Advent/Christmas letter 2022

We wish you a happy Advent and Merry Christmas, in Jesus’ wonderful name.

It has been an active year of babysitting and writing articles.  With Ed being president of our strata, there are many days when he needs to lend out keys and check things out with different workers.  Sometimes Janice gets to do the job if he is away. 

When things opened up again in the summer, we were happy to go across the border down to Bellingham, WA, to see Anne and her family.  Twice we went down in July so we got to see all her family by the second visit.  She will be coming up here for her birthday.  The first time in 3 years!  Ed and I were both blessed with good health till the fall where we both took turns being ill.  But we are now healthy again, thank the Lord Jesus.

Our grandchildren are now a year older of course. Isaiah just had his third birthday and he celebrated with his father Andrew who also has his birthday in November. We were fortunate as a Strata complex to buy new furniture for the Common Room so we were able to celebrate the two birthdays there on Sunday Nov 13th. Only the immediate family were able to be included as we are still trying to keep people safe from anymore illness. Mark and Janice were able to find the Christmas decorations so we celebrated Advent early! Catherine who is also 3 had a great time running around with Isaiah. Kelsea is 7, and Aaron is now 9. They were a big help with the smaller children at the party.

Catherine, who is James and Alicia’s daughter, is a very happy child who now often says “why” to any statements.  She is a very good athlete and loves to do somersaults and goes to dance lessons.  Her mom and dad are busy with work, so sometimes we get to babysit when they have a night out.  Alicia was able to go to her grandfather’s funeral in the fall.  He was almost 103 years old!  Sometimes James and Catherine drop by for dinner on their way home from her daycare.  They still go to Peace Portal Alliance Church.

We are blessed to have our middle son Mark living in the apartment building behind our building so we get to see him weekly to play games or watch old movies.  He has a lovely apartment with some of his Grandparents’ art on the walls.  He is still working at Safeway with James where he works in the deli department as he loves to cook.  Mark is still active with REC which is a Chinese Anglican Mission church in Richmond. Twice per month, he sings on the worship team.  Their church has just bought a new property which they are renovating.

Andrew (our youngest son) and his wife Ruth love attending Riverside Church in Port Coquitlam. We go over to Coquitlam usually 2 or 3 days a week and babysit the children.  Aaron at age 9 loves to make videos, often with a Christian theme. He is a very good reader, and loves drawing cartoons like his father.  Kelsea, who is age 7, recently started wearing glasses which has helped her reading, as she is far-sighted.  She is also a good artist, and a kind sister.  Isaiah at age 3 loves keeping up with his older siblings, and now goes to preschool. He has a delightful smile, and is full of fun.  All three children are wonderful singers, and like to put on plays for us. Andrew now does some ‘in charge’ management shifts at White Spot, and still loves to draw his special comic character which he shares on-line with his fellow artists.  Ruth is kept busy working part-time at Starbucks and watching her children.  She has some creative talent like her mother and has been making Christmas cards to sell for the last few years at her church fair.   

Last Christmas at the last moment, Janice was fortunate to get to sing at Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and the Sunday after Christmas as Jenny Klenner was sick. Janice was happy to sing but it was a bit hectic. Then Ed also got to preach. He has preached a few times this year at our church All Saints. In fact,he recently preaching at a healing service there. Every week at All Saints, there are healing teams for those needing prayer.Janice has been helping out with the Sunday school when the main person Elaine is unavailable. She will be helping again in December. Ed preached and led the healing communion service at Holy Cross on Sunday December 4th in Abbotsford. We lived in Abbotsford from 1982 to 1987 and have good friends there. The book that we published last November, God’s Fire-starters has been received very well. You can order it through Amazon. We are working on some new books, one of which is on Ed’s hero E Stanley Jones called Fire in the Fireplace. The second book is being co-written with David Kitz who is the National Chair of The Word Guild in Canada called the Elisha Code. Every month as columnists we send in 2 articles to the Christian Light Magazine.

While in Oklahoma City for the United Christian Ashram International Board in September, Ed was installed as one of the Group of 4, who give spiritual mentorship for the movement.  This year once again we did our BC Christian Ashram on-line.  It was well-received even though some of the on-line people had trouble with Rogers Internet which went off-line all across Canada on the Friday evening, including for Janice.  We enjoyed having 10 people from Africa join us at the retreat.  The registrants from India did not manage to make it on-line but we had people from the Eastern states of USA join us as well.   Mark, James and Janice Hird were blessed to lead the worship on line and we had a talent show which was also on-line but some people did in-person on the Zoom platform.  The speakers, Pastors Giulio & Lina Gabeli, were very enjoyable and the prayer time was well-received.  You can view the talks online. On Friday July 7th to Saturday 8th 2023 we will go back to in-person at TWU but as a hybrid with on-line access.

As one of the elders at the church, Ed keeps active; we are soon going to go ahead with the renovations for All Saints Community Church.  Any donations to assist with this would be appreciated.  We continue to welcome new people weekly to our church.  It is right down in Crescent Beach so it is very visible to tourists and new people.

May Jesus the Word made flesh shine in your lives this Advent and Christmas. 

Ed & Janice Hird