Marian Van Til

Sep 20, 2023 | christiancourier.ca | Emily Wierenga |Marian Van Til |Curt Gesch |Heidi Vander Slikke

I’m seated by a river called Snaring. Clouds pile like white laundry on the mountain faces that surround this Jasper vista. The river rushes by and one wonders how a river knows to rush or a waterfall to fall, and that neither ever stops. My friend and her family are here with us and she tells me how, when she was 10, she would sit watching the falls wash over their banks.

Jun 10, 2023 | christiancourier.ca | Angela Reitsma Bick |Kathy Vandergrift |Marian Van Til |Erin Knight

“In your relationships with one another,” Paul wrote (from prison!), “have the same mindset as Christ Jesus” (Phil. 2:5). That’s the verse chosen as the theme of the Christian Reformed Church’s (CRC) Synod 2023, taking place this week in Grand Rapids, Michigan – and its focus on relationships is a fitting one. That’s because members of the CRC denomination – like the ancient church in Philippi, perhaps – are having an increasingly difficult time living in ecclesiastical harmony.

Jun 7, 2023 | christiancourier.ca | Cassie Westrate |Tom Wolthuis |John Medendorp |Marian Van Til

Anjalie* stood in front of the door. From the other side, she could hear people chatting and dishes clattering. Heart pounding, she wondered whether she should just go home – but she took a deep breath and knocked. Leah De Vos, a Mission Network Developer with Resonate Global Mission, welcomes international students into her home every Friday for Dinner Church. She had invited Anjalie weeks ago. Dinner Church isn’t a new concept.

Apr 24, 2023 | christiancourier.ca | David T. Koyzis |Heidi Vander Slikke |Bob Bruinsma |Marian Van Til

Many years ago, when I was still a graduate student, I decided to read some of the major Russian novels of the 19th and 20th centuries. It’s taken me decades, but I finally got to Fyodor Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment (1866). The story is set in the imperial capital of St. Petersburg. Rodion Romanovich Raskolnikov has recently abandoned his university studies and is living hand to mouth in a rented room. Intellectually gifted, he is subject to frequent bouts of fever and depression.

Apr 14, 2023 | christiancourier.ca | Cathy Smith |Sandy Mayle |James Dekker |Marian Van Til

Cathy here. Please excuse the public praying. I should be holed up in some lowly corner, sinner that I am. I need help, Lord, even to pray. So timid, afraid to speak peace, or even to speak at all. I need belief to overcome my unbelief. I distrust your promises, I doubt your call, I step gingerly around that man bloodied by bandits. Holy Spirit, wash my words. Saviour, carry them to the throne. God who bends down to feed me, accept this prayer.