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As mentioned above, I am a veteran of the Canadian Army. I served as an army medic in a variety of locations including a tour of duty in Afghanistan for six months. Whilst in Afghanistan, I was injured, which eventually led to my medical release from the forces. This injury and subsequent medical release changed my and my family’s life in many ways. I would be amiss to not consider those six months as one of the greatest highlights of my life. God used me in a variety of miraculous ways while I was there as I witnessed Him heal the sick and injured, change the trajectory or outright stop many missiles aimed at us, as well as a revival of sorts with the church I was a part of there which grew from about 75 people to about 2000 by the time that my tour was finished. As I said, it was one of the highlights of my life.

Currently, as a veteran receiving a disability pension, I’ve had plenty of time to focus on my healing and to contemplate what our Lord wishes to do with me next, since my retirement in 2018. This time, although a gift, has not always been easy. Initially, I was very restless with the prospect of early retirement, retirement after all is for old people, and though I may be older than many, I still have a lot of years left in me. Yet I had nothing to do but keep the house up and step up more in the raising of our 6 kids. Granted, taking care of my family is a high calling indeed,  As a result, I now have a renewed respect for the true heroes out there, the mothers who day in and day out continue to fight it out in the trenches to not only keep the house but to raise their kids with a plan and purpose. These warriors that we call Mom truly are heroes and are worthy of great respect. Yet there was no way in which I could ignore the restlessness in my heart, that cry of ” that there must be more. “So with this gift of time I’ve been given, I’ve had a lot more time for prayer. Initially, I didn’t sense the need for deep intercession for the nations or anything else so profound, instead, I found myself spending hours in the healing presence of Jesus. During this time, there was a gradual shift that was happening in regards to my identity. Jesus gently yet persistently challenged my concept of self. Whether intentional or not, I found myself becoming caught up with various veterans’ groups across our globe. The intent for these groups is to be an encouragement to the groups’ members, yet I found the more and deeper I dove into these same groups, the more I began to see myself as a wounded warrior, a victim and one way or another I was allowing myself to take on the identity as a victim to the various bureaucratic policies and that I was at their complete mercy. Yes, there are inadequacies with the various governmental veteran’s associations, but taking on a new identity. well, that’s on me. Yet, as many of our stories go, “but God.” God who of course is patient and compassionate, continued to draw me to Himself. One of the ways He did this was through a week-long prayer retreat held in the Mountains of Montana. During this week, we were encouraged, after some teaching, to go out into the woods alone with God and wait. Waiting can be difficult, yet it is necessary. For it’s in the quietness of our hearts that we can once again discern His whisper into our hearts. During this week, I encountered God in so many unique, powerful and personal ways. He showed me that my identity as a victim is just a façade I was using to cover up the real me. He showed me over and over again that His plan for me is restoration, not the healing as I was praying and expecting. A restoration of walking into the life He designed for me from the beginning,to walk with Him in the cool of the garden. These revelations have been the catalyst since that continues to lead me into a lifestyle of prayer. Not only has this had the obvious benefits of a deeper intimacy with Him, but this was right before Covid 19 struck the globe. As with many, there have and continues to be so many ways that our lives have been forever negatively altered. For me, this was made manifest in my family, more to the point, my two daughters. Before Covid hit, at different times our daughters approached their mother and me with rather distressing news. My oldest told us that she is a pansexual lesbian. Then a few months later, our youngest told us that she is transexual and that she wants us to call her by the male pronoun. Both of these girls once had a vibrant love for Jesus, so I’m sure you can understand how shattering this news was for us as parents. So when Covid hit and the isolation began and the kids were withdrawn from school, so did their focus on the false identity intensified. Social media has many positive aspects, but as any parent can tell you, for every one thing about it that is positive, there are as many as five or more negative aspects. Not to go into further detail, as it’s not necessary within the current context. I do know, that if Jesus had not revealed previously, His identity that He has for us, all while calling me into a deeper place of prayer, I’m not sure I would have made it through 2020.

During the year 2020, He continued to pour His passion and vision into my life. Not so much a vision for what I’ll do with the rest of my life, but that how any ministerial directions that He may take me into, will be as a result of His overflow in my life. These all sound like grand ambitions that would undoubtedly lead any fervent follower of Christ to that place of “I’ve arrived.” The reality is quite the opposite. If there is one thing I continue to learn is that life often has more waves than still waters, and no longer is it a moment by moment utter dependence upon Him. It’s more like a second by second utter desperation for Him as I clearly realize that there is no good thing within me. This revelation in of itself has been hugely instrumental in ushering in His restoration into my own life and the continued healing for my family. As time marched on, I once again began to sense the call of God on me, not only to continue to live a first commandment lifestyle but one that would be infectious for whomever He plans on bringing me to. With this in mind, I knew that I needed to pursue some form of formal education. Albert Einstein was reported to once say, “If you can’t explain it to a six-year-old, you don’t understand it yourself.” As I pondered this, I began to see how unobtainable the gospel was becoming for those of us without a Ph.D. in theology. The pure gospel is far more simple than many of us have made it to be. In Psalm 82:3 TPT tells us to, “Defend the defenceless, the fatherless and the forgotten, the disenfranchised and the destitute.” So, not knowing exactly what God is calling me into, I did know that He wanted me to join some form of formal biblical education. So in January 2021, I began a certificate course in Biblical Ministry with the Forerunner School of Ministry of the International House of Prayer University. I finished this certificate in August and even though I knew I needed to take some time off to rest, this certificate program left me hungry for more, and that’s what brings me here as I seek to make this simple gospel understandable to all.