Posts by Ashley Thornton
Martin Luther King Jr : A Hero, not a Super-Hero
By Ashley Bean Thornton In 2011 my husband and I participated in a fantastic program called a Church Swap. It was organized by Ramona Curtis and Mia Moody-Ramirez under the auspices of the W. K. Kellogg Foundation, The Waco Foundation and the Waco Community Race Relations Coalition. The central element of the program was (as…
Read MoreThankful for a story…
By Ashley Bean Thornton One of the best things I did last year was to participate in the KWBU pledge drive for the first time. I love KWBU; I love the people who work at KWBU; and I love that Waco is the kind of community that supports a public radio station, so when they…
Read MoreThere’s a Hole in My Bucket… & Mentoring Can Solve It
by Josh Lawson, Director of Community Engagement, Antioch Community Church Besides being one of the longest and most annoying children’s songs known to man, “There’s a Hole in My Bucket,” is actually a great representation of what community development feels like. If you haven’t heard the song before, it is a winding conversation between “Dear…
Read MoreLovesick New Year — beware of ideas!
by Ashley Bean Thornton I don’t know what made me think of this, except that I guess a New Year is a “commencement” in a way, but a few years ago I read a terrific graduation speech. It was given by law professor Mark Osler to the graduating class of Vanguard College Preparatory Academy here in…
Read MoreCommunity, Leadership and Recapturing Power
by Ryn Farmer, Community Organizer, Waco Community Development Corporation (Waco CDC) “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, concerned citizens can change world. Indeed it is the only thing that ever has.” – Margaret Mead At Waco Community Development Corporation (Waco CDC) where I am a Community Organizer, we work to inspire and cultivate…
Read MoreWhat is hunger? How do we understand it?
By Kelsey Scherer Hunger feels like a strange topic this time of year, doesn’t it? At a time of year when for many of us food is available in abundant – if not excessive – quantities, we can easily lose sight of the fact that this is not the case for all families in our…
Read MoreThe Beauty and Hospitality of God’s Church in Waco
by Anthony Sytsma My wife and I moved to Waco in January and we are only living here for one year as she completes an internship. So instead of committing to one church, over the past year we visited a new church in Waco just about every Sunday. We purposely visited churches of different denominations…
Read MoreUnderstanding the Definition of “Homelessness”
by Phil York Days ago, Oxford Dictionary accepted the popular term, “selfie” into the canon of the English language. Selfie (the act of extending your own smart phone ahead of you to take a self-portrait) is now part of our daily lexicon and day-to-day reality. Definitions are important. They allow us to grasp our reality,…
Read MoreExpressing Thanks in Waco
“There is no other virtue like gratitude – none. I’ve never known a person who was grateful who was, at the same time, mean or small or bitter or hurtful. Not when you’re grateful.” – Fred Craddock By Ashley Bean Thornton Isn’t it wonderful that we have a national holiday for the purpose of giving…
Read MoreI may be naive, but not about what you may think…
By Ashley Bean Thornton I was having a perfectly good visit with a friend at work. We were sharing dog pictures and yakking and laughing when a passerby derailed our pleasant conversation. He didn’t even stop to chat. He just lobbed in a comment about the column on SNAP benefits I had in the Trib…
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