If the first word (displacement) represents the cause of the suffering and the second word (accompaniment) represents the path of those, Colombian or ex-pats, who seek to care and help, the third word represents the hope in the heart of the victims, and that word is resilience. I will tell […]

If displacement is the word we kept hearing when looking at the struggles of the people, accompaniment is the word that marked the path of those seeking to help. Having been separated from so many of their resources, displaced people need others to walk alongside them, assisting them in restoring […]

[I’ve recently returned from a two week learning tour in Colombia. For most of the group this trip was a part of St. Stephen’s University’s program on International Studies. For me it was to better understand my duties as part of the board for MCC Canada – the relief, peace […]

We seem to forget this choosing as we let ourselves be lulled into drifting along. More and more, faster and faster, we give away our humanity and our place in the natural world. We forget that we are inspired bodies, meant to dig and gather to satisfy our hunger, meant […]

First of all, my self-conscious tendencies require that I tell you right from the start that a) my kind of self-consciousness may be very different from yours, and b) I wonder if this reveals a lot of pride on my part. My kind of self-consciousness, which I consider one of […]

I spent time today contemplating two images of bleak, down-and-out existence. One (from the film Una Noche) was based on life in Havana where the grim realities of a few young people leads to a foolish gamble on an ocean trip to a better life (I wonder if they knew […]

[an excerpt from my book, first written one New Years Day, to remind myself of all the reasons to keep walking as much as possible] Why Walking Will Save You It brings you into solidarity with people across time, across the world, across all people groups. It slows you down. […]

Just about everyone who has looked honestly at their own thoughts could admit to at least a season of being agnostic, a time when it seemed impossible to know anything at all about God. During such a season, praying may seem confusing, frustrating or foolish. But prayer is such an […]

As, I assume, is true of just about any culture in which one is raised, my experience of being shaped by a fairly conservative, evangelical culture (in my case it was suburban Mennonite flavoured) gave me much to be thankful for as well as much that was less than helpful. […]

I used to think letting go was about delayed gratification. Kind of like this: the one who loses his life will find it – eventually. But I’ve been thinking that is only the shallowest version of this truth. I’m wondering if the dying and the new life aren’t simultaneous. An […]