by Melana Bontrager
Ever feel like your kids are your enemies?
Perhaps that sounds harsh, but there are days in our house when I feel like I am in a full blown war and all the guns are pointing in my direction. This is really not what I imagined when I entertained thoughts of being a [...]

by Melana Bontrager
Through a variety of circumstances, I have not been in an actual Mars Hill church service for quite a few months now. The details are not necessary, and it is a short-term phase: the end of which I can see on the horizon. Never the less, as Sunday has not held a “live” [...]

by Melana Bontrager
For the past 15 years I have lived in a plethora of places: cities, countries, flats, houses, condos, but never have I lived in one place for more than 2 years. This fact brings with it a myriad of distinctives that as a whole have defined my modus operandi. For one, my friendships [...]

by Melana Bontrager
The mornings at our little Everett home are sometimes steeped with fog. The surrounding houses are barely visible from my living room windows; large glass portals that usually offer a commanding floor-to-ceiling view of our neighborhood. Sometimes I get the feeling that my little corner of the world is wrapped in redemption; every [...]

I’ve been wandering about, wondering when I’m going to get back on my feet; feeling a sinking sadness and wallowing in the inability to get things done. There are a few things in my current life situation that one might say could “justify” such tendencies, but I have a feeling that if sought, a scape-goat [...]

I have a 4 ½ year old who is bright and wonderful and keeps me on my toes with his ability to jump easily from a conversation about the wonders of heaven straight into a angry-eyed tantrum in the middle of isle 7 at QFC. Although I have a degree that plunged me into studying [...]

For as long as I can remember, Christmas has been bitter-sweet. The lights, the shopping, the energy all hold an excitement and a sense of deep melancholy; I find myself constantly encountering both joy and sadness as they jockey for position whenever holiday songs begin to burst forth from the radio.
My grandmother died when I [...]

I recently watched a movie that proved to be very dissimilar to the movies that typically find their way into my viewing. I tend to lean toward the genre of drama–providing it is void of excessive blood and violence and lacking in the depiction of brutal physical assaults. Recently, however, I have willingly sought the [...]

If I’m honest, I will hurt you. Its really just that simple. My human depravity leaves me without the option. Unless, however, I have Jesus flowing through my veins. Then I have a fighting chance for being honest without demolishing everything in my path. But even then, I still come up sinful more often than [...]

I recently spent a weekend at my alma mater in the middle of a cornfield in rural Indiana. My 10-year college reunion approached with rapid stride and without realizing it, I had become the alumnus that, as a college student, I would have labeled “old”. I never managed to make it to the alumni nametag [...]