Canada

It’s a difficult task to find meaningful, ethical gifts at the best of times, and now for most of us the pandemic realities of 2020 have added even more challenging hurdles to Christmas shopping. In many places, local stores are closed, gatherings are restricted, and it seems impossible to avoid bigbox conglomerates or controversial online retailers. How can you ensure the gifts you’re giving this year are supporting socially conscious businesses, are justly and fairly made, and are contributing to healthy local economies? 

Let us come before him with thanksgiving and extol him with music and song. - Psalm 95:2

Uganda protests and violence – 45 killed

Ugandan police have killed 45 civilians in clashes over the imprisonment of a presidential opposition candidate.   Into this situation we pray:

Creation care during COVID-19. What a weird time. On the one hand people are recognizing the importance of getting outside and enjoying creation. On the other hand the amount of personal protection equipment and other disposable stuff in the attempt to stay away from germs is frightening. If you are someone who wants to seriously follow your calling to care for creation it can be a bit confusing. But when things are confusing I think the best thing to do is get back to the basics.

When people hear about the work I do with survivors, they often want to share with me the latest story they have heard about trafficking. As they share details, it could be about a case or a news story I hadn’t yet heard, and yet elements of it - the targeting, recruiting, grooming or conditioning, and exploitation of victims - tend to follow similar patterns. Despite this, trafficking can look vastly different and take on different forms.

Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path. Psalm 119:105

I was recently invited as a guest speaker for a webinar with ecumenical partners, to share some information on global forced displacement and migration.

Ladner Christian Reformed Church (Delta, B.C.) welcomed former refugees Kukuye and Kiya, along with their daughters, to Canada on October 1st.  The family shared some of their story with the church community while they were in quarantine until October 16th.  This interview between Kukuye and Kiya and Bev Bandstra was originally published in Ladner’s Community Connections newsletter and Do Justice has been given permission to republish it here.

Who has held the oceans in His hands?
Who has numbered every grain of sand?
Kings and nations tremble at His voice
All creation rises to rejoice!
Behold our God seated on His throne
Come, let us adore Him

- Sovereign Grace Music

I write this the morning after an election in a country not my own.  

An election in a country not my own, and yet this moment feels fraught even for me.  So much depends on the votes counted, for those citizens casting votes and for those watching and listening elsewhere.

Hondurans huddled in cold valleys south of the Mexican border whose welcome is in part determined by the immigration policy of a country not my own.

Hear my cry, O God
Listen to my prayer
From the ends of the earth
I call to You

And when my heart
Is overwhelmed
Lead me to the rock

- David Baloche