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Dana Rongione 04/11/2026 Dana Rongione 04/11/2026

Why Is My Stress Rubbing Off on Everyone Around Me (And What Can I Do About It)?

Last week was our Holiday Bible Club, the UK version of Vacation Bible School. I had the privilege of teaching every day, and I spent a week with a few wiggly, wonderful children. Afterwards, several adults told me how amazed they were at how well I kept the kids engaged. They also said they had learned something themselves from the lessons. One gentleman summed it up: "It's like your energy and passion were contagious."

He was right. When you teach, especially children, your excitement is catching. If you want your audience excited about what you're saying, you have to be excited about it. Five-year-olds can smell fake enthusiasm from across the building. I taught Kindergarten for nine years, and trust me, they will tell you when you're boring…usually by wandering off to lick something.

Because I was teaching the Bible, my enthusiasm came naturally, and it spilled right over onto my little audience.

Unfortunately, enthusiasm wasn't the only thing spreading that month.

Dana Rongione 02/11/2026 Dana Rongione 02/11/2026

When Judgment Clouds Our Vision (Repost)

Have you ever been quick to judge someone, only to later discover a whole backstory you never knew? I've been guilty of this too often. This tendency of the human heart recently hit me afresh when I re-examined the story of Moses striking the rock at Kadesh.

Like many believers, I've often viewed this account through a simplistic lens. God said, "Speak to the rock," but Moses struck it instead, and punishment ensued. An open-and-shut case of disobedience, right?

However, as I dug a little deeper into the passage this morning, something was revealed. Standing once again at Kadesh after forty years of wilderness wandering, Moses wasn't merely facing another water crisis; he was standing at the epicenter of Israel's greatest failure.

Imagine what must have raced through Moses' 120-year-old mind. Here he was, back at the scene of the crime, so to speak.

Dana Rongione 26/10/2026 Dana Rongione 26/10/2026

Learning to Unload Before We Overload (Repost)

Life in rural Wales comes with its own peculiar challenges, not the least of which is grocery shopping. When the nearest proper supermarket is a good thirty minutes away, online ordering becomes less of a convenience and more of a necessity. Jason and I have our system down to a science. The delivery arrives in stackable plastic crates, we unload everything, and then return the empty crates to the driver.

We even have our division of labor sorted. Jason tackles the refrigerated and frozen items while I handle the pantry goods. It works seamlessly... well, most of the time.

During our most recent delivery, Jason gestured toward what appeared to be a single crate sitting on our kitchen table. "That's all pantry stuff," he said casually, already turning his attention to the cold goods.

I nodded, reaching for the handles of what I presumed was one solitary crate. I'd taken precisely two steps when physics delivered a painful lesson.

Dana Rongione 07/10/2026 Dana Rongione 07/10/2026

Is the Christian Life Supposed To Be This Hard?

I'll admit something. For years, I pictured the Christian race as a Sunday-afternoon jog. I saw myself in cute sneakers with a gentle breeze in my hair, waving at the neighbors and admiring the scenery. "It's a marathon, not a sprint," I'd say, as if a marathon were just a sprint with better snacks.

Then I looked up the Greek word for "race" in Hebrews 12:1, and my smoothie hit the pavement.

The word is agōn, and yes, it's where we get "agony." It was the word for the contests held in the great stadiums, where athletes strained, gasped, and gave everything they had. The word carries the idea of struggle and conflict. Nobody in that arena was admiring the scenery.

We love the race verse. We put it on mugs and bookmarks. But we rarely talk about what it's like to run it on mile nineteen, with a blister, a headache, and a to-do list that's grown legs.

Dana Rongione 21/09/2026 Dana Rongione 21/09/2026

You Can’t Mourn What You Never Fed

This past Sunday was a hard day. Our little Welsh community said goodbye to another chapel, a ministry over 300 years old that once echoed with hymns and, believe it or not, once shaped a missionary whose name still draws pilgrims from the other side of the world.

Robert Jermain Thomas spent his early years in this very chapel, where his father served as pastor. In his twenties, Thomas carried the gospel to Korea and gave his life for it in 1866. That's the legacy these old stone walls hold. And this past week, the chapel went dark for good.

The gentleman who had to make the call didn't do it lightly. He wrestled with the decision for months. He watched his little congregation (who hadn't had a pastor in over 30 years) shrink year after year. He lost faithful members, buried the church treasurer, and finally ran out of hands to keep the doors open and the bills paid. When he made the announcement, he expected sorrow. What he got instead was his phone ringing off the hook. Sadly, it was not from folks offering to help, but from people who hadn't darkened the chapel doorway in years, furious that "their" family chapel was closing.