Ron Kirkemo completed 38 years teaching political science at Point Loma Nazarene University (PLNU), where he started the political science major. Believing a great university provides more than teaching, he developed a connection for the university to the global Kyoto Prize Symposium, created the university's Institute of Politics and Public Service, and led the creation of the Wesleyan Center for 21st Century Studies. He is continuing as director of the institute and is working to create a new center for ethical public leadership.

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One of Bert Bowden's favorite Bible verses is Isaiah 6:8. In that scripture Isaiah heard God asking whom He should send to bear the truth. "Here I am," Isaiah answered. "Send me." In that passage, Bert, an ophthalmologist in Huntsville, Alabama, hears God's question directed at him. And three or four times a year he answers by traveling to places such as the Dominican Republic, Belize, Mexico, and Trinidad.

In each issue, a forum of pastors, laity, theologians, and church leaders respond to your questions on subjects such as doctrine, theology, Christian living, and the church. Send your questions to Holiness Today, Church of the Nazarene Global Ministry Center, 17001 Prairie Star Parkway, Lenexa, KS 66220| E-mail: holinesstoday@nazarene.org. The editor regrets that all questions cannot be printed, acknowledged, or answered.

Flavio Valvassoura is field strategy coordinator for the Brazil South Field and superintendent of the Curitiba District. In addition, he is on staff at Campinas Central Church of the Nazarene with his father, Aguiar. He is also a member of the General Board and has pastored in Brazil and the U.S. Valvassoura earned his Ph. D. in preaching and leadership from Asbury Theological Seminary (ATS).

Q: As a pastor, I am often asked our denomination's official stance on creation and evolution. How do Nazarenes understand the origin and development of our universe?

As the doctor entered the cold, sterile examining room, I wondered how many more times I would hear him say, "Maybe next month." Having reached my early thirties and after nine years of eagerly anticipating motherhood, my desperation melted into tears as I tried to explain that I wanted a baby more than anything else in the world. When I was a small girl playing with dolls, never had I anticipated growing up to face the loneliness of empty arms that only a live baby doll can fill.

Grace! What a beautiful word! What an amazing gift to us from our heavenly Father: His all-sufficient, infinite, powerful grace! I am so thankful for His all-encompassing love that reaches down to the very point of my need—even when I least deserve it—and is manifested in my life in innumerable ways.

Where would I be without His prevenient grace that drew me to Him and prepared my heart for His entrance?

For several decades, the church has followed the cultural norm in segregating generations for small groups, Sunday School, and ministry. This goes along with the cultural trend in education, media, and economics to become age specific. Not only schools, but also television programming, films, advertising, and stores are targeted at specific audiences-with younger generations usually viewed as more valuable than the older segment of the population. Following the culture's lead, the church has increasingly 'marketed' itself in generation-specific ways.

I stood looking at the devastation with a sense of foreboding that was hard to shake. Hurricane Katrina had wreaked such havoc across the Gulf Coast that the images on television and in the newspapers made it appear horrendous enough. To see it first hand was almost more than I could take. It was not possible to capture the full magnitude of annihilation in pictures. In these images the devastation was reduced, flattened, and seemed of manageable proportions.

But seeing it face to face I realized it was not manageable. This part of the U.S. will never be the same.

All Christians believe that God expresses grace. And all Christians believe God is the source of salvation. But Christians differ among themselves about how best to understand grace and salvation. The key to John Wesley's view of salvation is his understanding of divine grace.

At its essence, God's grace is God's loving presence active in the world.