We’re in our corner. There’s a thermos of Douwe Egberts coffee on the table. Today Pete is the server. Instead of Gemberkoek, we have apple pie, which Broekie pulled out of a bag and set beside the thermos. So Broekie brought the pie, though we know Corrie baked it. He hands a plate to each of us and slices the pie into six pieces.
This Friday morning, we’re back in our corner of the dining hall at Grace Manor. We usually meet at 10 and wrap things up around noon. I arrived at 10, but there was no one in sight. I went to the kitchen to check with Mary – maybe she knew something.
A manager I worked for at a not-for-profit agency once explained to me why she chose to work there. “I want to make a difference,” she said. She had no children, and here was one way she could leave her stamp on the world. I suspect that everyone longs to make a positive difference in…
Safe Families Canada works to fill the gaps in child and family support services across Canada. Families who access support from Safe Families Canada may be dealing with financial instability (due to unemployment or the rising cost of living), housing insecurity, substance abuse, incarceration or illness. Motivated by grace, volunteers come alongside families in crisis…
The first way that many children encounter the Bible is through stories – concrete events that happen to a person of interest and that reveal something about all humans and about the God who created them. Even as we get older, the narrative parts of Scripture continue to resound in our lives. They may also…
“I truly believe this is the one book I was put on earth to write. So many of the strands from my childhood – racial hostility, political division, culture wars – have resurfaced in modern form. Looking back points me forward.” These words on the flyleaf of Philip Yancey’s memoir, Where the Light Fell, caught…
She is not one of the better-known women of the Bible and appears in only a few verses at the beginning of the gospel of Luke (2:36-39). The prophet Anna endured a long life and saw some of the most difficult events in Israel’s troubled history. As a descendant of Jacob’s son Asher, she is…
I go, every week, to this place on Main Street. I call it church, but others say it’s a mental health drop-in center. Every week I sit with my friends while they eat. Many of them pay for their food, but some cannot afford to, though the price is very low. They eat anyway, and…
When Paul references Isaiah in 1 Cor. 15 – “Death is swallowed up in victory” – he’s referring to a future resurrection day. But at World Renew, mercy and justice work is about participating in God’s vision for lives being fully reconciled (in right relationship with God, with creation, with self and with one another)…
“Can I tell you something?” When you hear words like that, do you feel nervous? Intrigued? What about when you think of saying those words? That question can be the precursor to a holy and hard confession. In a previous article, I argued that God can take what is broken and make it beautiful (“What…
The jar of roasted red peppers slipped from my hands and shattered on the grocery store floor around my sandaled feet. In my rush to get through checkout before the toddler melted down and back home for the baby’s nap, I clumsily dropped the jar onto the tiles. “No!” yelled my three-year-old, who shares my…
“Wait ‘til your father gets home!” How many times did my miscreant behaviour provoke those words from my mother’s lips? Make no mistake – Ma had a penchant for law and order and she was quite capable of meting out immediate discipline. But this was her trump card for especially exasperating infractions. Did she realize…
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