January is a time of reflection for me. The winter is long and cold here on the prairies, and life can get monotonous while waiting for spring to arrive. But even in the tedium, I can appreciate moments when beauty shines through. Like glimmering diamonds in the trees, the hoarfrost—too beautiful for my camera to capture fully—becomes a frozen picture in my mind.

An interview with a single man

CALGARY, Alta.—Food, one of the necessities of life, is unfortunately not always available to everyone. However, it is often incorrectly assumed those in one’s local vicinity certainly have an adequately supplied pantry.

The Personnel Committee of the EMC General Board is very pleased to announce that Rolf Kruse will join EMC national office staff as the Interim Director of Global Outreach. Rolf begins his work in this role on January 4, 2022, in a term anticipated to be between nine and eighteen months.

What does a typical Sunday look like for us? On the mission field, we don’t deal with a lot of typical or sameness in ministry; flexibility and change can be expected. Let us take you along on a Sunday like this last one.

Thank you for supporting church planting in Canada! EMC’s Giving Tuesday initiative allowed us to replenish our Seed and Growth Funds by nearly $10,000. We trust you enjoyed hearing from several church planters in the videos shared on EMC social media platforms.

Life stories can be told in many ways. Come with me for a bit. I’ll take you through the chapters of my life, starting with my childhood.

“I don’t have many friends because most people think I’m a jerk.” I was a bit taken aback by the surprisingly blunt way my new neighbour introduced himself. I casually but curiously responded by saying, “Oh? Why is that?”

I grew up as a missionary kid in Pakistan. We had a jungle gym in our backyard and, very often, my sister and I would sit on the swings and play a game in which we would imagine we were grown up and living out the most ideal life we could think of: we were missionaries in the Peruvian jungle, with about 10 kids each. We homeschooled our kids and were, of course, the perfect missionary families.

In her article on singleness, Stephanie Fast raises the issue of reciprocity. One of the challenges of being single, she says, can be asking others for help with practical matters, knowing the favour isn’t able to be returned. This requires a certain degree of vulnerability, making it easier at times to hire needed help rather than ask.

I remember the first time meeting the post-secondary student advisor from my home reserve of Fisher River Cree Nation, I had never met anyone from here before and I was nervous.