The first time my grandmother saw the Grand Canyon, she cried. I can totally understand why now. I’ve heard about this gargantuan geological treasure my whole life, of course, but it wasn’t until recently that I saw it with own bewildered eyes. We were on a long, epic road trip through New Mexico and Arizona …
When I was 22 and newly married, I worked as an essay grader for a standardized test that the State of Texas inflicted upon fourth graders. My job was to evaluate, on a scale from one to five, how well 10-year-old students across the state could describe a picture of an old time country store that …
Culture is strong stuff. It’s always bearing down on us, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. We usually don’t realize its shaping effect on our lives until we visit another culture. There we experience “culture shock,” because the way they do things is not the way we do things. If we lived in …
In the year 1700, a wealthy family in Germany gave birth to Nicholas Ludwig von Zinzendorf. Though raised in a Christian stream of pietism, little Ludwig adopted the standards of the noble class he grew up with, becoming a spoiled nobleman unconcerned by the plight of his poor countrymen who served his estate. But once when he was 16 and visiting an art museum, he saw a painting of the
I’m a desperate man. And I don’t think that’s a bad thing. I do think the way you and I sometimes feel about desperate people (avoid them) is way different than how Jesus feels about desperate people (they attract Him). I started writing this book out of desperate places in my own life, when my …
My kids started back to school this week, making me feel nostalgic. Some of that nostalgia is sweet, some not so much. I remember how desperate I was in junior high to get out of nerdom and into popularity, or at least semi-popularity. Here’s some context first. I grew up happily in a patch of soybean …
1) Get Savvy 2) Have a Blog 3) Post an article to your blog 4) Find an image of a savvy looking people at their computer as the thumbnail for your article 5) Create a teaser headline which includes the phrase “you won’t believe” to get people to visit your blog article, and then share it on social …
Lucky for that chicken, Duane was the one vegan on the team. We’re sitting cross-legged and tightly-packed on a straw mat inside a tiny house in this remote village of Flores, Indonesia. Our team of 12 has been warmly welcomed by Pak Bomas, the kind-hearted village chief. Bare bones infrastructure. No running water. But what these people …
Mike O’Quin’s international suspense novel Java Wake was released on Amazon in May of 2015 in both paperback and Kindle editions. Click here to read early reviews. Here’s a sample reading by the author from the first chapter, recorded at an early public reading, along with a brief description on his motivation behind writing it. P.S. To …
Hey all you Faith-Activating friends in the Austin area, I wanted to personally invite you to the book launch party of my new novel, Java Wake. Where else could we do this event in Austin besides the Austin Java cafe! We’ll enjoy refreshments, a sample reading from yours truly, a Q&A time, a book signing, …
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