Ep.382: Suffer.

Ep382. Suffer.

Hello, I’m Daniel Westfall on the channel “Pray With Me”.

I knew a lady with soft tissue damage. Car accident. The doctors didn’t have solutions and the insurance company was unfriendly. She felt stuck and I listened to ask that age-old question, Why does God permit this to happen?

I commented that the church we attended together had a theology of healing, but no theology of suffering. This was a new idea to her: a theology of suffering?

In the book of 1 Peter, two of the most frequent words are submit and suffer. Peter’s encouragement: endure suffering faithfully.

He instructs slaves: Submit, even if your master mistreats you. Better to suffer for doing good than for doing evil (1 Pet 2:18-20). He instructs all Christians: Don’t be surprised when a fiery ordeal tests you (1 Pet 4:12). Why? Because all over the world believers experience suffering (1 Pet 5:9). Perhaps we are next in line.

My preference is not to suffer at all! But Peter explains that Christ suffered for doing good, and so should we (1 Pet 4:13).

Consider three things that cause us to suffer.

1. First, we suffer because other people sin. All of us have father-wounds and mother-wounds from parents who were less than perfect. Entire nations endure suffering caused by power-hungry, violent, and corrupt leaders. By design or accident, by sin or carelessness, we humans cause each other to suffer.

2. The second cause of suffering? Our own sins and misadventures. As Billy Joe Shaver sings,
The devil made me do it the first time,
The second time I done it on my own.
– Billy Joe Shaver, The Devil Made Me Do It

It’s no surprise that we suffer from poor choices. A used car I chose required endless repairs and body work, until finally the engine broke beyond repair on a street in front of a liquor store. Too often I hit “send” on angry emails, putting friendships and relationships at risk. I should learn to choose better.

3. And third, suffering is part of living in a broken world. Families wiped out by a hurricane. Crops lost to insects, war, or drought. Race wars, ethnic cleansing, child soldiers. A recently retired couple planned to travel together, but he got Alzheimers. Now she travels to the dementia unit to see him.

I don’t want to end like that! I exercise and eat healthy to slow down aging. Doctors prescribe painkillers and psychology supplies self-help books. But at best I can only delay the end. I don’t get to choose whether my journey will be easy or painful.

Peter teaches us to endure suffering. Like Christ did. When we cannot eliminate life’s aches and pains, Peter invites us to walk through them with Christ as our companion.

Let’s pray.

O father, Jesus wanted to escape the cross. We want to escape our scrapes and pains.

But wherever we run and wherever we hide, suffering finds us. Give us grace to endure, to take courage because Christ suffered. To take hope because he promises a new world free of pain and tears and decay and death.

Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Where our path leads through fire or flood, as our bodies age and crumble, give us grace to walk with Christ, until at last we meet you face to face.

Amen.

I’m Daniel, on the channel “Pray with Me”.

YouTube channel: Pray with Me – YouTube

Ep.381: Submit.

Hello, I’m Daniel Westfall on the channel “Pray With Me”.

Today, in the book of 1 Peter, we consider the word “submit”. Not a popular word these days, is it?

Peter applies this word four groups of people:
   Slaves, submit to your masters. (1 Pet 2:18)
   Wives, submit to your husbands. (1 Pet 3:1)
   Young people, submit to your elders. (1 Pet 5:5)
   Everyone, submit to the government. (1 Pet 2:13)

Peter may be keen on the word “submit”, but we’re not. I prefer to grow through expressing myself, becoming assertive, living free. Not much room for submission there!

Our western culture values freeing slaves from their masters, and citizens from oppressive governments. But Moses didn’t submit to Pharaoh. He led the Israelite slaves away from the Egyptian government and away from their Egyptian slave masters.

And what about women? Do they have a right to throw off patriarchal oppression, and find their way to a promised land of equality and justice?

Here are three situations where we submit.

1. First, we submit to the laws of nature. Hiking in the mountains this summer, I climbed over fallen logs instead of waking through them. I went round the lake instead of through it. I walked carefully across the avalanche slope instead of jogging. I submitted to the laws of nature in order to gain the high country with its fresh air and amazing views.

2. Second, we obey the laws of relationship. These are more fluid and variable laws than those of nature. Gravity pulls in one direction only, but there is push and pull, give and take in friendships, employment, marriages, and politics. The slopes and scree fields of relationships require thoughtful navigation.

As does my relationship with the government. I could show disapproval by not paying taxes. But that wouldn’t turn out well. Peter’s advice: chill out, submit.

In my working life, as my colleagues and I grew older, we began reporting to younger managers, who were hired or promoted above us. Several colleagues lost their jobs because they knew better than the young upstarts, and they let them know it. Sometimes I knew better too, but I exercised a submissive caution.

God also follows the laws of relationship. He doesn’t usually say, “Submit or else”. He loves me, he draws me into a relationship, working with me to change my point of view.

3. A third form of submission is obedience to the Spirit of God in my life. It’s not always clear when I am hearing God and when I am hearing my own inner voice or preference. But it is important to listen and discern until my way becomes clear.

Let’s pray.

Our father, you seek us because you want relationship.

What return have we made for your great love?
Have we been surly slaves, resenting your authority?
Have we been disobedient children, not trusting your goodness?
Have we been unfaithful spouses, not welcoming your presence in our inmost lives?

Teach us the grace of submission. To keep rules we need to keep. To move beyond the rules to a new heart that makes us friends and partners, in love with you and your family.

Amen.

I’m Daniel, on the channel “Pray with Me”.

YouTube channel: Pray with Me – YouTube

Ep.380: Holy War.

Ep380. Holy War.

Hello, I’m Daniel Westfall on the channel “Pray With Me”.

After discussing how Christians should crave milk like babies and grow up into a spiritual house, Peter presents another metaphor: holy war.

He tells us to abstain from evil desires which wage war against our souls (1 Pet 2:11). What? Is he telling me to take up a sword against myself?

War is ugly. Gaza wrecked by Israeli bombs and missiles. In Ukraine, body bags and dead soldiers. Everywhere, veterans crippled physically and emotionally. Is that how Peter pictures my soul?

I have long been uncomfortable with bloody Old Testament war stories, and for years I resisted metaphors of the Christian life as war. Struggling with depression, fear, and loneliness, I steadfastly refused to interpret my life as a spiritual battle. But I regularly prayed the Apostle Paul’s armor of God for myself–the bulletproof vest, the battle boots and battle belt, war helmet, shield, and sword (Eph 6:10-18).

What’s that, you say? I engaged in spiritual warfare while refusing to believe in it? Indeed I did.

Scripture is full of war stories, from the Battle of Nine Kings in Genesis 14 to the Battle of Armageddon at the end of history. Between these bookends, Jesus said, “I didn’t come to bring peace, but a sword” (Mat 10:34). Paul wrote, “We don’t war against flesh and blood, but against spiritual forces of darkness” (Eph 6:12). And in today’s scripture Peter warns, “Abstain from evil desires that wage war against your soul.”

Peter doesn’t linger long on his war metaphor. He just briefly mentions that two parts of me are at war: my evil desires in conflict with my soul.

Do you think he means that my evil desires of lust, greed, revenge, resentments, obsessions, and fears are tossing grenades at my self-control? And that my self control should shoot them down or toss them back? Like a movie where you count the action in explosions per minute?

Not a pretty picture of my interior life. But realistic, I think.

“Abstain from evil desires that wage war,” Peter says. His metaphor warns that our evil desires are soul-destroying superpowers if we let them loose.

Let’s pray.

Our father, the Old Testament is full of people with evil desires, at war with themselves and each other. The Israelites, the Philistines, Assyria, Egypt, Babylon: violent actors on the stage of history where you are working out the salvation of our world.

The New Testament, written during Rome’s violent domination of the world, tells us about Christ’s torture and death, and uses war metaphors to explain our Christian life.

Teach us to live out our personal war with evil. Teach us to war against evils everywhere. Teach us to wear the full armor of God.

Amen.

I’m Daniel, on the channel “Pray with Me”.

YouTube channel: Pray with Me – YouTube

Ep.379: Baby Bottle.

Hello, I’m Daniel Westfall on the channel “Pray With Me”.

In the second chapter of his letter to some New Testament churches, Peter continues his born-again theme. He says, “Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk so that by it you may grow up in your salvation” (1 Peter 2:2-3).

Then he changes his metaphor from growing up to constructing a building, saying “Like living stones you are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood” (1 Peter 2:4-5).

What do you make of these metaphors?

Are we to think our spiritual life is like an infant on a bottle ? Let me tell you a couple ways you are like a spiritual baby.

1. You’ve never outgrown the physical and emotional needs you were born with–the love of comfort, a desire to be served, a need for human touch and belonging.

2. You still gurgle when you’re happy and you cry and get angry when God seems distant and you feel sad or hungry or lonely.

Peter wants us to grow up in our salvation. He doesn’t criticize us like the author of Hebrews, who says, “What? Still drinking milk like a baby? By now, you should be eating meat like an adult” (Heb 5:12-13).

Instead of pushing us to move from milk to meat, Peter abandons the baby metaphor and tells us we are living stones being built into a spiritual house.

Living stones? Really? The dwarves in Lord of the Rings found living stones deep under the earth, but Peter finds them in the Christian community. In this metaphor, you don’t drink milk to grow. Instead, Christ builds his people into a spiritual house to become a royal priesthood.

Indeed. A mixed metaphor. I understand building stones into a house. But when the house is built it becomes a royal priesthood? Seems odd.

Yet somehow, Peter’s metaphors work. We can see ourselves as babies, drinking milk to grow. We can see ourselves as a construction site where God is building us into a house. And we can see ourselves as worldly people whom God is educating to be priests.

Let’s pray.

O father, sometimes we think we’ve made progress in the Christian life, and sometimes we know we are just babies who need another bottle.

Sometimes we think you’ve done a great job building us into temples of God, making us members of your royal priesthood. And other times we feel like a failed construction project–unfinished, incomplete.

Speak to us, Lord. Be present in our lives. Help us grow up. Help us become adult sons and daughters instead of infants. Build us to be your temple. Train us to be your priests.

Amen.

I’m Daniel, on the channel “Pray with Me”.

YouTube channel: Pray with Me – YouTube

Ep.378: Born Again.

Hello, I’m Daniel Westfall on the channel “Pray With Me”.

I once told a friend that I was a Christian, but that my life didn’t appear to be born again. My Christian life looked much like my old life. Same lifestyle, same temptations, same problems.

I said to my friend, “I’ve been thinking about Jesus’ born-again offer. I’m strongly attracted by the possibility of a new beginning, a fresh start on my religious life, a new source of motivation and empowerment. That would be amazing!”

And then I said, “‘I’ve been praying to Jesus for a whole year that I would be born again.”

“That’s not how it works,” my friend said. “Born again is a one-time experience when you become a Christian. You were spiritually dead, then God raised your dead spirit to life. That made you born again. It happened or it didn’t. It’s a one-time event, not something you can get again.”

There was no way to resolve our different views. My spiritual life obviously needed a renovation. My friend was sure my spiritual plumbing and framing could only be installed once. All you need, Daniel, is spiritual discipline to make your Christian life work.

But I was deeply drawn to Jesus’ promise, and I didn’t want to relegate his words to some past experience that I already had. I felt Jesus was offering me something new. Maybe a fresh start in my middle-aged Christian life. Maybe another opportunity to be born again.

Let’s take a quick look at born again in the Bible. It’s a term used by only two authors: John, the gospel-writer, and Peter, the fisherman and rock of the church.

John tells how Nicodemus the Pharisee sneaked away from his Jesus-hating colleagues for a midnight chat with Jesus. Jesus said, “You need to be born again. Not born from your mother, but by the spirit of God.” Nicodemus went away confused. Like me. Jesus’ words offered him something new and different and attractive. He wasn’t sure what it was and how it worked. Or what it meant to him.

Jesus’ words attract me too. Perhaps instead of living a mediocre Christian life on endless loop, Jesus wants to give me something richer, deeper, life-changing.

Another scripture author, Peter, says, “You were born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable” (1 Pet 1:22). He continues, “Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk” (1 Pet 2:2).

Reading Peter, I once again offer my life to Jesus and ask him to do something new. To change my motivations. To shift my inner life. To feed me like a baby on pure spiritual milk. To help me grow up.

Let’s pray.

Our father,

Every few years my approach to Christianity dries up, and my relationship with you dries up, and I need something new.

Renew in me the power and wonder of being born again. Renew your spirit in me. Renew my experience of walking with Jesus.

Help me to live the life of one who is born again.

Amen.

I’m Daniel, on the channel “Pray with Me”.

YouTube channel: Pray with Me – YouTube

Ep.377: Strangers and Lovers.

Hello, I’m Daniel Westfall on the channel “Pray With Me”.

When Jesus chose Peter, he named him the “Rock”, but the rock shifted like sand when Peter denied Christ. So Jesus chose him again, rehabilitated him, and gave him a mission.

In his letter to the churches, Peter the Rock calls Christians “God’s chosen ones, strangers in the world” (1 Pet 1:1).

Chosen ones? Strangers? Like Mark Twain’s “The Prince and the Pauper”, where a poor boy with an abusive, alcoholic father becomes a prince, and the born prince becomes a poor boy. The story tells how the poor boy learns strange palace customs, and the prince learns the strangeness of poverty and abuse.

We are Christians and we are strangers in a strange world. We are poor people on earth, but princes in Christ’s hidden kingdom. Gentleman’s Quarterly and Vogue no longer measure our beauty. The Economist is not our Bible on wealth, liberal politics and world order. Constitutions and charters of rights don’t qualify as our statements of belief.

In private, we study the language of heaven, listening for the voice of Jesus. But in public we are ordinary citizens of Planet Earth, hardly different from everyone else.

Peter encourages us strangers with the lesson Christ taught him: to part ways with the man he was, to move beyond the fisherman who toiled and the disciple who denied. To focus instead on the man he could become, a rock in Christ’s church, a shepherd of God’s sheep, a day care attendant for God’s lambs. Peter was chosen and called. We are chosen and called.

Parting ways with his old self was an important bridge Peter crossed. When Jesus left the earth, Peter lost the life he loved: walking and talking and eating with Jesus, washing dusty feet, and strolling by the seashore. He moved into a new relationship, experiencing a Christ he could not see, talking to a Jesus who was not physically present.

I recently visited my mother’s grave. I stood there, looking at her tombstone, just . . . just remembering her. I talked to her, but she didn’t respond. Standing there, I talked to Jesus too, another invisible presence.

Peter says, “Though you have not seen Christ, you love him. And though you do not see him now, you believe in him, and are filled with joy inexpressible and full of glory” (1 Pet 1:8). Peter invites us to join him on the journey he began after Christ disappeared into heaven. An invitation to walk with a Christ we cannot see, to talk to a Christ who is mostly silent, to listen for his quiet interior voice.

This is the Christ who makes us strangers and aliens in our world. He gives us an edge of discomfort as we participate in our day-to-day buying and selling, voting and promoting, leading and following.

We ask, how, in the midst of our daily routines, can we grow in love and faith for the Christ who chooses us and calls us strangers in the world?

Let’s pray.

O father, though we have not seen Christ, we love him. And though we do not see him now, we believe in him.

We are Christians, not because of stronger arguments, nor greater vision, but because Christ has touched our hearts with faith and love.

Grant us Peter’s experience, to look for the salvation Christ promises, to rejoice in our trials, to be steadfast in faith. to be strangers in the world.

Amen.

I’m Daniel, on the channel “Pray with Me”.

YouTube channel: Pray with Me – YouTube

Ep.376: Job Hunting.

Hello, I’m Daniel Westfall on the channel “Pray With Me”.

In the last four episodes, I told about hosting an immigrant family of three. Denied boarding in Amsterdam, they purchased expensive last-minute tickets to Canada, where I hosted them in an Edmonton Airbnb until they rented an apartment.

Next assignment: find a job. Unfortunately, the father’s dental technician and dental surgery qualifications are no good in Canada. How about a warehouse job?

His resume, created on an internet website, looked impressive. But it was written in corporate-speak nonsense like, “I liaised with cross-functional teams to facilitate smooth operations and achieve common goals.”

Oh, yes! Exactly what a warehouse supervisor needs–someone to liaise with his cross-functional teams.Or maybe he just wants someone who’s quick with a pallet jack and handy with a broom!

After replacing the corporate-speak with plain English, we looked at internet job sites–Indeed.com, the Canada Job Bank, and ALIS Alberta. We tried job searches on Google and job searches at companies with warehouses.

Uline sent our only response: a computer-generated corporate-speak email telling us we didn’t meet their standards. Perhaps we should have left the corporate-speak in the resume.

Two more days of silence. I checked the resume. Duh! I’d entered the wrong telephone number

We corrected my error and sent out corrected applications. Followed by two more weeks of silence.

My newcomer friend was concerned. He said,”I can’t afford to spend eight months job hunting like my friend in Calgary did!”

I sat in my car with him in a Walmart parking lot, listening while he processed his thinking about Canada. He said, “I thought Canada had many opportunities with decent pay.”

I sympathized. “Yes. Canada can be difficult if you’re poor. Lots of people have two or more minimum wage jobs because they can’t find something better.”

We went into Walmart. “Look at the shoppers’ faces,” I said. “I see age and tiredness and sadness. What do you see?”

“I see pain,” he said.

I agreed. “I think many of these are Canadians who live near the minimum wage. Life is not easy for them.”

We continued job hunting. Every day, search the internet. Every day, wait for that phone call or email.

Then one Friday he had a phone interview with a logistics company. It went well. “Can you start Monday?” they asked?

Thirty-two hours a week and no benefits, but starting pay is above minimum wage. Since he doesn’t have a car, the company offered him a transit accessible day shift.

Job hunt complete. Mission accomplished.

Let’s pray.

Our father, we pray for those with part time work who need more hours.
  We pray for those with no work and no one to hire them.
  For those with too much work, and too little time to do it.
For those with menial work who want something more fulfilling.
For those marginalized and demeaned at work who long for respect and justice.
For those failing at work, attempting tasks beyond their skill.
  For those with good jobs and reasonable pay, who give you thanks.

Help us to be wise employers and wise workers.

And above all, whatever we do, may we do it with all our heart. For it it is you, the Lord Christ, whom we serve (Col 3:23-24).

Amen.

I’m Daniel, on the channel “Pray with Me”.

YouTube channel: Pray with Me – YouTube

Ep.375: A Place to Call Home.

Hello, I’m Daniel Westfall on the channel “Pray With Me”.

In the last three episodes, I told about hosting an immigrant family. They were denied boarding at the Amsterdam airport, but purchased expensive new tickets before their visas expired. I hosted them in an Edmonton Airbnb, and helped them get social insurance numbers, ID’s, and health cards.

Next step: find a budget one-bedroom apartment for a family of three.

The first two apartments we viewed were brand new basement suites in the university area, reasonably priced at less than $1000/month. Small but suitable, the family said, so we filled in application forms and waited for news.

Our applications were rejected. I said to the father, “I think what the landlord wants are quiet graduate students who practically live at the university. They don’t want a busy family of three crowded into their suite.” Hmmm.

We expanded our search, looking next at a basement near Concordia University. It had a nicely finished kitchen, a less-finished living room, and a bedroom under the stairs with a clothesline for a closet.

The landlord told us she didn’t take students because she didn’t want parties on her premises. But a quiet family of three might work! And she would share her internet and Netflix at no cost. The next day, when we texted to see the place again, she said, “I’m sorry. But I’ve decided the suite is not suitable for a family of three. Good luck.”

Darn. We should have taken it when we saw it.

The next day we drove 40 kilometers across the city and queued up in the drizzling rain behind other renters to see another option..

When our turn came, we saw a lovely, renovated basement suite–open, airy, light. Perfect. But the reasonable $1100/month rent became unaffordable when they told us to expect an additional $350/month for utilities.

Onward to the next viewing. An older apartment building near downtown–good location, close to transit and shopping. The apartment manager took us down a long dirty-looking, pungent-smelling hallway. What did the renters do in these hallways?

The apartment was not well maintained, but ok. The overall effect was, No thank you.

Welcome to apartment hunting in Edmonton.

Next day we tried Boardwalk, a big rental corporation with highrises across Canada.

We sorted their listings by lowest price, which led us to a 1960’s apartment tower downtown . When we arrived for the viewing, a homeless person was prospecting in the garbage bin behind the apartment. The community mailbox in the front lobby had crowbar marks. Someone probably forgot their mailbox key. The window to the manager’s office was a fresh sheet of plywood.

The apartment for rent was old, but in good repair. Boardwalk offered immigrants a deal: half-price damage deposit, and advance payment of just one month’s rent instead of the usual two.

The manager told us that one of yesterday’s viewers promised to bring a deposit tomorrow. And she had more viewings later today. The apartment would go quickly.

We had seen and heard enough. We sat in her office under her plywood window and paid the deposit. Mission accomplished. Apartment found.

Let’s pray.

Our father, Jesus said, “Don’t worry about what you will eat or drink or wear. Seek God’s kingdom and he will look out for you” (Mat 6:31, 33). But you don’t supply our needs by magic. So we hunt for shelter and buy clothes and go to the food bank when we’re hungry.

We depend on you, and we depend on our society. On builders to build housing and landlords to rent it; on farmers to grow food and corporations to sell it.

O Lord, help us to give to you what belongs to you–our love and worship and honor. And help us find money for rent and food and taxes in this good world you have made for us.

Amen.

I’m Daniel, on the channel “Pray with Me”.

YouTube channel: Pray with Me – YouTube

Ep.374: What’s in a Name?

Hello, I’m Daniel Westfall on the channel “Pray With Me”.

In the last two episodes, I started telling my story about hosting an immigrant family. I met them at the Calgary airport, drove them 250 kilometers to Edmonton, and installed them in an Airbnb.

The next day we started our errands. First up: get a social insurance number. Not to be. Service Canada was closed for a long weekend. Check the to-do list. What’s next? Ah, yes. Bank account, then Alberta Health card and then, Alberta ID.

Here’s how our day went.

The father’s country-of-origin passport put all five of his names into one field. When this was copied onto the Canadian visa, they gave him no first name, no middle name, and a huge five-part surname. It was kind of funny, but we thought it might be a problem. What to do on forms that require legal first name and legal last name?

So the father made a simple request: “Please separate out my first, middle, and last names.” Seemed reasonable to us, but the Alberta ID agent said, “Can’t be done. I have to enter the name exactly as it appears on the visa. If you want your Alberta ID to show first and last names, Service Canada can change it on your social insurance number.

After the weekend, we arrive early at the Service Canada office to beat the lineup. Dream on! It’s eight o’clock opening time and the lineup already snakes around the cattle guards and slithers out into the mall. “Two hours,” said a Service Canada agent.

Two hours later, we’re at the front of the line, where they take our information . . . and send us to a holding area where we sit for two more hours.

Now, it’s noon and we’re in a cubicle to get a social insurance number. The father presents his request: “Please separate my first, middle, and last names!”

“Not possible,” said the agent. “I have to enter the name exactly as it appears on the visa. Only the immigration people at the airport can change it.”

So we drive 25 kilometers to the airport, only to find the immigration people behind locked doors. What? They only deal with incoming flights, not with local customers like us. So we find the border security people and ask them to help. “No can do,” they say. “Nobody at the airport can change your visa. You have to go to Immigration Canada.”

So we set out driving 30 kilometers to downtown Edmonton. As we drive, we try three times to phone Immigration Canada. And three times their telephone system takes us through six mind-numbing minutes of voice messages, menu options, and notifications for this and that. Finally, finally, when we get to the option we need, the recorded message says, “Thank you for calling Immigration Canada. Our telephone queue is full. We hope you find it convenient to phone us back at another time.” Click. Ahrrr!

We arrive at Canada Place in downtown Edmonton, and look for the immigration office, expecting a long queue. But there’s no sign of an immigration office and no queue. We ask the information desk, “Where is the Immigration Canada?”

“In this building,” they reply. “But since COVID, they don’t take walk-in clients. Everything’s by phone or internet.”

Really? The internet doesn’t have the option we need. And all the phone system can do is spout menus and messages and go “Click.”

So we go back to Service Canada where we started. We take the only option they’ll give. A social insurance number with no first name, no middle name, and a large five-part surname.

Errand complete. But was it a success? Tune in next time for more of the story!

Let’s pray.

Our father, what is in a name? Your names are father and king and judge. And you said to Moses, “Don’t ask my name. I am who I am” (Exo 3:14).

Paul said, “I bow before the father, from whom every family on heaven and earth derives its name” (Eph 3:14-15).

O father, we are your children. Remember our first names, and call us by your surname.

Amen.

I’m Daniel, on the channel “Pray with Me”.

YouTube channel: Pray with Me – YouTube

Ep.373: Stuck at the Airport.

Hello, I’m Daniel Westfall on the channel “Pray With Me”.

In our last episode, I talked about hosting an immigrant family. Father, mother, and three-year-old daughter left Ukraine in 2022, spent last year in Europe, and now had air tickets, visas, and work permits for Canada. I rented an Airbnb for their first week in Edmonton, and planned the newcomer errands– bank accounts, social insurance numbers, health care cards, drivers’ licenses, etc.

Six days before their visa expired, they showed up at the Amsterdam airport with suitcases, passports, and plane tickets. But KLM denied them boarding. So much for my Monday job in Edmonton as a welcome-to-Canada host. Instead, I was now chief problem solver in a crisis.

I asked church friends to help; we contacted SuperSaver, the website where the newcomers had purchased their tickets. We called Westjet, the ticket supplier. We asked KLM: “Why did you deny them boarding?” A friend wrote a synopsis and sent it to CBC, hoping negative media coverage would embarrass one of the airlines into helping.

We spent three desperate days calling and emailing and discussing, trying to reason or even guilt trip one of the parties to help.
Monday. No progress.
Tuesday. More frustration. I canceled the Edmonton Airbnb.
Wednesday. Still stymied. Ahrrrrrrr!
Nothing was working.

KLM blamed UK immigration. They said that the UK wouldn’t let the family transit through Heathrow. Their solution? The family should have bought a KLM flight direct to Canada instead of a Westjet ticket through SuperSaver.

Thank you, KLM!

Westjet passed the buck too. “They bought the tickets on the SuperSaver website? Then we have to deal with SuperSaver, not the travelers! Tell SuperSaver to phone our agent hotline.”

Thank you, Westjet!

At SuperSaver we talked to super friendly customer care associates. They put the problem into the queue for their super efficient problem solving team to call Westjet and help us out. And the result? Nothing. Nada. Our request was sucked into a SuperSaver black hole, where it’s probably still spinning round and round.

Thank you, SuperSaver!

By Thursday, with only three days left on the family’s visas, we knew we needed a different solution. Last-minute flights to Canada? Wow! Now priced at $3,500 each one way! That’s more than $10,000.

What to do? Should I try fundraising? Should I try finding a sponsor with money? We were scrambling!

Then, an email from the newcomer father. A relative agreed, unhappily, to loan airfare for his wife and daughter. The father used most of the family savings for his own ticket. This time, no more SuperSaver. No more Westjet. Just expensive, last-minute direct flights to Canada.

The new schedule had them arriving in Canada the next day, Friday, in Calgary, 250 km from my home.

I quickly rented a new Airbnb in Edmonton. On Friday as I drove to Calgary, a friend stocked the Airbnb with food and flowers and welcome gifts.

My hosting duties were about to begin. Tune into the next episode for news of the family’s arrival.

Let’s pray.

O father, Canada is a short plane ride from Europe . . . except when immigration officers deny transit, and airlines and internet travel sites won’t help.

Only a privileged few can flee war, climate change, and hate in their home country to start a new life in a safe country. Millions remain at home, living in war, hunger, and danger.

We remember Gaza and Ukraine and Haiti and Sudan and Lebanon. People in war zones and refugee camps. Politicians unable or unwilling to care. Diplomacy conducted with AK47’s and laser-guided bombs.

O father, may our country be a refuge for many. Bring your peace and your kingdom to our war-torn earth.

Amen.

I’m Daniel, on the channel “Pray with Me”.

YouTube channel: Pray with Me – YouTube