Recently, I had the honour of participating in one of life's milestones – the memorial service of my grandmother. She was 96 years old when she died and was committed to the church, to Christian education, to her family, and she made time for me as a young boy and into adulthood. As with most [...]
As I see the runway steadily approaching and becoming clearer in the distance, I find myself contemplating the landing less and less. I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve been asked, “So how are you feeling about your retirement?” or something similar. This is a very difficult question and one, truthfully, that bears [...]
As I looked around the room last weekend, enjoying a breakfast for all of the Dordt College grads, I realized I was quite obviously the most senior person graduating. After a few years of hard work, I was graduating with my master’s degree. I had taken the opportunity to attend the ceremony in Sioux Center, [...]
I don’t know if you have ever taught a physical education lesson to grade 1 students before, but it is one of my favourite things to do. I have a particularly athletic class this year, so I thought I would teach a version of kickball, called Flat Mat. Usually when I teach lessons to my [...]
The whole iPod, smart phones, tablet craze has been going on for a while now and there's no stopping it in our house. It's like a runaway train and I think I got flattened on the tracks. My grandpa and grandma are 95 and 93 and they had an iPad before I even knew what [...]
During spring break, my wife and I went to visit family in Phoenix, Arizona. We saw the Grand Canyon, Sedona and went on some spectacular hikes in the desert. It was a terrific trip. One of the highlights was a visit to the Kartchner Caverns near Benson. These caves are incredible to see. But they [...]
They sat in front of me grimacing. We had been learning how to play band instruments for a few weeks and I just announced it was going to be time for a “check in,” as I call them. I probably could have called the “check in” a marshmallow, or a chocolate bar and they wouldn’t [...]
When the temperature is in the mid to high 30s, the tinkle of the ice cream cart is a great sound. We were able to enjoy an ice cream sandwich or a fudge bar when the ice cream man showed up at an opportune time during our trip to Nicaragua. Mostly it was the leaders [...]
As a young boy, who was raised in Ontario, I remember taking multiple family vacations “to the west” to visit my grandparents in Lacombe, Alberta. On one of our trips, my parents decided to traverse the continent mostly in the US, taking in some sights along the way such as Mt. Rushmore, Yellowstone etc. However, [...]
My family are avid campers. Not the kind of camping that involves tramping up the sides of mountains carrying your survival necessities on your back. Also not the kind of “camping” that requires that you drive a bus outfitted to resemble your living room from place to place enjoying nature. No, our camping kind of [...]
