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Jim and Ken

Christmas

2 min read

The True Light of Christmas

“In Him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness and the darkness did not overpower it.” (John 1:4-5)...

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General Store owner Bruce Barany and his sons, Tom and Miles with UGM's Danny Beard

2 min read

Partnering for a Purpose: The General Store’s Ongoing Support for UGM

Few stores in our community can light up the eyes like The General Store at Christmastime. It’s a staple for holiday shopping, embodying the working...

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4 min read

Home for Good: Restoring family bonds after addiction

Is there anything more cherished during the Christmas season than our families? The gifts, the candles, the carols, and the festive meals wouldn’t...

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3 min read

God Incarnate: Total vulnerability and perfect peace

Imagine placing your greatest treasure—a treasure on which the fate of the world rests—into the hands of someone who had never had a job, never lived...

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2 min read

Christmas at UGM: A warm welcome into a community that cares

The snow has come, the days are nearly at their shortest, and Christmas is right around the corner. But what is Christmas if you’re homeless? Is...

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4 min read

Writer’s Column: A Christmas Reflection

The Mission at Christmastime: brimming with hope, cozy and warm, piled with gifts. This is not what I expected. I came to Union Gospel Mission in May...

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4 min read

What Mary Knew

Christmas turns our thoughts to family, whether it’s kids getting into the “magic of the season” or the contemplation of a special baby laid in a...

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4 min read

Homeless, Penniless, Pregnant

Scripture doesn’t tell us a lot about Mary’s feelings on the eve of giving birth to the Savior of the world. We do know she had never been pregnant...

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3 min read

2020 Vision: Jesus Changes Everything

O Come Let Us Adore Him Christmas is about adoring Jesus. It’s about the angels’ invitation to “come and see.” It’s about the shepherds leaving their...

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mary-and-jesus

2 min read

Adventus-the Arrival of Jesus

The already brimming schedules and to-do lists most of us carry are magnified and exacerbated during the holidays. Even as the American “holiday...

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Here at UGM, we talk a lot about the reverberations that go out from one changed life.

1 min read

The Source of Change

Here at UGM, we talk a lot about the reverberations that go out from one changed life. A mother who becomes the parent her children need affects...

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holding hands

4 min read

Death and Christmas

My dad died on December 12 of this year. His death was by no means a tragedy. He was 89 years old, had lived a full, meaningful life and died...

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sheep-and-windmills.jpg

4 min read

Stay with the Shepherd

UGM Resident Advisor Shane shared this message in chapel at our Men's Shelter this month. In reflection on the birth of Christ, Shane's childhood...

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4 min read

#Blessed

A friend on Facebook recently posted a picture of her new wood flooring and her new granite countertops with the hashtag #blessed. She’s expressing...

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2 min read

A Broken Hallelujah: What has Christmas to do with Suffering?

Love is not a victory march. It’s a cold and it’s a broken hallelujah. -Leonard Cohen By Barbara Comito, Director of Marketing A young friend asked...

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2 min read

No Place like UGM for the Holidays

“What did Christmas look like in the past?” “I never had a Christmas…I did growing up, I had Christmas cause my mom made it. But as I got deeper and...

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2 min read

The Root of Our Joy

This sentence from the cover story struck me: “The day after Rachel was baptized, she received news that her father’s cancer had returned for the...

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2 min read

A Front Row Seat to Holiness

Editor's note: This is the first in an Advent devotional series based on Isaiah 61:1-3. Some of the posts in this series were first published as part...

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Phil and Caryl cropped

1 min read

A Christmas Irony

By Phil Altmeyer Executive Director Christmas – what’s not to love? Family and old friends gathered together around a roaring fire. Sledding....

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1 min read

Christmas for the Homeless

Makin’ a list. Checkin’ it twice…and here’s what we discovered. In order to best serve our clients and clearly communicate our holiday needs to the...

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