Recent Columns

When you’re an 11-year-old and a boy in your class asks you to go out and it’s the day before Valentine’s Day and he even gives you a rose, what’s a girl to do? This was the situation yesterday for Liz. Of course, it takes great courage for a boy to muster all it takes […]

(Christian Week, February 2015) KAMPALA, UGANDA ✦ “Love is better than wine,” is how the writer of the Song of Songs put it. “Love is stronger than death.” Solomon, said to be the wisest of men ever, is credited with the words that resonate with meaning even now, almost 3,000 years later, even in our time, as insecure and fickle an age as any.

We had an interesting dinner guest recently. The kids’ eyes buggered out when he told his story, how he ran for his life, leaving wife and children behind, because he simply wanted to worship the God of his choosing. Why is it that some people are so fearful and threatened by such basic free choice […]

It’s a beautiful morning in Africa, not just because the sun is rising and the birds are singing and the monkeys jumping, but because my daughter too is singing. She has been working on this piece for weeks – it’s an Adele song – and I will never tire of hearing it because there’s a […]

This is from Peter, a Ugandan music teacher explaining one of his first interactions with his future bride-to-be. These two youngish Ugandans were around our dinner table last night. Their initial conversation went like this: Her: Do you remember my name? Him: No. Her: What kind of teacher are you that you don’t remember your […]

This the fifth of several excerpts from an address I gave in Hamilton, Canada in November 2014. Excerpt #1 is here and #2 is here and #3 is here and #4 is here. + If nothing else, when we cross borders we’ll be misunderstood. I remember once we had some Canadian visitors in Uganda and they needed […]

Here, or below, we’re continuing on the theme of The Nature of Peace, this the fourth of several excerpts from an address I gave in Hamilton, Canada in November 2014. Excerpt #1 is here and #2 is here and #3 is here. But first, about the kids. + Liz gets a phone call from a friend. […]

Last week I was at a pool in Uganda doing my lanes. And most of the time when I swim in Uganda this particular pool is empty because Ugandans don’t swim. But this day there was a little girl there – she looked about 10 years old – and she was trying to learn to swim and she came up to me in the water and said, “Okay. I’ll climb on your back and you’ll swim and carry me and I’ll kick.”

(The Hamilton Spectator - Saturday, January 24, 2015) KAMPALA, UGANDA ✦ He goes by a false name so he’s not found and killed. I just met him. I’ll call him Ahmed in this, his story. He recently shared it around our dinner table.

This leads to the real good news, which is you. You’re the good news. You’re the nature of peace, created in God’s image, just a lower than the angels. You’re doing all sorts of things to promote and cultivate peace. You’re working against this natural tendency for war. Congratulations again, nominees and winners. And how are you doing this? Are you just gathering together to hold hands and sing Kumbaya? No, you’re imagining a better world. You’re picturing it. Einstein said, “Imagination is more important than knowledge.”

Here, or below, we’re continuing on the theme of The Nature of Peace, this the third of several excerpts from an address I gave in Hamilton, Canada in November 2014. Excerpt #1 is here and #2 is here. But first, this brief conversation: Dad: “And, guys, whenever you feel down about school, just remember, you only […]

Today was a big day for Baby Eliana and her family. Three months to the day after this Ugandan miracle child was born a preemie not much bigger than a pet mouse, she went home. Eliana was born at a staggering 25 weeks, 15 weeks early, on Oct. 21, 2014. After being taken off of oxygen […]

It was at the dinner table, Sunday evening, and the kids and Mom were telling me about the morning service where some brave Ugandan kid got up in front of hundreds of university students and adults too and boldly rhymed off a poem expressing his sincere wish that Ugandan parents would just listen to their […]

Now there’s good news too and I want to get to the good news. But first, let me ask you a question. Generally speaking, very broadly now, in 2014 is the world a safe place? I’d like to see a show of hands. Who thinks we live in a safe world? And who thinks it’s not safe

In November 2014 I returned from my African home to speak at the Hamilton Convention Centre on the theme of The Nature of Peace. This was on the invitation of the YMCA of Hamilton-Burlington-Brantford, which holds an annual Peace Medal Breakfast to honour the people of Hamilton region who work towards peace. Now, following the […]