Canada, with its many immigrants is like a beautiful patchwork quilt. People from various countries have settled on our rich farmlands or in thriving towns and cities, proudly calling this home. This kaleidoscope of sights, sounds, tastes and customs gives our country a rich folkloric vista. Each ethnic group is like a quilt piece, adding its own unique colour or texture, and is stitched together with common respect, creating a spectacular whole.

I got a glimpse of this recently, when we celebrated ‘Sharing Our World’ in Portage La Prair....

Behold, how good and pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity (Psalm 133). On Hutterite colonies the overarching aim, beyond earning an honest living, is to create an atmosphere that is conducive to a Christian life as King David mentioned above.

There are approximately 31,000 Hutterites in Canada, living on 340 colonies. Each colony has approximately 18 families working together to farm an average of 8,800 acres, or about 490 acres per family. A five hundred acre family farm would not be sustainable with today’s hig....

The simplest answer to this question is also the best one. To pay for our sins.

But, why do our sins need to be paid for? Do they carry such far-reaching consequences?

In society there are laws. There have to be, to protect the innocent and to ensure that everything runs smoothly, orderly, and efficiently. And if those laws are broken then there are consequences and a price has to be paid. Sometimes monetarily, sometimes with community work, sometimes with jail time and sometimes with life itself -- as in the death penalty.

In God's fa....

After sewing for more than two months last winter, it was extremely gratifying to see a stack of 250 simple, yet beautifully pieced lap quilts, which the Alzheimer Society distributed to local senior’s homes. Just recently we received thank you notes from Lion’s Prairie Manor and The Douglas Campbell Lodge, both in Portage and Third Crossing Manor in Gladstone, expressing their heartfelt gratitude: “Thank you for participating in this project. You have enhanced the quality of life and brought sm....

While reading the tragic, blood-curdling accounts of Canada’s Residential Schools, I was struck once again by how torturous it must have been for parents during that period -- where a dreadful decision by powerful government and church leaders forcibly separated children from families, effectively destroying a people’s future, in the name of assimilating them into an enemy culture.

My mind wandered to Europe and some dismal chapters of my own Hutterite history involving a similar decision, but with a drastically different outcome. What i....