Many Christians on the west coast of Canada or in the Ottawa Valley will know the names of Rev. Dr. Ed Hird and Rev. David Kitz, authors of The Elisha Code and the Coming Revival. I have gotten to know both, by living, at different times, in both aforementioned communities, and by observing their respective influences in the field of Christian writing. Those influences have taken shape in their work with The Word Guild, one of two fine Christian writing groups.
In addition to long time pastoral work in British Columbia, in a couple of streams of Anglicanism, Hird has encouraged the development of many Christian renewal movements and retreats, on at least three continents.
Kitz, board chair of The Word Guild, is ordained in the Foursquare Church of Canada. His most notable writing achievement, The Soldier, The Terrorist and the Donkey King, is now into its second extended run. It is a fine example of creative non-fiction centred on a soldier whose life was changed by his encounter with Jesus at the time of his crucifixion and resurrection.
It is arguably fortuitous and timely that the two authors were able to collaborate on The Elisha Code …. In the book’s introduction, they note (in part):
At the darkest time, in the darkest region, Jesus appeared on the scene. There he began his ministry. In these dark and divided times, as the truth of the Elisha code is brought to light, we too will see Jesus revealing his grace and power among us.
Throughout the centuries-long history of the church, biblical truths have been lost – lost through sin, unbelief, and neglect – later to be rediscovered by thirsty souls searching for transformative change in dark times. Martin Luther triggered the reformation with his rediscovery of the truth of salvation by faith through grace. The truth of sanctification triggered the Great Awakening and the Methodist renewal with revival-fire starters such as the Wesley brothers, George Whitefield, and John Newton. The twentieth century began with a fresh outpouring of the Holy Spirit as the truths of Pentecost were brought to the fore through the globe-spanning Welsh revival and the Azusa Street outpouring.
When biblical truth is restored, revival often follows. A harvest of souls is swept into the Kingdom of God, as surely as the morning dawns on a new day.
… By studying his earthly ministry, we can discover the blueprint (Jesus) was following to launch and establish the church of the first century. It is a blueprint that is patterned after the prophetic Old Testament ministries of Elijah and Elisha.
Having been involved in faith-based writing and journalism, myself, for around 60 years, I would hasten to point out that cracking a spiritual code or encouraging a spiritual revival is not confined to any one part of the Christian community. And I expect both Kitz and Hird agree, all the while effectively telling the stories that have shaped their particular faith communities.
During the time of preparing this review, the death of television’s 700 Club founder Pat Robertson at age 93 took place. In the obituary Christianity Today magazine ran on Robertson, he was cited thusly:
Robertson saw himself as an evangelical with a charismatic gift and ecumenical outlook, once saying, “As far as the majesty of worship, I’m an Episcopalian; as far as a belief in the sovereignty of God, I’m Presbyterian; in terms of holiness, I’m a Methodist … in terms of the priesthood of believers and baptism, I’m a Baptist; in terms of the baptism of the Holy Spirit, I’m a Pentecostal, so I’m a little bit of all of them.”
In getting to the point of their revival prognostications, Kitz and Hird cite the examples of two Canadians – Alliance founder AB Simpson and Foursquare founder Aimee Semple McPherson. They note:
Have you noticed that most revivals in the last hundred years involved a renewed emphasis on the healing ministry.
Aimee Semple McPherson and AB Simpson were two Ontario-raised Canadians who challenged that assumption. Both asserted that spiritual gifts are still available today, including the gifts of healing. While both valued the role of medical doctors, they helped many discover that Jesus Christ our healer is the same yesterday, today, and forever (Hebrews 13:8).
… Both Semple McPherson and AB Simpson helped people rediscover the prayer of faith in James 5:15 where we read that if anyone is sick, they are to call the elders who will lay hands on them, anoint them with oil, and exercising the prayer of faith will heal the sick.
Word Alive Press announced The Elisha Code and the Coming Revival is the winning manuscript for the 2023 Braun Book Awards.
About Lloyd Mackey
Dr. Lloyd Mackey has close to half a century of experience in community, faith-based and leadership journalism, including 15 years working out of the Canadian Parliamentary Press Gallery in Ottawa. Books he has authored include These Evangelical Churches of Ours (Wood Lake Books, 1994), Like Father, Like Son: Ernest Manning and Preston Manning (ECW, 1997) More Faithful than We Think: Stories and Insights on Canadian Leaders Doing Politics Christianly (BayRidge Books, 2005) and The Pilgrimage of Stephen Harper/Stephen Harper: The Case for Collaborative Governance (ECW, 2005/2006). He is founding editor/director of the Online Encyclopedia of Canadian Christian Leaders, an outgrowth of his Doctor of Ministry (DMin) studies, completed in 2015 through Tyndale University College and Seminary. In 1984, he earned a Master’s in Business Administration (MBA) at Simon Fraser University. He and his wife, Edna, are trying to practice “active retirement” and an examination of “social architecture” in the emerging Central City urban core in Surrey, BC.
Jesus shone through his smile and the twinkle in Dr. Neil Yorkston’s eyes. He loved the Lord and he loved people. When he took your hands, it was like Christ was reaching out to you with His compassion and kindness. Yorkston was a great prayer warrior with a gentle, gracious spirit.
He was born in 1928 to China Inland Mission missionary parents in Yunnan-Fu, China. When Yorkston was six years old, his parents took him to Chefoo school, on the east coast of China, where he attended as a boarder. He often talked about his being sent during WW2 to a Japanese internment camp in Weihsien. There he continued his education, and he worked in the kitchen. Yorkston often commented that Eric Liddell of Chariots of Fire renown was an inspiring missionary teacher in his internment school. His athletic friend Stephen Metcalf was thrilled to be given Eric Liddell’s worn-out Olympic running shoes. Yorkston was interned in the camp until American soldiers liberated him in 1945. He was then reunited with his parents in Australia. Sadly, Yorkston’s two brothers died in March 1945, while in the Royal Australian Air Force.
In 1995 and 2005, Yorkston returned to China with his daughters where he saw first-hand how the Christian Church had grown throughout great persecution. He wanted the Chinese people to know the truth that would set them free. He never carried grudges and fondly remembered his 2005 reconciliation tour in Japan.
His son Ian said of his dad at the funeral: “His faith and work as a doctor were a unified whole. He did what he did precisely because of his yearning to be faithful to his service to God, caring for those in need.” As a medical student and young doctor, he and his future wife Elizabeth were very involved in running children’s camps for C.S.S.M, now known as Scripture Union. Following the birth of their first daughter in 1958, Yorkston became a medical missionary. He served as head of the medical department at the Haile Selassie 1 Naval Base, Massawa, Eritrea, from 1958-1960. In 1959, their second daughter was born.
Relocating back to London in 1960, he served in Guy’s hospital. There his wife Elizabeth gave birth to their son and youngest daughter. In 1965, Yorkston went on to become a psychiatrist in London. In the late 1960s, he spent three years at Temple University, Philadelphia, as Associate Professor of Psychiatry. From 1970-73, he worked in the Department of Psychiatry and Medicine at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis. In 1973, he left the USA and returned to southeast London. He worked as a Consultant Psychiatrist at Friern Barnet Hospital in North London until he was appointed Consultant Psychiatrist at the Royal Bethlem and Maudsley Hospitals.
In 1980, the Yorkston family moved to Vancouver, where Yorkston served as Head of Psychiatry at the University of British Columbia. He later practised psychiatry in Australia in 1990, and Durham, England in 1992.
The All Saints Church community in Crescent Beach knew Yorkston for just over three years, the same length of time Jesus served on earth. During that relatively short period, Yorkston had a lasting impact on our congregation. His good friend Dr. J.I. Packer of Regent College recommended All Saints Church when Yorkston and his wife Elizabeth moved to White Rock. In fact, Yorkston was the one who made the church leaders aware of a newspaper article advertising the sale of Holy Cross Church in Crescent Beach. That was the catalyst for All Saints Community Church to miraculously purchase the building during the COVID pandemic! When it was felt impossible to finance the purchase, Yorkston quoted Hudson Taylor: “God’s work, done in God’s way, will never lack God’s supply.”
Yorkston was a regular, not only on Sundays, but also during the prayer and Bible studies which sometimes lasted for forty nights. Not even rain or snow could keep him away. He loved to read and teach the Bible to fellow seniors. He kept current with medical literature and never stopped learning, even at the age of 94 years old. Yorkston introduced many All Saints parishioners to his favourite book Revival, authored by his mentor Dr Martin Lloyd-Jones. David Short, rector of St. John’s Church Vancouver, said at Yorkston funeral: “He would want us to encounter the astonishing joy that was at the centre of his life, that is the person Jesus Christ.”
Dr Neil Yorkston was a blessing to so many people. We thank God for a faithful servant in whom the Lord is pleased, whom He promoted to glory in the Father’s presence.
To the question, “What is home?”, Yorkston once answered: “Heaven is home.” His family find comfort in knowing that he has reached his final, truest home after travelling a long, extraordinary journey. Indeed, there is no place like home.
“No eye has seen, nor ear has heard, and no mind has imagined what God has prepared for those who love him.” 1 Corinthians 2:9
About Rev. Dr. Ed & Janice Hird
Books by Rev. Dr. Ed & Janice Hird include God’s Firestarters; Blue Sky, a novel; and For Better, For Worse: Discovering the keys to a Lasting Relationship. Dr Ed’s newest award-winning book The Elisha Code is co-authored with Rev. David Kitz. Earlier books by Dr. Ed include the award-winning Battle for the Soul of Canada, and Restoring Health: Body, Mind, & Spirit.
Once a year we conduct an “Instructional Eucharist.” We explain all the symbols and traditions of our service. The goal is to help us understand why we do what we do. Everything in our Anglican service has a meaning and purpose.
This Sunday, join us as we walk through the service and learn all the different aspects of our tradition. We’ll also continue on our preaching series in John.
So come, join us as we worship the triune God together. Here’s the announcement:
Church @ Church this Sunday—the 2nd July at 10:00am
In case you missed it, you can find our service for last Sunday (The Feast of Sts. Peter and Paul / Canada) HERE. Rev. Dr. Ed Hird preached on ‘Jesus and the Muddites’ ( John 9: 13-23)
Here is a link to our new Oikos Fundraising Video. You can watch it by clicking HERE. (Please share this video with your friends and family.)
Important Dates for this week:
• Ladies’ Refresh 10:30 am every Tuesday. All ladies and girls welcome.
• Thursday Support Group and bible study: Dinner together at 6:00pm and bible study at 7:00pm Everyone is welcome.
• The British Columbia Christian Ashram in-person/online hybrid retreat will be at TWU on July 7th to 8th 2023 with Dr. John Roddam, Rev. Dr. Rodney Ellis, & Rev Matt Hansen on the theme “On Earth as in Heaven”. See the Rev. Dr. Ed Hird for details.
• Sunday 9th July Special Guest Speaker: Pastor Matt Henson, Executive Director Christian Ashram International.
• All Saints “Project Oikos” Prayer Vigil begins Sunday night 9th July from 7:00pm to 9:00pm every night at the church till Saturday the 15th July. Come pray with us for “Project Oikos.” You’re welcome to join us for the whole time, or for just a few minutes each night. Everyone is welcome.
• Next Community Lunch: Sunday July 16th after the service. Everyone welcome.
If you have any further questions, or need help in any way, don’t hesitate to contact me.
Thank you Church.
Stay vigilant and prayerful.
Love each other deeply and keep Jesus at the very centre of everything you do.
My late father used to sit in the second pew right where Janice is sitting. As an agnostic for many years, he came to faith in part through a birthday present subscription we gave him to the magazine Biblical Archeology. As an engineer, he loved archeology.
Last week Bishop Peter talked about the the blind muddite washing in the Pool of Siloam. Imagine walking while blind for a quarter of a mile from the temple to the Pool of Siloam. That’s faith in action, isn’t it? He showed his obedience by doing what Jesus said. As Nike put it, just do it. As Mother Mary said, whatever Jesus says, do it.
The pool of Siloam by the way had been lost since AD 70, for almost two millennia when the Romans destroyed. In 2004, the pool of Siloam was accidentally uncovered while repairing a broken sewage pipe. Two ancient steps were discovered which when excavated led to the ancient pool of Siloam. Coins embedded in the plaster of the steps showed that the pool was in use during Jesus’ time. Liberal Bible scholars used to teach that this showed that the Bible is just a fairy tale because they couldn’t find the pool of Siloam. I love that as they continue digging in Israel, archeology keeps confirming the accuracy of the Bible.
Today’s gospel about the blind beggar reminds me that I once was blind but now I see. Shortly after finishing my doctorate ten years ago, I was blinded in my right eye with a microscopic macular hole and didn’t even notice, because my left eye autocorrected. It took laser surgery and three days on my face to restore my eyesight. God used surgery and healing prayer to give me my sight back.
You may also know that I lost my voice for 18 months in 1980. My rare condition is called Spasmodic Dysphonia. My GP told me that I would never preach again. After I had throat surgery on May 25th 1982, my voice came back. I supplement this with Botox treatments every four months. It is not perfect, but I have been preaching again for the past 41 years, trusting for even more healing through future medical breakthroughs and prayer.
Our nephew Boyd Dunleavey, a former YWAM missionary, developed leukaemia twelve years ago in 2011. We went and prayed for healing with him in isolation. When we played a video of Janice singing Because He Lives at the Christian Ashram, he had a catharsis with tears. A US serviceman in Japan gave him a bone marrow transplant. He has since run over ten marathons, giving God the glory for healing him through medicine and prayer.
How many of you have heard of Nic Vujicic‘s ministry Life without Limbs? Born without arms or legs in Melbourne Australia, he was led to Christ after reading John 9. He said to Jesus: “If you have a plan for the blind man, you have a plan for me.” Nic has since been used in leading half a million people to Jesus. The largest crowd he has spoken to is 110,000 people in India. He has a vision to preach to all eight billion people on planet earth. Nic tells young people: “You just don’t know what God can do with your broken pieces until you give God your broken pieces. He will give you the strength to get back up.” Nic’s courage shows that each of us as broken vessels, as holy crackpots, can make a difference. You don’t have to wait to be completely whole before God can use you to bring wholeness to others. We are all wounded healers. Can we choose to be grateful while we are waiting for a breakthrough?
Have you noticed that life, family and relationships are often muddy and painfully messy? The healing ministry itself is messy and complicated. Many of us even as Christ followers want simple techniques that guarantee immediate results. Have you noticed that healing through both medicine and prayer often take time? It is easy to get discouraged and lose hope when things take too long and we may face setbacks. Jesus does not want us to give up but rather give over. Surrender of our will is always the way forward. God is willing and able, and we need to daily surrender to his healing will being done, even when it is messy and sometimes painfully slow. Might God be wanting to shift us from ‘woe is me’ to ‘greater is He? Can we give God the glory even as we are trusting for a greater healing that may be taking too long? How passionate are we that the works of God be displayed in us, no matter what it takes? Charles Spurgeon said: “You will never glory in God till first of all God has killed your glorying in yourself.”
The most common reason people go to doctors and emergency wards is pain and suffering. 25% of North Americans experience chronic pain. $635 billion a year is spent in North America in treating pain. Pain raises the ‘why’ question and even causes many to question whether God really loves them.
As Bishop Peter often invites us, can we begin to see God’s goodness even in our suffering? Bishop JC Ryle said in his commentary on John, “losses and crosses are far better for us if they lead us to Christ. There are no lessons so useful as those learned in the school of affliction.”
Part of the messiness of Jesus’ healings is that the Bible records Jesus the Lord of the Sabbath healing seven times on the Sabbath. This doubled the offence, causing some to say that Jesus was a sinner, or worse. Jesus healed on the Sabbath to show as mentioned in Mark 2:27 that the Sabbath was made for humans, not humans for the Sabbath.
Jesus always changed things around in the healing ministry. Healing is not about following a rigid formula. Sometimes Jesus healed with mud, sometimes spit, sometimes laying of hands, sometimes with words, even over long distance.
You can’t put Jesus’ healing ministry into a tight little box. There are no wrong ways to pray when we pray the prayer of faith according to James 5. Jesus never blamed people for not having enough faith, though he did celebrate unusual faith in difficult circumstances.
You can kneel or not kneel, raise your hands or not, cross yourself or not, have laying of hands or not, have anointing oil or not, pray liturgically or spontaneously, pray in tongues or in English. God can use all of these. What matter is the heart attitude of surrender to God’s healing will. As 1 Samuel 16:7 puts it, “humans look at the outside, but God looks at the heart.” I used to pray “if it be thy will” when I prayed for the sick, almost like hedging my bets if nothing happened. God is willing. I now pray according to his healing will, which is sometimes complicated, and messy.
I have found it helpful when praying for healing for others and myself to pray Jacob’s prayer of persistence in Genesis 32:26: “I will not let you go until you bless me.” Sometimes blessings come with a new identity, a new name, and a broken hip. 95% & 5% of us are broken, as Bishop Peter often reminds us. Facing our brokenness and affliction can be both ver scary and very life-giving. Sometimes in hard times, I pray Job’s prayer in Chapter 13:15 “Though you slay me, yet will I bless you.” E. Stanley Jones, who suffered a stroke removing his ability to talk, walk and write, said in his final book the Divine Yes “We can always give thanks, sometimes because of, and sometimes in spite of.
Before Bishop Peter & Jenny went to the Anglican Mission meeting in Florida, they left us some dirt to help with our sermon illustration. Now all we need is some spit. Do we have any volunteers? 😉
Jesus was very earthy and original, perhaps intentionally evoking the creativity in the Garden of Eden where God made bodies and even eyes out of dirt. You can’t get more earthy, more incarnational than mud. Dust we are and to dust we shall return.
How many of you have watched any of the Chosen TV series? You can watch it on YouTube. I love how they portray Jesus healing people with humour, humanity, and compassion. You may remember how the Chosen portrayed Jesus playfully asking the man at the Pool of Bethesda “Do you want to be healed?” Might Jesus be asking you today “Do you want to be healed? Where do you needed to be healed? Might it be physical, emotional, or spiritual? That is why we have prayer teams each Sunday after receiving communion. Many people don’t realize that receiving communion by faith with thanksgiving helps preserve our body and soul. That is why each Sunday at All Saints, we give an altar call to to receive the body and blood that heals, renews and refreshes us.
In Year three, The Chosen portrays Jesus healing a blind woman named Shula. Jesus asks her “Are you afraid to ask for healing?” “Yes”, she answers. Then Jesus asks “Do you have faith that I can heal you?” “Of course”, she says. “Then why haven’t you asked?”, Jesus inquires. She responds, “You have so much to do, Rabbi, so many people who need you more. I’m used to this.” Jesus then says, “You see better than most in this region…” After he lays hands on her eyes, she says with tears, “It’s been so long. I’m afraid to look.” Then she opened her eyes and said, “Yes, it worked. I can’t remember it being so bright. Thank you.”
I want to ask you: Is Jesus still healing today? Yes indeed. Is Jesus the same yesterday, today and tomorrow? Yes. Is Jesus willing and able to heal the sick? Yes. Do we still need to take funerals? Yes. Sometimes death is the ultimate healing, the ultimate homecoming as we enter God’s promised land.
36 million people worldwide are blind and a further 217 million had moderate to severe visual impairment.
There was a tendency in Jesus’ days to falsely blame blind people because the greatest cause of blindness in New Testament times was incurable gonnohrea, often caught by the baby in the birth canal.
Even in 2023, people love to blame others when tragedy or sickness strikes. All of us can easily slip into being Job’s comforters. Why do we do that? It makes us feel safer. If a person has cancer, it is too easy to secretly blame them for not eating right or exercising enough like we do.
Jesus is saying no here to blaming the sick, to the doctrine of karma, and our being cursed for sins of our supposed past lives. What if we stop blaming people and instead focusing on healing and helping people?
There are five separate New Testament accounts of Jesus healing blind people, more than any other kind of sickness that Jesus healed.
Right in Jesus’ Isaiah 61 sermon in Luke 4 is the commissioning to restore sight to the blind. Have you ever thought of Jesus as a heavenly ophthalmologist?
As John Chapter 9 clearly teaches, blindness is more than just physical. It can also be spiritual, emotional, psychological, societal, or political. It is possible to have 20/20 vision and see nothing. Most blindness in Canada is spiritual and emotional. As Hank William sang, “I saw the Light. I saw the Light, No more in darkness, no more in night.”How many of you love John Newton’s song Amazing Grace? “Amazing Grace How sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost but now am found. was blind but now I see.”
There are none so blind as those who refuse to see. We have to admit our blindness in order to see. Jesus paradoxically said that he came into the world so that the blind will see and those who see will become blind. This is obviously metaphorical here as Jesus did not spend time praying for people to lose their physical eyesight. Would anyone here like to come up to the altar to receive prayer in order to physically lose your eyesight?
In a completely darkened room, even those with 20/20 vision are as blind as a bat. That is why Jesus described himself as the Light of the world. No light, no sight. Before my conversion at age 17, I was a blind man in a completely darkened room.
Have you noticed that there are no parables in the Gospel of John? The closest to a parable is the historical story of John 9, which is described as an acted-out parable. John 9 with 41 verses is the longest version of any of Jesus’ many healings. In John 9, the blind man received a double healing of two kinds of blindness, both physically and spiritually. He was just given the ability to see, but also to see Jesus. How many of you remember when you were spiritually blind? What was it like to see the Lord Jesus for the first time?
Dr E Stanley Jones taught that often the best healing is oblique or indirect healing, starting first with our emotions, our anxiety, guilt, and bitterness, and then secondarily result in a physical improvement.
Have you ever been oblivious to how sick or broken you were?
Many us us have logs in our eyes that blind us from being a blessing to others. Who in this church today has no blind spots? It is all too easy to be blind or not self-aware of our own chronic anxiety, and how that affects others, especially those we love. Some of our blindness is false beliefs about our families and how life should work. As they say in AA, denial is not just a River in Egypt. Only the teachable can have their emotional and spiritual blindness removed. Arrogant know-it -all’s are the loneliest blind people on planet earth. Have you ever lied to yourself because facing the truth seemed too painful and overwhelming?
Pastor Steve Cuss from Perth Australia says that there are four ways our relationships get into trouble through areas that we are emotionally blind: 1) Unspoken expectations. 2) Unspoken values. 3) The meaning we make out of what we don’t know. 4) Assumption of motive in the other.
Emotional blindness can kill us. Inuit people in Northern Canada capture wolves by creating popsicles out of a knife covered with frozen animal blood. The wolf will lick the blood popsicle until it cuts its own tongue and doesn’t notice that it is devouring its own blood and killing itself. Our addictions and false beliefs cause us to devour ourselves.
Nice people are sometimes blind to how hard they are on themselves. Many of us have a harsh Romans 8:1 inner critic, that condemns rather than gently convicts. Sometimes that inner critics sounds remarkable like one of our parents that we oils never please, or a former high school acquaintance who loved to put us down as stupid, ugly or weak. Indirect healing often starts when we choose to be as kind and forgiving to ourselves as Jesus is to us. What if you stopped cursing yourself? What if you no longer let your past mistakes and struggles blind you to the amazing future that God is opening up to you?
You may have noticed how the former blind man was blind about who healed him, and his parents were intentionally blind about Jesus in case they would be excommunicated.
Have you observed that meeting Jesus may bring family celebration or sometimes family rejection? The blind man’s parents virtually disowned him out of fear of social consequences. It’s almost like they had an attorney with them, whispering not to say anything. Anything you say may be used against you. How did your family respond when you received Jesus as Lord?
Jesus tells Nicodemus in John 3:3 that unless we are born again, then we can’t even see the Kingdom. We are Kingdom-blind. How many of you can see the Kingdom? Would you like to? Let’s pray.
“They brought to the Pharisees the man who had been blind. Now the day on which Jesus had made the mud and opened the man’s eyes was a Sabbath. Therefore the Pharisees also asked him how he had received his sight. “He put mud on my eyes,” the man replied, “and I washed, and now I see.” Some of the Pharisees said, “This man is not from God, for he does not keep the Sabbath.” But others asked, “How can a sinner perform such signs?” So they were divided. Then they turned again to the blind man, “What have you to say about him? It was your eyes he opened.” The man replied, “He is a prophet.” They still did not believe that he had been blind and had received his sight until they sent for the man’s parents. “Is this your son?” they asked. “Is this the one you say was born blind? How is it that now he can see?” “We know he is our son,” the parents answered, “and we know he was born blind. But how he can see now, or who opened his eyes, we don’t know. Ask him. He is of age; he will speak for himself.” His parents said this because they were afraid of the Jewish leaders, who already had decided that anyone who acknowledged that Jesus was the Messiah would be put out of the synagogue. That was why his parents said, “He is of age; ask him.””
After careful review and significant deliberation, Word Alive Press thrilled to announce the winning manuscripts for our 2023 Braun Book Awards!
2023BBA_Winners 2023 Non-Fiction Winner David Kitz and Dr. Ed Hird, The Elisha Code and the Coming Revival
“We are thrilled to receive this award. The award serves as a validation of the truths found in The Elisha Code and the Coming Revival. Together, let’s discover and walk in those truths for the glory of Jesus.” — David Kitz and Dr. Ed Hird
I am writing this report just before Pentecost Sunday, so when reflecting on the May 5th Christian writers’ conference in Surrey, BC, this scripture readily comes to mind: “When the Day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord in one place” (Acts 2:1, NKJV).
Yes, we gathered in one accord in one place. And yes, in various ways, I believe all the conference participants sensed the Holy Spirit, and the spirit of unity, as we came together for an afternoon and evening of teaching, inspiration, music, drama, art, and sweet fellowship at Peace Portal Alliance Church.
The conference began with a brief land acknowledgement statement that ended with this sentence: “With our First Nations brothers and sisters, we celebrate the manifold gifts of our Creator, land, sea, air, and life in all its rich and varied forms.”
Carolyn Arends has released 14 albums and is the author of 3 critically-acclaimed books.
The evening ended with a keynote address by award-winning songwriter and recording artist Carolyn Arends. Arends sprinkled her presentation with songs that illustrated her love for her Creator and her engagement with the creative writing process. From start to finish, the conference truly was a celebration of the Creator and the creative process across the broad spectrum of the arts.
In the afternoon, a total of eight workshops were on offer in three distinct time sessions. The workshops built on the theme of faith igniting creativity. Each workshops featured some aspect of creativity in the writing, marketing, and platform building process. One of the most intriguing workshops included an “ask me anything” session where attendees were encouraged to build community as they posed writing related questions to experienced authors.
Perhaps the most appreciated feature of the conference was the visual art display in the conference area foyer organized by artist and writer Violet Nesdoly. Writers were encouraged to jot down their musings on the art on offer, then some of these thoughts were read out following the evening banquet. Also, there was a draw for a large painting that was graciously donated for the conference.
The Surrey Christian Writer’s Conference came together as a collaborative effort between The Word Guild and Inscribe Christian Writers’ Fellowship. The event beautifully illustrated this slightly modified rendering of Psalm 133:1. “How good and pleasant it is when God’s people live [and work] together in unity!”
That’s where our Creator LORD bestows His blessing.
Dr E Stanley Jones, the Billy Graham of India and friend of Mahatma Gandhi, sold millions of his 28 books during his lifetime , being the most widely read spiritual writer in the world. My wife Janice P Hird and I are currently writing a book “E. Stanley Jones: Fire in the Fireplace”.
Dr. E. Stanley Jones, The Way, 1946, p.361
“A Chinese scholar recognizes three reasons why Christ attracts the Chinese mind: (1) Because He is the great Synthesizer —brings life into unity (2) Because of his scholarhood, instead of scholarship — the latter is analysis, the other is synthesis (3) Because of the Kingdom of God. Here is a great scholar seeing the great things in the Christian faith. But often the Church announces the big but deals with the little…we must talk and provide the big, the ultimate; and the only ultimate is the Kingdom.”
Dr. Lloyd Mackey has close to half a century of experience in community, faith-based and leadership journalism, including 15 years working out of the Canadian Parliamentary Press Gallery in Ottawa. Books he has authored include These Evangelical Churches of Ours (Wood Lake Books, 1994), Like Father, Like Son: Ernest Manning and Preston Manning (ECW, 1997) More Faithful than We Think: Stories and Insights on Canadian Leaders Doing Politics Christianly (BayRidge Books, 2005) and The Pilgrimage of Stephen Harper/Stephen Harper: The Case for Collaborative Governance (ECW, 2005/2006). He is founding editor/director of the Online Encyclopedia of Canadian Christian Leaders, an outgrowth of his Doctor of Ministry (DMin) studies, completed in 2015 through Tyndale University College and Seminary. In 1984, he earned a Master’s in Business Administration (MBA) at Simon Fraser University. He and his wife, Edna, are trying to practice “active retirement” and an examination of “social architecture” in the emerging Central City urban core in Surrey, BC.
Books by Rev. Dr. Ed & Janice Hird include God’s Firestarters; Blue Sky, a novel; and For Better, For Worse: Discovering the keys to a Lasting Relationship. Dr Ed’s newest award-winning book The Elisha Code is co-authored with Rev. David Kitz. Earlier books by Dr. Ed include the award-winning Battle for the Soul of Canada, and Restoring Health: Body, Mind, & Spirit.
Edhird's Blog 