The familiar ding rang out from my computer notifying me of a new email. I went to check it and discovered an email money transfer, sent at an unexpected time from a very unexpected source.
The sender’s name was Shelley, a single mother from our congregation who worked three jobs in order to take care of her son. She was always busy, always juggling her work schedules, and desperately trying to spend time with her child while also providing for him financially. It wasn’t easy to do both, and now she was sending me money that she said was specifically for me, not the church. Continue reading Learning to Receive→
One of the few books that is a family heritage in our Konkel family is entitled The Descendants of OHM Abraham Wiebe 1831–1991. It is a genealogy, names of people in chronological succession with pictures. It is frankly a boring book, unless the reader happens to know the story of someone in the book. The more the reader knows, the more interesting and informative the book becomes. It may well be the most consulted book in the family library. This book is typical of modern genealogies. It is a condensed family story of generations. Continue reading From Generation to Generation→
“We can go here because somebody has gone here before.” These were the words from my Cree friend and mentor as we made our way into the woods of northern Saskatchewan in search of moose. On both sides of the narrow “road” was a treacherous snowbank, one that easily would have consumed the front end of our truck and left us stranded many hours from any actual road.
As we pushed further and further into the forest toward our base for hunting, I would occasionally feel the truck pull out of the tire grooves packed from the previous hunters. Again I would hear him say, “Stay on the path that others have made, we can go here because somebody has gone here before.” Continue reading Mentoring and Moose Hunting: Why Relationships Matter→
Our daughter Ruth reminds me of Ibrahim, one of my earlier Siamou language helpers. Both of them have pointed out the names of shrubs, flowers, grasses and trees, giving me an appreciation for the plants growing around us. Continue reading The Significance of Names→
The ice-covered branches of the lilac trees outside my window look like shimmering glass against the vibrant blue sky. The sunshine is welcome after days of clouds, wind, and snow. I can see the Gatineau Hills across the way, and I am grateful. Continue reading Journeying to Justice, For the Love of Creation→
How teaching on creation is making a difference in DRC
By Kukedila Ndunzi Muller
At the beginning of this third millennium, humanity confronts serious ecological problems that threaten human life and all of creation. The consequences of global warming are perceptible in every country of the world: polluted air and water, serious flooding, extreme heat, etc. Continue reading Creation Care: A Biblical Mandate→
Why should I care for the environment? We know it’s probably the right thing to do, but what’s a Christ-centred perspective?
Sometimes modern Christians, in our excitement about Jesus, think the incarnation of God first happened 2,000 years ago in Bethlehem. Actually, we affirm that God has been inhabiting creation since time began. We monotheists believe that one good God created everything, and God’s blessing fills everything around us. Continue reading God Camps With His People→
Despite the fact that Paul only addressed same-sex sex indirectly in Romans 1, his words should continue to play a magisterial role in shaping our Christian sexual ethic, as they assume his moral stance, resonate with scripture’s consistent (even if minimal) evaluation of same-sex practices, and provide the only explicitly theological setting in which same-sex sex is reflected upon in scripture. Continue reading Same-Sex Sex and Romans 1→
How do we abuse scripture in relation to biblical sexuality?
If the purpose of hermeneutics is to bridge the gap between the mind of the biblical writer and our own understanding of the text, we must confess that we come to scripture with a particular set of lenses. These lenses are smudged with our cultural context, our contemporary issues, and a preconceived goal of what we want to read in scripture. This may lead to an abuse of the text to make it say what we want it to say. Continue reading Hermeneutical Fallacies and Sexuality→
A publication of the Evangelical Mennonite Conference
