Question: How do you get even a few moments with Haley Henderson-Smith and her husband, Easton Smith, who are understudies to the leads dancing in the ensemble on the national tour of the stage version of Eleanor Bergstein’s Dirty Dancing?

Answer: You use e-mail, cellphone, and your own legs to catch them after one of their weekly understudy rehearsals, 
after one of their ballet classes, at the stage door after one of their eight performances a week, or at a daytime testimony meeting or a Sunday service in a Christian Science church.

For me, the last option proved best. “For us,” says Haley, “nothing is more important than these services.” (more…)

Last week CNN reported that Oxfam was concerned for the safety of their staff now deployed in Haiti.  They said that both the unstable environmental conditions as well as crime and violence threaten those aid workers now on the scene. Each of us has a role to play in supporting the relief efforts much needed in Haiti, not just in the immediate aftermath of the earthquake but in the weeks and months and years going forward.  Yes, we can certainly donate money to organizations skilled in responding to human tragedies.  But even more needed is the ongoing gift of prayer for each and every worker on the ground there. (more…)

What I remember about seventh grade is finding myself in a new school about five times as big as I’d ever known—I was stumped by algebra, and the girl who wanted to help me get through that class was my only friend. Neither of us were cool, and she didn’t care, but I longed to be accepted by the in-crowd. But every attempt to connect with them ended up in some awful embarrassment. It was a painful time of learning how to make friends and how to be a friend.

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For many Filipinos, the day typhoon Ketsana hit was memorable.  Everyone remembers where they were, what they were doing, and who they were with.  Although it has already been three weeks since the storm hit, some parts of Metro Manila are still flooded in knee-high waters that may not recede until December. Ketsana was immediately followed by Parma, though bypassed Manila and hit the provinces of northern Luzon instead.  This category-5 typhoon caused a lot of landslides in Baguio and its neighboring areas. (more…)

Melanie – Christian Science Sentinel, April 6, 2009

After graduating from college, I purchased a one-way ticket to Washington, DC. I’d studied political science and was interested in exploring career opportunities in the nation’s capital.

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A story of a young artist named Westen as told by CARLY ROSE JACKSON – The Christian Science Journal, Jan. 2009

WESTEN MUNTAIN NEVER ASPIRED to become an artist.

“Smart people,” she jokes, “take one look at a career in the visual arts and run the other way!”

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