Issue #53 | Mar 01, 2017

Celebration

THE LAST VISIT to my parents brought up some feedback they had for inheritance: “Why are all the stories so sad? Can’t you tell a story with a happy ending once in a while?”
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Cover illustration by Maggie Chiang
In Search of Stronger Spells
By Justin A. Bailey

IS THERE STILL SPACE for joy in a disenchanted world? This is one of the questions that sent me back to seminary.

At a 2 but Rolling Like an 8
by Wendy Hu-Au

AS AN ASIAN AMERICAN, I often feel selfconscious or distrustful of my feelings of happiness. I never wanted to come across as happier than others because that could make me seem insensitive or noncommunal.

Church as a Transcendent Collective
by Chucky Kim

“COMMUNITAS AND COLLECTIVE effervescence describe aspects or moments of communal excitement; there is no word for the love — or force or need — that leads individuals to seek ecstatic merger with the group.” - Barbara Ehrenreich

Joy I Cannot Share
BY Serena J. Poon

MY PARENTS are a power couple in the Chinese Christian community in the United States and abroad. I liken them to the Clintons; they have an equal and equitable partnership and are both seen as leaders.

Finding and Feasting in Mongolia
by Eunice Hui

MY HUSBAND AND I never intended on living overseas, much less being overseas missionaries. But in 2014, we took a two-week trip to Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, and something inside us was awakened.

Joy to the Lord
By Aimee Price

AS A CHILD I was taught that God was a caring God. He cared about what I felt and what I was going through. However, when my husband, Ben, was diagnosed with stage 4 colon cancer in 2013, that belief of God was challenged and questioned.

Guilt, Pain, and Shame
By Andrew Tran

WHEN I WAS 4 years old, my very first memory of my father was how he used guilt to discipline me. “Don’t do that, Andrew, you don’t know how long I have to live.”

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