Grow and glow

The ChristianWeek office has been growing this summer. Earlier we announced that Brian Koldyk had joined the team as group publisher (CW, July 22/03). These days he is busy poring over spreadsheets and finding ways to improve our methods and refine our message. And he’s not the only new addition.

Last month we also doubled the size of the graphic arts department (from one designer to two). Eve Schellenberg now works alongside Ryan Bartel providing layout and design services (and more than a few other tasks) for our ChristianWeek and ChristianCurrent newspapers.

Eve, who grew up near Ottawa and now lives in a rural community near Winnipeg, recently graduated from the graphic design program at Red River College. This is her second degree. The first is a diploma in Fine Arts from the Ottawa School of Art.

Eve joined us in the midst of transition and faced a steep learning curve. It didn’t help that her computer arrived late. Deadlines for the August edition of ChristianCurrent were bearing down on us and there were technical difficulties galore. Adversity tends to reveal either the best or worst of people. In the midst of this I saw strong characters hunkering down to the task at hand. The team pulled together magnificently, got the paper out and have since identified dozens of ways to do things better. Now this is growth.

As for glow, weddings worked their wonder on the editorial side of our operation and introduced some changes to the names in our bylines and masthead. In late June editorial assistant Carla Friesen walked down the aisle with Dwayne Lowe. A month later it was managing editor Kelly Henschel’s turn. She married Ken Rempel, and now makes her home in Niverville, about a 45-minute commute from Winnipeg.

The addition of Brian and Eve to our full-time staff, and the new social status of Carla and Kelly, are positive developments in the life of our organization and staff. God is good.