We spent most of January in our backyard, avoiding a virus. Yep, January. It was because of our puppy. She was two months old and unvaccinated, so staying home kept her safe from canine parvovirus, an infection that kills 91 percent of untreated dogs. But the risks of not socializing a puppy are also real: without being exposed to new people, animals, sounds and places at a young age, dogs react badly to new things later on.
On April 9, the Christian Reformed Church in North America (CRCNA) cancelled its annual June Synod due to COVID-19. The CRC’s smaller Council of Delegates will have an online meeting in June for any agenda items that cannot be postponed until 2021. Meanwhile, February feels like years, not months, ago, so it’s hard to remember the week when proposed changes to the CRCNA’s governance structure were front page news.
Try The Land of Stories: The Wishing Spell by Chris Colfer. Twins Alex and Conner leave regular life behind when they travel through a storybook into a world where fairy tales are true, and their beloved grandmother is actually the Fairy Godmother. Can stories inspire us? Can we draw courage from the characters we read about? This warm, funny book is packed with adventure as Alex and Connor find out. (Junior fiction)
The week that Bert Witvoet died, the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic and Canadians began hoarding toilet paper. “At last!” I imagined him saying. “No toilet paper? This could be Christian Courier’s moment – people will need newspapers again!” The joke might look a little bald here, but I’m pretty sure Bert could carry it off.
After 85 years of adventures with family, church, culture and creation, Bert Witvoet has been enfolded into the loving arms of his Creator and Father. After a few weeks of struggles with his health, on Tuesday morning, March 10th, he peacefully passed away in Niagara Health Centre (St. Catharines, Ont.) surrounded by his wife and all his children. Bert was a beloved Editor of Christian Courier for 17 years, a role he returned to twice more when duty called. He continued mentoring young and beginning writers and writing lively editorials until his final retirement in 2016.
We are told that young people don’t know enough to take part in church planning. Thankfully, I belong to a church in Hamilton, Ont. that has created a way to counteract this by creating young people’s Bible studies. These groups are run by and include young people, promoting leadership within the community and on the church board as well.
On Feb. 20, Dr. Steven Timmermans resigned, effective immediately, from his role of executive director of the Christian Reformed Church (CRC) in North American “in light of structural changes between Canadian and U.S. administration.” You can read the CRC’s news release about Timmermans’ resignation here and find out what’s behind those structural changes in an article by Christian Courier’s Editor, below.
“Welcome to Hamilton,” opens a new poem by Canadian writer and cabinetmaker John Terpstra. “You’re going to love it here.” Terpstra read this poem to a group of Act Five students last fall, high school graduates taking a gap year program at Redeemer University College in Ancaster, Ont. Terpstra welcomed the students to Hamilton’s staircases, its bike lanes and one-way streets, “to nature, hidden in plain view,” to a city “that lives in two different centuries.”
Our family started volunteering at a local soup kitchen last year. Because it’s in a basement, in facilities that the organization has outgrown, the place feels a bit grim – crowded and run down. They have plans for a new building to address the growing needs in the community. For now, there’s usually a line-up of people waiting to get in. One day, when we got there late for our shift and made our way to the door, a few people said “Not open yet,” and I realized they thought we were there to eat, too. Fair enough! You can’t tell by looking who is there to volunteer and who’s there for food.
Indwell is dedicated to helping people in Ontario with disabilities – including those with mental health diagnoses and/or addictions – by creating affordable housing communities that promote, according to its mission statement, “health, wellness and belonging.” Their “knowable” communities are deliberately small, with 40-60 apartments per building. The organization dates back to the 1970s, when a number of Christian Reformed (CRC) churches in the Hamilton area, under the visionary leadership of John and Siny Prinzen, began what was known then as Homestead. Harry Van Belle was one of its early Board members.
Visitors to our house in December will not be impressed by beautiful lights or artful pine bough arrangements. In 18 years of marriage, we’ve only had a Christmas tree once; usually I just throw a few ornaments on the small potted pine in our living room. But if you stand in the doorway, close your eyes and inhale deeply, the scent of fresh baking might convince you that we’re gearing up to celebrate! A few holiday favourites interrupt the usual rounds of blueberry muffins and chocolate chip cookies – namely shortbread, my sister’s pretzel/Hershey’s kiss/red or green M&M combo, and gingerbread.
I went for a walk with Bob Bruinsma last May. He had picked me up at the Edmonton airport wearing the same hat he does in his columnist photo so I’d recognize him. We walked along the North Saskatchewan River and, the next morning, through Elk Island National Park. Bob is a terrific guide, peppering the conversation with stories about vegetation, local history and politics. He is precise.
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