On June 21, pastor John Burns of Relate Church in Surrey, B.C. will tee-off on White Rock’s Peace Portal golf course. He will spend Father’s Day – and beyond – attempting to golf for 24 hours to raise money and support for two charities: Mercy Ministries of Canada and Watoto Childcare Ministries International.
Burns hopes to raise $1 million. He will try for 200 holes of golf – double the 100 holes that he played over a day in previous years when he has raised money for charities in the past.
“I will tee off at 8:30pm Sunday evening, carrying my own clubs, and will attempt to run and play as many holes of golf as I can in 24 hours,” explains Burns. “I will play through the night using golf balls that light up and wearing a head lamp. I’m expecting to run about 65 miles while climbing the equivalent of 400 flights of stairs and stopping some 1000 times to swing a golf club to hit my ball. I am asking people to sponsor me per hole, or hour, or for the total event.”
Mercy Ministries of Canada is a free Christian residential program for women aged 19 – 28 dealing with life-controlling issues such as self-harm, eating disorders, sexual abuse, unplanned pregnancies and addictions.
Watoto Childcare Ministries is a holistic-care program, initiated as a response to the overwhelming number of orphaned children and vulnerable women whose lives have been ravaged by war and disease in Uganda.
John Burns shares his vision – and his concerns about being awake for 24 hours – in this brief video.
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Picturing the land where Jesus and His disciples travelled can be difficult when one has never been to Israel. We read the Bible, but it is hard to visualize those famous landmarks.
Imagine if you could get an up-close view of where Jesus was baptized in the Jordan River, if you could sail the historic Sea of Galilee where much of Jesus’ ministry occurred, or have a transformational worship experience at the Garden Tomb in Jerusalem.
“Visiting Israel allows me to actually visualize the Bible as I read,” says Back to the Bible Canada radio teacher John Neufeld. “To walk in the places that Jesus walked and experience the culture Jesus experienced. The Bible references Jerusalem but also the New Jerusalem that is to come. Being in Israel allows me to anticipate what God will yet do.”
This fall, Back to the Bible Canada is offering the opportunity to join Neufeld, Laugh Again’s Phil Callaway, CEO Ben Lowell, and musical guests The Wiebes to visit the places read about in the pages of Scripture.
Taking place October 30- November 9, The Israel Experience will be an unforgettable 11-day journey featuring four-star accommodation, as well as daily breakfast and dinner buffets. Participants will be able to taste a cultural St. Peter’s fish lunch, visit the City of David, see the powerful temple of prayer, visit the Wailing Wall and take a dip in the Dead Sea as well as much more.
When travelling to Israel, whom you travel with is a high priority. Back to the Bible Canada, in partnership with Premiere Journeys, offers the experience and insight that allows visitors to gain all of the benefits Israel has to offer.
To book your Israel Experience, call 1-877-277-2122 or for more information, call 1-800-663-2425.
LANGLEY, BC—What does sociology and Christianity have in common? While the divide between theology and sociology exists, Trinity Western University (TWU) professor of sociology, Michael Wilkinson, says seminaries are coming around on the social sciences.
“We’re coming back to the beginning, when seminaries wanted ministers to be informed on social sciences,” he says, noting Canadian churches at the beginning of the 21st century believed sociology informed ministry to become more effective.
The discipline moved into the secular universities and became a state profession in the early 1930s, but Wilkinson says Christians and Christian higher education is again looking to learn how to better serve their world and communities through the understanding of social sciences.
“Many Christian universities put less of an impact on sociology than say, psychology, but I think that could change,” Wilkinson says.
He has seen how an education on contemporary social issues has been useful not only for student pursuing social work, but also for seminary students looking to enter full-time ministry.
“It can be very easy to be overwhelmed by society’s issues, they’re so complex,” Wilkinson says. “Students say, “I can’t make a difference,” but you can make a difference.”
It starts by being informed on how society operates, and understanding what the world looks like.
“You can’t change the world through social change until you understand how society works,” he says. “Understanding why a society works and how is a big step in identifying the root of the problems… and how you can take action.”
The combination of a sociology education and faith prepare students to make an impact.
“You give them the tools, and your beliefs shape your work,” Wilkinson says.
There are plenty of social problems, and it’s impossible for any one organization to solve them all, he says. But one organization can address at least one problem or more.
“We need specialists in all fields,” Wilkinson says. “Together we can create a flourishing society.”
TWU launched its sociology degree program five years ago, Wilkinson says, and it is going strong.
It was while attending TWU and taking First Nations Studies that Jenny Shantz’s dream to minister to first nations youth in Vancouver became tangible. Mentored by a professor with a passion for social justice and native relations, Shantz says she came to understand history from other perspectives.
One project included conducting interviews on a reserve over a weekend.
“I was learning so much,” Shantz says. “But I needed to live in a native community to understand where they are coming from, and how reserve life functions.”
After earning her bachelor of arts with TWU, Shantz returned to university for her teaching degree. She went on to develop an after-school program in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside while working at Union Gospel Mission, and later lived and taught for two years in Driftpile, a Cree community in Northern Alberta.
The experience and education she says were critical to the role of supporting First Nations people in Vancouver, who are diverse in languages and traditions.
In 2007, Shantz helped found Inner Hope, a youth ministry in East Vancouver serving at-risk Aboriginal teens.
It all stems from her faith and convictions that this is God’s work.
An analogy that explains Shantz’s convictions is the story of the paralytic being carried to Jesus, only for the man’s friends to lower him from the roof to get close to Jesus.
“The youth we work with are paralyzed, paralyzed from addiction, poverty and abuse,” Shantz says. “There are times you need friends to pick you up and take the roof apart… it’s about breaking down barriers. That’s Christian love, to say, “your circumstances do not define you.”’
As Christians we are all called to break down these barriers, she says, and give the hurting a chance to “walk and jump again”.
Mady Sieben is a third-year International Studies major at TWU and says it was an International Justice Mission video on present-day slavery that flamed her passion for social work and justice.
“I was blown away,” Sieben says. “I thought slavery was abolished; I was confused that it still existed.”
She began devouring information and books on slavery and the more she learned, the more she found social work a perfect way to make a difference.
Her International Studies courses include everything from political science to global policy and current events.
“Education is key,” she says. “It’s easy to be ignorant about what’s going on, and if you don’t know fully what’s happening it’s hard to make a difference.”
She says the training prepares students with a well-rounded understanding of how the world is constructed. Combined with the spiritual growth Sieben has experienced at TWU, she feels she has the knowledge and the passion to take a stand.
“The closer I get to the Lord, the more on fire I am for justice,” Sieben says. “Any time injustice is present, it breaks His heart. He wants everyone to see his or her God-given worth.”
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Created by retired Christian author and faith-political journalist Lloyd Mackey, the project is part of his work earning a Doctorate of Ministry at Tyndale Seminary. The vision is to create an online database of leaders from the first 150 years of Canada’s history as a nation.
“I want to include leaders from across the years,” Mackey says. “And some future leaders who are starting their important work now.”
So far, leaders include those such as writer and tireless worker for women’s rights Nellie McClung (1873-1951) who called Western Canada the “Land of the Second Chance” and others like Albert B. Simpson (1843-1919), founder of the Christian and Missionary Alliance. As one writer put it upon Simpson’s death, “His epitaph is written in the hearts of countless multitudes at home and abroad… no one in this age had done more effectual, self-denying service for Christ and His Gospel.”
Mackey hopes the project becomes a collaborative effort between historians, teachers, journalists and others with an interest in Christian history in Canada. He is looking for more suggestions for leaders to include, as well as more writers to contribute. Mackey hopes the database will include over 200 entries by July of 2017.
“We recognize that Christian leaders come from different categories of life,” Mackey says, adding each entry falls under government and politics, Church, business and philanthropy, media, entertainment and the arts, healthcare, and education.
For potential entries Mackey looks to answer the question, “What is it about an individual that they have shown leadership and brought their Christian faith to bear,” he says, while trying to keep in mind the importance providing a cross section of leaders across the denominational spectrum.
“As long as they are Christ-centred and biblically based,” Mackey says.
The online nature allows researchers to access the data from anywhere in the world, though Mackey says the project is not a wiki that anyone can edit. Mackey is currently bringing together an editorial board to review and edit entries as they come in.
“This is a valuable tool for historians and theologians,” Mackey says, helping Canadians see how Christian faith has been shaped through gripping stories of real people who have lived out their beliefs.
In a culture obsessed with productivity and accomplishment, the sabbatical has become an act of defiance and subversion. Photo by Sean and Lauren (Flickr CC).
The lost art of rest: Why we all need the sabbatical
Leaders need to be “a living sacrifice…not a burnt offering.”
In a culture obsessed with productivity, and enamoured with work ethic, what has become of the sabbatical? Taking an extended leave to deliberately cease work-related activities is more often seen as a quaint notion, almost outdated, for another time and place.
Yet, when a weekly day of rest was handed down from God through Moses to the Israelites, (Exodus 16:23-30) their feet still soggy from crossing the bottom of the Dead Sea, the mandated Sabbath was a shocking commandment in comparison to the orders of their slave drivers.
Pharaoh, the self-styled god of Egypt, ruled over a culture obsessed with production, work for work’s sake, in sharp contrast to Israel’s God who now demanded a cessation of work every seven days.
Modern Christians are faced with a similar shock when it comes to the Sabbath time and the sabbatical.
While North American culture isn’t obsessed with building pyramids, the comparison remains.
“We don’t have glowering task masters,” Buchanan says. “But we have a system that says, “Produce, or be labeled as lazy.””
The sabbatical becomes almost an act of defiance and subversion, and takes “a tremendous amount of courage,” Buchanan says. “It has to do with how we define ourselves. Our culture places value on producers, we believe we are what we do, but God says we are beloved children.”
Like the baptism of Jesus, Buchanan says God affirmed His favour and blessing on Jesus and His identity, before Jesus began his ministry, before He did anything.
Christians need to rediscover the art of rest through Sabbath time, moving from a position of producing to a position of receiving, which goes beyond a simple vacation or lying on a beach with the phone turned off.
The concept of the sabbatical comes from the Hebrew word, “Shabbat” which means to stop or cease.
While some may be tempted to use their sabbatical to pursue education, or visit other churches, as some pastors might be, Buchanan says it’s really a calling to cease any work-related activities.
A better picture is the concept of letting the farmland lie fallow, Buchanan says. “In that rest there is replenishing. The rain falls, nitrogen seeps into the soil… farmers are quick to see the imagery and importance of the sabbatical.”
Whether it’s an hour in the morning, half a day once a week, set aside for ceasing our work and looking to receive from God. Photo by Chip Griffin (Flickr CC)
It’s waiting expectantly, letting your heart lie open under heaven like a field lying fallow, to receive what God has for us.
Some employers may not provide set sabbatical times. But that shouldn’t let anyone off the hook, says Wanda Malcolm, professor of pastoral psychology at Wycliffe College in Toronto. She explains anyone can become deliberate with time set apart for ceasing work.
“Not everyone has the luxury of a sabbatical,” Malcolm says. “But our leaders ought to be really intentional about Sabbath time, within our day, week or season, and where work permits.”
Whether it’s an hour in the morning, half a day once a week, set aside for ceasing our work and looking to receive from God.
“I tell my students they need to be a living sacrifice,” Malcolm says. “Not a burnt offering.”
Winnipeg-based author and pastor Jamie Arpin-Ricci is currently preparing to leave on sabbatical and says as someone who serves in full-time ministry, this kind of rest is especially important.
“We often find ourselves serving and giving from our whole person to the needs of whole persons,” he says. “In truth, we are all human. This is why so many pastors and missionaries burn out.”
If Christian leaders are to continue serve and be healthy individuals, Arpin-Ricci says, the space for lying fallow, for Sabbath time, is essential.
It’s the reason Malcolm has also started the Wycliffe Wellness Project, what she hopes to become an online resource for those who are interested in understanding more about what it means to be well in order to serve well over the whole lifespan of one’s ministry life. Currently she is also working on an assessment tool, to help people see the pattern of stress and satisfaction in their lives.
“It gives them a chance to stop back and say, “What can I change?” Malcolm explains, whether it’s creating more space for reflection, working on relationships or saying “no” to certain opportunities. “Many see things they could adjust to enjoy ministry more.”
Malcolm hopes ministers especially realize they are not exempt from the need for rest, and instead take the lead when it comes to Sabbath times.
“They need to model the importance of Sabbath rest,” she says.
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Malaria society researches unique tea to combat disease
Efforts could lead to drop in malaria cases around the world
By Allison Barron ChristianWeek Correspondent | June 14, 2015
VANCOUVER, BC—A Canadian organization is determined to eliminate malaria one cup of tea at a time.
Artemisia annua, a plant native to Asia, is used to produce anti-malarial drugs; the Bye, Bye Malaria Society maintains that regularly drinking tea steeped from the plant can cure and prevent malaria. It is an inexpensive solution for the poor, and the Society is conducting experiments in India to determine its effectiveness.
Stuart Spani, president of the Bye, Bye Malaria Society, learned about simple malaria clinics, called ZoClinics, operating in Mizoram, India in 2005. He was inspired to help. In 2012, Spani and his grandson visited five countries in Africa to set up a network for establishing ZoClinics there.
“It was at this point I recruited four friends and formed the Bye, Bye Malaria Society,” says Spani. “The name came from the fact that when the first African ZoClinic technicians received their microscopes, one held hers up and proclaimed ‘Bye, bye malaria!’”
Spani learned about Artemisia annua from missionaries at Mission Fest Vancouver; one was from Africa and another from Indonesia. They were both using the plant as a cure and preventative for malaria.
“I began to research this plant and our society started to work closely with a German group called Anamed,” Spani says. “The founder, Dr. Martin Hirt, has a doctorate in pharmacy and had worked as a medical missionary in Congo for six years. While there he found modern medicines were either unavailable or too expensive for the poor to use and he made a deep study of traditional medicines.”
Spani says he was encouraged by Anamed’s success stories, among them a patient who had repeat malaria every month for 10 years, but who has been free of malaria for more than four years after being treated with Artemisia.
“I traveled to Mizoram this past March with the plan to conduct an experiment in one village this year, and begin to build a network to attempt to eradicate malaria in the entire state by 2016,” says Spani.
The Society initially went to the village of Darzo, though the experiment grew when two villages nearby heard about it and wanted to be included.
“A similar experiment has also been set up and planting has started in five Anglican dioceses in Rwanda, Africa, and we are in early talks to do the same thing in both Togo, Africa, and Sierra Leone, Africa,” says Spani.
As a Christian organization, Spani says the Bye, Bye Malaria Society believes Christian principles can solve problems and are determined to make agricultural villages better places to live.
“No one has tried using [the tea] for eradication on this scale, but we do know that even if it doesn’t eradicate malaria it will reduce the amount dramatically,” says Spani. “We will use the internet to let the world know the results and pray that many others will follow the example.”
See www.malaria-defeated.org for more information.
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Allison is a writer, editor, and graphic designer with a BA in English from Canadian Mennonite University and a Certificate in Publishing from Ryerson University. She currently manages Area of Effect magazine and is a missionary with Geekdom House in Winnipeg, MB.
LANGLEY, BC–Trinity Western University (TWU) is celebrating academic recognition amid the broad campaign to delegitimize its proposed law school. Two of its professors are among 25 successful international applicants selected to participate in an elite seminar at Oxford, exploring the interaction between science and faith.
The seminar, titled “Bridging the Two Cultures of Science and the Humanities,” includes funding and scholarly support for individual research projects proposed by each professor, as well as funding to establish a science and religion club at the professor’s home campus.
“Of the 25 recipients in this seminar, Trinity Western is the only school that received two applicants,” says Myron A. Penner, professor of philosophy at TWU and one of the seminar participants. “That speaks to the climate here for exploring science and religion.”
Penner’s project is a manuscript focused on helping students from conservative Christian backgrounds overcome any fear in engaging science.
“There are Christians who have a fear of what is being claimed by the scientific community, especially when it comes to implications of a scientific worldview in the age of the Earth and the nature of human origins. The book I am working on isn’t specifically about evolution, but evolution is one case study that is helpful in understanding the larger phenomenon of this science fear.”
Penner explains the tension is not necessarily between science and religion, but between science and specific interpretations of Scripture. There are good reasons, he says, to believe scientific claims like the Big Bang, evolution and the age of the Earth.
“Our unshakable commitment to [the gospel] needs to be distinguished from our own interpretations of what the Bible says on any particular point of doctrine,” says Penner. “Right through the present day, there are believers who have reconciled excellence in science with a vibrant Christian faith. It seems the height of ego for someone who doesn’t have the ability to navigate the data to ignore what science is saying because they don’t like it.”
The other TWU participant is biology professor Dennis Venema, who is writing a book to help Christian professors who are not biologists better understand the scientific basis for evolution and how the theory of evolution can be complementary to a Christian worldview.
“Many Christians oppose evolutionary biology because they feel it conflicts with the Genesis account,” he says. “There is good evidence, however, that the Genesis narratives are not speaking in terms of modern science. We need to recognize that we not only need to translate the language of Genesis, but also the culture and expectations of the original recipients of the text.”
Venema says many Christians don’t understand how drastically recent discoveries support evolution.
“Evolution is so well supported, and the evidence for it so compelling, that one cannot reject evolution and claim to have an up-to-date view of science.”
Of the 25 projects being funded by the grant, seven are overtly connected to the evolutionary view, while none approaches human origins from a traditional creationist perspective.
Venema says this is because the Templeton Religious Trust, the foundation funding the seminar, “typically doesn’t fund anti-evolutionary work, because of its many scientific shortcomings.”
Stan Rosenberg, executive director of SCIO, the group organizing the seminar, says it is focused on the broader dynamics of the cultures of science and humanities, rather than simply the science of human origins.
While he identifies himself also as a theistic evolutionist and believes that modern science cannot genuinely be used to support a traditional creationist view, he is clear that applicants views on the subject were not considered in selecting proposals.
“I think [theistic evolution] makes the most sense of reality. That doesn’t presume that I’ve found all the answers. I’m interested in engaging with deep, reflective thought wherever I find it. I’ve changed my views on this over the years and it’s because of trying to listen to others.”
Critics of the theory of evolution, however, highlight that it remains unproven, despite the tremendous amount of time and money being dedicated to exploring it. They also emphatically state that there is substantial, modern scientific support for the biblical narrative of creation.
Gary Chiang, professor of biology at Redeemer University College, says, “There is a wealth of scientific knowledge that fully supports creation as written in Scripture. The existence of living fossils [such as the platypus or crocodile] tells us that organisms have the capacity to stay the same. Species reproduce generation after generation as the same species, as described in Scripture.”
While the debate about human origins will likely continue for the foreseeable future, Penner says one thing he appreciates most at TWU is the openness to embrace differences.
“Among the staff and students, there are a variety of perspectives. We are a climate of freedom and safety to pursue both scientific expertise and a vibrant faith in a complementary way.”
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Craig Macartney lives in Ottawa, Ontario, where he follows global politics and dreams of life in the mission field.
J Arthur Peters
It’s unfortunate you had to include Gary Chiang’s comments. The flat-earth society doesn’t need pandering to, and his primitive remarks took away from an otherwise heartening look at the wonderful intersect between science and Christian Faith. – Jerrad Peters
Lead Soldier
The man is a biology professor at an academically respected Christian University, therefore on that score alone surely deserves better from a professional journalist. “Primitive” in what sense exactly? Your remarks serve only to “poison the well”. I wonder if you are familiar with the work of Geoffrey Burton Russell, “Inventing the Flat Earth”? The sphericity of the earth was known to the ancients. You have to be an incurable chronological snob willfully ignorant to invoke such absurd notions. As for the “wonderful intersect” of science and faith, in the case of these two professors at least one of whom works for the BioLogos organization (funded, like other theistic evolutionary projects out tens of millions of dollars doled out by the Templeton Foundation), evolution is not just a “good test case”; it is “the” issue for these people. Christians are not afraid of science, they never have been. All you have to do is review at random the annals of scientific societies going back hundreds of years even to the beginning of the Royal Society. You will see the appellation “Rev.” in front of a great many contributors in math, physics, botany, biology and so on.
In the case of the Templeton/BioLogos/Regent College/Calvin College/TWU axis (and many others too numerous to mention here, this patronizing view is pervasive: Unless you accept the evolutionary view of origins and use it as the interpretive lens for Genesis, you are quite likely a little bit paranoid about science, you are to be welcomed as a brother, but as one weaker in the faith, a little bit dotty, and who is incapable of fully worshiping God with all of your mind.
Lead Soldier
If there is anything “primitive” about this case, it lies with the truncated, manipulative and untrue view of science history and culture presented across the board by the disciples of Templeton and BioLogos. I would not go so far as yourself and rashly describe people with doctorates in biology, genetics (as in the case of Venema) as primitive. But it is a good description in the sense you use it, of their case in this matter. In fact, evolutionary science is completely irrelevant to genetics or biology.
George
Jerrad – I am appalled by your denigrating statement regarding Gary Chiang. Surely proper reporting on any subject demands fair and equal treatment of both sides. That would be doing your job. “Flat earth society”, “primitive remarks”? These remarks only contribute to the flame and fury of the origins debate. Name calling to dismiss his view and the many millions of Christians he represents? Mighty Christian of you brother, mighty Christian of you.
Lead Soldier
George, did you ever see the “science and faith” series in CW put out by Jenny McLaurin of Regent College? If you read them (still in the archives here last time I checked) and compare the phraseology to that used by our friend here, the Venema’s of the world, the crowd at Calvin et. al, you will realize a fearful symmetry exists among them all thanks in large part to the late John Templeton’s massively endowed foundation, a teat at which many theistic evolutionists have drunk warmly and deeply.
Lead Soldier
As of this moment, which is 7pm est July 03, the whole series by Jennie McLaurin can still be read by searching the name. I strongly suggest you read them to get a better background to the subtle (or not) evolutionist program underwritten by Templeton; they provided a substantial grant to Regent College out of which came their “Cosmos” website, “Pastoral Science Cohorts” and so on.
Al Hiebert
What is the “traditional creationist view” mentioned twice in this brief report? Is it the OEC “day-age theory” of Augustine (4th century), the OEC “theistic evolutionary theory” of the young Charles Dawin (19th century), C.S. Lewis (20th century) & Biologos (21st century), the OEC “gap theory” of C.I.Schofield (late19th & early 20th century), the YEC “flood geology theory” of Morris & Whitcome (later 20th century), the OEC “intelligent design theory” or what? I wish that all involved in this discussion might learn some humility as they interpret the empirical data of science through their worldview lens and the text of Scripture through their worldview lens. Human interpretions of the implications of both are always fallible.
Personally I have no problem with the OEC “day-age theory” of Augustine (4th century), which may well support the Big Bang. What troubles me is the dogmatism of those who want us to believe that the Big Bang and first life had no intelligent cause. I also have no problem with a historical Adam & Eve, though they likely lived long before any date that Bishop Ussher gave them. I’m speculating beyond the data. So are all the dogmatic polemicists on all sides of these discussions, IMHO.
Lead Soldier
“the dogmatic polemicists on all sides of these discussions”
Do you mean the list of theories you cite, or do you mean the comments on this page?
Al Hiebert
There are many more theories in this area than the few I cite. Each seem to have their dogmatic polemicists. Those are the ones I mean. The comments on this page are much too brief to qualify as such.
Christian professors help Omar Khadr face life outside prison walls
“For me and my colleagues, this is the call God has put before us,” says Arlette Zinck.
By Allison Barron ChristianWeek Correspondent | June 14, 2015
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EDMONTON, AB—Known by some as a wrongfully imprisoned child soldier and by others as a terrorist and murderer, Omar Khadr is free after nearly 13 years in prison.
The 28-year-old, accused of war crimes and imprisoned since he was 15, was released on bail on May 7. A group of Christian educators is applauding the decision, and continuing their quest to help Khadr upgrade his schooling.
Arlette Zinck, a professor at The King’s University in Edmonton, Alberta, first heard about Khadr’s story from his lawyer, Dennis Edney, when he came to speak at the university in 2008.
“He [Edney] spoke of a profoundly wounded teen with a fist-sized bullet hole in his chest who was nicknamed ‘buckshot’ by guards because of the many shrapnel wounds in his body, and made to carry heavy pails of water until his wounds wept,” Zinck writes in “Love Knows No Bounds: A Christian Response to the Omar Khadr Story,” a briefing written for the Chester Ronning Centre.
“He talked about sleep deprivation and the petty cruelties of cold temperatures. He told the students how, despite all of this, and in the context of years of conversations, he had never heard Omar Khadr speak an ill word about anyone.”
Zinck, along with many students and faculty at King’s, were moved to action by Khadr’s story. Some students organized events and rallies to support him, others began correspondence with him through his lawyer.
A small group of the faculty, including Zinck, made a curriculum for Khadr so he could study in prison. Khadr is still studying with them now while he is on bail.
Zinck tells ChristianWeek that Khadr plans to continue his education and they are just taking it one step at a time.
“He’s come a long way with his studies that he began as a student who left off at approximately Grade 8,” says Zinck.
Zinck sites Matthew 25 as a metaphor for their relationship with Khadr. “That’s the passage where you’re supposed to feed the hungry,” she says. “It doesn’t ask you to become judge and jury. It just says to be faithful and answer the call that God has put before you. For me and my colleagues, this is the call God has put before us.”
Zinck says it’s important for Christians to look at what’s happening in Canadian prisons, to think about corrections and our Christian understanding of reconciliation.
“All of us as Christians are pressed to use both our hearts and our minds when we engage with the world,” Zinck says. “So often it’s one or the other—rationalizing miserable ways of behaving or reacting emotionally instead of using a more thoughtful approach.
“A third way between the voices of culture is using a spirit of intelligent charity. This is an hour of history where we can pay attention to ways that revenge is used as a substitution for justice. I’m grateful for the experience working with Omar… I think we’re called to think carefully to think about the Christian perspective on corrections in Canada.”
Captured as a 15-year-old in Afghanistan, Khadr is the only juvenile tried for war crimes since the Second World War. A Canadian citizen, he was taken to Afghanistan by his father who had ties with al Qaeda. Among other charges, he is accused of throwing a grenade that killed a U.S. soldier during a 2002 firefight.
After being picked up in the battlefield, terribly wounded, Khadr was held at Bagram, and subsequently at Guantanamo Bay, before being moved to Bath, Ontario, in 2012 and then to a maximum-security prison in Edmonton in 2013. He applied for bail while his Guantanamo conviction is appealed in the U.S.
In the CBC documentary titled Omar Khadr: Out of the Shadows, Khadr reflects on his time in Guantanamo and in prison, where he was interrogated and abused.
“This one guard in Guantanamo, he would go out of his way to just humiliate me, antagonize me…” says Khadr. “I thought, I wanna know who that guy is… so I can get back at him the next time I get an opportunity… And then I was thinking, you know… I’m giving him a place in myself that he doesn’t deserve. He’s not worth me caring about him.
“You can only imagine what this guy is going through. The thing is, if a person can inflict pain on another person and find pleasure in that… he’s probably living in worse pain than me. What he’s causing me is temporary… but he’s the one who’s gonna have to deal with his conscience later.”
While on bail, Khadr lives at his lawyer’s home.
“I try not to dwell on the past,” Khadr says. “It was either that or me engulfed in hate and misery and thinking of how bad life is. But that’s not going to get me anywhere. I try to think of things that will hopefully make my life and hopefully the life of people around me better.”
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Allison is a writer, editor, and graphic designer with a BA in English from Canadian Mennonite University and a Certificate in Publishing from Ryerson University. She currently manages Area of Effect magazine and is a missionary with Geekdom House in Winnipeg, MB.
poortaxpayerwindsor
In the CBC documentary titled Omar Khadr: Out of the Shadows, Khadr admits he threw the grenade that killed the medic Spears, one of the true victims of the Omar sad story you are selling.
So Among other charges, he is accused of throwing a grenade that killed a U.S. soldier during a 2002 firefight is nothing but a blatant Lie on your part.
What you are really doing is committing treason, You are aiding the ongoing Christian genocide by the mozlums in the middle east.
By Allison Barron ChristianWeek Correspondent | June 14, 2015
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Abandoned by his family at age six, Kenyan Charles Mulli survived alone until age 16, got a job and became a successful businessman. He then gave up his wealth to provide for slum children, calling them his own.
When the team of Scott Haze (Director), Elissa Shay (Producer) and Lukas Behnken (Producer) of Sterling Light Productions read Father to the Fatherless—a book documenting Mulli’s story and written by Canadian Paul Boge—they were deeply moved.
“There is nothing I am more committed to than using the medium of film to ignite minds and affect hearts of people across the world,” says Haze. “I couldn’t have been blessed with a more potent story than that of Charles and Esther Mulli.
“It’s stories like these that create global change and inspire us and generations to come. I just feel truly fortunate.”
John Bardis of Bardis Productions read the book, which inspired him to finance the film and set the project in motion.
Author Paul Boge is encouraged that Bardis Productions decided to take on the project and produce a documentary, entitled Mully, with plans for a Winter 2015 / Spring 2016 release.
“The Mully documentary will give audiences an opportunity to see why a man like Charles Mulli, who rose from the ashes of African poverty to become wealthy, would give it all up to rescue street children,” says Boge. “Scott Haze, Lukas Behnken and Elissa Shay are creating a critical film that will inspire us to examine how we look at our lives.”
In the making of this film, Sterling Light Productions spent many months on the ground in Kenya with Mulli and his Mully Children’s Family. Many of the rescued children are part of the documentary, as well as Charles, his wife Esther, their biological children, immediate family, and many other people who know him or know of him.
“All of our lives have been changed for the better as a result of working on this project,” says Behnken. “Traveling to Kenya for two very long journeys, filming in major international cities like Nairobi and in desperately poor slums, seeing beautiful new cultures and poverty on a level we had never known changed us on its own.”
Haze, Behnken and Shay hope the documentary will inspire people to incorporate more acts of service into their lives as well as highlight the huge impact Mulli has had in his home country.
“So much work is needed all over the world, and we can all make great impacts in our own local areas,” says Behnken. “We believe this film will lift hearts and eyes to a new level, taking viewers momentarily out of their own stories and reminding them of the beauty and transforming power of faith in action.”
“We hope everyone who sees it or hears of it shares it with others.”
Dear Readers:
If ChristianWeek has made a difference in your life, please take a minute and donate to help give voice to stories that inform, encourage and inspire.
Donations of $20 or more will receive a charitable receipt. Thank you, from Christianweek.
Allison is a writer, editor, and graphic designer with a BA in English from Canadian Mennonite University and a Certificate in Publishing from Ryerson University. She currently manages Area of Effect magazine and is a missionary with Geekdom House in Winnipeg, MB.
To impact a country for Christ, LeaderImpact believes one must start with its leaders. For that reason, the organization will bring together Christians from Winnipeg to share a vision with Central American leaders during the 2016 Panama Exchange.
LeaderImpact, a Power to Change ministry, trains Canadian Christian leaders how to share their faith at evangelistic dinner parties, during sector outreaches and during one-on-one opportunities. Participants connect with non-Christian leaders in other parts of the world through Global Exchange events, all with the vision of making a difference in the future of the cities they visit.
In 2014, on a similar Global Exchange to Panama, LeaderImpact held 50 events and saw more than 700 local leaders in one city make commitments to Christ.
“There are precious few organizations around the world working to reach business leaders with the gospel,” International Director Ron Carrothers explains. “But we’ve really seen it takes a business leader to reach a leader.”
Carrothers says LeaderImpact does about three or four exchanges each year, with leaders from across Canada.
“They don’t realize the God-given talent of leadership,” Carrothers says. “Not realizing it is like hiding their talent under a rock.”
Instead LeaderImpact works to train Canadian teams, teaching participants how to share best practices with leaders from around the globe, as well as how to share their faith and how they came to Christ themselves.
It’s not always easy to step out in faith, especially in a foreign land, but God honours that sacrifice, Carrothers says.
“When you reach a leader, you can change a city, and change a nation based on the influence of a leader,” he says, starting with their business, their home, their political leaders, and then a nation.
Western participants end up changed and blessed as well, says International Director Ron Carrothers.
“They see God work through them, and everyone on the team is seriously impacted,” Carrothers says. “They’re changed people, on fire for what they can do as Christian leaders.
“Leaders often don’t see that leadership is a great gift, and what God can do with your gift,” he says.
The Global Exchange to Panama is open to leaders in Winnipeg, and takes place April 9-17, 2016. A Global Exchange to Columbia takes place October 24 to November 1, 2015, and is open to leaders from across Canada.
Donations of $20 or more will receive a charitable receipt.
