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Mission Adventure in Ecuador

June 25, 2016 by Karen Blankenship Leave a comment

I still remember watching the ‘Fasten Your Seat Belt’ sign come on. As the plane descended, I got my first glimpse of the Andes Mountains. When the wheels of the plane hit the runway, my stomach was filled with butterflies as we landed at the tiny airport in Quito, Ecuador. It was my first mission adventure. I was 19. I experienced so many firsts that summer. Seeing bananas, bamboo and coconuts grow along the road were new to me. Living in ...

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Changing Your Thinking For The Better

June 2, 2016 by Karen Blankenship Leave a comment

I recently finished reading a great book titled 18 MINUTES by Peter Bergman. I learned a lot from this book – but one of the most interesting things I learned about was a term known as ‘confirmation bias.’ Confirmation bias describes how we look for information, behaviors, and evidence that show us things are the way we believe they should be. In other words, we look to confirm that we’re right. For example a person holds a belief that ...

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4 Reasons Your Kids Need To Be In Church

May 25, 2016 by Karen Blankenship Leave a comment

With extracurricular activities bombarding families these days, the dilemma that so many face is making church attendance a priority for the family. Weekends are jam packed with sports, dance recitals and the list goes on. John Bartkowski, a Mississippi State University sociologist and his colleagues recently conducted a study to look at the effects of religion on child development. They asked the parents and teachers of more than 16,000 ...

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Reflecting on Good Friday

March 24, 2016 by Karen Blankenship Leave a comment

Several years ago, I came across this reading by Max Lucado. It has become a tradition for me now, to read it on the Eve of Good Friday to remind myself that although Jesus was fully God, He was also fully man. He felt pain, betrayal, grief, doubt and all of the other emotions that we humans experience. I love how Max Lucado describes what Jesus might have been thinking as He left the Carpentry Shop at the age of 30 and began His journey ...

Family, Uncategorized

Parenting 101 – Big Investment. Big Dividends.

March 28, 2014 by Karen Blankenship Leave a comment

I was so excited to take my first teaching job! I had been hired by a Christian school to teach 18 third graders. Fresh out of college, I thought teaching those energetic and needy children how to multiply and divide had to be the hardest job on earth. I was wrong—parenting was. It was then I had to give up my right to sleep when I needed it, to eat a meal without interruption, to relax when I wanted to and most importantly, my right to ...

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Parenting 101 – Your Child’s Faith Journey

February 27, 2014 by Karen Blankenship Leave a comment

When my kids were young, every Sunday we loaded them into the car and headed to church. Season after season, we weathered winter’s icy breath, were drenched by spring showers and blasted by summer’s hot winds. Our church sheltered us not only from the physical elements of the weather, but also from things which are not visible to a world that is too busy to pay attention. But even with weekly dedication, I wondered if my children would ...

Adventure, Uncategorized

A Little Uncomfortable

February 12, 2014 by Karen Blankenship Leave a comment

The boat picked up speed, the parachute picked up air and I began my ascent. Dangling 400 feet above open water and clutching the straps of my harness, a 1,000 foot cord kept me tethered to the speedboat racing through the coastal waters of the Bahamas. My grip tightened as I floated through the air and thought for a brief moment what would happen if I fell into the waters below with a 100 pound parachute attached to my back. As I looked ...

Life Change Happens Here

Life Change Happens Here is the story of a small group of Christ followers who decided to step outside of their comfort zone and bring hope and healing to broken people. You will read how God uses ordinary faithful people to accomplish His work in the world and you will be encouraged to realize that you, too, can make a difference!