By Bob Allen
“Following the Star,” a series for Advent and Christmas, returns to Passport, Inc.’s devotional website d365.org Nov. 27.
Daily entries will feature Scripture, prayer and meditative thoughts accompanied by gentle music.
This year’s writers include Mihee Kim-Kort, Kyle Oliver, Mary Alice Birdwhistell, Chris Cash, David Loleng, Linnae Peterson, and Brett Younger. Piano arrangements are by Ken Medema, Mark Hayes, Joseph Martin and David Burroughs.
Following the Star is part of the year-round devotional site, d365.org. A ministry of Passport sponsored ecumenically with the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, Presbyterian Mission Agency and Episcopal Church, d365.org originated in 2001 as a rapid response to the Sept. 11 suicide attacks targeting symbolic U.S. landmarks coordinated by the Islamic terrorist group al-Qaeda.
Leaders of Passport, a youth camping ministry formed in 1993, felt the generic Advent lessons written months earlier didn’t seem adequate to address the shock, grief and uncertainty gripping young people across the nation at the time.
Over time the ministry was expanded to Lenten and eventually daily devotions. A third back-to-school series was added in 2010. Today the devotionals can be accessed either on the World Wide Web or through a free iOS app.