Canada

The wonderful thing about praying is that you leave a world of not being able to do something, and enter God's realm where everything is possible.  He specializes in the impossible.  Nothing is too great for his Almighty power.  Nothing is too small for his love.  - Corrie TenBoom 

Open Doors International, the organization which produces the annual World Watch List of 50 countries where it is most difficult to be a Christian, assesses that there are 245 million Christians who experience high levels of persecution—one in nine Christians of our world today. That number is climbing in recent years. We often distinguish these brothers and sisters as members of the persecuted church while identifying ourselves as members of the free world church.

The “F” word that I encounter regularly has a way deeper impact than the one you are probably thinking about. FEAR. 

"Forget Everything And Run” or “Face Everything And Rise. "

I recently went on a trip to the Yukon, I’m not a big hiker so when my friend led me along the side of a steep slope on a mountain sheep trail I was well out of my comfort zone.  But I was also exhilarated, it was a new experience for me, on a perfect fall day. I was enjoying good conversation with my friend, and we could see our goal far up the hill.  

God go with us.  Help us to be an honor to the church. Give us the grace to follow Christ's word, to be clear in our task and careful in our speech.  - Alcuin of York 

In April 2006, I was a teenager at home watching the CBC News as they reported from a land dispute in Caledonia, Ontario. On the screen, a reporter talked about escalating tensions between townspeople and the Indigenous protestors who had taken over a development site that lay between the town and the Six Nations of the Grand River reserve. Behind the reporter a tire fire blazed. I looked through our living room window and I could see the billowing black smoke over the houses and trees. It was surreal to me that my hometown was national news. 

My name is Cindy Stover, I’m one of the CRC’s justice mobilizers, and I have a confession to make. Until about a month ago, I had no idea what I could do to combat climate change. More specifically, I had no idea what I, as one person, could reasonably do to substantially impact our overwhelming global climate crisis. Now, I do lots of simple environmentalist sort of things; I recycle, I shop second hand, I try to buy local produce at the grocery store, and I even remember (most of the time) to bring my reusable grocery bags with me! But is all that really enough?

Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe.  - Hebrews 12:28

On September 27th, hundreds of thousands of Canadians took to the streets to urge governments and corporate leaders to take action on climate change. In Montreal, where the protests were led by teenage climate activist Greta Thurnberg, over 500,000 protesters (many of whom were children and youth), took the day off from school or work to join the protest.

You wearied yourself by such going about, but you would not say, ‘It is hopeless.’ You found renewal of your strength, and so you did not faint. - Isaiah 57:10