Where is your treasure?
As a child, I loved to visit my grandmother Sabina’s small house in the mountains. Aunt Iota lived next door, so my sister and I would spend our days exploring with our c... »
Rosane Pereira
Follow the melody
In The Sound of Music [[Robert Wise. 20th Century Fox, 1965.]], the mother superior tells Fraulein Maria, the boisterous postulant nun, to leave the convent to help a mot... »
Building good workplace relationships
I have a neighbor who is a very good handyman. A while ago, he did some work for us in the house but seemed to be very grouchy and out of sorts. When I tried to help or g... »
Help comes from the Lord
A missionary’s husband passed away at the age of 37, leaving her with seven children aged seven months to 14 years old. Her husband was in the process of emigrating from... »
Getting an early start
I recently took my teenage son to an ecotourism project in the big Complexo do Alemão group of favelas [slums] in northern Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. There are cable gondola... »
Dance according to the music
We can learn a lot about coping with change from the classic musical Fiddler on the Roof. [[Music by Jerry Bock, lyrics by Sheldon Harnick.]] The story takes place at the... »
Discovering faith
I grew up in a Christian family, but at 13 I declared that I was an atheist. When I was 18, I left my hometown of Rio de Janeiro with a backpack and set off to see the wo... »
Day by day
As I begin this New Year, I am reminded of that popular song of the 1970s: “Day by day, day by day, oh, dear Lord, three things I pray: To see thee more clearly, love the... »
The secret supply
There is an old fable about two neighbors who planted similar orchards. One watered his plants every day, but the other, only every few days. When the dry season came, th... »
Tears and mends
When I was a child, my mother used to keep a pile of clothes to mend, mostly belonging to us kids, by the sewing machine, and she would patiently work on them every Satur... »
Beckoning me onwards
I grew up in a Christian family, but at 13 I became an atheist. When I was 18, I left my hometown of Rio with a backpack and set off to see the world. I visited the Briti... »
The King’s banquet
My mother often cooked something special on Sundays. I can still remember the big open window in the living room, the unfolded table spread in the center, the delicious f... »
My Aconcagua
When I was a child, my father joined a mountain-climbing club where people from all around Rio would meet on Sundays to climb together. Once he had learned the main track... »