Froese biography Archives – Page 4 of 9

One day, my story could be yours

4 Comments / Hamilton Spectator, Newspaper columns / February 21, 2015 / 2015, assisted suicde debate in Canada, assisted suicide, Froese biography, Goethe, suffering, suicide, The Sorrows of Young Werther / 4 minutes of reading

(The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday, February 21, 2015)

KAMPALA, UGANDA ✦ He was Swiss and we were talking over coffee and he said he’d just read my story about Canada’s new look at assisted suicide. He spoke as if I’d written on this, which I had not, or maybe he called it my story simply because I’m Canadian.

He said he didn’t know what all the fuss was about. Europe, after all, liberated itself from any shameful baggage on assisted suicide long ago. If you want to die, he explained, you can easily go to places and doctors for help.

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The Nature of Peace – Complete address

Leave a Comment / Other / February 17, 2015 / 2014 Peace Breakfast of YMCA of Hamilton-Burlington-Brantford, 2015, African culture, African university life, Arab culture, Christianity, Froese biography, relationships, spirituality, suffering, terrorism, Uganda, Yemen / 19 minutes of reading

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. Following is

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Cradle-to-grave without free choice

Leave a Comment / Hamilton Spectator, Newspaper columns / January 24, 2015 / 2015, Christianity, danger, free choice, free speech, freedom of religion, Froese biography, Iraq War, Islam, religiosity, suffering, terrorism / 4 minutes of reading

(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.

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25 years after The Wall fell

1 Comment / Hamilton Spectator, Newspaper columns / November 19, 2014 / 2014, 25th anniversary of end of Berlin Wall, Berlin, Berlin Wall, freedom, Froese biography, human nature, human rights, suffering / 4 minutes of reading

(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.

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Learning to be a kid again

Leave a Comment / Christian Week, Newspaper columns / October 14, 2014 / 2014, adoption, African adoption, children, Christianity, Froese biography, God's love, Thanksgiving, Ugandan adoption, Ugandan children / 3 minutes of reading

KAMPALA, UGANDA✦It’s the children who in the end will be given the keys to the Kingdom.

This is what Jesus said on the matter. Be a kid again. The way up is down. If you want even half a shot at eternal life, as if it were somehow possible, go and grow young.

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Being open to life’s surprises

Leave a Comment / Hamilton Spectator, Newspaper columns / July 19, 2014 / 2014, Bilbo Baggins, brevity of life, Dr. Jean Chamberlain Froese, Froese biography, life's adventure, Lord of the Rings, Madame Curie, Order of Canada, Pierre Curie, satire, The Hobbit, travel / 4 minutes of reading

(The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday, July 19, 2014)

HAMILTON, CANADA ✦ It was in the whirlpool at the Les Chater Y when I was congratulated for My Bride’s recent naming into the Order of Canada. The woman, another early-morning swimmer, had read the news in this publication.

“Let’s face it,” she said. “You’ve had a role to play in this all. Any woman who wins something like this has to be married to a certain sort of man. If Madame Curie hadn’t been married to Pierre, she’d have been forced to be home barefoot, baking bread.”

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It’s a privilege to be a father

Leave a Comment / Hamilton Spectator, Newspaper columns / June 14, 2014 / 2014, careerisim, Father's Day, fatherhood, Frederick Buechner, Froese biography, goal-setting, life choices, men's identity, relationships, stay-at-home dads / 4 minutes of reading

(The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday, June 14, 2014)

HAMILTON, CANADA ✦ The sad truth is that the world is full of Charlie Gray sort of people who have listened to all the wrong voices and spent entire swaths of the only life they have doing things that haven’t mattered to them in the least, and, in the grand scheme of things, have mattered little to others also.

They’re people like in John Marquand’s novel “Point of No Return,” where Charlie Gray, after years of apple-polishing, is finally named vice-president of that fancy little New York bank, the promotion that finally gives him and his family the security they need.

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Boogeyman paranoia where shadows lurk at every corner

Leave a Comment / Hamilton Spectator, Newspaper columns / May 17, 2014 / 2014, childhood anxiety, culture of litigation, fear, fear and anxiety, Froese biography, locked schools, paranoia, Sandy Hook school murders, soulfulness / 4 minutes of reading

(The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday, May 17, 2014)

HAMILTON, CANADA ✦ There was a time when a neighbourhood school was a place that nourished your soul. It wasn’t that long ago. I’m not that old.

You’d go to play, say, baseball on Saturday morning or, in winter, hockey on the rink that your Grade 6 teacher lovingly flooded outside the row of windows where even the good students looked out to daydream.

It was a time when you’d walk to school every morning. By yourself. Even when the school bully – her last name was, fittingly, Greenall – went the same way. It somehow even brought out courage that you never knew you had.

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