Brief encounters with the people of God

Doug Koop
CW Editorial Director
dkoop@christianweek.org

God’s people never cease to amaze me. The very nature of my work enables me to meet many individuals whose thoughts, words and deeds are helping countless others get to know more about God and how He is engaging His people in contemporary Canada. Let me introduce you to just a few of the wonderful Christians I encountered during the past year.

Set captives free

I first met Janis Ryder at MissionFest in Toronto last March. She was excited about her new job as executive director of Prison Fellowship Canada, although it was clear the position was full of challenges.

One of the stories she related really struck a chord. She told me about a prisoner who contacted 12 churches in a city where he expected to settle following his upcoming release. The man was looking for a congregational home, a place to nurture his faith and help him re-enter society. Sadly, not one of the churches he contacted replied to him.

Janis did eventually find a place for the ex-prisoner to worship, but the fact that no churches even responded is a sorry indictment of the Christian community’s willingness to fulfill its calling.

Open to the Spirit

Al MacMillan appears to just go with the flow. I met him in person on a Sunday morning just 10 minutes before he led me to the platform of Bridlewood Community Church of the Nazarene in Kanata, Ontario, a congregation he and his wife established 20 years ago.

The service included baptism by sprinkling of two young schoolchildren in the presences of their family and godparents, as well as a pastoral prayer session that saw several people come forward to the “mercy seat” to receive prayer. And then I got to preach a sermon I had prepared on prayer.

It was a time of profound spiritual connection, and I, for one, am grateful to Al for being such a gracious facilitator in events orchestrated by the Holy Spirit.

The write spirit

One fine morning last spring the time flew by as Wendy Nelles and I enjoyed breakfast at Marche, a unique restaurant in subterranean Toronto. Wendy is a freelance writer who has worked for many years to nurture good writing among Christians in Canada.

Our paths have crossed many times during the past 15 years. These days she channels that passion through The Word Guild, an association that aims to “connect, develop and promote Canadian writers and editors who are Christian” (www.thewordguild.com).

In June I watched Wendy in action as a lead organizer, along with author and CW columnist Nancy Lindquist, at the annual God Uses Ink writers’ conference in Guelph. These two team leaders are contributing lots of time and talent to improve the caliber of communication by Christians in our country.

Living in limbo

Jim Olesen stopped by my office a few weeks ago to talk about new efforts to combat the scourge of Fetal Alcohol Syndrome and related disorders. It is a very personal story for Jim, his wife Mavis, and their adopted son, Dallas Williams, who joined the family as a three-year-old.

As detailed in Living in Limbo, a book co-authored by Mavis and Dallas, his adolescent and early adult life experiences included dropping out of school, running away from home, substance abuse, living on the street and incarceration. Now in his 30s and living independently, Dallas continues to struggle in many areas.

Jim’s conversation with me with revealed a profound depth of personal knowledge and pain about the difficulties whole families endure trying to come to terms with the bitter realities of trans-racial adoptions and the enduring effects of alcoholic pregnancies.

Helping families who find themselves in similar situations to recognize what’s happening and access resources is now the Olesens main mission. It’s turning into a full time “retirement” project (www.geocities.com/adoption_dal las_mavis/). Correspondence counts

Many of my most direct encounters with God’s people occur in correspondence. Quite often an article we publish will prompt someone to write, normally because it’s either stimulated their thinking or offended them in some way. These exchanges usually lead to better understanding. My impulse to defend is tempered by my desire to learn.

For a while last spring, for example, I carried on a lively and lengthy correspondence with a professor who has taught for years on secular university campuses. Elmer Thiessen is deeply concerned that Christians are selling out to relativism as they seek to engage postmodern culture. It’s a reasonable concern, but I have a much more optimistic view of the possibilities for authentic Christian witness in the emerging social environment. It’s a topic you can be sure ChristianWeek will be visiting in the year ahead.

The hardest part about writing this column was deciding who to include. It mentions only a few of the countless individuals who are defining the character of Christianity in Canada in ways that bring glory to God. May their projects prosper, and may their tribe increase.