We live in a culture of emotions. Feelings rule and we’re encouraged to “Go with your gut.” Our young people can be discouraged from planning because that might prohibit a fairytale serendipity from carrying them down a gilded path of joy and fulfillment. In fact, each person faces three very important decisions early in life. The effect of those decisions will have a great deal to...

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It had to happen, I suppose. After a week of mass numbers, gross results and overwhelming needs assaulting every sense — 230,000 killed in 30 seconds; 1,300 refugee camps; 3,000 helping agencies at work among victims; 80 percent unemployment; 50 percent literacy; only 40 percent with access to clean water — I thought I'd grown heart callouses hard enough to deflect any emotional tugs while I w...

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We’re in Haiti’s rainy season, which means “it rains sometimes,” according to Scott Daughtry, who coordinates the N.C. Baptist Men’s disaster relief effort here. Outside of the rainy season, it hardly ever rains and what you might think would be a tropical, lush paradise is more like the foothills above Colorado Springs — arid and dusty. But tonight it rained, dropping the temperature below 90...

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We returned with a medical team to Victorious Kids Orphanage today where we delivered cots, blankets and toys yesterday. The children greeted us with genuine joy — new friends who had returned already to say hello. They did not make a show of it, or even mention it, but they all were wearing the colorful flip flops Chad Hodges’ wife, Amy, had packed and sent with him, along with a suitcase ful...

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At the end of the day I peered into a just completed 12 x 12 shelter to see Klely sitting on the table in the center of the shelter, three children by her side, a smile of pride and joy on her face no less luminescent than if she had just been given the keys to the city. She will share that shelter with her husband Jeanlues Macenat and their eight youngest children. Volunteers mostly fro...

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