
Joyce worked in administration and book keeping for years.
Jon worked in the engineering department with NavCanada for most of his career.
Now this youthful 60-something couple from Capilano Christian Assembly in Edmonton, AB has just started volunteering with Disaster Assistance Response Team through Samaritan’s Purse.
With chainsaws and gloves, they helped clear fallen trees on Prince Edward Island after Hurricane Fiona this past fall.
Then they headed to eastern Europe to help with administration and the maintenance of a field hospital in the Ukraine.
For Jon and Joyce, helping people in the midst of a natural disaster and conflict has given new purpose to their retirement years.
Especially in their experience in the Ukraine, they saw God at work in big and little things.
Preparing to go to the Ukraine required a sober look at their willingness to lay down their life, knowing that anything could have happened.
But it also gave them spiritual clarity as to what’s really important.
Seeing the church in action was soul-satisfying in ways they didn’t expect.
In their words, it was a vision of heaven – the church together in unity and labouring for love.
Even as Jon worked in the field hospital so close to the Russian front, the light of the gospel was shining brightly despite the darkness.
We often think that adventure is for the young.
Or that spiritual things are boring.
However, people like Jon and Joyce remind us that God calls us to participate with Him in all sorts of ways, all through our lives.
Life with God is not boring.
What if we imagined the retirement years as another spiritual adventure?
From our March 2023 enewsletter