Community Chaplain

As I was sitting behind my computer this morning I discovered something that changed my whole perspective of our time in Estonia. Fifteen years ago my wife Anne and I, along with our three children, moved to this former USSR republic. By 1991 it had become a sovereign nation again but the residue left from 50 years of communism remained. Back in Canada, I had decided to resign as the pastor of a church in Toronto. At the time I was also a volunteer chaplain with Toronto Police. The faith group we were associated with was all about going to the nations and spreading the gospel. I felt it was time for us to venture overseas even if it meant leaving behind family and friends. We did not tell the congregation until we were sure it was where God wanted us. I was sure but Anne was not. We made plans to visit Estonia with our 2 youngest that summer of 2003 but before we left we had our regular prayer meeting at the church. A few weeks earlier, Anne felt like God was bringing her more clar...

I recently played a game on FB which asked the question: what do you see? A series of abstract pictures were shown and you had three choices of what you saw first as you looked at the pic. The idea being that in the end they would be able to tell what type of person you were and what your job/profession was. I got "Writer". Some might suggest I write too much but you will be disappointed today. Of course I am not sure why you are reading this...never mind. I have gone through the busiest 10 days in many years but I feel I can finally breath again. They were good days but extremely tiring. Emotionally I woke up a few nights concerned for the day to come. I had little control over what would happen except that I needed to trust God. As a chaplain but more importantly as a follower of Jesus, I got to practice loving those who were doing something I totally disagreed with: taking the life of someone else. I have never had to face a place in my life where I thought there was n...

When you hear the word "faith", what do you think of? Many of us would automatically assume it is a religious expression and nothing more.  It is defined as, "Complete trust or confidence in something or someone". As a Christian I have faith in a living God and His name is Jesus Christ. I also have faith, as defined above, in many things throughout each day. In fact I would suggest that not a single person that has ever lived, is living today or has yet to be born, will not experience this thing called faith. So why is it that so many people today boldly mock believers like myself because of our faith in a God that none of us has ever seen? They mock in large part because they have been taught not to believe. During the era of Communism in the USSR, people were taught that there was no God. For 50 years Christians were persecuted, as in China today, because of their faith in God. In the western world today, almost every religion is protected against bigotry except...

A few months back I had a heated discussion with a woman that attended the church I would eventually lead. The conversation was on Facebook messenger and started when she proudly stated her love for Fidel Castro and hatred of cops. This got me to thinking about the rhetoric I see and hear in social media that is attributed to Christians. I refer here to Bible-believing believers, including the woman I just referred to. How do we get to the place where one gushes over a politician while the friend attacks the same person being gushed over? I think I have an answer to that question although I am sure there is more to it than I can come up with. As a young boy I remember watching Walter Cronkite on the CBS evening news. Sitting with me was my dad who would quite often interject his opinions on anything remotely political. He didn't always agree with Walter's commentary and yet this was his channel of choice. My dad hated anything that even remotely smelled like communism. He c...

I hesitated writing this post but when I see friends posting inaccurately about police shootings I have to respond. I respond because of a few things that I have experienced in my own life. I respond because I get very angry when I see people who should know better, blindly accepting what the media reports. When I had the privilege of volunteering as a police chaplain I got to spend time with many cops. I played hockey with a bunch of them. I officiated at weddings and funerals. I sat in police cars racing to calls that were often very dangerous: not necessarily for me but certainly for the cops I was with. I heard their frustration about certain media outlets that had absolutely no interest reporting facts because they seemed set on undermining policing every chance they got. That is why I am quite honestly disgusted when I see people posting about the Baton Rouge shooting as if they had all the facts. The fiction shared by family and friends and quoted by media, portrays him as a ...