Annalie Korengel wasn’t just having a bad week. She was having a horrific one. Five funerals in seven days can push any pastor to the brink of physical and spiritual exhaustion. But for the pastor of Unionville Presbyterian Church in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania, standing almost daily at the gravesides of young people who had overdosed on opioids pushed her into an indescribable hell.

Presbyterians do mission in partnership, and those partnerships are lived out in the real world — a world of complexity, nuance and contradiction.

For Ray Jones, the acting director for Theology, Formation and Evangelism, Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of a personal journey, as it does for Christians around the world, into the life, death and resurrection of Jesus.

이사야 58장에서 우리는 어떤 종류의 금식, 어떤 종류의 예배가 하나님을 기쁘게 하는지를 배웁니다. 우리는 다투면서 금식하고 사악한 주먹으로 치거나 금식할 때 우울함과 어둠을 더합니다. 하나님은 우리의 빛이 어둠을 비추기를 원하시며 억압을 풀고 배고픈 사람들을 먹이며 괴로움을 겪는 사람들을 만족시킴으로써 우리가 그 빛을 이루기를 원하십니다. 이것이 우리가 하나님을 찬양하는 방법입니다.

En Isaías 58 aprendemos qué tipo de ayuno, qué tipo de adoración le agrada a Dios. Nos sumamos a la sombra y la oscuridad cuando ayunamos para pelear y agredir, o ayunamos para golpear con un puño malvado. Dios desea que nuestra luz brille más que la oscuridad y lo logramos levantando la opresión, alimentando a los hambrientos, satisfaciendo a los afligidos; Así es como alabamos a Dios.

In Isaiah 58 we learn what kind of fast, what kind of worship is pleasing to God. We add to the gloom and darkness when we fast to quarrel and fight or fast to strike with a wicked fist. God desires that our light outshines the gloom and we accomplish that by lifting oppression, feeding the hungry, satisfying the afflicted; this is how we praise God.

Since my kids are out of the house, I figured I could finally donate the parenting books I’d gathered over the years. So many of the titles offered a nugget that helped me feel like I was not the only one navigating the complexity of parenthood. Into the box went some of my favorites — How to Behave So Your Children Will, Too and The Blessing of a Skinned Knee. As I packed, I realized that much of the parenting advice applies to leadership in small churches.

Imagine the week before Easter, if you will, through the eyes of a 6-year-old. The sanctuary on Palm Sunday looks different, to say the least. Big green branches are being waved, shouts of “Hosanna!” are called out from the usually orderly people in the pews, and the pastor talks of a parade with a king entering the city, surrounded by adoring citizens.

As the world struggled to recover from the ravages of a global war, churches across America bore witness to their faith in a united act of generosity that helped relieve human suffering.

“When you think of the Caribbean, you probably think of sun, sea and dance. But pain and possibility are closer to the truth,” says Gerard Granado, general secretary of the Caribbean Council of Churches.