My daughter and I enjoy putting puzzles together. We started out with 24 piece puzzles and then moved to 36 pieces. At four years old, she became so comfortable with her puzzles that she knew where every piece belonged. If I tried to help, she would say, "No, I can do it." We then got her a 100-piec...

Early one morning in the spring of 2000, I sat behind my desk in the pregnancy center where I worked, stared up at the ceiling, and silently asked God, "How will I ever raise that much money?" The previous evening I had listened as the chairman of our board announced to the audience at our annual f...

"I am a Black American and a great-granddaughter of Booker T. Washington, who led the poorest and most illiterate among his race up from slavery shortly after the end of the Civil War. When I speak on his legacy, I reflect on the fact that the history of our race in the United States has always been...

A strange sound interrupted our evening meal. "What's that?" my husband asked. We stared at each other in confusion. Finally, it hit me. "The hotline phone!" I had been carrying it around for a month, but tonight was the first time anyone called. My husband and I scrambled to find it. "CareNet Pr...

A friend recently called to warn me about an IRS crackdown. They're going after tax-exempt organizations that have failed to satisfy annual filing requirements for three consecutive years, and the penalty is severe: loss of tax-exempt status. A trip to the IRS website confirmed the danger. Clicking...

You are changing — we are changing. The only thing that we can be sure of in this life is change. People are born, grow, and eventually die. Organizations start, grow, mature, plateau, decline, and eventually pass off the scene. At The Center magazine has now been published in paper and on t...

I once heard of two older ladies who took a cooking class at a local college. The instructor was describing the process of hollowing out an egg. The teacher told the class to first perforate the egg at the basal end, and then repeat the action on the apex. Then, placing your lips over one end, with ...

She walks into the church and cautiously looks around with her four-year-old daughter in tow. She hesitantly makes her way to a pew at the back of the church and sits quietly, thumbing through her Bible, avoiding eye contact at all costs. She has contemplated this day for months. She wonders if she ...