Author: Jon Gauger

Some missionaries work in foreign countries. My friend Jack works as a missionary in (mostly) foreign cars—Chicago cabs (where the Toyota Prius is king).  Crazy guy, Jack.  He'll talk to any taxi driver, any time about Jesus. But his latest ride in downtown Chicago is a conversation I just had to pass along.  Here's how Jack told the story to me: “Clearly, my driver was not born in the U.S., so after the usual greeting stuff, I asked him straight up, 'What is your country of birth?'  He says, with a playful smile, 'Can you guess?' “Well, I've traveled a…

The April edition of the American Legion Magazine featured an eye-popping article with regard to ISIS here in America.  According to the Foreign Policy Institute, the source of this article, in 2015… 56 Americans were arrested for their connection to ISIS. As of 2016, more than 20 American ISIS recruits have been killed in action. 71 Americans have been arrested, indicted, or convicted for joining or supporting ISIS. 250 Americans have attempted to travel to the Middle East to join ISIS. There are at least 900 active FBI investigations against stateside terrorists.  Most are linked to ISIS. While on the one hand, it's…

There is much to like about spending a night at the 1874 mansion known today as Pinehill Inn (http://www.pinehillbb.com/).  Upstairs in the Somerset suite, a full canopy bed, period furniture and a (non-period) Bose Wave radio wafting classical music all bid you welcome.  The fireplace mantle is bedecked with lovely books, including several volumes by the room's namesake, author Somerset Maugham. I inhaled a 110 year old volume from the fireplace collection, then found myself absorbed in—of all things—a 1948 edition of The Handbook for Boys, published by the Boy Scouts of America. Let me quote a few paragraphs: A…

If you live beyond the reach of a Portillo's restaurant, I pity you.  Not just for your lack of access to their unequaled Italian beef sandwiches, but also for your dwarfed understanding of what a chocolate cake really can be. I accept (even anticipate) your skepticism.  But be assured my chocolate cake claim is far from exaggerated.  Just check the buzz online. So there we were, at our local Portillo's, sharing pieces of this fabulous fabled cake with our daughter and son-in-law and their three children.  Their eldest had just received her three-year Sparky Awana award and we were celebrating–big…

Of course you've heard about Auschwitz.  The complex was the largest of its kind established by the Nazi regime, which included three main camps. There, 1.1 million people were murdered.  But it's rare to meet a survivor.   Raise a salute to one Fritzie Fritzshall. Just 13 years old when she arrived at Auschwitz – Birkenau, her train car was so overcrowded, half its occupants were dead on arrival—including her own grandfather.   “A Jewish man in a striped uniform was forced to clear out the train car as quickly as possible,” Fritzie remembers.  “He asked me how old I was…

It's one thing to read about the holocaust in a book. Quite another to read it in the face of a survivor.  At the Illinois Holocaust Museum, (ilholocaustmuseum.org), I sat across from Fritzie Fritzshall who lived in the former Czechoslovakia.  After the Nazis occupied her town, Fritzie and her mother and two brothers were forced into a ghetto, and ultimately deported to Auschwitz.  She was just 13.   Jammed into a railroad car, there was standing room only.  One tiny window offered far too little ventilation for the more than 100 people crammed inside.  With agonizing detail, Fritzie described the…

Consider the Panama Canal—a modern marvel. It took 75,000 workers 12 years to dig 10 miles to create the Panama Canal, the water gates that join the Atlantic and the Pacific.    Although the locks are a generous 110 feet wide, the largest of the vessels that pass through, called Panamax, have just one foot to spare on either side!  So there are plans for expansion underway.   Good thing, because every year, between 12,000 and 15,000 ships go through the Panama Canal! But here's the stat that blows my mind.  A boat traveling from New York to San Francisco that travels through…

He said, “Ask God to open doors for you to walk through with your unsaved loved ones.” Dr. Jim Coakley had no idea of the adventure his wise counsel was about to help unleash. For years, now, we have been praying for a small list of people who need to come to Christ: neighbors, friends, relatives.  My commitment is to keep praying for these lost people until I die–or they die.   No kidding.  But since we started praying the prayer Jim recommended—that God would open up doors of opportunity–life has revved into high gear. Example A For years, we have…

It's one of those moments that make being a grandparent so grand.  At a community circus, my wife handed two-year old Lucy a wad of cotton candy.  The tot stared at it, then wrapped her pudgy fist around the pink tuft and—of all things–brushed it against her skin!  Back and forth she rubbed the soft pink cottony thing into her cheeks.  Looking down, my wife saw what was going on and urged Lucy to eat the sugary treat.  Popping it into her mouth, Lucy registered an expression that validated her new delight with cotton candy's real purpose—it's supposed to be…

Searching for a living illustration of grace?  I would not normally recommend you climb aboard a Metra passenger train hauling self-absorbed commuters from the suburbs into Chicago.  But my friend, Jack, stumbled upon a refreshing scene on the train. Jack, who has a knack for colliding with the unusual, was comfortably plopped into his seat aboard train #14 as it chugged eastbound toward a 6:44am arrival in the Windy City.  The car was already full, yet there were still more scheduled stops ahead.  “So this guy is sitting there reading his Bible,” Jack tells me (Jack notices because Bible readers…