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Happy New Year everyone,
Can you believe it is now 2023? Where did the last 3 years go? I feel like New Years' eve 2019 rolled into 2023 and skipped 2020, 2021, and 2022! 2022 brought tremendous and incredible opportunities for me. 2022 was the year of my convocation, and I received my Bachelor of Theology with a Minor in English. This made me the first in my family to go on to post-secondary and receive higher education. It was the year I also completed virtually all of my Master's degree courses which allowed me to start my SME/placement a year ahead of schedule. This led me to accept the call to come to Oyen, AB. This past year was a year of many firsts, but more importantly, my first charge as a Minister. A call not for only one church but for 4 churches. I answered and accepted this call only 5 short months ago. A decision that would shape the rest of my life.
I have met many incredible, beautiful, and kind people on this journey. Which I am eternally grateful for. Each of you has helped shape, nurture, guide and inspire me. So many of you won't even know your impact on my life in just a short amount of time. This I will carry with me into my ministry and life for the next 50+ years. Each letter, each gift, each hug, each handshake, everything I will cherish and never forget.
The beautiful thing about ministry and this as my career is getting to meet, journey and be a part of so many lives. Lives of all ages and walks of life. The hardest part of ministry, especially in an ever-changing society and an aging Church, is being 21 years old. Being so young means many people I serve will be called to their heavenly homes throughout the next 50+ years that lay ahead of me. So know when I say I will cherish every gift, hug, handshake, event, cups of hot chocolate and cookies, every letter, every afghan, every funeral I genuinely mean it.
From the bottom of my heart, thank you all; I truly am blessed. I am so excited for this New year, the New direction of the Church, and a year filled with many more firsts.
Love & Blessing to all and to all a Happy New Year.
Let us make 2023, our best year yet!
-Pastor. Shane