2016 Archives – Page 3 of 7

Lessons we can learn from Eddie the Eagle

Leave a Comment / Hamilton Spectator, Newspaper columns / July 4, 2016 / 2016, Eddie the Eagle, Gloucestershire County, movies, movies in Uganda, self-confidence / 4 minutes of reading

(The Hamilton Spectator, Monday, July 4, 2016)

HAMILTON, CANADA ✦

“They that wait upon the Lord will mount up with wings as eagles; they will run and not be weary; they will walk and not faint.”

The Hebrew prophet, Isaiah

The sad news of the day, or any day, is that the world is full of people who lack hope and basic belief in themselves because they’ve long been told in one way or another that they’ll never amount to anything, that they have nothing to offer, and the sooner they realize this the better it will be for all concerned.

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A world where the beautiful and terrible live side by side

Leave a Comment / Hamilton Spectator, Newspaper columns / June 18, 2016 / 2016, evil, Father's Day, relationships, spirituality, suffering, Tim Bosma funeral, Tim Bosma trial / 4 minutes of reading

(The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday, June 18, 2016)

HAMILTON, CANADA ✦ It was my daughter’s first teenage birthday party and the family van was full of giggling girls.

The verdict on the Tim Bosma trial wasn’t in, not yet, when we pulled into the bowling ally across from Carmen’s banquet hall and I said, “Tim Bosma’s funeral was in that hall. And his wedding too.”

Silence fell. One girl said it was terrible what happened to Tim. Then my barely 13-year-old asked, “Why would they have his wedding and funeral at the same place?”

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Love and courage in a well-lit café

Leave a Comment / Daily Dad / June 11, 2016 / 2016, American culture, love and courage, Maya Angelou, Muhammed Ali, Nelson Mandela, Sewickley PA / 3 minutes of reading

It’s USA Today and a story about Muhammad Ali here at Café Amis, an American-French café on a cobblestone street in Sewickley, PA. It’s a cool spot on a warm Saturday near Pittsburgh, a small place with large windows not far from Sewickley’s historic library where books on Ali are also given some noticeable placement.

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Wrong seat. Wrong country. No phone. No mouse.

1 Comment / Daily Dad / June 1, 2016 / 2016, Canadian census, humour / satire, our Canadian home, overuse of mobile phones, reverse culture shock, travel, washing the dishes / 6 minutes of reading

So, I just filled out Canada’s most recent census, barely beating the May 31 deadline and thus staying out of jail and fulfilling this duty of those of us living in this great country. Before letting me go, the questionnaire asked if I or anyone in the family would mind if all the sordid details

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Home is a place of God’s differences

2 Comments / Newspaper columns, The Standard / May 23, 2016 / 2016, African culture, African university life, Christianity, Froese biography, Jesus Christ, race / 3 minutes of reading

(The UCU Standard – Monday, May 23, 2016)

MUKONO, UGANDA ✦ It was in Canada and we were at a campy lakeside retreat, and it was a beautiful summer day and a gaggle of children were playing outside the large window near where we ate.

My daughter, that is my adopted Ugandan daughter, Hannah, looked at me with a tear rolling down her cheek. I asked her what was the matter, and, looking down in shame, she said, “I’m the only black person here.”

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Tim Bosma’s funeral. A bittersweet day / Tim Bosma, dream house builder. Don’t let your heart be troubled. (Reposts)

2 Comments / Daily Dad / May 23, 2016 / 2016, hope, Jesus' resurrection, life after death, Tim Bosma, Tim Bosma funeral, Tim Bosma trial / 8 minutes of reading

Three years ago yesterday the public was invited to a funeral to mourn the death of Tim Bosma. To honor Tim and his memory and to acknowledge the impact his murder has had on the broader community, this is a repeat of a Daily Dad post from that funeral, and another repost, below it, on

Tim Bosma’s funeral. A bittersweet day / Tim Bosma, dream house builder. Don’t let your heart be troubled. (Reposts) Read More »

The mouse and the dishwasher

Leave a Comment / Hamilton Spectator, Newspaper columns / May 20, 2016 / 2016, dealing with a mouse in the house, humour, mobile phone rates, mobile phones, reverse culture shock, travel / 4 minutes of reading

(The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday, May 20, 2016)

HAMILTON, CANADA ✦ So it’s the middle of the night and my wife walks into the bedroom and says: “There’s a mouse in the dishwasher.”

This is strange even for our household, the sort of announcement that suggests my wife is hallucinating from working way too late, again, or that I’m having one of those dreams.

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Time travel, perspective, and $10 billion

Leave a Comment / Daily Dad / May 19, 2016 / 2016, boyhood memories, friendship, travel, Ugandan children / 4 minutes of reading

Past, Present, and Future walk into a bar. It was tense. + There’s no such thing as a self-made man (or woman), no, not even those of us who have a net worth of $10 billion (Mr. Trump) have made it without some help on the way. It’s easy to think otherwise but travel is

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