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Wednesday, May 13, 2009

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During a break for our hard working Native American team, we took them to an action park. Many of them were attracted to the maze at the park. We love to capture team memories on video, so one of our guys managed to find a spot looking down on the maze to shoot some video. And, it's really pretty funny because everyone is running down these twisting passageways, hoping to be the first person to find the exit. Unfortunately, most of those passageways of course led to dead ends. So people are going full tilt, right into a dead end, hoping - even expecting - that this is the path that will get them where they want to go.

Thursday, April 30, 2009

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When Queen Elizabeth's mother, affectionately known to the British as the "Queen Mum," died at the age of 101, reporters did a lot of reflecting on her very special place in British hearts. Much of it was traced to the way that she stood by and supported her husband, the king, as well as the British people during the darkest days of World War II. Night after night, the German bombers would rain down destruction on England's largest cities. London lived largely underground at night, trying desperately to hold out against Hitler's determination to conquer their little nation. At one point, there was a rumor that Princess Elizabeth and Princess Margaret, then just little girls, were going to be sent to another country for their safety. When the "Queen Mum" was asked about that, this was her famous reply: "The girls can't leave unless I leave and go with them, and I can't leave unless the King leaves. And the King will never leave."

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

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My wife isn't really very big on jewelry, but she takes special joy in pieces that are family heirlooms, like an engagement ring that originally belonged to my grandmother. Over the years, the three small diamonds that had been in that ring had been removed. So, all that was left was a gold band with three empty settings. Well, my wife managed to get a great deal on some stones that she could have set in that ring. It wasn't particularly beautiful before. It's really beautiful now.

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

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When I meet people who went to elementary or high school with my wife, they tell me she was shy. I didn't know her then, but I have found that very hard to accept. From the time I met her at a Christian college, she was vivacious, she was outgoing and she was confident. I've asked her about this seeming contradiction. She actually says that both descriptions are right. In her secondary school years, she lived in the country with parents who gave her a lot of love and courtesy and spiritual wealth, but who didn't have much of what our world calls wealth. So, she lived in a home without the conveniences that many of her friends in town would consider basic. She didn't have money to spend on clothes or makeup, so she felt a little self-conscious in a campus world that was so much about the way you dress and the "stuff" you have. But when she got to a Christian college, suddenly everything changed. Here's what she said: "For the first time in my life, the playing field was level."

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

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Today he's a respected Christian professional in our community. But legend has it that he had a strong streak of mischief in him when he was a boy, and maybe even now. An older friend from their church told me that when this man was four, his pastor came up to him at a football game and sat down next to him. And the pastor said, "Well, Mark, what have you been doing with yourself lately?" To which Mark replied with a smile, "Would you believe praying?" To which his pastor replied, "No, Mark, I wouldn't believe it." Smart pastor.

Monday, March 2, 2009

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Our friend Barbara is incredibly creative - including creating jewelry. The other day she told us about how she made a beautiful gold ring. Actually the ring is designed in wax. When she has the ring design that she wants carved in the wax, she pours plaster-of-Paris around that molded wax ring. Then she puts it in an oven. Well, of course, the intense heat melts the wax away until there's no wax left, just a vacuum, shaped like the ring she wants. Then she puts this in a centrifuge, and that spins gold into the vacuum where the wax used to be. Gold rushes in where it was once just wax. And out comes something very beautiful and much more valuable.

Friday, February 27, 2009

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Every time the economy or corporate profits take another dip in their roller coaster ride, you start hearing corporations saying that word again - downsizing. Many companies have and probably will come to the conclusion that one way to increase their profitability is to decrease the number of employees they have. So they downsize to be more successful.

Friday, February 20, 2009

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A friend of mine has served on his local school board for many years. And the more demands that have been placed on schools in recent years, the more complicated the work of school boards and school officials has become. The other day one of those frustrations surfaced in our conversation. My friend said, "You know, our state keeps passing on mandates to us for things our school system has to do, but lots of times they give us the mandate without any money. They decide what we have to do, and we have to figure out how to pay for it."

Thursday, February 19, 2009

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When Lee Stroebel writes a book, he brings to it all the skills and the disciplines that he learned as a journalist. Lee was a respected reporter and, by the way, an atheist. Today, he is a powerful representative of Jesus Christ and a leader in reaching people for Him. While preparing for a recent book, Lee interviewed a wide variety of noted people to get their perspective on Christ. One was a man who was a gifted evangelist in the 1940s, a man whose ministry paralleled Billy Graham's; a man who was known by millions and actually expected to have a ministry like Billy Graham has had. But after he attended a liberal seminary to get more education, he shocked the Christian world by abandoning his faith. His media career in Canada gave him a lot of notoriety, and he often used that platform to express his unbelief.

Tuesday, December 30, 2008

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If you've flown commercially, you know you have to go through a security checkpoint before you can get to your gate. And for those security personnel who man those metal detectors and X-ray machines, there is this four-letter word that they won't tolerate. Of course it's the word "bomb." I remember hearing some people behind me in the metal detector line once talking about bombs, and I gently suggested they not say that word around airport people. You can see signs everywhere warning you not to even joke about bombs. And the slightest hint of the possibility of a bomb has been known to literally shut down an airport for hours - I've been there. That's fine with me if they want to check that out. Nobody in an airport wants to hear the word "bomb" because of what that word represents. That's something that could destroy everything.

                

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Hutchcraft Ministries
P.O. Box 400
Harrison, AR 72602-0400

(870) 741-3300
(877) 741-1200 (toll-free)
(870) 741-3400 (fax)

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