Welcome to Shalom in Our Times!
We’re Paul & Sharon, pioneering once again. This time as semi-retired, and diving in to author this new blog. Helping our daughter and family pioneer the development of a sustainable homestead. Growing an edible landscape food forest. Milking Daisy, our family Jersey mama. All this after Sharon pioneered personal health challenges as a cancer survivor, and together as missionaries we pioneered our church denomination into Sierra Leone, West Africa.
We are parents of two (plus two kids-in-love) and grandparents of six of the greatest kids and teens in the world – no, we’re not partial at all!
We enjoy a shared passion for the vibrant life—living healthily and wholesomely.
We find in the Hebrew word shalom this whole idea and more—anchored in the richness of life as the Creator designed it.
And we still share a passion for Christian ministry after more than 40 years, both in US pastorates as well as assignments in church development, administration, and education in West Africa. We have both done graduate studies in theology and cross-cultural ministry; and Sharon in linguistics. In addition, Paul has done post-graduate work in history.
We feel that God is still calling us to bring inspiration and challenge as instruments of His shalom to those around us.
Sharon has over the years developed a fascination with self-sustainable living, including cultivating the soil. She’s grown a garden and planted fruit trees nearly everywhere we’ve lived. She’s dug into books, blogs, and real-life bungling around with permaculture restoration of the Land. And as a health-nut cancer survivor, she loves pondering, reading, and engaging an online network about the care of the earth in its symbiotic relationship to real food and healthy living.
Paul enjoys pondering and writing about numerous aspects and angles of wholesome living—life as the Creator designed it. Together we’re fascinated with paths into the vibrant rich gardens of the world as we adventure the journey toward the ultimate fullness of Eden’s shalom and more—when the Master Designer will at last reign over a renewed creation–beyond wildest dreams!
We are so very much aware of the uncertainties and fast pace of momentous events in our unprecedented times.
Sometimes we wonder if security, sustainability and shalom are even possible in the midst of the increasing darkness and chaos of our broken world.
But over and over throughout our lives we’ve seen our faithful Father’s loving kindness and tender mercies unfold. And we just believe He still cares for His children! He, the God of shalom, has called us to seek shalom, and to pursue it (1 These. 5:23 & 1 Pet. 3:11). That must mean He wants to help us experience it as fully as possible, even now in our times.
We’d love to share the journey with you!
“Start Here” is the best place to start. 🙂 It will give you more of a feel for what our blog is all about. Then the first post we wrote under each category tells more specifically where we want to go with posts under that topic.
Come along! Join the journey!
As we unpack what SHALOM in Our Times means to us, from real-life events and relationships, and from the legendary love-letters of our Abba Father.
Joyfully on the journey,
Paul & Sharon
