Christian Week

(Christian Week - February 2013) KAMPALA, UGANDA ✦ There was an old man with a secret. And there was a police cruiser and fire truck and ambulance, large with red lights in the darkness in front of the man’s house. And my children held my hand and looked up and asked me questions. What could I say?

We know little about them, these grandparents—if they came to babysit on Friday nights or if they maybe played checkers with the curly-haired, laughing boy while he grew in wisdom and stature.

Humble creativity will transform our culture for Christ.

So, in the beginning was the microchip. No, it was the iPad. No, no, it was Facebook. Really, this is what it was. For sure. Yes, in the beginning was Facebook. And Facebook was with God, and Facebook was God. And Facebook created the heavens and the earth. The earth was empty and formless and dark, and the spirit of Facebook hovered over its waters.

It’s nearing Easter and I’m at a cemetery on the ocean. It reminds me how fine it is to be irreligious and irreverent and have a healthy toast while doing it.

(Christian Week – December 2011) KAMPALA, UGANDA ✦ Remember Kienan Hebert, the three-year-old in one of Canada’s biggest feel-good stories of 2011? Kienan was abducted from his B.C. home and later returned by, of all people, his abductor. Twitter and Facebook lit up. Christians proclaimed God is alive and well and listening to prayer. One wrote the Toronto Star online: “To those who aren’t aware that God answers prayer, I show you the return of Kienan Hebert. Now if we prayed on an ongoing basis for the protection of children and for those disturbed in mind and spirit, abductions like this would rarely occur.”

Yes, it can be tricky for a Christian to navigate a mainstream newsroom. And it can be tricky for a serious journalist to always fit in with imperfect faith communities.

I'm about to get up and move through my day. What choice do any of us have? I guess that’s what bothers me more than anything. I too may be dead before nightfall.

(Christian Week - December 10, 2010) KAMPALA, UGANDA ✦ Two friends. One's confessing a secret. He's crying. Blubbering. Hyperventilating. "You'll be surprised," he says. "Don't worry," says his friend. "I know about things. Whatever you've done, you can tell me." "You'll be surprised," says the first. "No, I won't. Don't worry. Who is she? What's happened?" "You're making assumptions." "It's okay. Whatever you've done to her. Come on. Just tell me." "I'm gay." Silence. Disbelief. Embarrassment.

Your mother is dead. Divorce knocks. Your son is lost. It’s cancer. You’re laid off. You’ve broken up. The car crash. You can’t stomach it all. Trust?

Nearing the five-year mark of my family's foray into Uganda, here's a mind-bender from my happy and ever-inquisitive four-year-old, Jonathan: "Daddy, when you grow up, are you going to be dead?"

While we need not be entirely cheerful in the face of Armageddon, we can still offer the worried world something different.

An early-summer highlight of mine was this comment from a gentleman who stopped me in a London, Ontario church to say, "You know, your book cost me $4,000."

"You're such a Dad-Dad." This phrase, a recent favourite of my three-year-old Jon, has reminded me anew that there's nothing like fatherhood.

KAMPALA, UGANDA – "The time has come," the Walrus said, "to talk of many things." From Lewis Carroll's nonsense verse "The Walrus and the Carpenter," this is what comes to mind when I read the newspapers here. Is the world getting madder?