I always look forward to our annual church anniversary service, held each year on the 3rd Sunday of September. That Sunday, as well as Christmas Eve are the two times a year where the church is reasonably full. But with COVID-19 this year, we would not be able to follow protocol if quite a few…
One of my favorite books on writing is Writing for the Soul by Jerry Jenkins. In his book Jerry gives some excellent advice for Christian writers. For example, “We can’t write for other people’s souls unless ours are healthy.” Or how about this gem: “No writer ever arrives.” Jerry also advises, “Allow yourself to be moved,…
Back 40 to 50 years ago cemeteries were pieces of land I desperately tried to avoid. Following the death of my Uncle Lloyd when I was 10, and the death of my dad when I was 15, cemeteries brought back such painful memories. Despite all that, in my late teens I took the job on…
In my 20 plus years in well drilling, I was involved in some pretty amazing projects. Such as being involved with drilling a 42 inch, 202 foot mine ventilation shaft hole that finished off 5 feet into solid bedrock in Northern Quebec. Or working several months while drilling monitoring wells at the now closed Keele…
Every December at our church there has been this annual tradition of what is called a Mitten Tree. It is like a Christmas tree, but instead of ornaments and tinsel, it is decorated with donated mittens, scarves and warm hats. To have a full and well decorated tree will mean there will need to be…
Just the other day I was conversing on my Twitter timeline with a lady who was grieving the loss of her father. Her fear that after the funeral and with people getting back with their own lives, her dad would be forgotten. This was a very legitimate fear. Using my own dad as an example…
A questionable photo from college days. A tweet written when in a bad mood. A Facebook rant. Careless words are nothing new. In years gone by most people have not had ample opportunities to publish their passing thoughts for the world’s consumption. Not until social media came around. This puts us in a position to…
It is really cool and amazing how God send these little prompts to pray for things of great important. Whenever I hear “overseas or New Zealand”, my oldest daughter who is teaching in New Zealand comes to mind. And I’ll pray for her. Whenever I hear the words long drive or commute I will think…
It’s almost summer in Canada. We’ve made it through a long winter, and our snow boots, winter parkas and toques are all packed away. With the warmer weather our thoughts naturally turn to holidays. Now if we decided to take a week’s holidays in June in Canada, where would we go? What would we do?…
From my wife’s country of New Zealand there was a sheep named Shrek that became a national celebrity in 2004. Shrek was not the world’s oldest sheep in the world. He was not the fastest or strongest in the world. What made him unique was that he really, really, really did not like getting his…
