Melissa Van Dyk
I moved to BC from Ontario in 2005 and have only looked back a few times. (Hello, mountains!) :D I love the church and being an active part of it. I get a real kick out of developing leaders and asking good questions. I'm currently spending my days serving with a non-profit in the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver, a neighbourhood where there is a large number of people who struggle with poverty, homelessness, addiction and mental health.
Posted in: Alive? Welcome to Council!
John, I really appreciate the deeper insight you've offered in this comment. I am wondering if you have any further thoughts on how the view of office you have reminded us of morphed into the current view of office as just another task to do, because it seems to have eroded quite quickly in recent years.
Posted in: 8 Deacon Self Assessment Questions
Thanks for posting this Karl. I definitely appreciate the depth and breadth of the questions for self and group analysis! Great job spurring us on!
Posted in: The Shallow Small Group
This was good for a laugh! There were great one-liners that cleverly expose our discipleship inertia. My favourites...
"You'll never hear us use the term 'unpack that thought', we're sure it's packed away for a really good reason'".
"Thanks for doing my taxes, you have great accountability"
"I had a growth removed last week, it wasn't pleasant"
"We avoid conflict conflict like the plague... who wants cake?!"
"This is the only outreach you'll ever have to do".
I could almost write the whole skit. :) Thanks for sharing.
Posted in: Christmastime!
Elna Siebring from Halifax sent the follow story. Thanks for sharing Elna!
Every year around this time I always seem to have an experience of a Christmas miracle....... it happens at the Mission where we serve breakfast to our street friends in Halifax. Every year it catches me by surprise. This year it happened again. 9 am Christmas Eve morning and our last guests, Martha and Shelley had just left the mission. A couple minutes later the two women returned to the dining hall and asked if they could speak with me. They had met a young mother pushing her 7 month old baby in a stroller through the streets in the pouring rain and knocking on church doors. She had run out of diapers for her baby and had no money to buy new ones. My friends wanted to know if they could invite her to come in out of the cold and have some breakfast even though it was past closing time. I said 'definitely, invite her in and we will find something to serve her". Martha and Shelley helped carry the stroller down the flight of wooden steps, down the alley and into the dining room. The mom was so young, so beautiful, so desperate. Her hands were freezing cold and her hair dripping wet. Her baby was so adorable and he was toastie warm in the stroller.....kept dry by the plastic rain cover. Bill, who reminds me of my Oom Henk, was washing the dishes that morning. Bill is crazy about babies. He pulled up a chair beside the stroller and spent the time cooing to the baby. The baby woul look up at Bill with his big blue-grey eyes (the colour of a winter sky) and give him big smiles while us women visited with the mom over a breakfast of eggs, bacon and toast. Before the mom left, we were able to give her new mittens, hat and socks. The church that was serving that morning delivered diapers, the left over breakfast food and other needed things to her apartment. The mom was so grateful for the gifts of food and clothing....which for most of us are everyday things. I am grateful to Shelley and Martha who saw the mother and child in need and invited them into the mission. For in this act of hospitality, I witnessed a Christmas Miracle... we were visited by Mary and the Christ-child down at the Mission on Christmas Eve Day.