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Jul 31, 2024 | 
crosswalk.com | Mandy Smith
iBelieve Contributing Writer
Published
Jul 31, 2024
Growing up, summer was my favorite season by far. Some of the many reasons why I loved summer were getting out of school, taking vacations with my family, attending Vacation Bible School, going to church camps in my childhood and teen years, and enjoying a little extra sleep, TV, and time to relax.
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Jul 3, 2024 | 
expressandstar.com | Mandy Smith
Wolverhampton City Netball League Secretary, Rachel Guglielmo, presented a cheque from the league to Georgina Savage, Deputy Director of the Samaritans, Wolverhampton, following fundraising at a recent celebration evening held at The Pavilion, Wolverhampton. A grand total of £1,237 was raised from the proceeds of a raffle held during the evening, followed by a presentation last Thursday outside the Cabin at Aldersley Leisure Village.
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Feb 29, 2024 | 
preachingtoday.com | Mandy Smith |John Casey |Gregory Hollifield |Joel Gregory
I love words, but they’re not my first language.
Before we know one word, we know the world through instincts and emotions, memories and urges. We wince at sour, we giggle in the bath. Our first language is human experience.
As preachers, we always begin with the Word of Scripture. Thankfully it’s been translated into our spoken languages.
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Jan 31, 2024 | 
ibelieve.com | Mandy Smith
Dear “future” self,Before this letter gets too far, I just want to say to “current” me just how proud I am that you’ve come to the end of January 2024 in one emotionally sound and thawed-out piece. I say this because I know how most Januarys go. Riding off the high of December with its parties, dinners, gifts, and merriment to be jolted back into “reality” as the dark, cold, bitter winds of January snake around my mind, heart, and extra dry hands is no easy feat.
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Dec 1, 2023 | 
ibelieve.com | Mandy Smith
I have a confession to make...I'm not too fond of fruit cake. If you’re from the South and were raised in the 70s, 80s, or 90s, you know what fruit cake is. Some of my fondest childhood Christmas memories are watching my Ma and aunts make homemade Christmas candy.
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Nov 17, 2023 | 
ibelieve.com | Mandy Smith
When I think of Thanksgiving, the first thing that pops up in my mind is the delicious food that Ma cooks for our family. I think of sweet childhood memories I have including watching parades on television, making turkeys out of milk jugs, playing with my siblings in the yard, and watching the lighting of the big Christmas tree in Atlanta that night.
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Nov 9, 2023 | 
preachingtoday.com | Sean Palmer |Mandy Smith |Paul Hoffman |Lee Eclov
I’m a sucker (read: lover) of well told stories. Whether they are movies, novels, or series, there is nothing like a well told story.
This summer, I was on a 90-day sabbatical from my local church duties and spent much of that time reading and visiting my local movie theater. Already this year, I’ve screened over 177 movies and read 15 novels. Not all of them were great. Many of them weren’t very good. A couple of them were outstanding.
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Aug 17, 2023 | 
ibelieve.com | Mandy Smith
Life is hard, and I bet if you turned to the person to your right or left they could tell you at least 3 things that have gone wrong for them recently. Some people might think that when you become a Christian you’ll have it easy in life and that things in this world will all work out smoothly for you, but it doesn’t take long to discover how opposite living a Christian life here on Earth can be from that ideal.
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Aug 7, 2023 | 
crosswalk.com | Mandy Smith
If I have learned anything over the years, we need each other. We all need friends. Whether you have fifty, ten, or two friends, you know how much those relationships mean to you. Friendship is celebrated in Scripture. Proverbs 27:9 says, My friendships mean the world to me, and as I've gotten older, I've noticed that although I don't have as many "friends" as I did in my younger years, my friendships are even stronger.
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Jul 25, 2023 | 
ibelieve.com | Mandy Smith
If I have learned anything over the years, it’s that we need each other. We all need friends. Whether you have fifty, ten, or two friends, you know how much those relationships mean to you. If I have learned anything over the years, it’s that we need each other. We all need friends. Whether you have fifty, ten, or two friends, you know how much those relationships mean to you. Friendship is celebrated in Scripture.
