heals Camp is. Hundreds of volunteers pay a lot of money for the privilege of being with families like mine. Instead of fancy vacations, these folks brave the heat and humidity of Alabama, along with mini-scorpions(!) and bunkbeds, to come to a place where "GoodHard" is lived out. "Put that in your pipe and smoke it," as my friend Marilyn likes to say. In nearly all realms of life, families experiencing disability have to advocate, ask, and often plead for support and services. In many ways, our families are at the bottom of the social strata. At camp, we get to be pampered and "loved on," welcomed and applauded; our...

Sacred spaces transcend place. There's something intangibly otherworldly that defines a sacred space. So it was July 1st at a chapel in Northern Alabama. I'd heard tell of this sacred space made so by its physical beauty but, moreover, by what took place there. This compelled me to experience firsthand the Hope Heals Camp Talent Show. "Talent show" evokes memories of school auditoriums filled with earnest youngsters demonstrating their talents. This was something else altogether. To be sure, there was a stage and there were earnest youngsters and there was talent. Picture, however, a chapel overflowing with 500 people ready to cheer on everyone who graced the stage. My daughter's gymnastics routine met with the most full-bodied cheer I've ever witnessed. Grown men were jumping up and down, silently pumping their fists in the air since Miriam requested a silent cheer. Plenty of participants requested loud cheers and those raised the roof. Two acts in particular...

"There was a time when I thought it was a nuisance to be confronted with a problem. I tried to get rid of it. I tried to get somebody else to solve it for me. But that was a long time ago . . . Problems are learning and growing experiences. A life without problems would be a barren existence, without opportunity for spiritual growth."  (59-60) Peace Pilgrim kept track of the first 25,000 miles she walked, back and forth across North America, and then she stopped counting. After a 15 year preparation period, she walked for 28 years! As she explained it, "there's a great deal of difference between being willing  to give your life and actually giving  your life, and for me fifteen years of preparation and inner seeking lay between." (Peace Pilgrim, 8)  She gave her life for the cause of peace at the individual, community, national, and international levels. She traveled light, never accepted money, and only accepted food and shelter if freely offered. Her writings ...