Merry Christmas from the Nielsen Family!  "O Hope of Israel, our Savior in times of trouble, why are you like a stranger to us? Why are you like a traveler passing through the land, stopping only for the night?" Jeremiah 14:8Dear Friends, We wanted to take this...

The 5 part mini-series “The Family,” launched by Netflix last month, is presented in the trailer and intro as an expose of some secretive quasi-Christian cult that operates under cover in Washington DC and other places of power. I decided to watch it out of sheer...

“The Right Side of History: How Reason and Moral Purpose Made the West Great” by Ben Shapiro is scholarly, no-holds-barred analysis of where we are and where we have come from. His contention is that Judeo-Christian values and Greek reasoning are the twin pillars upon...

As I watched the movie “The Passion of the Christ,” I finally got the answer to a question my 10 year old daughter has asked me countless times: “Daddy, what if you could go back in time and be any one you...

Easter is just around the corner and my heart is overflowing with appreciation for the death and resurrection of my Lord and Savior. Who Jesus is and what He did seems more precious to me now than ever. Once again, as I focus on the story of the cross, I am captivated...

If I thought God wasn’t the most exciting and interesting person in the universe, I would probably look elsewhere for another God. After all, that is what worship is all about: finding someone worth giving your all and “throwing down” all you have and putting it all...

I’ve never ventured to share this story before. It’s one of my  my “naked faith” experiences I had while on the mission field in Asia.  As you will see (if you bear with me through the long narrative) it is “Outside the Box” of normal human experience, at least in the...

The longer I live, the more convinced I become that life is about the journey and not the destination.  It’s about the little things that go on from day to day and week to week that put the color in story of our lives. The “marrow of life” is really, when you think of...

Every once in awhile I read a book that is so captivating I feel compelled to go back and read it again and again, eventually locating it on the top section of my book shelf for further reference. Invariably I end up giving it away to someone, and have to...

My first Olympic outreach was in 1984, just a couple months after I married Stasia. For a couple of years a call to missions had been burning in my heart. In 1982, 30 days before his plane crash, Keith Green held a concert in Long Beach auditorium. Keith shared...

On  September 7, 1999, my Mom breathed her last breath and went to be with Jesus. She’s home now. After years of beaming for the One who died for her (my Mom beamed—I mean she smiled and her eyes revealed a joy that only Jesus could have placed within her) she is now...

Our oldest daughter Brittany became the first person to conquer California's Condor Trail last month. Quite a feat. We have always know Britt to be one persistent young lady who likes a challenge. Here is another example of that: [button...

love a good story, and all my life I have been connecting with heroes who inspire and motivate me. People who battle through the contradictions of life and swim upstream to make a mark on the world hold a...

Here is a powerful quote from the early 90's that is as relevant today as when I first heard it: One billion young people will pass between the critical ages of thirteen and twenty three this decade. One billion young people on the move. They will rarely...