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By Iris Richard

When a pandemic enters our lives, when all around us morphs into a state
of uncertainty and chaos, it is natural to succumb to fear, anxiety, and worry.
Even though all of us are affected in one way or another, some suffer more severe
situations, face isolation,.. →

Willie and the Five-Minute Favor By Iris Richard

We were just finishing up the distribution
of fifty ten-kilo care packages to poor people—most of them widowed or disabled—in
a hall at the edge of one of the largest slums in East Africa.

              .. →

Countless stories and parables are being told of ‘small
beginnings’ that lead to greater ends and this is how my own
small-beginnings-story began.

It was a comment from a stranger that got me thinking about a change of direction
for the Social work with poor communities.. →

An imaginary letter to anyone who might face a rough spot in life or is in need of a ‘pick-me-up … perhpaps it could be written for you? …

Bill and I are old friends. When we met up for coffee recently, he told me about his struggles. His wife had developed a chronic condition.. →

By Iris Richard

          Tall clouds, the color of an angry grey,
hovered across the sky, reflecting the mood I had been entertaining all day.

          Like
the challenges which have.. →

Start with the Frog!

Written by  Iris Richard

I’m someone who tends to go by inspiration, and I’ve long been bothered by my scattered approach to setting goals, so I was searching for an effective way to make it through my to-do list. It seems so easy to pick out.. →

By Iris Richard

   It
was 1977, and Karl and I had left Germany the previous year in a camper. Our
journey had already taken us through Italy, what was then Yugoslavia, Greece,
Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan, and India. We hoped to make it to Nepal next, buy a
mountain.. →

By Iris Richard
The voices seemed muffled as I slowly woke out of the anesthesia following a medical procedure on my back.
I heard the doctor’s gloomy prognosis: “She might not be able to live a normal life and certainly she shouldn’t have any children with a serious back condition.. →

One of my favorite Bible stories has also been a guiding light to me since I first started working as a volunteer in foreign lands back in 1978. Over the years since then, it’s served as both a promise I could depend on and a nudge I couldn’t ignore.

This is how the story goes: God had.. →