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An epic drama is unfolding in the wilds of South Texas, though Man does not yet know. The jaguar named Oracle crosses into the Rio Grande Valley in search of the Lonely Tree, where the last jaguar prayed for a successor before Man killed him seventy springs ago.

Oracle discovers the animals have “forgotten their names”—the ones Adam gave them in Eden. But Oracle remembers. When others meet him—a wounded butterfly, an angry alligator, ancient trees—Eden’s memory awakens in them.

Oracle befriends Patch, a misunderstood raccoon, and commissions him to help a boy washed ashore after a mysterious accident: Paco, whom the birds name Miracle. Patch persuades Plod the horse and Bog the toad to join him in helping Miracle find his parents. 

The way to the Lonely Tree is forgotten and dangerous, crisscrossed by ironthorn fences and bands of molten earth now hardened: the realm of Man. What will he do when he discovers Oracle? Can Oracle become the new Lord of the Valley in answer to the last jaguar’s prayer? Find out in this richly poetic tale of friendship, courage, and destiny that will awaken the imagination of children and adults alike. 

I Shall Follow Tom

The Path of Dan

Kurt's two original mentors in Afghanistan were killed by jihadi assassins in the Hindu Kush mountains in the summer of 2010. These mentors, Tom Little and Dan Terry, with seventy-six years of combined experience in Afghanistan, deeply influenced Kurt. Here are elegies he composed in their honor. 

Ode to Laura-Daphne

This elegy commemorates two friends killed by assassins in Afghanistan 2014. It attempts to describe what it may by like to arrive in eternity and discover the host of others who have also given their lives for Love's sake in Afghanistan.

On Hearing the News of the Death of a Couple in Love

Stephen Donnelly and Mandy Gold died in a collision with a drunk driver after Stephen, a talented pianist and guitarist, had performed music at a family wedding near Sheffield, England. Although Kurt did not know the couple, he knew several of their friends. This is what he wrote for them and their community.

What would it be like to explore a cave as a fugitive? This poem contemplates that desperate journey. 

I discovered this poem at work within me during a visit to the Nebelhöhle [the Fog Cave] on 23 June 11 in Baden-Württenberg, Germany, where Duke Ulrich of Württenberg hid in 1519 after an unsuccessful, unprovoked attack on the town of Reutlingen. In retaliation, the Schwabian Alliance routed his army and reduced him to a fugitive. After hiding in the cave for several weeks, he worked as a farm hand in the remote upland village of Reicheneck; eventually he was restored to his throne, and he granted Reicheneck tax exemption for the duration of his reign. Read the poem here.

My Trash

Afghanistan: When Kurt took out the trash, he discovered a whole world of people whose lives revolved around what he and others had thrown away. It got personal.

At the Gas Station

Grace comes often in the small spaces of commonplace activities. Even a gas station can become a sanctuary, an interlude in the life of a weary traveller. A car gets filled with fuel. A soul gets filled with grace.

On the Other Side of the Glass

Sliced open by the jagged edges of a broken bottle, a man explains how it happened to a stranger he meets. The injury provides a way to the healing he needs.

The Eucharist of the Runaways

Four hundred and fifty Sri Lankan women had crowded into a basement seeking shelter from their masters; the building was designed for twenty-five. Kurt joined a group distributing basic supplies to them. He learned about the many sides of the story that had brought them to such a desperate place—and about the One who chose to join them in their sorrows.

Choose Joy

In a world whose problems dwarf our own, is joy even permissible, let alone possible? Kurt offers several suggestions for cultivating this elusive and influential substance: joy, the "disarming armor" that changes us and the atmosphere around us.

Life-Giving Limitations

Freedom and joy come by the acceptance of our limitations, by realizing that in fact these actually define who I am as a unique person. To be content with who I am is another way of describing the simple dignity that is born of the realization that I have the high honor of bearing the image of God in a way that is unique to me, and only me. And the mystery is compounded when I realize that I am, in the end, "common."

The Genesis Trajectory

We are born into a world created not by ourselves, but by Another. What are we to do with the lavish love gift of the created order in which we find ourselves? Is it possible to connect the dots between the cosmos we have inherited, our current role in it, and the future it is intended to reach?

The Bridge Called Beauty

Innocent beauty welcomes us. It disarms our defenses and leads us to the borders of virtue,  justice, and the mystery of God. Why?

The Dialogue of the Gift

We must realize that creation does not only say something about the glory of God, but equally something about the value of Man.

Man as Microcosm and Mediator

Through us the world is transfigured from a mute wonder to a living, active offering back to the creator. We alone can do this because of our unique identity as both bodily creatures and spiritual beings.

God's Profile Page

The Hebrew verbs of the first pages of Genesis communicate a distinct personality and tender ethos of the “Lord God” as he introduces himself to the reader. If read on the level of "the story of God and you," these verbs communicate a profile of someone you would want to get to know -- and possibly even love.

The Crucified God

At the center of the Christian faith story is an abandoned, suffering Man crying out, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?” Through the incarnation and crucifixion, God communicates his solidarity with us in our sufferings and those of the world.