♪ WHEN I ENTERED the academic world recently, I noticed changes in Christian education I had not been aware of. I had not realized education had become so focused on leadership development. Across Canada’s Christian colleges there are now academic degrees in leadership, reams of Christian books written on leadership, and faculty whose sole role is to teach leadership development.

♪ AT THE BEGINNING of this year, I read that DaySpring, the greeting card company, had a Word of the Year Quiz on their website. By selecting a few personal descriptors and Bible verses that resonated with me, I could find a pre-baked, pithy word to construct my life around for the next 365 days (366 with the leap year).

STEINBACH BIBLE COLLEGE concluded its 2023–24 school year by awarding a hard-working collection of servant leaders with their Bachelor of Arts, Associate of Arts, and Certificate degrees during graduation weekend on April 26–27, 2024.

Letters published in the May/June 2024 issue.

EVERY DAY, WHEN Mr. Khong awakens in Myanmar, he has two challenges: One, avoid being captured, conscripted or killed by the military junta that is struggling to hold onto its power to govern. Two, get food to people who have fled to remote mountainous areas of the country to avoid the reaches of the junta.

“PEOPLING IS HARD,” said main speaker Connie Jakab at the first session of Awesome KidMin Conference 2024. And, she said, “It’s gotten even harder post-COVID.” Yet Ecclesiastes 4:9–12 emphasizes the importance of community.

Evangelical Fellowship Canada, Steinbach, Man.
Four couples participated in a parent-child dedication on April 14, 2024.

Straffordville EMC IS growing! We are so thankful for an addition to our pastoral staff.

Roseisle EMC , Roseisle, Manitoba THE HOLY SPIRIT has definitely been at work in our midst. We had three baptisms in 2022, and three in 2023. We pray for more this summer. There has been much interest in the catechism classes that Pastor Fernando Hiebert hosts every Sunday during the winter months.

AS I READ newsletters, send emails back and forth, and have phone or Zoom conversations with EMC missionaries serving around the world, I have been inspired by several things. These are ordinary people from our EMC churches doing ordinary things in other countries.

THE ST. MARY’S First Nation, where Venus Cote lives and does ministry, is inside the city limits of Fredericton, New Brunswick. It is home to the Maliseet people, or “people of the beautiful river.” Although the proximity of the reserve to the city makes it seem like it would be culturally similar to Winnipeg, where her aunt Elvira Cote works, Venus says it is very different and therefore ministry looks different as well.

I remember how it felt, if little else. Wow, I must be really bad. Whenever I sin, God can’t be with me. This is the message I internalized as a result of the teaching on sin I received at an early age: “God cannot be in the presence of sin.” With an object lesson to illustrate the point if we were lucky.