Froese biography Archives – Page 8 of 9

A daughter of the world

(The Hamilton Spectator – Friday, June 20, 2003)

Nobody knew. Prior to the birth of our first child, two weeks ago today at St. Joseph’s Hospital here in Hamilton, Jean and I kept her name, Elizabeth top-secret from absolutely everyone.

“It’s from the Bible and it’s not Dorcas,” is all I would reveal, before adding, “If and when we have a boy, we have a biblical name for him too. And it’s not Nimrod.”

So imagine the confirmation we felt when, prior to our return to Canada for the delivery, some western friends in Yemen said good-bye to us by reading the biblical story of Elizabeth.

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Tell your mother you love her

Leave a Comment / Hamilton Spectator, Newspaper columns / May 9, 2003 / 2003, Froese biography, Jean Chamberlain Froese, maternal mortality, mental illness, Mother's Day, Save the Mothers, suffering, suicide / 4 minutes of reading

Sunday is Mother’s Day, and I’m reminded that I’ve never held my mother, looked into her eyes and told her that I love her. I’ve never offered a soft kiss on her cheek. I’ve never even given my mother flowers. My mom died before I got the chance.

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In the Arab world there are no lonely singles

Leave a Comment / Hamilton Spectator, Newspaper columns / February 14, 2003 / 2003, Arab culture, Froese biography, humour, Islamic culture, relationships, romance in Arabia, Rudolph Valentino, satire, Valentine's Day / 4 minutes of reading

It’s Valentine’s Day. Great fun. Two years ago today, I proposed to Jean. Her ring was presented in a restaurant, with the help of the official town crier, his booming voice, clanging bell and scroll. Moments later, along with thousands of others in London, Ont., we heard about our upcoming “royal wedding” on the radio.

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Three died ‘sacrificially’

Leave a Comment / Hamilton Spectator, Newspaper columns / January 17, 2003 / 2003, American missionaries, Christian love, Christian martyrs, Froese biography, Jean Chamberlain Froese, Jibla murders / 4 minutes of reading

Jarring images of how an Islamic extremist burst into, of all places, a hospital in the last days of 2002, to fire bullets from his Kalishnikov into the heads of our friends will linger for a while. My wife Jean and I and some colleagues are still laying to rest what has become known across Yemen as ‘The Jibla Tragedy.’

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The world is becoming more of a neighbourhood

Leave a Comment / Hamilton Spectator, Newspaper columns / September 30, 2002 / 2002, Arab culture, East-West relations, Froese biography, Middle East culture, risk, Yemen’s culture / 4 minutes of reading

It’s daybreak and we’re again travelling the dusty roads of Sanaa, Yemen’s capital. After two days of travel, Jean and I are nearing home, a ground-level apartment on a street with no name. Thank you U-2.

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Adjusting to life as a foreigner

Leave a Comment / Hamilton Spectator, Newspaper columns / February 15, 2002 / 2002, development, East-West relations, foreigner in Yemen, Froese biography, Yemen’s development / 4 minutes of reading

Today is Day 8 of my life as a foreigner in Yemen. I’m in a dilapidated cargo office at the international airport in Sanaa, a capital city that sits on a mountain plateau 2,000 metres above sea level. Almost one million souls live here in what is one of the oldest inhabited regions of the world. I think I’m the only one wearing a Team Canada cap.

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People of faith must come out of the closet

Leave a Comment / London Free Press, Newspaper columns / June 28, 1997 / 1997, Canadian culture, Christianity, Froese biography, hockey, Ken Dryden, Paul Henderson, spirituality / 5 minutes of reading

I have had an opportunity to see the recent move of 33 rooming-house residents from Toronto to Aylmer, a transfer equated by some as Toronto “dumping its trash” into rural Ontario, through the eyes of personal experience. My family owned and operated a private rest home for the better part of 20 years, with tenants, patients as we called them, very similar to those at the Aylmer home run by Anne Borden Maxwell.

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Can this Pied Piper lead us to the Promised Land?

Leave a Comment / London Free Press, Newspaper columns / May 31, 1997 / 1997, Berlin, Froese biography, good versus evil, Hollywood, movie industry, spritiuality, Star Wars Trilogy / 5 minutes of reading

On a warm day on a busy walkway in a large square in Berlin, a young man sits playing his flute for a pocketful of change. His hair is spiked like the Statue of Liberty and he wears a dark tank top. I draw near to him and see his shirt’s message: “Jesus didn’t die for my sins. He died for His own.”

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