Auld Lang Syne began as a poem, penned in 1788. It told the story of two old Scottish friends with a history together that was worth remembering. As they sat and drank a cup of cheer, they remembered the past with fondness, for old time’s sake—or in their native tongue–auld ...
Read More »God is Ready to Welcome You
There was a time in history when making it to the teenage years was a milestone, a time when one in three infants died before they learned to walk. In the early centuries of American life, big families were the norm because all mothers knew that they would bury at ...
Read More »The Birth of New Hope
As the ship christened Wolf traversed the Atlantic in 1720, a young woman aboard named Elizabeth Wilson gave birth to a baby girl. While she lay recovering from the birth, counting her little daughter’s fingers and toes and admiring her Irish red hair, a band of vicious pirates forced their ...
Read More »The Book That Holds Power and Life
Ann was beautiful, with long, auburn hair and fair skin. She was kind-hearted, a soft whisper of a pioneer woman, like her name. She was 16 in 1829 when she traveled from Kentucky with her parents, James and Mary Ann Rutledge, and her nine siblings, to the open prairie of ...
Read More »Beginnings Matter
Beginnings often hold the promise of good things. When my grandparents were married in 1927, it was a time of new hope for both of them. My grandfather had finally regained his health after suffering from Tuberculosis brought on by weakened lungs after he contracted influenza during the 1918 pandemic. ...
Read More »