Category: 2021
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Brooke Rathbun
In 2016, I was living a different life. Had you asked me then where I saw myself in five years, my plan would look nothing like the one the Lord was laying out for me. At the time, I let anxiety, fear, and anger rule my life. I was a self-proclaimed atheist, after being raised […]
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Three Bracelets
Three bracelets. One copper. One silver. One gold-plated. words + photographs GRACE LEE The copper bracelet was the first one I started wearing, and it says, “Faithful.” I felt like I was doing what He wanted me to, and yet I didn’t matter. That He really didn’t care about me. It seemed as though everywhere […]
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#GiveLocal: Family Through Faith Farm
“I hope our food brings joy,” says Andrew McGowan, founder and farmer at Family Through Faith Farm. “I am a foodie. I love what great food can do to someone emotionally.”
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Big Rainbow Tomato: The Giving Food
At the end of October, before the rains came, I loaded up another bunch of ripe Big Rainbow tomatoes, as well as several green, ready-for-frying tomatoes. I walked up the street past the green-leaved redbud trees, marched through the still-green grass, climbed the back deck steps and met my neighbors at the door. I handed […]
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Cuban Spirit
Reverent. Real. Resilient. Resourceful. These are just a few of the words I would use to describe the people I met in Cuba. By our standards, life is hard there, but they make it work. They are warm and gracious hosts. They serve with gladness, and they nearly always smile, no matter what is going on […]
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#ShopLocal: CO Creations
“I did my first ink drawn couples portrait, which ended up being my best selling commission, in my freshman dorm room,” says Claudia O’Steen, founder of CO Creations. “I was struggling to think of a Christmas present for my boyfriend and decided to draw one of my favorite photos of us. It gave me all […]
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#ShopLocal: Bashioum Wood Builds
“I love serving the community as a police officer,” says Matt Bashioum, founder and craftsman at Bashioum Wood Builds in Marshfield, Missouri. “… Police officers who work in this area are very thankful of the support the community shows us on a daily basis. We are very lucky to have such an amazing community to […]
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Safely Dispose of Drugs
Last issue, I wrote about taking over responsibility for my dad’s medications. When it was time to dispose of it all, I had no idea what to do. I had read drugs (legal and otherwise) were ending up in our waterways, causing health issues for the entire food chain, including you and me and our […]
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#ShopLocal: Nachtigal
“I actually have a few songs I’ve never released because I felt like they were too personal and/or people would misunderstand their meaning,” says Julia Smith of Nachtigal. “They are my time capsule to put those emotions in, but I’m not sure if they would be helpful to other people or not. I struggle with […]
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Grieve Well
Farmer Don is an 89-year-old man I meet every so often on my morning walk. Sunrise changes our habits during summer, so I hadn’t seen him for a few months when I ran into him in September. After the initial, “Where have you beens,” my mom asked him how he had been doing. “Not well,” […]
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Allison Adler’s Story of Grief
I believe my story of grief is similar to that of many women. In the summer of 2017, I had my first miscarriage. Our oldest daughter was a year and half old, and we were so excited to give her a sibling, to watch another baby grow in my womb, and to add more life […]
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Amy Tyndall Grieves Through Music
The weeks leading up to Grandma’s death were exhausting and frustrating. I was in new territory, dealing with emergency room visits, rehab, social workers, and most of all, Grandma’s unhappiness with her circumstances. words + photographs AMY TYNDALL Her decline from independence to high-need care happened very quickly, and she never adjusted. Sometimes she lashed […]
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Family Through Faith Farm
The mission of Family Through Faith Ministries is focused on one mission expressed in three ways. The mission is to feed people Physically, Spiritually, Mentally. interview JULIE JOHNSONphotographs courtesy of FAMILY THROUGH FAITH FARM When I began researching Family Through Faith Farm in Nixa, Missouri, I began to question the how. Andrew McGowan and his […]
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Heather Priebe’s Journey of Second Chances
The symptoms began in 2019: weight gain, bloating and swelling in my abdomen, pain in my lower abdomen, nausea, shortness of breath. On Sept. 5, 2019, I was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s follicular lymphoma. My oncologist said to me, “This is treatable, not curable; you will not die from this.” I walked out of her clinic with a […]
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Q+A with Dr. Iman Williams Christians, Lost & Found Grief Center
Dr. Iman Williams Christians is the chief clinical officer at Lost & Found Grief Center in Springfield, Missouri. Though grief is personal to each of us, in this Q+A, Dr. Iman shares with us insights she has learned in her field. We are honored to welcome her to HOMEGROWN JOURNAL in October. What does grief […]
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Jennifer Harrison Searches for Answers in Grief
Prayer. It seems like the catch-all sometimes, the easy response. “I’ll pray for you.” But what happens when you pray, yet don’t receive the answer you desire? In 2009, I prayed that prayer, that heart-ripping, never-ending, always-on-repeat prayer: “God, please save my baby.” Because I was bleeding when I shouldn’t have been. I was 12 […]
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Grace To Grieve by Lori Matthews
On Oct. 14, 2014, my husband had emergency surgery for a mass in his colon. Two days later, Todd was diagnosed with Stage IV colon cancer. My strong, healthy, 46-year-old husband, the father of our two sons, would endure four surgeries in six days and spend 19 days in the hospital recovering. And suddenly, grief […]
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