Our stories

What’s in a game? Skill, luck, competition—sometimes winners and losers. But all the participants at Calvin’s annual Game Day had fun beating the midwinter blahs! All ages warmed up their winter with hot games like mini-golf and axe throwing. Crushed the cold with s’mores, cocoa, and popcorn. Combated cabin fever with crafts like making slime or a braided bracelet. And blasted the blahs with board games. If you missed it, Game Day will be back next year. In the meanwhile, loo

“I am an immigrant.” As I write this statement at the beginning of 2026, in the United States of America, I wonder if this could be a dangerous statement to make. Not only am I an immigrant to the U.S., I was also an immigrant to Canada in 1954, coming as a 4-year-old with my family from the Netherlands. I guess that makes me a double immigrant! Nonetheless it is a title that I bear proudly and with a deep understanding of what it means to leave behind one life and enter a n

On an overcast and chilly Sunday in January about 75 people gathered to visit with friends and neighbors and share a rib-stickingly good meal. Food contributions to the potluck buffet did not disappoint! The contributions were varied and creative and oh so delicious. Additionally, we were blessed by storyteller Ray Dill who shared heartwarming vignettes from his childhood and words of encouragement to help us identify and embrace our own stories and strengths, and, most im

Since starting my career approximately 40 years ago, I have flown over 1 million miles. Delta Airlines tracks such things… other airlines do as well. (I have a close friend that led international business of his employer for many years of his career. I believe his number approaches 3 million miles!) Mostly, these trips have been for business. Lately, as my wife and I start our next phase of life, they are for pleasure and recreation. After all those trips, many smooth and une

Winter, and very cold, and the night at its deepest. The politicians, as usual, double-tongued. The town chaotic, teeming with strangers. And tonight, as often in winter, in Bethlehem, snow is falling. I always love how each flake, torn from the sky, arrives separately, without sound, almost unnoticed in a flurry of others. How each one (on a clear night) likes there glittering on the swelling breast of snow, crisp and intact, as wholly itself as every radiant star in a sky s

Among the oxen (like an ox I’m slow) I see a glory in the stable grow Which, with the ox’s dullness might at length Give me an ox’s strength. Among the asses (stubborn I as they) I see my Saviour where I looked for hay; So may my beast like folly learn at least The patience of a beast. Among the sheep (I like a sheep have strayed) I watch the manger where my Lord is laid; Oh that my baaing nature would win thence Some woolly innocence! "The Nativity" by C.S. Lewis