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We have news reporters to cover the White House, The United Nations, and correspondents who cover national and international news. We don't have anyone to cover heaven. The Apostle John was given a vision of heaven and wrote about it. The Apostle Paul saw the third heaven, but he wasn't allowed to talk about it; that was 2,000 years ago.The world is now changing drastically, and my friend, Anderson McCollister, is right in the middle of the changes. Anderson is an unpretentious family man, who wouldn't have the faintest desire to have a story written about him. However, I believe his story should be recorded and shared.Anderson is the most conscientious person I know. He is compassionate and somewhat idealistic; he wants the best for everyone! I've known him, since he moved from Indiana to retire in Tennessee. He and his wife, Ruth, bought a house and land in Sevier County over twenty years ago.Some people don't believe the story about Anderson; however, many people reject the stories in the Bible. Anderson's experiences were told to me by his sister, Lydia, and his best friend, Kenny, from Maggie Valley, North Carolina. When I first heard about Anderson, it took a while for my finite brain to process the phenomena.I finally realized that the incredible report did make sense; largely, because I'm living in a fast-changing world (and it isn't getting better). Just a few months after my community and the rest of the world started drastically changing, I believe Anderson got caught up in the middle of those changes.I was told that Anderson had some serious concerns about his sister, daughter and his best friend. I know that Anderson is a man of prayer, and I believe God heard his prayers. One day I would like to see Anderson again, and hear him tell about what happened. Fortunately, you can read the story for yourself, and determine the veracity of Anderson's journeys.

These sermons were preached over the span of a year sometime between 2017 and 2018 at First Presbyterian Church, Shreveport. Recently I had the opportunity to be present at Eugene Peterson's final public address at the Karl Barth Pastor's Conference on the campus of Princeton Theological Seminary. Because of Eugene Peterson's declining health, the address ended up being read by his son Eric. The whole address and talk were very moving and special. It was a privilege to be present and to be shaped once again by the words and writing of Eugene Peterson. In his address, which was an appreciation for the theology of Karl Barth, Peterson, in conversation with Barth, discussed the difficulties of sermons in written or book form. Perhaps a book is not the sermon's natural habitat. Sermons are events, occurrences, and attempts to declare the gospel of Jesus Christ to a particular people in a particular place in a particular time with particular concerns and particular events happening in their lives and in the life of the world. To write sermons down, to publish them, and to put them in book form risks removing them from the intimacy of the congregation in which they were preached, risks ripping them from the struggles a community may be facing, and risks placing them out of the intricacies of a congregation's context, setting, and ethos. All of this is true, and yet Peterson reminds us that there is still value in reading a sermon secondhand or putting the preached Word in published form, and that a 'prayerful imagination can and does supply much' of what might be lost when transported into a book. We Presbyterians are people of the Word and people of the word. We are people who are shaped and formed by the preaching and hearing of the gospel, but we are also people of the written word, people formed and shaped by the witness of scripture and the beauty of written language. As such, we place a high value on the use of words that express the Christian faith in ways that lead us to think and act and live beyond the presenting possibilities. So while these sermons and their words may be one step removed from the event of the gospel and the context in which they were proclaimed, I trust they are of some value to the reader's life of faith. By engaging them with a prayerful imagination, I hope these sermons can offer a window into the ways I believe Christ is at work through the pages of scripture, through the voice of the preacher, and through the ministry of the congregation, moving beyond us and moving us beyond, into the life of our world, where we are called to be Christ's church 'out there.'

An Easter story for Children describing what happen in Joseph of Arimathea's Cave in his back yard. It is simply written by Juanita Ellis and illustrated by Sharon B. Parker.It is published by dtbookcompany under its imprint, LSKidStuff.

A children's story about a rabbit named Wilma with a brood of bunnies. Wilma and the bunnies celebrate springtime and resurrection. The book is written by Juanita G. Ellis and illustrusted by Sharon B. Parker. It is many of its kind at www.lskidstuff.com

Reflections for Those Walking the Lonely Path of Pain