This week I’m going back to something I had been working through earlier, which is getting all our elders to share their stories with us. We have Ricardo and his wife Maritza with us. They share their testimonies about how they came to faith in their home country of Colombia, how life there compares with life in Canada, and if it’s ever too late at night to have coffee. I hope you enjoy it.

This episode featured Tim Heikoop, who works with Return Ministries, which helps Jewish people return to Israel. Tim recently spoke at Verity at Easter time and shared the Messianic connections in Passover that most Christians are completely unaware of. Here we speak about his story, how he came to know Christ, and going over some of those connections he shared with us a few months ago.

You can find out more about Tim's work at Return Ministries at the link below

https://www.return.co.il/copy-of-ministry-team

This episode of the podcast is with my friend Samir, the founder of Lumens of Truth. Lumens of Truth exists to help Afghans know Jesus, grow in Jesus, and serve Jesus. They do this by evangelizing through their social media ministry, discipleship, home church, production of worship songs, and theological training through their Afghan School of Theology. Please check them out at the link below.

https://www.lumensoftruth.org/

Well this will be the final part of sharing my experience with mom's passing, about 1.5 years later. I'm sure I will mention it a lot or call back to moments in future podcasts, but all in all, at least as far as I can foretell, I've said everything I can on the matter. I miss you and love you mom.

Here is the second part of me wrestling with mom's passing. This time after she passed. It was the second time recording this, as the first didn't work, so it helped to be able to keep my emotions in check. Again, maybe this is more for me, but maybe it might help someone else out there.

As many of you know my mom passed away after a long battle with ovarian cancer on June 10, 2022. On the day we found out she was going to be transferred to hospice, I was on my way to record a podcast with Stan. Instead the following conversation occurred. After this I decided to record my thoughts at different times throughout this process, which I will release later. I sat on this for over a year not sure about releasing it, but maybe this could be helpful to someone else going through something similar.

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Here's the link to the podcast we did where mom shared her story https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/30-more-sickness-than-health-linda/id1575299094?i=1000543564156

Just like we did for Peter and Paul earlier, this time we are looking at the historicity of the martyrdom of John. The traditional Christian belief is that he was exiled on the island of Patmos, but there are stories of him being martyred for his faith. Is this true or later legend? I'm covering all of this and more, using Sean McDowell's "The Fate of the Apostles - Examining the Martyrdom accounts of the closest followers of Jesus.

This book examines the stories and legends of the Apostles' deaths and tries to get to the truth. This series will be me reading passages from the book with some of my own thoughts along the way. Sean McDowell has graciously given me the go ahead to publish these episodes. His book, which I highly recommend, can be found here: the Fate of the Apostles - Examining the Martyrdom accounts of the closest followers of Jesus https://seanmcdowell.org/item/the-fate-of-the-apostles

I realize that the episode title might make you think we're talking with John Mark, the gospel writer, but alas, he was not available. Fortunately, we have this talk with another one of our elders. I've known Mark now for about 15 years or so. He used to be the guy cleaning up campus. Then he became my friend. What has always struck me is that he has always spoken as a man wise beyond his years, which has proved helpful many a time. Enjoy his story.