Grif.Net

As a teenager held in a World War II Japanese prison camp in China, Margaret Holder felt the almost unbearable pain of forced separation from her family. But as the war progressed, American planes dropped barrels of food and supplies. When my wife and I spoke to her forty-five years…

Leaving a large suburban church in Michigan my first few years out of seminary, I then pastored a small-town church in Wild Rose, Wisconsin (1972-78) and Chetek, Wisconsin (1978-1984). Here is what I remember of country churches from there, from Texas that followed, and now from small churches across Wyoming:…

Jason from Wyoming wrote me fifteen years ago about “Beating a Dead Horse”. He said that Dakota tribal wisdom says that when you discover you are riding a dead horse, the best strategy is to dismount. However, in business we try other strategies with dead horses, such as: 1. Buying…

Midweek Quiz Time! Each statement contains the initials of words + numbers of well-known phrases. You task? Try to discover the meaning of the clues. I found these are REALLY hard for my brain. Example: 12 D of C = 12 Days of Christmas ______________________ 1. 1001 A N ______________________…

10. Eve to Adam: “You never take me anywhere different to eat, and you know I’ve got nothing to wear!” 9. Sarah to Abraham: “Maybe if you stopped treating me like your sister, we could start a family!” 8. Elizabeth to John the Baptist: “I cook you a nice meal…

O proud left foot, that ventures quick within Then soon upon a backward journey lithe. Anon, once more the gesture, then begin; Command sinistral pedestal to writhe. Commence thou then the fervid Hokey-Poke. A mad gyration, hips in wanton swirl. To spin! A wilde release from heaven’s yoke. Blessed dervish!…

1. I was forced to wash as a child. 2. People who wash are hypocrites — They think they’re cleaner than others. 3. There are so many kinds of soap, I could never decide which was right. 4. I used to wash, but it got boring. 5. I wash only…

A grandmother was telling her granddaughter what her own childhood was like: *I used to skate outside on a pond. *I had a swing made from a tire; it hung from a tree in our front yard. *I loved to ride our pony. *I picked wild raspberries with my mom…

I am PROUD of being theologically “fundamental”, but sometimes have to poke fun at my own foibles (and especially at the lunatic fringe that actually believe some of this stuff and stolen the word “fundamentalist”). You MAY BE a “fundamentalists” if . . . You pronounce “sin” with two syllables.…

[Midweek Quiz where we share MASCULINE words and you come up with their FEMININE counterparts. Some easy; some not. Do NOT use Google.] Example: Groom is masculine; correct feminine counter would be “Bride” ______________ 1. Bachelor ______________ 2. King ______________ 3. Drake ______________ 4. Lord ______________ 5. Master ______________ 6.…

[Here is help for you to know what to pitch and what to save] THE GAG TEST = Anything that makes you gag is spoiled (except for leftovers from what you cooked for yourself last night). EGGS = When something starts pecking its way out of the shell, the egg…

[Twist on our monthly bad puns – this are pun-ishing definitions] Crick: The sound that a Japanese camera makes. Khakis: What you need to start the car in Boston. Alarms: What an octopus is. Dockyard: A physician’s garden. Oboe: An English tramp. Propaganda: A gentlemanly goose. Toboggan: Why we go…

A snowstorm in the South is about as rare as a glass of unsweetened tea at a church supper. Folks around Birmingham, Ala. weren’t all that worried though. The storm was only supposed to ‘dust’ the city – not even enough powder for a Southern snowman. So when the first…