Two weeks on the road

“Where are you from?” a voice asked. I looked around. A woman in hiking shoes was seated near her young son. She must have noticed my daughter Robin and I taking photos of the stunning view in every direction – the bright blues of Kalamalka Lake and the ridges of the beautiful Okanagan mountains. “Ontario,” I said. The woman launched into a list of local sightseeing recommendations. It was June 2, the halfway mark of a two-week Western Canada tour for my book, Blessed are the Undone. The hospitality of Christian Courier (CC) folks I had never met, along with the unexpected kindness of strangers, surprised us repeatedly on the road. They were gifts I collected like bright sea glass.

The day before I left, a Christian Reformed (CRC) pastor had publicly lambasted my upcoming tour, the events my co-author Peter Schuurman had already done in B.C. and our book, Blessed are the Undone. In these days of polarization and church splits, it can feel like critical voices are everywhere. Or at least like they’re the loudest. I did briefly wonder – was I leaving home to meet Angry Letters to the Editor in person?

Nope.Thankfully, the opposite happened! I heard from so many people who had appreciated our book, along with CC readers who waited in line to tell me they read CC from cover to cover and pay for five gift subscriptions for their family members. Let me introduce you to a few of the wonderful people we met!

From the prairies to the mountains

In Saskatoon, Ric Driediger regaled me with tales while we paddled a few hours up the South Saskatchewan River. Ric is a wilderness canoe guide and recently retired owner of Churchill River Canoe Outfitters who told me about the time his canoe blew away in 100-km/ hour winds in Nunavut, stranding him and a nervous German guest for three days. He shared Indigenous legends about the “little people,” and the Inuit woman who whacked a polar bear with a cast-iron frying pan. He mentioned, casually, how the week before he had reasoned (successfully!) with a black bear – telling it calmly to please stop strewing garbage around his yard each night. Adding: he wouldn’t mind if it bugged his neighbour once in a while, instead.

In Calgary, Ty Ragan and Erik Freiburger came before the event to talk with me. It didn’t take long for Ty’s passion and Erik’s wry wit to surface. Erik has a theology degree and a heart for ministry, but he can’t get to most pulpits because churches don’t have ramps that accommodate his wheelchair. One in four Canadians has a disability, whether visible or invisible, he said; 80 percent don’t go to church because they’re not able to, don’t feel welcome or are not represented in leadership. “How can churches build bridges to the disability community?” he asked. Our conversation ended too soon to even begin answering that question, so we made plans for a podcast conversation in the Fall.

In Edmonton, Louisa Bruinsma whipped up a series of delicious meals, gave us a lovely garden tour and had extra binoculars at the ready for a vigorous bird-watching walk through Rundle Park. Bob took Robin to Elk Island National Park, where their son David works, to try and spot some bison.

We had one day off in Vernon, B.C., which is where we met Jenna Boone for a hike (plus an encounter with two six-foot long rattlesnakes…!) and an iced coffee. After three years of working together virtually, it was so lovely to finally meet Jenna in person!

In Kamloops, Frank and Margaret Rhebergen took us up the Mara Mountain canyon, past tall rock hoodoos on Cinnamon Ridge and up and down cliff faces on bighorn-sheep trails. “The bunchgrass has deep roots, if you need to grab something while you’re climbing,” Frank said. “We’ve seen baby sheep leap this crevasse – try it!” He pointed out the scrape marks made by glaciers on the rock face, and the terraces on a distant peak that were beaches formed by glacial lakes about 12,000 years ago. We heard how in the 80s, the Rhebergens had attended a CRC church in northern B.C. that split after a painful, protracted debate about women in office and how to interpret and apply scripture to the first chapters of Genesis. The Rhebergens were fine with the CRC’s 1973 report that allowed for a “long creation,” but their church council doubled down on a six-day creation and voted to leave the denomination over it. These days, Frank and Margaret attend an Alliance church and run a pickleball ministry.

In Langley, Jenny deGroot welcomed us warmly with homemade shepherd’s pie. The new June issue of CC was on her countertop, and its front-page photo looked exactly like the bear we saw on the Coquihalla Highway on our way to her house! You cannot imagine a more peaceful setting than Swallowfield Farm on a fresh spring morning – the birds, the flowers, the owl trapped upstairs in the barn that we watched Jenny entice back outside.

Vancouver is a bit of a blur. Jenn Burnett, who has a PhD in hospitality (literally!), added a generous measure of laughter to our B.C. travels. And she introduced us to an obstacle race, the steeplechase, at the provincial competition her daughter was participating in. After three events in less than 24 hours, suddenly we were on the ferry to Victoria. It was really special to spend time with some of my extended family in both of those cities. In Cowichan Bay, where we met up with a cousin, a passerby pointed out a path through the woods to a Great Blue Heron rookery – 20 or more nests filled with squawking babies making an incredible, prehistoric-sounding racket.

Angry letter writers? There were none to be found. In seven cities in Western Canada, the only people we met on the road were Christ’s living epistles.