The plane landed and my mask was completely drenched with tears and snot.  Before I boarded the two and a half hour flight from Charlotte to Madison I had called the CCU to check on my husband to see if he was still stable and if the CT showed anything new. The call had gotten disconnected, I was an absolute wreck.  My parents were there at the curb just as I walked outside.  Mom gave me a big hug...  Read More

My story is not one I particularly want to tell. It’s not one I like. Rife with drama, heartache and stupid decisions. Such is life I suppose.I grew up in a Christian home. Did the church-ey things like Sunday school and Awana. I accepted Christ young and got baptized in middle school. It didn’t become my own until high school when I made it my own. I was able to be in a small group that dove into...  Read More

It was as if I had heard “The Story I’ll Tell” message series 18 years before it was preached at North Ridge.  Three years before that I had been an unchurched, depressed teenager that was radically transformed by God’s grace during my senior year of high school.  Now as a college sophomore my faith had grown by leaps and bounds but there were parts of my sinful nature that needed to be addressed....  Read More

The book of Leviticus reveals the strict laws for people who have a disease/condition called leprosy. This disease causes one to be unclean and unworthy of living and worshiping God in the community. Instead, they were banished to live among other lepers outside of the city. They were required to live in shame by tearing their clothes, uncovering their head and expose their upper lip. They must in...  Read More

One of four amazing miracles our God has so graciously performed in my personal body and life played out on Interstate 694 in Minnesota. Having just flown into Minneapolis from Oklahoma on a flight that had been delayed one hour due to foggy conditions, a friend, Maxine, and I were intent on driving to Eau Claire with no additional delay in order to be on time for an appointment there.As I drove o...  Read More

You’d never guess that this was a day for an epic miracle merely by looking at the water.I’m staring. Staring at the subtle current, if you could call it that. It’s moving, but not even enough to be an official ripple. The liquid dances and somehow seems to return to where it was, but on a microscopic scale. I did what was asked… walked to the edge, laughed in the face of fear and doubt, followed ...  Read More

When my daughter went to college, I struggled with becoming an empty nester because we did a lot together. With leaving home, difficult studies and tests, she did too. I went to church more often to pray for her strength and guidance from Jesus.In her second year of college she got pregnant, so there were more prayers for good health and a healthy baby. When my granddaughter was born the love of G...  Read More

I grew up in a church that was more interested in talking about hellfire and brimstone than anything else. They sure liked to highlight our depravity and unworthiness so much, but didn’t usually follow that up with the truth of the hope we had in Jesus. I remember a powerful turning point in my christian walk happened one Wednesday night at Bible Study.On this night, we were studying Romans. The H...  Read More

Someone was actually telling me what life was about, the plan! I had yearned for someone to just tell me what my purpose and life was about, I’m so glad that person was God.  Read More

It was the summer of 2014, I was almost 21. That winter before my mom and six younger siblings finally left my dad, Paul. His cover was blown and his sins lay rotting and ugly in the light of truth. Accepting the cold, hard reality of the life I had lived this far, the abuse I and my family endured and my deep grief was suffocating.  My sister worked at a Christian summer camp and I had a lot to r...  Read More