Thursday, March 2: On Tuesday, we sadly bade farewell to Isabella Guthrie-McNaughton. We praise God for leading her to serve ICS so faithfully and expertly over the past twelve years, and ask for blessings on her as she takes up a new position at Tyndale University College and Seminary in Toronto. [See News
Friday, March 3: You will soon receive our annual membership renewal mailing. Let us give thanks for one another, members of the body of Christ at work in support of Christian graduate education. Please pray also for those confirmed as nominees to fill vacancies on the Board, as you vote in your various regions, and for “at large” trustees also.
Monday, March 6: Dianne Bergsma wishes blessings to all and thanks everyone for the responses to the February Prayer Letter received for her husband Jerry. Your prayers were very much appreciated by Dianne, Jerry and their family. She asks for continued prayers for Jerry as he continues in palliative care due to spreading cancer of the spine at the Hotel Dieu Shaver hospital where they now try to balance the medication to manage the pain while trying to keep him awake and somewhat alert.
Tuesday, Match 7: We give thanks for the successful MA thesis defences in recent weeks by Héctor Acero-Ferrer and TJ Skulstad-Brown. We pray they will find many ways in which to bring their insights to bear in their varied callings, in service of our Lord Jesus Christ and their neighbours, whoever and wherever they may be.
Wednesday, March 8: This afternoon is the meeting of the Educational Policy Committee, one of our most active teams. Please pray for insight and discernment as they deliberate on curricular matters that are at the core of our mission.
Thursday, March 9: Tomorrow morning at ICS the Board of Trustees will convene a special meeting with faculty, staff and Junior Members to discuss plans for the future, particularly with respect to a potential merger with The King’s University, Edmonton. The Board will reconvene in the afternoon and again on Saturday morning to continue its deliberations around this matter. We ask the Holy Spirit to hover over these conversations, gifting all involved with the wisdom promised if only we have the humility to entreat God for this.
Friday, March 10: This evening we will celebrate the retirement of Lambert Zuidervaart after many years of faithful service to ICS, including a long period before he was appointed Senior Member in Philosophy in 2003. Please pray for a wonderful time of conversation and reflection, and of thankfulness to our Lord and to Lambert for his inestimable contribution. May he be blessed as he continues to follow Christ on the path which has been his lifelong vocation.
Monday, March 13: The Finance Committee is busy preparing the 2017-18 budget proposal for consideration by the Board at its meeting on May 12. The goal is to achieve a balanced budget, obviously a crucial step in doing all we can to ensure ICS’s sustainability, knowing that throughout we depend utterly on the grace of God to uphold us in the task with which we are entrusted. We beseech our Father in Heaven to aid us in our calling to strive that His will be done on earth and praise Him in His power and glory.
Tuesday, March 14: Bob Sweetman will be making a number of conference presentations over the next few months. Details of these will be announced in our News column as they come closer. Please pray in the meantime for the strenuous hours, days and weeks he will be putting in to bring his papers to their final form.
Wednesday, March 15: Academic Council convenes this afternoon for its monthly meeting to consider proposals from its various sub-committees and the offices of the Academic Dean and President. May the hand of God guide each one, and the committee communally, to do what is pleasing to Him and to the honour of His name.
Thursday, March 16: The anticipated sale of our shares in 229 College Street has been delayed by the requirement for an Environmental Assessment, a matter of course for buildings of its age, of which there are many in our vicinity. Please continue to uphold ICS before the throne of God, that there will be a positive and expeditious outcome
Friday, March 17: As we prepare for the meeting of the Senate meeting on May 11, we pray for those diligently at work on the materials necessary for this event, noting especially Registrar Jeff Hocking and Academic Dean Bob Sweetman. We pray also for the Senate itself, as it oversees the academic program of ICS, and for Dr. John Kok in particular as he provides leadership as Senate Chair and Chancellor.
Monday, March 20: The Leadership Team meets again this morning to update one another, review the various facets of the Institute’s operations and advise the President. Please pray for insight and discernment in their consultation.
Tuesday, March 21: Junior Members will once again delight us with an issue of Perspective they are putting together. Please pray for them as they write, collaborate and edit. It’s sure to be a joy to read!
Wednesday, March 22: Please bring our administrative staff before the Lord for His encouragement and blessing: Jeff Hocking, Kathy Lynch, Vidya Williams, Harley Dekker and Pat Webb.
Thursday, March 23: We pray for ICS’s discussions with The King’s University, that there may be a strengthening of a distinctively Christian witness in higher education in Canada that redounds to the glory of God.
Please pray for Dan Jesse as he presents his paper at Furman University (see News).
Friday, March 24: It’s less than two weeks until the ICS Art Talks! event on April 3 and 4. This conference on film and spirituality, in collaboration with the Toronto International Film Festival, is overseen by Rebekah Smick and Ron Kuipers, working also with a number of other partners. Please pray for the final planning and successful conduct of this significant public outreach.
Monday, March 27: Our faculty are at the heart of our mission, to help the next generation shape their thoughts and lives in service of the Kingdom of God, whose thumbprint is as broad as creation itself. Please pray for them: Nik Ansell, Ron Kuipers, Rebekah Smick, Gideon Strauss and Bob Sweetman, bringing their names before the one whose name is above all names.
Tuesday, March 28: The task of graduate students -- also at the heart of our mission -- is demanding in many ways, the rigours of research itself, of course, but also the stresses and strains of being far from home in most cases and the financial burdens they carry. We invite you today to pray for our Junior Members and their families, some with young children, as they seek to honour the call of Jesus to serve Him in the field of Christian scholarship.
Wednesday, March 29: Let us give thanks to Jesus for one another, ICS supporters in prayer and financially, for the wonderful response to our Advent Appeal. May God bless and keep you, in the various ways you serve in our Lord’s vineyard. Pray with us for bountiful fruit on the vine in the second half of this financial year.
Thursday, March 30: The Undergraduate Workshop at Scarboro Missions is just over six weeks away (May 16-19). We are grateful for the Missions’ generous provision of this facility and travel support and pray for all those who have taken up this wonderful opportunity. Some of our “senior” Junior Members (who organised this event) and some Senior Members also will participate in this mentoring experience; we give thanks for those who took the lead in this initiative, especially PhD candidate Josh Harris. We continue to pray for further enrolments.
Friday, March 31: The biennial “Our Whole Society” conference, under the auspices of the Canadian Interfaith Conversation, this year has the theme of “Religion and Citizenship at Canada’s 150th” (Ottawa May 8-9). CPRSE, represented by Director Ron Kuipers, is a “Conversation Partner” in this event. Please pray for this gathering, and for Ron in particular as he engages in its planning and execution.
