Forney Charities
Improving communities by helping residents, one person at a time.
Category: Uncategorized
Do Not be Afraid
We live in a fearful age. “Precarious” describes the situation of many folk these days. Many of us think the country is headed in the wrong direction, with a sociopathological narcisist at the helm. Heroid incarnate. Destitution is everywhere. On the streets you can… Continue Reading “Do Not be Afraid”
All Changed into Blessing
What’s in a name? As parents about to be at the rather advanced age of 40 and 41 we felt especially blessed that a first child was on the way. We had been married 17 years when we found out we were expecting. I’m… Continue Reading “All Changed into Blessing”
Holy Resilience
It is ever into a world torn asunder that faith is birthed. Isaiah speaks to a desolate people, brutally slaughtered, hauled off to exile. Sing us a song of Zion their captors taunted. “How can we sing the Lord’s song in this God-forsaken place,”… Continue Reading “Holy Resilience”
Fire From an Old Stump
As a young boy I was immersed in our family’s history. Both sides. From my father’s side, it was West Virginia and the Forneys who had been on that land since 1804. There’s where the family graveyard sits, on a small portion of those180… Continue Reading “Fire From an Old Stump”
Instruction Shall Go Forth
“Johnny, don’t go beyond the curb,” my mother would admonish me when I asked to go outside. And if the ball goes out into the street, let someone go get it for you. All instructions to keep me safe. Later there would be other… Continue Reading “Instruction Shall Go Forth”
The Day is Coming
At a student conference at the University of the Pacific in Stockton, California, I first encountered a mature, muscular understanding of the Christian faith I had received from Sunday school. The Rev. Joseph Wesley Matthews had been holding forth for several days on an… Continue Reading “The Day is Coming”
And My Eyes Shall Behold
I remember that as my father got older and began to decline, he would sometimes ask me that I thought happened to us after death. While he was not a church-going person, he had grown up in the cradle of what we now know… Continue Reading “And My Eyes Shall Behold”
Saints Steadfast to the End
If there’s somethin’ strange in your neighborhood · Who you gon’ call? (Ghostbusters!) If there’s somethin’ weird, and it don’t look good. Who you gon’ call? (Ghostbusters!). Well Halloween’s over and the vampires, skeletons and ghosts have put their costumes away for another year. But… Continue Reading “Saints Steadfast to the End”
An Eruption of Prayer
It has oft been said that there are no atheists in foxholes. When shells are bursting all around, the air is rife with prayer every bit as with smoke. Deafening explosions and smell of cordite bring forth from the human breast desperate sighs and… Continue Reading “An Eruption of Prayer”
Love in A Leprous Time
In 1985 the noted Columbian novelist, Gabriel García Márquez wrote Love in the Time of Cholera. The story is set in an un-named, steamy South American country at the time beset by multiple outbreaks of cholera.[1] The main characters are caught up in tempestuous… Continue Reading “Love in A Leprous Time”
