Prayer Letter: February 2022

Tuesday, February 1 - Friday, February 4:

February 1st is the application deadline for new students wishing to enroll in the MA and PhD programs. Please pray for our Registrar, Elizabet Aras, as she compiles all the application files so that the Admissions Committee can effectively evaluate the applications. Please pray for the committee too as they make decisions about who will be accepted to study at ICS, and for the students themselves as they discern their next steps.

Please pray this week for the Librarian Search Committee as they review the applications received from prospective candidates to replace Hilary Barlow who will be moving on to her new job on February 14th. We hope to have someone in place for when Hilary leaves so pray that they will have wisdom and discernment for this important task.

On February 4th, Mark Standish’s doctoral pre-dissertation examination will take place. Mark is enrolled in the joint ICS-VUA PhD program, which means that his committee consists of four people: Neal DeRoo (ICS Supervisor), Luigi Corrias (VUA Dissertation Advisor or Internal Examiner), Ron Kuipers (Internal Examiner), and Peter Nyers (External Examiner, McMaster University). Please pray for wisdom and discernment for all the members of the examination committee, and for Mark that he will have clarity of mind and gain new insights through this important learning opportunity.

SAVE THE DATE! On June 9th-11th, 2022, ICS/CPRSE will host its 2022 Summer Community Conference. This online event promises to be a wonderful opportunity for the whole ICS community to come together in learning, fellowship, and action, as well as to support the scholarly and pedagogical work done by our Senior and Junior Members. We pray for the Conference Steering Committee, and for all conference contributors and volunteers, as they plan the workshops, plenaries, and reflections that will be offered at the conference. Mark your calendars and stay tuned for more information about this summer event!

Monday, February 7 - Friday, February 11:

February is tax receipt month at ICS! Please pray particularly for Harley Dekker, Elizabet Aras and Vidya Williams as they lead the process of preparing the receipts for our donors and students. This is quite a time-consuming task and needs to be finished by the end of February. We ask for God’s sustaining grace for all involved.

Please continue to pray for the Recruitment Team—Brenna, Héctor, Danielle, Elizabet, Pat, and Gideon—as they work on the priority this month of promoting the MA-EL program and courses for the summer and fall semesters. We seek creativity and vision to create a promotional strategy that will help teachers and principles learn about the unique virtues of our MA-EL program and decide if it is the right fit for their ongoing professional development.

On Thursday, February 10th, from 4:00 to 5:00pm EST, ICS will host an online Open House to provide a means to promote the MA-EL program to teachers and educational administrators who are thinking about upgrading their professional qualifications. An overview of the MA-EL program will be provided so that participants will be able to determine if this learning opportunity is a good fit for them. Two current MA-EL students (one from the instructional stream and one from the school administration stream) will join a principal from a local Christian school to share their experiences of the program. Please pray for Edith van der Boom, Gideon Strauss, and Elizabet Aras as they prepare for the Open House. Please pray also for those who are participating in the program as they share their experiences, and for all those who attend that it will be an engaging and informative experience. If you, or someone you know, might be interested in attending, please contact Elizabet Aras at: academic-registrar@icscanada.edu. Please note that the last day to register for this event is Monday, February 7th.

Over the course of the past year, we've been working on updating and redesigning our website. Thanks in large part to a successful grant application to The Priscilla and Stanford Reid Trust, we were able to bring this project to fruition. We offer prayers of thanksgiving for the financial support of the Reid Trust on this project, and we look forward to exploring more possibilities for making ICS resources, information, and events virtually accessible into the future.

Monday, February 14 - Friday, February 18:

This week, we say goodbye to our librarian Hilary Barlow. We’d like to thank Hilary for the four and a half years of service she’s given ICS, stewarding our library collections, making resources available to our community, helping our Junior and Senior Members in their various research projects, and strengthening our institutional relationship with the University of Toronto Library system. Please pray with us for blessings on Hilary as she enters the next stage of her career and familiarizes herself with her new work environment.

Please pray this week for our Senior Members as they work to finish the grading of their students’ assignments from their fall 2020 courses by February 18. We ask God to bless them in this important work of mentoring and give them the space and energy to finish the task well.

We would appreciate your prayers for Gideon Strauss and the students in the school administration stream of the ICS MA program in Educational Leadership who are taking a course titled 'How to Govern a School' with Gideon this term. All of these students are also full-time school administrators, having to navigate frequent changes as the pandemic continues to pose major challenges to schools and families. We would also appreciate your prayers for the Christian schools that will host Gideon and his students for virtual visits during this semester.

Monday, February 21 - Friday, February 25:

Reading Week starts on Monday so there will be no classes this week. This is a welcome opportunity for Junior and Senior Members alike to bury their heads in their books, or digital equivalents, and to concentrate on their current research. May they find joy and inspiration in their studies.

We give thanks for the ICS Senate meeting that took place during January 2022. In particular, we give thanks for the investment of time and careful discernment made by our Senators, for the course proposals that the Senate was able to approve, for the pioneering Reflective Practice Conversations that the Senate conducted with Senior Members Nik Ansell and Rebekah Smick, and for the election of Beth Green as the Vice Chair of Senate. We ask for your prayers for Aron Reppmann, Chancellor of ICS and Chair of the Senate, who came down with COVID at the end of the Senate meeting, and is now recovering.

We ask for your prayers for Danielle Yett, Vidya Williams, and Pat Webb as they research and evaluate new donor database options this month. This is a much needed upgrade for ICS’s advancement team and we require wisdom and discernment in the process of deciding which software program will best suit our needs.

Monday, February 28:

Please join us in giving thanks for the tremendous response to our Advent appeal! We were so blessed by your generous donations and the encouraging notes that accompanied them. A huge thank you to our supporting communities for your gifts of inspiration and hope.

On Monday, February 28th, ICS/CPRSE will launch “Philosophy Otherwise,” a Ground Motive blog series that broadens the discussion about systemic injustice among the ICS community, so as to include questions about the internal complicity of philosophy with realities such as colonialism, white supremacy, and other forms of oppression. Please pray for Ground Motive’s editorial team as they get this important and timely conversation underway.

Seasoned with Grace

You are the salt of the earth.

—Matthew 5:13

Have you ever stopped to think about salt? It’s all over the streets and sidewalks of Toronto these wintry days, and today out of my home office window I can see it working in tandem with the bright sun to melt the snow and ice while the temperature remains sub-zero. This is some versatile stuff! It preserves and purifies; it softens hard water; it adds flavour. The next meal I prepare for my family will surely call for it, and I will hear about it if I use too much or too little.

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus tells us that we are the salt of the earth. More than that, he tells us to stay salty. Don’t lose your saltiness! What did he mean? Many things, surely. That’s what good metaphors do, they help us say several things evocatively and simultaneously. They help us say things that can be said in no other way. In so doing, they open fresh paths for our thinking, being, and doing. Jesus’s salt metaphor is a perfect example.

Jesus was surely aware of the “covenants of salt” described in the book of Numbers and in the second book of Chronicles, used to describe God’s enduring covenant with the priests and kings of Israel. In those passages, the metaphor evokes the preservative quality of salt, vividly portraying the idea that God intended these covenants to be everlasting. Here the metaphor evokes the ideas of incorruptibility and permanence, and the call to remain faithful to God’s promises even in the face of the many countervailing realities that work against them, just as God remains faithful.

But might Jesus not also have had plain old zestiness in mind when he told us we are the salt of the earth? In addition to encouraging us to remain steadfast in our faith, was he not also reminding us that we are made to be tasty and interesting, that indeed we are being faithful when we are tasty and interesting? “Be savoury,” I hear Jesus saying, “and your life will be a gracious gift to others!”

The apostle Paul directly links saltiness and grace, when in his letter to the church in Colossae he tells the faithful: “Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer everyone” (Colossians 4:6). Paul is here encouraging us to season all our conversations with grace. In all our interactions, Paul says, God calls us to preserve and sustain the other person in their being, and in so doing leave a good taste! Could you imagine how much more pleasing, constructive, and fruitful the many difficult and even polarizing conversations we are having today would become if we all entered them with this zesty spirit, with this desire to season our dialogue with grace? That’s some tasty food for thought right there.

It then gives me great pleasure to be able to tell you, the community who supports ICS, that—as I have long suspected—you are in fact the salt of the earth! Thanks for the seasoning, friends, and don’t forget to stay salty!

Ron Kuipers

New Website Launched Thanks to Reid Trust Grant

Over the course of the past year, we've been working on updating and redesigning our website. Thanks in large part to a successful application to The Priscilla and Stanford Reid Trust, we were able to bring this project to fruition. 

We are grateful to the Reid Trust for their financial support, enabling us to improve our online presence in this way, and we look forward to exploring more possibilities for making ICS resources, information, and events virtually accessible into the future.

Prayer Letter: January 2022

Tuesday, January 4 - Friday, January 7:

We offer prayers of thanksgiving for Junior Member Theoren Tolsma’s successful MA defense, which took place virtually on January 3rd! Under the mentorship of Jim Olthuis and Ron Kuipers and with the participation of external examiner John Caputo, Theoren wrote and defended a thesis entitled: “Attuning: Heidegger and Anxiety, Irigaray and Love.” We celebrate with Theoren the culmination of all of his research and hard work, and we pray that God will bless him as he enters the next stage of his work and studies.

We ask for your prayers this week for our Senior Members Ron Kuipers, Bob Sweetman, Gideon Strauss, Edith van der Boom, and Nik Ansell as they make final preparations for the classes they will teach this semester. Pray too for Postdoctoral Research Associate Andrew Tebbutt as he prepares to teach his course on cultural politics in colonial Canada.

Please pray for our Registrar, Elizabet Aras as she flies back to Toronto from Sweden this week after spending the past six weeks with her family. Pray for safe and smooth travels and for a sense of peace amidst pandemic worries.

We ask for your prayers for those students who are still considering what courses to take in the winter semester. For many it means juggling other work and life priorities, so we ask for wisdom as they make their decisions. Pray too for our returning students as they prepare for taking their slotted courses online. For everything you need to know about all of our winter semester courses, including how to register (and yes, there is still time!) go to www.icscanada.edu/winter-courses.

Monday, January 10 - Friday, January 14:

Please pray for our Junior Members as they once again resume classes this week. As in the fall, all our courses will be online, so we want to pray for teachers and the students alike, that the courses will go smoothly on the technical side. We pray also for their encouragement and insightful engagement in their studies, and for their health, wellbeing, and strength of spirit amid ongoing pandemic isolation. We ask especially for prayers on behalf of our MA-EL students as they must constantly adapt, in their own teaching and school administration, in response to ever-changing restrictions and public health measures.

Please pray today and tomorrow for those students who have yet to make a decision about registering for the courses they wish to take in this semester. The last day to register is Wednesday, January 12th, so pray that they will be able to make the necessary arrangements before then.

We would like to pray specifically for each of our teachers this week as they have their first class in the winter semester. A number of the courses on offer touch on topics of immediate relevance, so we pray for insight and creativity in their preparation and presentation.

On Monday, starting at 6:00pm, Andrew Tebbutt’s course Recognition or Refusal? Cultural Politics in a Colonial Canada begins. Pray for Andrew as he leads the students in exploring the philosophical underpinnings of the idea of recognition, alongside its application within Canadian political theory, and then assessing the adequacy of a liberal politics of recognition for addressing Indigenous-settler relationships in Canada.

On Tuesday, starting at 2:00pm, Bob Sweetman will be teaching about the fundamentals and contemporary relevance of Reformational philosophy in his course: Religion, Life, and Society. Please pray for Bob and the students that this will be a time of inspirational learning in this foundational course.

On Wednesday, starting at 2:00pm, Nik Ansell will begin teaching his course: Birthpangs of the New Creation: Judgment unto Salvation in the Book of Revelation. Pray for Nik and the students as they pay special attention to the way in which Old Testament echoes, together with the book’s own symbolic coherence and narrative logic, can open up new avenues of exegesis and theological reflection.

On Thursday, starting at 10:00am, Ron Kuipers will lead the first session of this year’s Interdisciplinary Seminar: Colonization, Racial Identity, and What it Means to be Human. Pray that the session will be thought-provoking for all the participants as they listen to the wisdom from the writings of different cultural groups the European colonizers sought to silence.

Also on Thursday, starting at 2:00pm, Bob Sweetman will begin his course: Individuality in the Franciscan Thought of John Duns Scotus & William of Ockham. Pray for Bob and the students as they examine together the doctrine of individuality developed by these two Franciscan thinkers and the configuration of their thoughts as one or another form of metaphysical “individualism.”

Pray also for the two MA-EL blended learning courses which will begin this week:

• Deeper Learning: From Wonder to Inquiry to Practice with Edith van der Boom, and
  
  
• How to Govern a School: Board Governance, Decision-Making & Community Engagement with Gideon Strauss.
  
  

Monday, January 17 - Friday, January 21:

We praise God for a second successful application to a grant foundation for the purposes of upgrading our classroom in order to provide a hybrid learning platform so we can welcome both in-person and remote students to our classes when we can once again gather together. This is a very exciting opportunity and we ask that you would pray along with us for wisdom and insight in how to steward this grant in the most effective way.

During the month of January, the CPRSE team will be finalizing the publication of the fourth volume of the Currents in Reformational Thought series: Dancing in the Wild Spaces of Love: A Theopoetics of Gift and Call, Risk and Promise, by Senior Member Emeritus, Jim Olthuis. This volume is a continuation of the series’ intent to celebrate the work of the most recent generations of Reformational scholars. Please pray for Jim, as well as the editing and production team, as they bring this project to completion.

Please pray this week for the Chair and ICS Chancellor, Dr. Aron Reppmann, as he leads the discussions at the ICS Senate meeting (via Zoom) on Saturday. Please also pray for Gideon Strauss, our Academic Dean, and all the external and internal Senators as they consider the issues on the agenda. Pray too for Senior Members Nik Ansell and Rebekah Smick as they share reflections on their teaching practices with the Senate, and for Elizabet Aras that all will go smoothly technologically and the meeting will be as fruitful as possible.

Monday, January 24 - Friday, January 28:

Please pray this week for our Junior Members who still have outstanding work to be submitted from their fall courses. The deadline for submission is on Friday of this week, so we ask for clarity and creativity as they complete their various assignments, and for dexterity as they balance the work of this semester and last.

Senior Member Bob Sweetman published an article titled "Reading Ancient and Medieval Philosophers after Vollenhoven" in the latest volume of Philosophia Reformata (86.2). The article is a study of D. H. Th. Vollenhoven’s type-focused historiography of philosophy and its development with respect to pre-Socratic philosophy. The piece is available to read online (with a journal subscription), but should also now be available in print. We give thanks for Bob’s continued compelling contributions to Reformational scholarship and dialogue!

Monday, January 31:

As our 2021 Advent campaign draws to a close, we want to take this opportunity to express our deepest gratitude to all our donors for your faithful support over the past year. We were continually renewed by God’s presence in our lives and our work through your generous gifts of prayer and financial support during this second year of the pandemic. We have been truly blessed to have a support community such as you, and we look forward in hope to another year with you by our sides!

Thank you for partnering with us in our mission and standing with us in all our endeavours!

With the Spirit’s Help

Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; 

for we do not know how to pray as we ought,

but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words.

—Romans 8:26

At the beginning of a new year, it is customary to speak about newness and hope, to express excited anticipation for God’s “new thing” springing forth in our midst, like a bubbling river in a parched desert (Isaiah 43:19). But that’s the funny thing about hope, at least as I hear scripture tell of it—the river doesn’t simply cancel out the desert, at least ‘not yet’. Scripture understands that there are times when it is difficult to hope, and we need God’s help to do so.

In his Letter to the Romans, the apostle Paul speaks of a hope that is born(e) in the midst of suffering, because suffering produces endurance, endurance character, and this character in turn creates a hope that “does not disappoint us.” This hope does not disappoint us, Paul says, because “God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.” (Romans 5:3-5). Without God’s outpouring love entering our hearts, any other kind of hope we entertain will prove disappointing, indeed will not really be hope at all.

Later, Paul will again speak of a hope that arises amid the “groaning” of creation. This is a hope “that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and will obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God” (Romans 8:21). It is also a hope for we folks who “groan inwardly while we wait for the redemption of our bodies” (vs. 23). Paul finally tells us that, while we are in fact saved in this hope (vs. 24), it remains a hope for something we don’t see and must therefore await with patience (vs. 24-25).

Holding on to such hope seems like a tall order these days, doesn’t it? While it is certainly not difficult to hear creation or we ourselves groaning, it can be hard to imagine these signs of pain and suffering as part of a transformative birthing process, as part and parcel of new creation. To maintain such hope requires faith that, despite everything we can’t see (and many oppressive and destructive things we can!), God is nevertheless at work transforming the world for good, the world God made in love and for love.

As if recognizing the weight of his words, Paul takes a moment at this point to assure us that the Spirit helps us in our weakness, intercedes for us even, with inexpressible groans of its own. It doesn’t matter that we don’t know how or what to pray, for God searches our heart and finds the Spirit God gave us there, Jesus Messiah himself in fact (vs. 34), and forges a connection precisely when we are struggling to do so ourselves.

I like the way that The Message translates Romans 8:27-28: “[The Spirit] knows us far better than we know ourselves, knows our pregnant condition, and keeps us present before God. That’s why we can be so sure that every detail in our lives of love for God is worked into something good.” What more can we hope for than that our lives will be worked into something good, something that will be a blessing to creation, others, ourselves, and God? And when our lives fail to be such a blessing—in those moments when we seem unable either to receive or give God’s love—Paul assures us that God is always there to set us on our feet again, readying us to begin anew, inspiring us to live a life of love buoyed by a hope that will not disappoint us.

May you be strengthened and inspired by the hope and love of our Maker and Redeemer in 2022 and beyond, friends, knowing that God’s Spirit is always there to help us find both!

Shalom,

Ron Kuipers

Prayer Letter: December 2021

Wednesday, December 1- Friday, December 3:

Please take the opportunity this week to give thanks for our Board of Trustees as they continue to serve in their oversight of the mission and vision of ICS. At the Annual General meeting on Saturday, November 27th, we welcomed four new board members: Sandra Tang, Kevin Huinink, Dan Beerens, and Mario Matos. Please especially pray for these new members of the Board that they will find joy and blessing as they begin their term of service. Pray also for wisdom for John Joosse as Chair, and for Diane Stronks as Vice Chair in their leadership roles. We give thanks for each trustee and their faithful service to, and support of, ICS.

On December 1st, ICS will be hosting a virtual Open House for all students interested in our MA and PhD programs. The Open House will be held from 6:00-7:30 pm EST and is designed to introduce students to these programs and to answer questions about studying at ICS. Please pray that God will establish the work of our hands as we reach out to potential students that there will be interest in joining ICS in one of these programs. If you are interested, or know someone who is, please email Brenna at recruitment-coordinator@icscanada.edu.

Jason Mills (University of St. Michael’s College) recently defended his thesis entitled In Vitro Education: Examining the Virtual Culture of Online Pastoral Education, with ICS emeritus Doug Blomberg as his supervisor. This past month, Jason’s thesis was awarded the Governor General’s Gold Medal Academic Award through USMC’s Faculty of Theology. We would like to share prayers of gratitude and celebration for Jason’s hard work and his laudable achievement.

Monday, December 6 - Friday, December 10:

We want to pray for continued stamina and enthusiasm for our Senior and Junior Members as they finish out the semester and prepare to start their new courses in January. We pray for Gideon Strauss that he might have rhythm and creative energy in his administrative role as Academic Dean, and for strength and inspiration for all our Senior Members and faculty who are teaching in the winter semester.

On December 8th from 3-5 pm EST the course, The Radical Theopoetics of John D. Caputo, with Dr. Jim Olthuis will be visited by Dr. John D. Caputo himself! His online class session will be open to those interested in joining the discussion. Please RSVP in order to attend by emailing Brenna at: recruitment-coordinator@icscanada.edu. We pray that this will be an interesting and inspiring opportunity for the students in the class and those who join them.

On December 8-11, most of our Senior Members will be participating in the annual Reformational Philosophy Conference organized by the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (VUA). The theme of this year’s conference is “Philosophy in the Reformed Tradition 2021: Celebrating the Heritage, Facing the Challenges, and Embracing the Future.” On Thursday, December 9, President Ronald A. Kuipers will be chairing a panel on the topic: “Bridging the Theology-Reformational Philosophy Gap” along with panelists: Nik Ansell (ICS), Jeremy Ive, Gayle Doornbos (Dordt), and Jamie Smith (Calvin). That same day, Bob Sweetman is also participating on a panel about teaching Reformational Philosophy to the next generation alongside Maarten Verkerk, Lisa Lansang, Guilhermo Cavalho, and Michael Wagenman. Edith van der Boom will also be co-chairing breakout interest sessions on the topic of education. The conference also features book presentations by many Reformational authors, including Jonathan Chaplin on his latest monograph. ICS is one of the conference's sponsoring institutions, and the entire conference is online and free to register. Please pray with us for the involvement of each of these Senior Members in their respective presentations, that those and the conversations that come from them may provide far-reaching blessings to all involved. You can also find out more and join the conference here: https://www.reformationalphilosophy.org/rpc2021/.

Please continue to pray this month for the Educational Policy Committee and the Academic Council as they will be reviewing course proposals and policy proposals for presentation to the Senate at their winter meeting. Please pray for each of the members of these two committees, that they will have wisdom and clarity of thinking as they review these important documents, and for our Academic Dean, Gideon Strauss, as he leads the Senior Members in their academic programming and policy deliberations.

Monday, December 13 - Friday, December 17:

Monday, December 13 marks the end of our in-house colloquium, Philosophy Otherwise: Relearning the Philosophical Craft. This space to reflect on systemic oppression in the context of our disciplines of study and institutional tradition was only possible through the leadership of the CPRSE planning committee, consisting of Héctor Acero Ferrer, Abbi Hofstede, Danielle Yett, and Andrew Tebbutt. We are thankful for the conversations we’ve been able to have together as an academic community so far. Please pray for Héctor, Abbi, Danielle, and Andrew as they lead the closing session of this capacity-building event.

During this calendar year, the CPRSE team has had the support of ICS alumnus Andrew Tebbutt as our Postdoctoral Research Associate. Andrew has contributed generously to the life of our scholarly community, providing leadership for a number of publications and public outreach initiatives. Please pray for Andrew as he continues his work with the CPRSE during this winter term.

Thursday, December 16th, is the final day of classes for the fall semester at ICS and the 2022 winter semester is scheduled to begin on January 2nd. Please pray for our students in these last days of the fall semester that they will be able to complete their study requirements in good time. Please also pray along with us that the two-week holiday break will enable all of us to rest and recharge, and bring all of us back energized for the new year and all it brings.

On Friday, December 17th, we will share in a time of fun and fellowship at our annual Christmas Party -- again this year held virtually. We ask for prayer for Elizabet Aras, our Registrar, as she makes plans for our time together. It isn’t always easy to creatively design a party such as this virtually but last year we held the party remotely and it was a great success. Pray too that it might be a wonderful evening of giving thanks for and celebrating the gifts we have in one another in this blessed community of learning at ICS.

Rebekah Smick would greatly appreciate your prayers as she carries out her work at ICS. The many months of the pandemic have inhibited her work on ICS’s Art in Orvieto summer study program in Orvieto, Italy, which is an important component of our new Master of Worldview Studies in Art, Religion, and Theology. But she has found that she has been able to focus more on some of her writing projects during the pandemic. She would be very grateful for your prayers as she brings some of these projects to completion. She would also appreciate your prayers in her ongoing work with her students who now come to us from across the globe because of our general shift to online teaching during the pandemic.

Monday, December 20 - Friday, December 24:

During the year 2021, ICS/CPRSE invited a series of scholars, practitioners, and community leaders to provide leadership to multiple events and publications aimed at better understanding our complicity in systems of oppression as an institution of higher education. We are extremely grateful to everyone who, in the midst of very busy schedules, took the time to share their expertise, experiences, and wisdom with us. Please pray in thanksgiving for the generosity of Nadine Bowers Du Toit, Kristin Kobes Du Mez, Kevin Huinink, Jonathan Hamilton-Diabo, Cheri DiNovo, Matau Setshase, María Acosta, Ntando Mlambo, Lori-Anne Dolloff, and Elisabeth Paquette; whose contributions to the life of our community have been invaluable.

As we look forward to next week when we celebrate Christmas by the giving and receiving of gifts, we thank God for our committed and faithful friends for their gifts of encouragement and faithful support in prayer and financial gifts. We pray for each one of you that you will receive the amazing gifts of love, joy, and peace this Christmas season and be filled with hope with what God will do in the new year.

Please pray for Rebekah Smick and Thomas McIntire and their greater family in various locations across Canada and in Britain. They have been thankful for God’s mercies in the birth of a new grandson during the pandemic and for the safe return of his parents from Myanmar to Britain at the beginning of the pandemic in time for his birth. They are hoping that this family might be able to visit them in Toronto at Christmas for the first time since the beginning of the pandemic, but are waiting to see if the discovery of the Omicron variant will affect those plans. Please pray for wisdom as they make decisions as a family around the possibility of travelling at this time.

Please pray today for the families of the rest of our staff, Senior Members, and Junior Members as they find ways to celebrate the birth of our Saviour amidst the restraints of the pandemic. Most of our families are spread far and wide and so it won’t be possible for all to be together in person. Pray that despite the separation, families can find joy and inspiration in their virtual get-togethers. As well, we ask for special prayers for those families who may be suffering because of illness or grieving a loss in their family.

May the blessings of love, joy and peace be yours as we celebrate the birth of our Lord and Saviour this Christmas week.

Monday, December 27 - Friday, December 31:

As 2021 draws to a close, we give thanks for another fruitful year of work at ICS and for all our supporters and friends who made that work possible through their prayers and financial gifts. We especially give thanks to God for the strength and wisdom he gave us in this second pandemic year to steadfastly pursue our vision. We pray for God's blessing upon our staff, faculty and students as we work out our mission, in the classroom and beyond, throughout this next year.

We sincerely hope that you enjoyed reading our latest issue of Perspective and have been inspired by the students’ testimonies and the articles on ‘burning questions’ at ICS. If you have not yet received this issue in the mail or by email, you can follow this link: perspective.icscanada.edu/latest-issue to read the issue for yourself. If you would like to join in the spirit of giving before the year ends, you can find the letter that accompanied the issue and some additional information about ways to donate here.