Happy Advent and Merry Christmas 2024.

As always, there has been many fun and interesting happenings in 2024.  Ed makes things exciting.

We initially had no big events except Janice’s birthday in January and James’ birthday in March.  But Ed decided to door knock for his friend Bryan Tepper who was running for the Conservative party in BC.  From our perspective, the NDP government here in BC over-regulates.  Ed had a great time knocking on people’s doors and talking to them.  The Conservative party in BC is a ‘new’ political party here but used to be government many years ago.  Ed was the president of the riding association and Janice was the secretary.

The big thing we were praying in 2023 and 2024 was that someone would give us the 3 million dollars we needed to pay back our loans and get the floor fixed at All Saints Community Church.  Last year we had a prayer vigil nightly for 6 months to the end of December 2023.  We wondered when we would get the money to pay back our friendly loans.  Finally in June, a foundation bought the church but let us stay there until Jesus returns!  We celebrated by having a big party with almost 200 people at a fancy Indian restaurant in Surrey.  As we still have to raise the money to get the floor fixed and put in additional bathrooms we are now having another prayer vigil nightly since the middle of October.  Because it is at Crescent Beach, we always have newcomers come and visit at the church building.  Ed has preached several sermons this year and will be doing another one at the end of November for our 10am Healing service.  Janice continues to help with Sunday School and sings in the duets and the choir.  We are fortunate to have a wonderful pastor, Bishop Peter and his wife Jenny, and a great team of volunteers.

Catherine turned 5 and Alicia turned a year older, both in May.  Janice is now picking Catherine up from kindergarten in Langley 3 times per week and babysits her on Friday as her mommy now works full-time.  She loves to play at the park as she is very athletic and is good with arts and crafts.  James and Alicia continue to work at Safeway and in daycare.  James continues to receive awards for being the best salesperson in BC regarding charitable donations.  Brenda, Alicia’s mom has now moved into Amica so that is a big change.  Miriah, Alicia’s sister has found an apartment to rent and they are getting Brenda’s townhouse ready to sell.

Aaron was once again in a musical as the Doc assistant for Peter Pan’s nemesis, Captain Hook, in May.  He also sang in the grade 5 choir.  He continues to do little skits on-line on Ed’s U-Tube page.  In the Spring, we took them for swimming lessons so now Aaron and Kelsea can swim much better.  Aaron is at a Middle School in grade 6 since the fall where he is taking trumpet lessons.  Kelsea had her 9th birthday party at her house.  She is a very beautiful girl inside and out.  Being a great artist she also likes to make bracelets and necklaces.  Being in grade 4, she gets to have the opportunity to sing in the school choir and is ‘Timone’ in The Lion King musical at the school in November.  She has a lovely singing voice.  Isaiah turned 5 on Nov 13.  He is also in kindergarten and loves it.  Like his cousin Catherine, he is very independent.  Isaiah is very social and loves to sing right on key.  Like his big brother Aaron, he likes to draw comics and take pictures on Grandpa’s phone.

In June, we had a big party for Mark at Auntie Wendy’s place as he turned 40 this year.  He is still working at Safeway in the deli department and goes to Richmond Emmanuel Church.  He helps lead the singing and also reads scripture and takes a turn doing Sunday school.  Mark is the assistant director with the BC Christian Ashram.

For the BCCA this year, we were bumped from our date at Trinity Western University which meant we had to find another place to meet.  So, we ended up at CLA which is a big church in Langley.  Norma Carruthers is now 98 and had to go into a home last year so can no longer help us.  Her eyesight and hearing are now poor.  Janice really missed her insights and help with the registrations.  So, Ed assisted with the registrations on-line.  Bev Lombard was a great help with suggestions and registering people at the site with our dear friend Margie Knapp.

The speakers for this year were supposed to be Rev. Dr. Medad and Connie Birungi but the Canadian government would not process their Uganda visa.  It now takes 18 months to be able to get into Canada from Africa.  So, our friend Mike Schroeder was a blessing as at the last minute he spoke as the evangelist.  Rev. Dr. Ken Deeks was the bible teacher and Ed Brett was the Church in Action speaker talking about the Mennonite Central Committee.  We did not have any overnight accommodation but still had 50 people attend the meetings.  Unfortunately, it was a very hot weekend and even though there was air-conditioning in the building there was none in that chapel where we were meeting.  Janice did all the food except for a catered dinner at the end and also helped with the children’s program.  Mark and Janice were in charge of the children with help from Elaine Bevan.  One of the workers was sick so that made it very busy.  We had 5 children of which 4 were our grandchildren.  The two little ones loved to run so we had to watch them carefully.  The people were very impressed with the food but it was quite an ordeal getting the food ready and also trying to help with the children.  Next year we are back at Trinity Western and can stay overnight.  Dr John Roddam helped Ed with the overseas and internet registrants who enjoyed the weekend as well.  We had Christine Magee Scott do our music again and it was very Spirit led.

July was Ruth’s birthday.  So, she had arranged for Andrew and herself to go away while we looked after the children for a few days.  We always like having them over and Uncle Mark let them swim in his pool.  Both Ruth and Andrew continue to work at Starbucks and White Spot.  They continue to enjoy their basement suite with the three bedrooms.  Ruth makes Christmas cards and Andrew draws in a computer game that he created.

In August, we went and visited my brother John Cline and family in Edmonton, Alberta.  That was a fun time!  We also were able to go to a mini family reunion on Dr John Cline’s new farm near Red Deer, Alberta.  It was so great to meet the little cousins that we had never met and see their parents and grandparents.  We also celebrated a birthday party for Joy Cline and Uncle Fred Cline.  Near the end of our stay in Edmonton, we met Vanessa Hird and two of her daughters.  They are Uncle Reg Hird’s grandchildren and great grand children.  The older girl had beautiful red hair the same red color of Ed and his sons’ and nephews’ beards.  The origin of the red hair came from Ed’s Grandpa Hird.  Also, in August, Ed travelled to Oklahoma City for the annual International Christian Ashram Annual Board meeting. We have been praying like many others for the peace of Jerusalem.

In September, Bryan Tepper found out that the Conservative party of BC wanted him to be the candidate in another riding 5 miles north of where he lives.  Ed, the president of the riding, was surprised but with the help of his volunteers, Bryan moved to Surrey Panorama to compete in that riding.  Ed got out his app for the Punjabi language so he could give the pitch for the Conservatives on the app on his phone while trying to speak to them at the door.  Over half of the riding were Punjabi people.  The amazing thing, with the help of all the volunteers and our prayers, Bryan won the riding against one of the strongest NDP candidates.  In the end, after waiting for a week for the final count, the NDP won 47 to 44 against the Conservatives and 2 for the Green party.  The leader of the Green party did not win her seat.  The election was October 19.  The interesting thing was that the former opposition United party’s leader, Kevin Falcon which was formerly called the Liberal party of BC announced they would stop running in August so the Conservatives would have a chance of winning.  Some candidates in his party were angry at him but a few of the members became Conservative so they could still run in the race.  This happened in Surrey/White Rock as well and that’s why Bryan had to move. 

In November we had a party for Isaiah with the close relatives in our common room.  Catherine was very pleased to see Isaiah and gave him a hug.  Andrew had a special birthday with his friends in an Escape room a few weeks later.  We babysat for him.  Once again Janice will be singing in the choir and duets for Christmas.  She loves to go to the women’s prayer group run by Jenny Klenner on Tuesday mornings.  Now that Ruth works early shifts, Ed can go to cover while Janice gets a ride to the prayer group.  Also, in November, we took Andrew and Ruth Hird’s children to the movie The Best Christmas Pageant Ever and had a great time laughing at all the funny things that happened.  As we continue to write in the Light Magazine Ed was invited to do a movie review for the movie and was able to interview one of the child actors about it.

The book Ed and his friend David Kitz wrote last year called The Elisha Code won an award at the Canadian Word Guild in 2024.  They did not win the top prize but got an Award of Merit with a 97.6% approval rate.  Now Ed is busy re-reading E Stanley Jones’ 28 books so he can help us get ready to write a book called E. Stanley Jones: Fire in God’s Fireplace.  It will be a different book than others written on E Stanley Jones as it will have many personal stories from North America about E. Stanley Jones’ dream team.

We were glad to help James and Andrew when they both had floods in their places this year.  James’ was in June from the roof which is right above his ceiling in his bedroom and Andrew’s was in his kitchen from the sump pump not working when we had a deluge of rain in October.  Ed and Janice monitor the leaves and continue to clean them up outside our apartment building so the drains don’t get blocked outside our door.  Now most of the leaves are gone for another year.

As the end of the year is nearly here, we wish you and your family, health and happiness.  Jesus Christ the Lord loves you.

Love Janice and Ed Hird