Ideas for Action

I think about money a lot. I think about it in a way that I’m told was passed on to me through my Dutch heritage: namely, I think about how to spend the smallest amount possible. Last night, for example, I couldn’t fall asleep so I was doing math in my head to figure out if I would have paid less if I had bought my dishwasher detergent on Amazon in bulk rather than at Target with a coupon. It’s a sickness, really.

I personally witnessed my assistant superintendent wipe tears from her eyes as she watched video footage of survivors speaking. That powerful learning significantly shifted the culture of our school.

ISIS has taken responsibility for three terrorist attacks that were carried out this past Thursday and Friday. On Thursday night over 40 people were killed and 250 were injured in a double suicide bombing in Beirut, Lebanon. On Friday a suicide bomber killed over 20 people and wounded about 40 attending a funeral in Baghdad, Iraq. Then on Friday night over 120 people were killed and more than 350 were wounded in six different attacks across Paris, France.

To defend both the unborn child and this oppressed family is to stand for the sanctity of all life.

I have participated in the Blanket Exercise several times and each time I have heard people, of all backgrounds, say “I never knew. Nobody ever told me this.” How we tell the story matters and the Blanket Exercise gives us the opportunity to learn a more complete story.

Could the long, slow work of voting and political action be thought of as a spiritual discipline?

A Muslim man from Iran, a few students from the CRC campus ministry Geneva House, several First Nations or Metis people, and a couple dozen other members of churches from across Kingston gathered at Westside Fellowship CRC in Kingston.

How do I talk to my children about racism in light of Charleston? I thought it would be easy for me to answer as I do not shy away from real topics with my children. However, I couldn’t come up with something for this blog. I asked my children if I ever talked with them about racism and they looked at me with questions in their eyes and responded, “no”. I talked about the blog with my colleague and told her I was having trouble with this assignment and I couldn’t even answer the questions. I realized that perhaps I didn’t talk with my children about overt racism because of the sheer violenc

Today is the 7th anniversary of the Government of Canada’s Residential Schools Apology. If we truly believe that the Gospel is good news for this time and this place, we must respond.

We need not be afraid to teach our kids hard things and ask difficult questions.