by jo | Jun 23, 2015 | Everyday Stories, Memoir & Essays, Travel
I convinced her to do the hike with me. It’s called the Devil’s Punch Bowl. Some of the reviews and bloggers were surprisingly dramatic about how hard of a hike it is and how much water you need to bring with you. (One blogger suggested something like 5 gallons per...
by jo | Jun 16, 2015 | Everyday Stories
photo credit: i’m not okay. via photopin (license) We were sitting in a smaller room in the back of the church and I had made fajitas for my volunteer staff of youth leaders for the middle school youth group I ran at the time. It was during the students’...
by jo | Apr 14, 2015 | Everyday Stories, Jesus Time, Memoir & Essays
“Do you know of any churches in Denver?” I texted a pastor I know from California when I had just moved to Denver last fall. He texted back right away: “Scum of the Earth Church. Pastor is Mike Sares. We went there last summer. If you want to go, I’ll let him know...
by jo | Mar 31, 2015 | Everyday Stories, Memoir & Essays
He must’ve been about 6 years old. His head full of blondish brown curls. He was tall, lanky, apparently even the “slim fit” pants would fall down because of his narrow width. I was a toddler, about three years old, with baby-fat chubby cheeks, big blue eyes, and...
by jo | Mar 24, 2015 | Everyday Stories, Memoir & Essays, Stories By Jo
We sat in a small, barren classroom with approximately twelve standard table desks, in three rows of four. A green chalk board spans the length of the front wall, and a small wooden podium sits off to the side at the front of the room — it holds handouts and chalk,...