Unlike our neighbours to the south, we Canadians do not always remember our heroes. In 2007, the Canadian Royal Mint produced a Canadian loonie with the imprint of Chief Joseph Brant (1742-1807). Born near present-day Akron, Ohio, and raised in his ancestral lands in New York, he is Canada’s most famous Mohawk. Through the tragedy of war, Chief … [Read more...] about Chief Joseph Brant: Indigenous missionary who rescued Canada
Biography
Louis Riel and Nicholas Flood Davin: Complicated pioneers
Nicholas Davin and Louis Riel were two of our most famous, or I should say infamous, and complicated, Canadian pioneers. Their two lives were deeply entangled in a life-and-death battle for the soul of Canada. Born in 1844, Riel, who had trained to be the first Metis priest, was very Christ-centered, praying in his diary: “Lord Jesus, I love you. I love everything associated … [Read more...] about Louis Riel and Nicholas Flood Davin: Complicated pioneers
Ron Edgecombe: Missionary printer to Argentina
Many adopted children struggle with abandonment and identity issues. As an orphan raised in a number of foster homes, Ron Edgecombe was described as non-adoptable, possibly an imbecile, and mostly likely to be committed to an institution. With undiagnosed dyslexia, no one would have imagined that Ron would one day receive a doctorate and serve as a missionary … [Read more...] about Ron Edgecombe: Missionary printer to Argentina
Garth Hunt, from Vietnam to Living Bibles to World Serve to an elder missions statesman
At 10:51 on April 29, 1975, the American radio station began playing Irving Berlin's "White Christmas", the signal for American personnel to move immediately to the evacuation points. Garth Hunt, an Alliance Church (C&MA) missionary in Vietnam since 1957, was one of the last people to leave Vietnam during the fall of Saigon. No one could leave without an exit stamp. It … [Read more...] about Garth Hunt, from Vietnam to Living Bibles to World Serve to an elder missions statesman
Mayor William Howland: Canadian home missions pioneer
Why has Toronto, Ontario, sometimes been called Toronto the Good? It goes back to Mayor William Howland, a Christian business person who gave away most of his considerable wealth to local home missions. William’s father was the Honorable William Pearce Howland, second Lieutenant-Governor and Finance Minister of Ontario (1868-1873), John A. Macdonald’s first Minister of … [Read more...] about Mayor William Howland: Canadian home missions pioneer