The Year in Review – 2024
This past year was a rather full year. There were some great things and some challenging things that happened.
One of the challenges our family has faced has been with Amanda’s post-concussive syndrome. Amanda is a talented pastor but unfortunately is not able to return to work. However, she did preach a few Sundays at Brookfield Baptist Church, including our anniversary service. She did a fantastic job as always.
I have concluded my third year at Brookfield Baptist Church. It was a difficult year for our congregation as a significant number of our people experienced loss of close family members. We are a small congregation but I am continually impressed with their dedication, especially in their generosity in giving to important causes. I look forward to what the coming years have.
I continue in my work as an army chaplain in the reserves. I still am the chaplain for 3 Intelligence Company but early in the year, I switched from 3 MP to the Nova Scotia Highlanders, a regiment that is much closer to home. It has been enjoyable getting to know the members.
One of the highlights for me on the chaplain side was finishing my DP1 training. This means that I have reached the Operational Functional Point (OFP) and new opportunities are now available. I have also had some opportunities to act in the role of acting brigade chaplain. Thanks to Major Harrison for this opportunity.
I continue to be very interested in the area of disabilities. I once again had the opportunity to present a paper at the Institute for Theology and Disability. Unfortunately, I was not able to be there in-person but I did present it online and combined that with a personal spiritual retreat.
I also had a few publications. These include “Autistic Children and Group Homes: A Personal Testimony” in The Canadian Journal of Autism Equity and “Experience as Apologetics: A Proposal for Pentecostals” in Trinity Journal of Natural & Philosophical Theology.
It was during this year that I had time to rethink the blogging and other digital content creation that I am involved in. There was some consideration of giving it up all together. Not because I had lost interest but because of some personal difficulties.
After some time of inner healing and some reflection on things that bring me joy, I decided to continue to create online content. But in so doing, I decided to take it to the next level and do it more seriously. What does that look like? I discuss it on the new podcast I started called Confessions of a Christian Podcaster.
There are other things that have happened. Our family life has been pretty full. After some time away, our son Justus has moved back home. He is figuring out his next step and I have full confidence in him. Emma will be finishing school in a few months and she is figuring out her next steps. She also sold her first painting and that was very exciting. Faith has created a site that highlights her digital art and I encourage you to check it out.
We really miss having Logan and Abby near us. We do weekly Zoom calls but that is not really enough. Both Amanda and I did have the chance to visit them in Ontario. We hope to work out more frequent visits.
As I shared in a recent Good News post, 2024 was a better year. We still have plenty of challenges, but it was a better year. I look forward to what 2025 brings for our family.
I
