Recent Columns

(The Hamilton Spectator - Saturday, December 20, 2014) ISTANBUL, TURKEY ✦It was a Sunday, the first day of Advent, en route from Hamilton to my African home, when I toured the Old City here, a place where religions and cultures and empires have collided for centuries. This is when my guide for the day said what he did. I had asked him about some historic notes and holy relics in the Topkapi Palace Museum, items identified as thousands of years old from ancient Israel, but looking dubiously more modern and Ottoman-like, when he told me as plainly as if he was giving the weather report that, "It's all mythology anyway. Whatever you believe is true, that's the truth."

The question came in the UnGame the other evening. “Who is the funniest member of your family?” We’d have to put it to a vote. Jon – “I am!” This from the boy who, when he scores a goal in soccer, pulls down his sports shorts and wiggle his, uh, rear. That is when he’s […]

The beauty of Christmas is that you don’t have to have it all together to join the choir. In fact, it’s more fitting if you’re off-key, that is, if you’re less than perfect, if you’re common. In the most common of places, after all, is where the first Christmas was experienced. By the most common of people. […]

(Christian Week - December 2014) Today in the food court there was a piano. The pianist, wearing a red Santa hat (naturally), finished “Jingle Bells” through the dull roar of shoppers, their winter coats unzipped, hats aside, while they sat and talked and ate KFC or New York Fries or whatever they happened to have. Then a young woman, scarf thrown loosely over her shoulder, stood and put her cellphone to her ear. Strangely enough, she sang into the phone. And her voice, somehow, melodious and majestic, carried through the entire food court. Brows raised. Heads turned.

We are a story, a living story, if we are anything, and this is one reason, maybe the best, why stories will never go out of fashion. In my own family, much of our time together revolves around stories. We read them every night and often the children read more on their beds, flashlights in hand, […]

It is nothing short of a miracle that Baby Eliana is alive. The family is grateful for this miracle. But now it has an unmanageable hospital bill of at least $26,000.

We are a story, a living story, if we are anything, and this is one reason, maybe the best, why stories will never go out of fashion. In my own family, much of our time together revolves around stories. We read them every night and often the children read more on their beds, flashlights in hand, […]

After ensuring the children did indeed still have all their limbs attached, the first order of business back home here in Uganda was to play some hockey, the sort reported earlier this year here in the Hamilton Spectator, that is ball hockey with Ugandans who are getting too good at Canada’s game. Too good, indeed. Joining us for […]

So, upon my recent arrival back in Uganda after my Canadian visit for this, I was greeted with the good news that the children still had all their limbs attached, which, in such a longer absenteeism, is as realistic a hope as any to have. Of course, I gave them some gifts and this included some Turkish Delight, that enchanted […]

We are a story, a living story, if we are anything, and this is one reason, maybe the best, why stories will never go out of fashion. In my own family, much of our time together revolves around stories. We read them every night and often the children read more on their beds, flashlights in hand, […]

We are a story, a living story, if we are anything, and this is one reason, maybe the best, why stories will never go out of fashion. In my own family, much of our time together revolves around stories. We read them every night and often the children read more on their beds, flashlights in hand, […]

We are a story, a living story, if we are anything, and this is one reason, maybe the best, why stories will never go out of fashion. In my own family, much of our time together revolves around stories. We read them every night and often the children read more on their beds, flashlights in hand, […]

So, I went for my morning swim as usual today, the only difference that the pool was in Canada where, normally, in November, I am not. And after I finished and walked out through the lobby, the day’s newspaper in hand, the gal at the counter called me by name and said the boss, that is the […]

(The Hamilton Spectator - Saturday, November 15, 2014) KAMPALA, UGANDA -- It was still morning in Berlin on this Sunday when candles at the Church of Reconciliation were lit to honour yesteryear’s dead, the brave souls who ran from the uniforms and helmets and strong-armed authorities, who ran for freedom that was torn away, even as their flesh would be torn by barbed-wire and vicious dogs and bullets at that wall.

(UCU Standard - Monday, November 17, 2014) MUKONO, UGANDA ✦ It’s a risky move, of course, to open up your Sunday morning message to questions. You never know who might ask what. But this is what happened last Sunday. The minister who I listened to had a post-sermon question-and-answer session and a woman stepped forward with what they call a show-stopper. Her voice quivering, she asked rather plainly and desperately, “So just how do you get saved?”