When I was in my early elementary school years, one of the teachers showed us a documentary about how climate destruction was going to result in another ice age. The film showed the miserable state of humanity living in perpetual winter and scraping...

When I was a kid, I remember being called a “bookworm” on more than one occasion. Last year I read an article that made me believe that the word doesn’t actually apply. Book worms burrow into books and make them their homes. While I read quite a bit...

“The opposite of love is not hate, it’s indifference. The opposite of art is not ugliness, it’s indifference. The opposite of faith is not heresy, it’s indifference. And the opposite of life is not death, it’s indifference.” Elie Wiesel, the Hungari...

The Foot of the Cross Christian Store in Great Falls, Montana celebrated their second year in business a few weeks ago. The shop is a nonprofit shop and offers Christian books (both new and used) as well as other Christian products. They are located...

Palm Sunday and Easter will be taking place the next two Sundays, prompting people all over the world to join the Christians who have been remembering/celebrating the death and resurrection of Jesus. Last week, I started a series exploring the veraci...

With Good Friday and Easter fast approaching, the matter of how to approach these holidays arises for many people in this day and age. Last year, I wrote a series of articles looking at the various easter traditions that have arisen over the last...

The Big Sandy Girl’s Basketball team is heading to the state basketball tournament for the first time in 15 years. The girls team has spent the last week and a half resting, getting healthy, and preparing for their trip to Great Falls to face off aga...

8 years ago this week, Big Sandy residents witnessed a shoot out when two well respected locals got into an argument. One appeared to have gone for his gun, prompting the other to draw and fire. The paper described the injury as “mortal.” The art...

This year, I have been preaching through the book of Genesis’ accounts of the lives of the Patriarchs of the Jewish faith. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph are considered to be the founders of the Jewish faith and the starting point for God d...

A couple weeks ago, I received an email from a good friend in Big Sandy asking me for an urgent favor. The letter explained a series of unfortunate events involving a last minute gift, an illness, laryngitis (which made it so I couldn’t call for c...

Kierkegaard once wrote: “Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forward.” To be more accurate, this is a summary of a journal entry he wrote. The idea is quite simple. We can only really understand our lives by looking back at wh...

Parents of Big Sandy students started the morning last Wednesday, January 17th, with a potentially alarming text message announcement from the school. It read: “Last night Big Sandy School District and numerous schools across Montana received an e...

Many years ago, not long after I first got married to my wife, I worked in a retail electronics store for about 6 months while looking for work as a youth pastor. That included several months of Christmas retail sales. It was pretty genuinely...

A few years ago, I participated in the Master Gardener class that was offered at the Big Sandy Library. Learning about plants, soil, landscaping, and other topics was quite informative, but I think the best part of the class for me was learning about...

Big Sandy Schools is relaunching its adult education opportunities for the community. As 2023 drew to a close, the school stepped away from Covid era policies that limited facility usage for the community, which has opened the door for resuming the...

The biblical book of Genesis in the Old Testament tells the story of Joseph. Joseph was Abraham’s great-grandson. He had 11 brothers but was favored above the others by his father. His father’s open favoritism toward one son and early signs that Jos...