1 Sam 22:1-23 I was working on reception duty at a Christian youth hostel in Haifa, Israel, when three tourists walked in. ‘Don’t tell her we have any money’, muttered one to the other in Hungarian. They missed their cruise…

1 Sam 21:1-15 How is it that when it comes to judging someone’s motivation whom we dislike, we see it in the worst possible light, but when it comes to our own, we attribute the best intentions to ourselves? Motivation…

1 Sam 20:1-23 In my gap year, when I was a volunteer in a youth hostel in Israel, I worked together with a girl my age who had come to faith not long before I arrived. She had a lot…

1 Sam 19:1-24 In secondary school, I had a teacher who seemed a bit slow on the uptake. After a particular incident, I made a mocking comment about her in the break, which was overheard by another teacher. He gave…

1 Sam 18:1-30 My father came from a well-to-do family and before World War II, his parents entertained in the grand style and lacked no luxury. Dad told me once that he was so spoilt as a young boy that…

1 Sam 17:31-58) When as a teenager I started going to a Bible study group, I was amazed at the stories I heard from others there. At prayer time, many shared personal experiences of what God was doing in their…

1 Sam 17:1-30 On the night before the comprehensive exams at the end of my secondary school education, I was terrified. Although I was generally a conscientious student, I was also in the first few years of being a Christian…

1 Sam 16:13-23 Finishing my undergraduate studies in theology in the UK, I was wondering where God was leading me in the future. It occurred to me that lecturing may be a possibility since I had an affinity towards teaching,…

1 Sam 16:1-13 In my gap year I worked as a volunteer in a hostel in Israel, and one of the guests we got to know started to come along to church with us. To our delight, he also came…