The Eudaimonia Blog

It’s hard to believe that I’ve just completed two months of my sabbatical, which began at the start of May. While I have enjoyed the time off, the days continue to be full and have plenty to fill them. Two Sundays ago I visited Westminster Bible Chapel in Burnaby and very much enjoyed my time there. I met teaching pastor Brian Thompson at an event in early June sponsored by Regent College for church leaders, called The Gathering. As Brian and I talked on Jericho Beach (this was where the church leaders’ group had dinner one of the evenings), we discovered that while his church is in Burnaby, they experience some of the same challenges we experience at Grace Van, having many of our folks scattered throughout the lower mainland. In some ways, his folks are scattered even farther and wider out than we are and their congregation, like ours, continues to ask questions about how to be an incarnational presence in their church’s neighbourhood, especially in light of the fact that so many of their members live somewhere else. Brian and I hit it off and so I made a commitment to visit him on a Sunday morning, during my sabbatical. I did that last week. I found his congregation, like Grace Van, to be a small congregation but also to have a deep sense of warmth and welcome. A number of their folks engaged me in conversation during their fellowship time and I especially enjoyed talking to a young man with Down Syndrome named John. John was a sweetheart and asked me a lot of questions about myself and then when we were finished talking, gave me a Gospel tract on how to know Jesus as Saviour, lol. That was so great. I got my start in vocational ministry in the early 1990s as a youth pastor. Because my salary was low, I supplemented it by driving a special needs school bus. A number of my kids had Down’s and I loved them deeply. I experienced their smiling faces every morning and saw how much joy they had to give to the world. There is a strength to small churches and a true opportunity to find and develop belonging in a part of the world where people are deeply self-possessed and not that interested in being a part of genuine community. I was encouraged to be at Westminster Bible Chapel and Pastor Brian did an excellent job preaching a sermon on the image of God in us, following the Biblical story from Creation, Fall to Redemption and Glorification (or Restoration as we sometimes say at Grace Van). Later that day, Tanya and I were able to join our former housemate Hiyori and two of her kids at the Point Grey Fiesta. Hiyori and her kids have been like family to us for the last ten years and we have found a unique opportunity to support our friend as a single mother, seeking to be extended family to the kids in particular. I was able to develop whiplash riding bumper cars with the kids (j/k, haha) and also did a spider ride that whipped you around so hard, I wasn’t sure if I was going to lose my corndog (hadn’t had one of those in years,… needless to say, it was delicious, haha).

Later that evening, I was able to go to St. John’s evening service to hear my friend Willie Shain-Ross deliver a sermon in the book of Amos, no small task! (but Willie did a great job). It was a full Sunday to say the least. When you are in vocational ministry, it’s interesting how one thinks of rest on the Lord’s Day. In light of the fact that Christ has come and Christ has been raised, Sabbath rest can be thought of in the context of the achievement of Christ at the Cross (compare Hebrews 4:9,10 with Hebrews 4:14 which seems to connect God resting in creation to the finished work of Christ ascending into heaven, essentially securing for His people an eternal rest). Rest is full of vigorous, redemptive activity, most notably the worship and praise of God’s people. Acts of service as well as joyful fellowship can be included within that vision of Sabbath rest for God’s people. It was a full Sabbath day, but a wonderful one nonetheless.

The following day on Monday June 26th, Ben Feikema and I got on our motorcycles and enjoyed a trip to Squamish and back. I told Ben that as a young man (about half my age, lol) we would have to take it easy on the winding sea-to-sky highway as what I lack at my age is primarily testosterone, youth and daring, haha. So Ben was very patient with me as we took it slow and then enjoyed a nice outdoor lunch at Howe Sound Brewing. I’m very grateful for theology students from Regent, like Ben, who come to a small church like ours for a season while studying, and bolster and strengthen our ministry while here with us. This has been a long tradition at Grace Van, with folks like Jon Fung, Tarak George, Jeremy Britton, Dzuthotso Tunyi, Davi Rabelo, Daniel Sierra, Lisa Sierra and Chris Campanelli (more recently Nicole L.) who all came to town as Regent students and have helped us during their time here. But Ben is the only one who has ridden a motorcycle with me, lol.

It was a week of remembrance as well, thinking of my dad who passed into the embrace of Jesus back on June 28th, 2021. On Thursday I had my 7th colonoscopy procedure and I know that is a funny segue to the memory of dad, but dad was a medical doctor. And whenever I would have one of my procedures, dad would want to know and then he would want to know the results, and then he would ask a lot of questions. At the time it all seemed a bit annoying, but now that he’s gone, I wish he was here to ask those questions as they came from a place of deep love and concern for me. In addition, being the son of a doctor, talking in detail about the human body was something my family always did when I was a kid (not so much Tanya’s!) So while I will talk about my colonoscopy here for a bit, I will not post any pictures, haha.

So on Thursday morning, I went in for my procedure. In assessing my readiness for the procedure, the intake nurse asked me if I had ever had a colonoscopy. My answer, “yes, this is my 7th time!” to which she gave me a surprised response, “oh, I guess you have!” Now, the reason for having had so many colonoscopies though the years is because seventeen years ago, I was struggling with some GI related issues, likely due to the stress of planting a church. When the doctor ran out of options as far as how to treat my issues, he decided at that point to order a colonoscopy. At the age of thirty-five, they discovered a number of polyps, which were then removed. From there on out, I was given a 3-5 year “recall” to do a colonoscopy. My second one gave to me a “clean bill of health” and therefore my “recall” was pushed out to five years. However, in 2013, I prepared to move the family from the US to Canada, so at that point I decided it would be good for me to request the procedure at the four (instead of five) year mark, since in moving to a new country, I would be switching healthcare systems entirely. When I had the procedure done in the US in 2013, they found a large growth on my cecum, which evidently connects the colon to the large intestine. This growth would have likely turned cancerous had I waited another year for my procedure as scheduled. The growth was surgically-removed (along with almost two feet of large intestine and a foot of colon). My doctor marveled that I had come in a year early as he said to me, “Mike, you would not have wanted this tumour to have remained in your body for another year.” He continued, “Someone must be watching out for you.” The doctor was Jewish and knew I was a pastor, so I simply responded, “yes, He always does.” Well, so we moved to Canada that summer of 2013, with my having just gone through a fairly significant surgery. In Canada, I did a colonoscopy again within one year, and then again in two years, next three years, and I just had the procedure done four years later (totally ten years in Canada!) and other than a small polyp that was removed, things looked pretty good. I know this because my good friend Dr. Mike Byrne did the procedure and he assured me I was in good shape. Tanya thought it odd that a friend would do such a procedure, but I was only grateful Doc was willing to take me on after four years (despite my “recall” back in 2019 being five). Well, why do I go through this part of my journey in such great detail? Well, had I lived in an earlier period of time, as regular screening procedures for colonoscopies were not put into place until the mid-90s from what I understand (I believe a similar procedure led to early detection saving President Ronald Reagan’s life in the 1980s, so by the 90s became standardized), I would likely have met an early death by now. Colon cancer is known as a “silent killer” because there often are not symptoms associated with it. But it took more than simply having the technology in place and being blessed to live in a developed part of the world, but in addition, I had to experience some painful stress-related events in order for my doctor back in 2006 to order a colonoscopy on my 35-year-old self in the first place. The standard time for someone to get their first colonoscopy is at the age of 50. Therefore, in a way, a “bad thing,” i.e. stress-related health problems, led to a “good thing,” the early detection of polyps in my colon at a young age. And then the call from above to Canada, as difficult as that was, after fifteen remarkable years in our last city, was the reason for doing an early colonoscopy to find the significant growth before it would turn malignant. Sometimes God’s ways are mysterious and difficult to discern. But He is always kind, always merciful to us His children, and His lovingkindness, His covenant faithfulness, i.e. hesed endures forever.

Now, none of this is to say that those who get colon cancer (I’ve had neighbours and friends struggle with the terrible diagnosis) are somehow not blessed by God, but rather for me to be reminded that life is a gift, every breath, every moment. I could very well still get colon cancer before my next colonoscopy (scheduled now for five years in the future); however, even if I did, it wouldn’t change the fact that my life has always been a gift. Nothing is owed, no repayment to me ever necessary, all of it is a gift. Doc Mike’s friendship has also been a gift as he didn’t need to schedule me for this summer but seeing a bit of my apprehension from waiting for another year (considering what happened in 2013), he worked me into his schedule. Thank you Doc. I actually saw Doc on Canada Day at the gym and we had fun poking at each other. It was two days after the procedure which had required sedation with a cocktail including some fentanyl. Doc insisted that the fentanyl leaves the system in 24 hours (which would have been Friday), but not wanting to blame my lack of fitness on why I was dragging through the workout on Saturday, I insisted that the “drugs” were still in my body. He said that wouldn’t be the case from a physiological standpoint but perhaps from a psychological standpoint and in good fun proceeded to call me a “nutjob” (understand, Doc is Irish and has every bit the humour of an Irishman). Meanwhile, we proceeded to have a terrific workout together (though I was tired!) In the picture below, I didn’t actually get a picture with Doc, but with two other gym friends Luigi from Italy and Keren from Israel. Because Keren will be leaving the gym in a few weeks, she wanted to get a “before” and “after” workout pic with us. I really do love the international flavour of this city, my gym as well as church community. I told Ben Feikema when we were having lunch in Squamish, that I have never felt as much a sense of home anywhere I’ve lived more so than Vancouver. I think the reason is that being a child of immigrants, this city represents a place where most everyone is from somewhere else. There’s a gift in having a common identity together as travelers and pilgrims in this world. I love in many ways being a part of this “strange” world of Vancouver where most everyone seeks to make a “second home” here. As my dissertation title reads, “There’s a Gift in It.”

Well, Saturday was also Canada Day, so Happy Canada Day everyone! Tanya and I feel a kind of joy having lived here for ten years and now being Canadian citizens. I think this is mostly what our kids have known having spent over half of their lives here, but for us we didn’t move here until our early 40s, so we have a special perspective and appreciation for this country as those who have been welcomed in from the outside.

In preparing for my trip to Israel in October and November, I’ve been reading two challenging and difficult books, but so very good ones as well. The books highlight in particular the struggle of Palestinian Christians having lost lives and land as a result of displacement from their homes following the Israeli-Arab war of 1948. Below are the two books, one written by Bishara Awad who founded the Bethlehem Bible College and the other by Father Elias Chacour who saw unspeakable horrors as his home town was completely destroyed by Zionist forces. Both writers speak as those who have struggled with questions of how to truly love their enemies but have also sought to be bearers of the Gospel of Christ’s peace. Not that we are without our own problems as a people, but learning the plight of so many folks worldwide, especially of our brothers and sisters in the Lord in Palestine, has made me all the more grateful to live and worship the Lord in a place like Canada. While those freedoms may not always be a given as Christian belief becomes increasingly marginalized in this country, those privileges and freedoms have certainly been the narrative to this point in our nation’s 156-yr. history.

Finally, every time I think to write something about my weekly 2-hour book study on Saturday mornings through Christopher Watkin’s Biblical Critical Theory, I seem to come to the end of my post without saying enough about how enriching the time has been, especially doing the study with Jon Fung, Jonathan Gregory, Josh Kunder, Dave Morton and Wes Wong. But this last Saturday concluded with us looking at what St. Augustine called the “two cities,” the “City of God” and the “City of Man.” And what Watkin seeks to establish in this chapter is that while our ultimate allegiance is to the City of God, we also have to live as responsible citizens to the City of Man. As Watkin writes on p. 220-21,

“So it is that the city of God has a peculiar ministry to the earthly city… ‘the Christian story can encompass and indeed heal, the city that rejects it: because that city too belongs to the peace of creation, the beauty of the infinite, and only its narrative and its desires blind it to a glory that everywhere pours upon it.’”

Watkin concludes his writing,

“To live in God’s city here and now is to enjoy God’s limitless peace, love, and creativity; it is also to live a subversive revolutionary life in this world as we repeatedly scratch the surface of the earthly city to reveal God’s goodness, truth, and beauty.”

When our group concluded on Saturday, I had us pray together, reminding the group that at the heart of the rebellion of the “City of Man,” taken from Romans 1:18ff. is that as our hearts loved ourselves more than God, we no longer worshipped Him nor gave thanks. I wanted to make sure we gave thanks, and so we prayed prayers of Thanksgiving to our Creator and Redeemer. I was certainly choked up as I prayed, giving thanks for the gift of friendship and fellowship represented in the group as well as the Gift of grace and the Holy Spirit poured out onto us because of the triumph of Christ at the Cross and the love of God (see Romans 5:5 here). Thankful is the best way to describe my heart towards these men and for the life I’ve been given as well as the city, friends and church I serve. This morning I went to the church where my friend Albert Wu serves as campus pastor in Richmond. I could go on and on about the amazing sermon that was given out of Psalm 67 by Pastor Sam Lee, but I simply quote the Psalm so that you can see its invitation to praise and thanksgiving, offered to the nations. May all people everywhere be invited into the Good News of the Kingdom of God, His rule and reign! And may the peoples praise You O Lord!

¹ May God be gracious to us and bless us
    and make his face shine on us—
² so that your ways may be known on earth,
    your salvation among all nations.

³ May the peoples praise you, God;
    may all the peoples praise you.
⁴ May the nations be glad and sing for joy,
    for you rule the peoples with equity
    and guide the nations of the earth.
⁵ May the peoples praise you, God;
    may all the peoples praise you.

⁶ The land yields its harvest;
    God, our God, blesses us.
⁷ May God bless us still,
    so that all the ends of the earth will fear him.

-Psalm 67:1-7