FEATURED

♪Imagine a pianist who could say “I love you” to his lover by playing a song at the piano. The better the pianist and the better he knew his lover, the more compelling this love song would be. In some ways it might be even better than talking or writing a letter.

♪My grandparents lived on a beautiful acreage when I was a child. They had a large garden, a cute playhouse, and a big hammock slung between two old apple trees. The main feature during the winter months was the large, gently-sloping hill at the back of the property. One day in particular stands out in my childhood memory of that private snow hill.

♪What does stewardship in local churches look like regarding global missions? Is it just a matter of finances—bang-for-the-buck kind of thing—or could we include the time given by individuals and congregations to study missions, to hear reports from mission workers, and intentional time in prayer for mission efforts?

♪I was first introduced to the sonnets of John Milton in college. One in particular, no. 19, “On His Blindness,” has stuck with me. In it, Milton reflects on the question of his value to God as a writer now that he is going blind. He ends by observing that a king with thousands of servants rushing about doing his bidding is equally served by others who stand by, waiting.

♪When historians tell of our ancestors’ arrival from Russia, they also never fail to mention two other creatures: ravenous crop-destroying grasshoppers, and hordes of bloodthirsty mosquitoes. These insects added insult to injury during years of drought, poor crops, and other struggles. It seems that life for our newly-Canadian forebears could be a hungry, itchy one. Being a people of the land was not always an easy task.

♪It was probably the most pickles I had seen in my life. Whole dishes, in fact, were dedicated to containing vast quantities of the canned cucumbers. This was one of my first experiences with an Anabaptist congregation outside of the Sunday morning service: a funeral for a beloved member of the church.

♪Have you heard this preacher tic? “I know we’ve all heard this story many times before but let me tell you about David and Goliath....” Why do we preachers say this so often?

♪My (nonexistent) artistic career came to a definitive end at Bible camp. Each summer, my friends and I would carefully select the skills we wanted to participate in during our fun-filled week. The craft option was always the most desirable choice, in our juvenile estimation.