Louisa Bruinsma

Nov 11, 2024 | christiancourier.ca | Louisa Bruinsma

The Little LiarMitch AlbomHarper, 2023I am a post-war baby boomer, the first child born after my parents arrived in Canada in 1947 from The Netherlands with five children in tow. In eighth grade at Calvin Christian School in Hamilton, Ontario, my teacher and school principal, Mr. John VanderVelde, showed us shocking photos of huge piles of bodies of Jews discovered in concentration camps after the defeat of the Third Reich. Those black and white photos are imprinted in my mind.

May 29, 2024 | christiancourier.ca | Louisa Bruinsma

HOW CANADA WORKS: THEPEOPLE WHO MAKE OURNATION THRIVEPeter Mansbridgeand Mark BulgutchSimon and Schuster Canada, 2023. It was an impulse buy. I was looking through the 70 percent off Christmas clearance rack at London Drugs when I spotted a book cover with the name “Peter Mansbridge” (of CBC’s The National). For almost thirty years, this trusted icon with the fatherly face on the evening news informed and comforted our nation through 9/11, floods and tornadoes. So I bought the book.

Aug 11, 2023 | christiancourier.ca | Christian Courier |Robert Bruinsma |Louisa Bruinsma |Kathy Vandergrift

In keeping with our desert theme, we asked CC folks, past and present, “What book would you most want if you were stranded on a desert island?” Almost half of them said, “Well, the Bible, but if you mean other than the Bible, then…”When I lived in Korea with my missionary parents, we spent part of our holiday in a cottage close to the Yellow Sea. I think I was around 11 years old when I read To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee within that cottage sanctuary.

Feb 15, 2023 | christiancourier.ca | Louisa Bruinsma |Jennifer Henry |Vivian Ketchum |John Medendorp

Most amateur guitar players will chuckle at this comment made by Ray Mitchell (played by Alberta country singer-songwriter Corb Lund) to his 15-year-old guitar student, Leland Parenteau (played by Kaden Noskiye) in Guitar Lessons. It’s true: you can play a lot of songs if you know these chords. At the end of the movie, when Leland mastered the three chords, Ray says, “Then you’re set for life. Johnny Cash forever.”Guitar Lessons is an independent, locally produced (High Level, Alberta) movie.