Preparing for the Day of Pentecost May 19th

Dear friends in Christ,

You are invited to check out our latest Pentecost newsletter: “The Power to Serve”. Just click on Pentecost 2013 Newsletter

In Christ,

Ed Hird+

2012 in review

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2012 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

About 55,000 tourists visit Liechtenstein every year. This blog was viewed about 190,000 times in 2012. If it were Liechtenstein, it would take about 3 years for that many people to see it. Your blog had more visits than a small country in Europe!

Click here to see the complete report.

Breaking the 500,000 barrier

I found it ironic that the 500,000 barrier was broken on Christmas Day.  Thank you for the 500,000 viewers over the past three years.

Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby: man of steel?

By Rev Ed Hird

The excitement about +Justin Welby’s appointment has been remarkable.  Biblical Anglicans around the world have welcomed his appointment with open arms.  Perhaps the fact that Bishop Welby has visited Africa sixty times has helped endear the Global South Anglicans who have often felt left out in the cold.  It has been said that in the Anglican world, the Africans pray, the Americans pay and the British set the rules.  Because of the enormous financial clout of the American Episcopalians, they have openly flaunted the global Anglican standards on biblical marriage.  Will Welby have what it takes to bring the errant Episcopalians back into biblical Anglicanism?

John McManus writing for BBC News said, “Justin Welby’s appearance was characterized by one very important quality – his steeliness.”  It will take a man of steel to bring  North American  Anglicans to biblical transformation.  Welby has the reputation of being a consummate negotiator, who deeply listens while holding clear principles.  Charles Moore of The Telegraph says that Justin Welby can provide the tough love that has been so sadly lacking.

Perhaps Welby’s time as an oil industry executive will prove useful in his bringing order out of the Anglican moral chaos.  Perhaps Welby’s involvement in Holy Trinity Brompton with its world-famous Alpha Course will help him birth an Anglican Church that is both vibrant and faithful.  Anglican leaders that I trust are telling me that we need to give Welby the benefit of the doubt.  My prayer is that Archbishop (designate) Justin Welby will prove to be a spiritual man of steel who can give new hope to the Anglican Communion.

Rev Ed Hird, Rector

St. Simon’s Church North Vancouver

Anglican Mission in the Americas (Canada)

http://stsimonschurch.ca

-an article for the Light Magazine

-award-winning author of the book ‘Battle for the Soul of Canada’

http://www.battleforthesoulofcanada.blogspot.com

p.s. In order to obtain a copy of the book ‘Battle for the Soul of Canada’, please send a $18.50 cheque to ‘Ed Hird’, #1008-555 West 28th Street, North Vancouver, BC V7N 2J7. For mailing the book to the USA, please send $20.00 USD.  This can also be done by PAYPAL using the e-mail ed_hird@telus.net . Be sure to list your mailing address. The Battle for the Soul of Canada e-book can be obtained for $9.99 CDN/USD.

-Click to download a complimentary PDF copy of the Battle for the Soul study guide :  Seeking God’s Solution for a Spirit-Filled Canada

You can also download the complimentary Leader’s Guide PDF: Battle for the Soul Leaders Guide

BJ McHugh: Mother’s Day Marathoner

By Rev. Ed Hird

While working out at a local weight room, I had the privilege of getting to know Betty Jean McHugh, the world’s fastest 83-year old long-distance runner.  Interviewed on TV and newspaper, she has been called the flying granny.  Jack Taunton, Chief Medical Officer for the Vancouver Winter Olympics, called her one of the most remarkable senior runners we have seen.  Betty Jean is so positive and energetic that she inspires the rest of us to not give up on our health goals.  Recently I met her at the Parkgate Village right next to the Bean Around the World coffee shop.  She told me of her tri-generational plans to run in the December 2012 Hawaiian Marathon, along with her son Brent and her grandchild.

After reading her new book My Road to Rome, I knew that I needed to celebrate BJ’s achievements as a Mother’s Day marathoner.  One of her great lifetime highlights which she talked about extensively throughout her book was an all-expense-paid trip to run in the Rome 2009 Marathon.  There are now five million North American women running, compared to less than one million in the 1980s.  Women, many of whom are mothers, now outnumber men at running events.  BJ has run in 14 marathons and over 300 road races.  Running four times a week at 5:45am, BJ has broken a dozen Canadian and world records.  She started running at age 55, a time when many others were hanging up their running shoes.  While BJ has been injured many times over the years, she never gave up, saying that she ‘was not going to accept the ravages of time without a fight.’  Running has become for her as much part of her life as ‘brushing her teeth’.

BJ’s determination is an inspiration to watch. She not only runs and works out at the gym, but also has been an avid North Shore skier since the early 1950s.  BJ even climbs the Grouse Grind with her grandchild.  Such athletic involvement helped condition her to become a leading octogenarian runner.  She acknowledges that there are thousands of times when she felt like not bothering. “Excuses are easy; commitment is hard”, says BJ.  But she just keeps putting one foot in front of the other and goes for it regardless.  Every marathon, says BJ, is a journey into the unknown.  You train and train and train again, and think that you are ready. But you never really know how your body is going to fare over 42 kilometres of running.

One thing that keeps her going are her running partners to whom she is committed. “How can I sleep through an early-morning downpour”, says BJ, “when I know that my friends will be waiting for me at our meeting place in ten minutes?”  Running, says BJ, has given her friendships that are powerful and lasting.  Through her running with her partners, they experience ‘the elation of reaching the top of a hill, the pain when (they) increase the distance on a training run, the slogging through rain and dancing through a sunlit forest.’

In BJ’s book, she talks about being raised in the poverty of the Great Depression in Stanwood Ontario.  The local church was the centre of the community.  BJ comments that ‘as a child she liked everything about church but the Sunday service…The minister droned on about subjects I never understood, and I had to sit in the pew with my hands folded politely.’

Once while running in a Vancouver marathon, she became more and more concerned about finishing well: ‘I feared hitting the dreaded ‘wall’, that point at which the body has used up all its reserves.’  Finishing well is a challenge for all of us, whether in a marathon, in our business, or in our family.  It  is about ultimately facing the question: will my life have made a difference?  BJ is an example of someone who is finishing well, whose life is making a difference.  She has chosen to give her best into what she believes in and is passionate about.  BJ is leaving a legacy that other younger people will be able to tap into.

One of my mentors, Paul, said that he fought the good fight, he finished the race, he kept the faith (2 Timothy 4:7). Even though Paul was tragically killed, he finished well.  Paul also recognized that physical exercise was of real value, but he pointed us to the even greater significance of spiritual exercise (1 Timothy 4:8).  Part of finishing well is a commitment to being healthy in body, mind and spirit.  If we neglect any of those three, we are the poorer for it.  Life is a marathon. Life is about discipline.  Life is about finishing well.  My Mother’s Day prayer for those reading this article is that BJ McHugh’s example will inspire all of us to discipline ourselves in body, mind and spirit so that we may truly finish well.

 

Rev. Ed Hird, Rector

St. Simon’s Church North Vancouver

Anglican Mission in the Americas (Canada)

http://stsimonschurch.ca

-an article for the May 2012 Deep Cove Crier

-award-winning author of the book ‘Battle for the Soul of Canada’

http://www.battleforthesoulofcanada.blogspot.com

p.s. In order to obtain a copy of the book ‘Battle for the Soul of Canada’, please send a $18.50 cheque to ‘Ed Hird’, #1008-555 West 28th Street, North Vancouver, BC V7N 2J7. For mailing the book to the USA, please send $20.00 USD.  This can also be done by PAYPAL using the e-mailed_hird@telus.net . Be sure to list your mailing address. The Battle for the Soul of Canada e-book can be obtained for $9.99 CDN/USD.

-Click to download a complimentary PDF copy of the Battle for the Soul study guide :  Seeking God’s Solution for a Spirit-Filled Canada

You can also download the complimentary Leader’s Guide PDF: Battle for the Soul Leaders Guide

Join us in Bishop Silas Ng’s Prayer Campaign

Dear friends in Christ,

 

Please sign up for an hour of Bishop Silas Ng ‘s Prayer campaign. Prayer is the engine room of God’s family.  Just click on http://bit.ly/zKqYcT

 

Thanks for your support.

 

 

Blessings,

 

Ed Hird+

http://edhird.wordpress.com

Bishop Silas Ng leading a devotional prayer workshop at the 25th Annual Renewal Mission.

Breaking the 300,000 visitor barrier

Thanks for all your support in 2011 through visiting my blog. As of today, 300,000 of you have dropped in to read some of the 385 online articles.   Five days ago, almost 1200 people paid the blog a visit, the most in the past two+ years that the blog has existed.

 

I encourage you to tell your friends about this blog.

Blessings, Ed Hird+

http://edhird.wordpress.com

Check out our Advent/Christmas Newsletter

Dear friends in Christ,

 

With Advent beginning tomorrow, you are invited to enjoy our Advent/Christmas newsletter. Just click on:

StS News Christmas 2011

 

Blessings in the expectant hope,

 

Ed Hird+

http://stsimonschurch.ca

Over 1,100 visitors yesterday

		Views
Motherhood and Apple Pie		351
Home page		345
Florence Nightingale: Mother of Nursing		145
Alexander Graham Bell: Inventing the future		36
Sir Alexander Fleming: Countless Millions Saved		28
Dr. James Naismith: Father of Basketball		25
My Fair Lady		16
Thomas Edison: Let There Be Light….		15
Simon Fraser: Canada’s most successful failure		13
The Passion of Louis Riel		9
Other posts		134
Total views of posts on your blog		1,117

 

Yesterday was the most traffic on my blog since I started in just over two years. For the first time, over 1,100 people dialed in to read the 383 postings.  Most of these postings are newspaper articles that I have written over the past twenty-five years for the Deep Cove Crier and the North Shore News. During this past month of October, my blog had for the first time over 25,000 visitors. The first month of the blog in August 2009, I had just over 1,000 visitors. So there has been a 25-fold increase in internet traffic to the site.  Thank you so much for your continued interest and support.

 

Also, as of yesterday, the blog has now had 275,000+ visitors.  Here are the favorite articles viewed for the past 30 days.  You can read any of them right now by just clicking on the name of a particular article. Your feedback is most welcome.  Without readers, writing is not quite the same:

Home page		8,073
Motherhood and Apple Pie		5,974
Florence Nightingale: Mother of Nursing		3,602
Alexander Graham Bell: Inventing the future		773
Thomas Edison: Let There Be Light….		597
My Fair Lady		503
Sir Alexander Fleming: Countless Millions Saved		430
Simon Fraser: Canada’s most successful failure		393
Queen Victoria and Sir James Simpson		370
Dr. James Naismith: Father of Basketball		359

St Simon’s NV 25th Annual Stewardship Newsletter

 

 

Feel free to check out our St. Simon’s NV 25th Annual Stewardship Newsletter. It has a lot of great updates from our missionaries around the world.  Just click on: StS News November 2011