If you haven’t had a chance to check out the course line up at Briercrest Seminary for this fall, I encourage you to do so here.

But here are just a few highlights that I would commend to you. These are courses that come up a bit less regularly, so if you have any inkling that it might be something that might apply to you, I encourage you to register as soon as possible.

• LE845 Governance and Board Development (Oct 26-30) with Dr. Paul Magnus.
• YF819 Career Youth Ministry (Oct 26-30) with Mr. Ron Friesen.
• BT835 Romans (Nov 2-6) with Dr. Marty Culy.
• CM701 Pastoral Theology and Practice (Nov 23-27) with Pastor Darrell Winger.
• BT714 Psalms: The Poetry of Prayer (Dec 7-11) with Dr. Eric Ortlund.

If you have questions, email me (dguretzki AT briercrest.ca)!

DG

We received word that Cor Hartenberg, beloved former Briercrest Seminary registrar, has gone to be with the Lord.  He passed away late afternoon on May 25, 2009.  Cor was 62 years old. We here at Briercrest have missed Cor & Mieke deeply in the past two years, but we know that Cor is now in Christ’s presence. A memorial service will be held in Listowel, Ontario on Friday May 29, 2009.

We do ask that you pray for Cor’s wife, Mieke, as she mourns the loss of her husband. Pray also for Richard, Joyce, and Marc, and their families, as they also mourn the loss their father and grandfather.

If you wish to send a note of tribute or condolences to Mieke, you can do this by sending David Guretzki an email at dguretzki@briercrest.ca. The notes and tributes received will be printed out, compiled and presented to Mieke. Tributes and notes of condolence must be sent no latter than 3:00 pm (CST) on Wednesday May 27. 

If you wish to send a card directly to Mieke, please contact me privately and I will be able to provide a mailing address for you.

Thanks for your prayers.

David Guretzki

dguretzki@briercrest.ca

I just got off the phone with Mieke Hartenberg. Cor’s condition continues to degenerate. It is at the point where he is barely conscious of his surroundings. When he is conscious, is feeling quite suspicious of anyone getting close because of how much pain he is in. Someone just touching him is very painful. A nurse comes in once a day to help with washing, etc. and the doctor was in today and told Mieke that Cor may need to be moved very soon to the hospital because his condition is at the point where constant care will be needed. At this point, they are just trying to make him as comfortable as possible.

I asked Mieke specifically what we should pray about. She said, “That God would take Cor home quickly.” So please do pray together with her for this.

I also talked to Marc, who happened to be there. If you are wanting to send a note to Cor and Mieke, he suggests that the best way to do this is through sending comments to Cor’s Facebook group. If you are on Facebook, you can find the group here.

If you aren’t on Facebook, but you still want to send an email, you can send an email to Marc’s email address and he will make sure Cor and Mieke get it. Marc’s email is: hartenberg4@yahoo.com

You should know that Cor’s old email addresses are no longer functional, so if you have one of those email addresses in your contacts, you should stop using it because it will likely be undeliverable.

Finally, Mieke wanted me to tell you all that she very much can feel the prayer support they have and thanks us all for praying.

David Guretzki, PhD
Associate Professor of Theology

This coming Thursday (February 26) the Seminary community will celebrate a morning of prayer. The plan for the morning is as follows:

7:30-8:30AM – Contemplative Prayer – reflection, prayer, quiet music

8:30-9AM – Breaking of the Pastry – fellowship 

9:00-11:00AM – Group Prayer Stations

11-12:00 – Community Prayer through Song (Revelation and Response)

Noon – We will continue with our tradition of Soup Lunch for a loonie. 

Some suggestions on how you might participate:

As an off campus student, we would invite you to consider how you might join with us. One of the ways this might happen is through spending time in prayer during the morning. We could share with you some of the prayer requests from the resident student community and at the same time, invite you to share with us prayer items that are relevant to your life and local community.  If you would like to participate in this way, please forward any prayer requests to tschnare@briercrest.ca. Similarly, ff you are in ministry and we could support you and/or your faith community in prayer, please feel free to pass on requests. If you would like to receive prayer requests from us, please let me know and I will add you to the prayer list and send requests to you during the morning of prayer. We look forward to gathering together in this way and supporting one another as we spend time with God in prayer. 

As an on campus student: We would invite you to join with us in the Seminary Chapel beginning at 7:30AM. If you are unable to join us for the whole morning, please note the transtion times and join us as you are able. We would also invite you to submit prayer requests ahead of time and will will include these in our prayer times during the morning. Please forward any prayer requests to tschnare@briercrest.ca. 

Rich Blessings,

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Tony Schnare

Sam Berg recently had chapter article published. His article is entitled, “The Use of Narrative Practices and Emotionally Focused Couple Therapy with First Nations Couples” in Mudita Rastogi and Volker Thomas (eds.), Multicultural Couple Therapy (Los Angeles: Sage Publications, 2009), pp. 371-88.

Congratulations, Sam!

Congratulations to Angie and Jon Coutts on the safe delivery of twin boys! Here is, in Jon’s words, the details:

—————

The journal, Ministry, International Journ for Pastors, is once again sponsoring a writing contest. This is the same contest in which our own Jon Coutts won a third place showing last year. The will be 12 winners, with the grand prize being $750, $500, $400, and $300 for first, second, and third place winners respectively. There is also a potential for article to be published at a later date.

Information and guidelines for submission can be found online here: http://www.ministrymagazine.org/student-writing-contest.html

For those on campus, watch also for posters on the seminary bulletin boards.

Submission deadline is June 30, 2009.

Congratulations are in order for Jon Coutts, recent grad of our seminary, who won a third place showing in “Ministry” magazine’s Ministerial Student Writing Contest. Contest winners can be found here. Jon was the only Canadian in the list. Unfortunately, the magazine did not publish the title of the article. If Jon is watching here, maybe you could let us know what the title of the article was.

Word has been starting to filter out that I have started my own blog, and some have been asking for the URL. So for those interested, you can find my blog at http://dguretzki.wordpress.com. I’ve also added a link in the blogroll below. Be sure also to check out some of the other really good quality blogs there as well.

As before, if you are a Briercrest Seminary student or alumni and would like your blog advertised here, please send me an email at dguretzki “AT” briercrest.ca and I’ll add it to the blogroll.

Best,

David Guretzki

Many of you will remember Joseph and Rosie Kang, who were students with us a few years ago. Joseph is working at JUST, a Chinese technical university. Here is a recent update from him that he has allowed me to post here:

——-

Love from China,

In my town the weather was quickly changed – a few days ago here was a very hot summer but now the cool wind of Fall blows.   

  Tomorrow a new semester will start with the welcome ceremony for freshmen in YUST.  I am writing a prayer letter to you after a long time break…  I am sorry…

Because of your concern and prayer for my family, we lived well in His grace.  Rosie and I exercise everyday for strengthening one‘s bodies.  I have a nose catarrh because of air pollution and I often snivel all day long.  Pray for the recovery…

Rosie maintains her health by working every morning.  She needs more strength for overcoming her arthritis and for struggling with Debbie everyday.  Rachel became 12^th grade and is doing her best to prepare SAT exam test while studying in an international school in Korea.  Amy and Sally became 6^th and 4^th grade kids and now fairly grew.  Here they have many friends and are happy everyday.  Their hobby is reading books and I try to get English books for them, but here is very short of books for them – biography and novels. 

  Debbie is adjusting herself to preschool.  She sometimes cried with her strong requests and it was a little hard for Rosie.  Last winter Debbie had a surgery in her cleft but it did not good result.  In coming winter we will bring her to hospital again.  We knew that it was important to go to the best hospital for a cleft lip problem.  Now she learns language but her pronunciation has problems.  Pray for her treatment…

   During the spring semester, I was so busy everyday.  I spent my time to listen to others, to encourage deans of schools and directors of departments as the vice-president. It became more important for me to decide the directions of things than to do things accurately.  I am lack of wisdom and experience. Pray for me…

   Rosie spends her time to care three kids, to care wives of other faculty members, and to pray for the school with them.  In the last summer, she was so busy with the hospitality of several visitor teams.

   YUST still prepares the Pyungyang University of Science & Technology in North Korea.  Pray for the opening of the school this year.  We expect that He will use the school to teach students who will contribute to the North Korean society after united. 

   In the last July, about 100 professors from ten universities from Asia and Africa held the Pan-Asia Universities Association Conference in YUST.  All universities have the aim to expand His kingdom through the university education overseas. Through the conference we all could see that the mission work was extending.  I felt His sign for YUST, which is the eldest brother, to help the other schools, especially to care the several preparing team of universities.  Pray for YUST to do well the work too.

Pray for me to learn serving others and to practice as a servant before a leader.  I want to be a servant leader like Christ.  I want to protect the miserable souls and to wipe their tears.

Rosie and I often talk with my daughters about our life in Canada, especially in Caronport.  We miss the sincere friends and the land with 360 degrees of horizon.  Bless you!  Shalom!

                                                  Under the blue sky in China

Kang family – Joseph, Rosie, Rachel, Amy, Sally and Debbie