By James E. Copple As Kenya Airways made its descent into Nairobi, the rising sun colored the eastern sky bright orange. Enveloped in morning fog, the beauty of sun-on-clouds painted an endless, boundless horizon — it’s a continent so rich in diversity and history, and I am thankful this place has been part of my […]

By James E. Copple The Church is a relationship to something bigger and greater than an individual and a people, and that’s true across denominations and even for the un-churched. For me, it is a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, one that has taken me to the White House and 30 governor’s mansions. It has […]

By James E. Copple John F. Kennedy and the new frontier defined my view of politics and why we should be concerned for the poor. I was 14 when Kennedy was assassinated and completely drawn by media coverage of his funeral. Watching endless commentary about his life and listening to his recorded speeches, I was […]

By James E. Copple Efforts to combat the Ebola virus are in full-throttle, with the regrettable but predictable picking-up-the-pieces in a crisis that is preventable but difficult to sell until worst-case scenarios lead the news. The CDC projects nearly 1.4 million people could contract the disease by the first of the year. Ebola, which is […]

By James E. Copple The death of actor Philip Seymour Hoffman, the apparent result of a drug overdose after 20 years’ sobriety, is one more soul crossing a line from self-indulgence to “what a waste.” His peers considered the Oscar-winner among the brightest talents of a generation. When Hoffman relapsed last year, he course-corrected, entering […]

Voices from the Night: The Power and Promise of Community Change is now out there for everybody to see and read. It is a “story book.” I am a story teller! I have had the opportunity to be a witness to so many events in so many environments. Whether it is the preacher in me, the teacher in me, or the advocate in me, or all of the above, I cannot tell a story without applying a lesson.

The country became a part of my life when Kenya exploded into the headlines in 2007-2008…The post-election violence led to the death of 1,300 people…and a major disruption in the economic, social, and political conditions of the country.

Despite the complex arguments and battles over aid vs. development… I always come back to a simple image that continues to transform my thinking about how we address poverty.

This five-hour, one way trip to several communities seemed like just one more humanitarian mission. For reasons I cannot totally explain, it became so much more.