Retired pastor Sam Duree, age 77, could be enjoying his golden years in an easy chair. However, instead of just letting the days fly by, Duree is building birdhouses to support a Moscow seminary.

Duree spends four hours a day planning, sawing, sanding, drilling, gluing, and nailing cedar fence pickets in a workshop in his garage. He then hits the road with 35 different kinds of birdhouses, selling ...

Editor's Note: This is a great scene that shows the mindset of someone consumed by materialism. A word of caution is in order, however: Toward the end of this clip, the last 5-8 seconds or so can be interpreted as being sexual in nature. Though the general ratings system does not list the scene as sexual in nature, we were concerned enough to give you ample warning should you use this scene. You will ...

In his book The Cell's Design: How Chemistry Reveals the Creator's Artistry, Fanzale Rana gives the following account of the approach used to authenticate a piece of artwork by Picasso, often referred to as The Unknown Masterpiece:

In the early 1970s, a junk dealer came across five ink drawings while clearing out a deceased woman's apartment in London. He hung onto them for several years, [and then] ...

In many ways the Pixar's animated film Wall•E is a story about coming home. It tells the story of a lonely robot who for 700 years has been cleaning up the trash left behind by humans on an abandoned planet. Wall•E stands for "Waste Allocation Load Lifter–Earth class." While we are never told so, it is likely that Wall•E is the last operating robot on the planet. All of the human ...

In the winter of 2007, a close friend of mine was felled by not one but two brain aneurysms. For weeks she lingered on life support, growing weaker each day. As her condition deteriorated, her children were called in to say their goodbyes, and her church prepared for a funeral. Then Linda suddenly snapped out of her coma. As she came to, she looked over at her husband and asked, "Where is everybody ...

The American public's support for Roe v. Wade has reached its lowest point since the Supreme Court issued that 1973 decision legalizing abortion, according to a survey released in May of 2006. The Harris Poll reported 49 percent of more than 1,000 adults surveyed expressed support for Roe, marking the first time less than half of the population endorsed the ruling. Forty-seven percent opposed Roe, ...

One of my most painful leadership lessons came shortly after I graduated from seminary and began to work in a church as a full-time pastor and leader. I was asked to be on a committee that worked with incoming seminary students who were training for full-time ministry. One of our responsibilities was to determine if students had financial needs.

At my first meeting, this group looked over four requests ...

Dr. Katrina Firlik was the first woman admitted into the neurosurgery residency at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. Her recent book, Another Day in the Frontal Lobe, provides a glimpse into the training of a brain surgeon. In one chapter she shares a story from the last year of her residency—a time when she was already becoming jaded to the tragedies of neurological devastation: ...

Most who champion on-line chat rooms and message boards argue that such technology encourages community. The question, however, is just how healthy on-line community really is. Emboldened by anonymity, people often say things to others that they would never say face-to-face. Armed with a certain sense that "this isn't really the real world," people have little concern for the consequences of their ...

College English professor Jess Decourcy Hinds, of Brooklyn, New York, recently lost her father to a painful battle with bone cancer. Following his death, she was bothered by the central messages of most sympathy cards she received. Many of the cards tried their best to talk her out of the grieving process. At best, the personal notes simply sought to distract her. Someone inquired, "Are you applying ...