Hurry Up and Wait: Obituary for Peter Kranenburg, my father.

My father, Peter Kranenburg, passed away on Tuesday, January 7, 2025, in Holland Christian Homes in Brampton, Ontario at the age of 95.  I didn't know he was sick on Monday, but we received a call from the doctor on Tuesday morning that he was in respiratory distress and only had a few hours to live.  Michael and I quickly packed and jumped in the car for the 5.5-hour drive.  Sadly, four hours into our drive, my father passed away. 

Hurry up and wait.

In 2010, my father's forgetfulness and dementia increased significantly.  That spring my first husband, Bob Reed, died very suddenly.  My dad was at the stage of dementia at that time, and he would write things down to help him remember; every time he read his note that Bob died, he was shocked and saddened.  Eventually we had to get those notes out of his hands as it upset him.  By the fall of 2010, his short-term memory was completely gone, and he yet he didn't know it.  Care for him became difficult as he was a very strong man and didn't always like being helped to change or shower.  He joined the Holland Christian Homes memory care unit at that time.  Fast forward to 2010 and COVID, which hit these homes very hard.  Right before COVID, my Dad wasn't walking but he still knew my mom and maybe a couple of others, and his very few words were usually, "Love you, love you, love you."  COVID shut his floor down for almost 18 months and by the time we could see him again, he didn't recognize anyone, didn't respond to voices, and didn't talk.  After a while, we were pretty sure he couldn't see or hear.  It was three years of simply existing in a wheelchair, being fed pureed food, and waiting.  

Waiting to see Jesus.  Waiting to be released from his still-strong earthly body.  It was difficult to see him linger, although we are thankful that he was not suffering (as far as we could tell).  

Dementia is a terrible thing and it is very prevalent in my family.  Makes me shudder for my future.  

My dad was a "hurry up" guy.  Breakfast was always at 7 am, lunch at noon, and dinner at 5 pm.  Sharp.  We were done with our meals by 15-20 minutes later, dishes done in the next 10-15 minutes. If there was too much talking, we were told "Spraak verbote!" (Dutch for "stop talking.") The whole process was 30 minutes.  Keeping time was very important.  

Quite the irony to go from a "hurry up" man to fourteen years with dementia.

You can read more about my dad in the obituary below, but since I view this blog as part of my personal journal, I want to share a couple of things here about him that didn't make the obituary.

My dad had a difficult life in many ways.  While the Depression and World War II had an impact on him, he was likewise challenged by emotional health issues (depression and anxiety), which followed him his whole life.  He could be both controlling and insecure at the same time.  That made for lots of internal conflict, as well as external conflict, in different parts of his life.

Yet for a man who could appear to be rigid and legalistic, there was within him an artist, a gardener, and a lover of nature.  And he loved his wife and children, imperfectly of course (as is the case for every person), but we knew he loved us.

As a pastor, he preached God's love and mercy.  He was criticized because he preached too much about God's love and not enough about hell & damnation; yet he found it difficult to personally accept God's love and to forgive himself for his own failings.  

But in this past week, we spent day after day sharing and laughing together as we shared family memories.

I'm thankful for my dad, and all the many facets that made him who he was.  I will miss (and have missed) his kind eyes, soft smile, gentle teasing, and singing voice.  I'm so thankful that he has been released from his earthly body, and I look forward to meeting Peter, the man (not pastor, father, husband) one day in heaven.

Obituary: Rev. Peter Kranenburg

November 7, 1929–January 7, 2025

Peter Kranenburg, aged 95, passed away on January 7, 2025, at Faith Manor in Holland Christian Homes in Brampton, Ontario.  He is survived by his wife of 67 years, Marrie (Quartel); his children: Liz (Rob) Bronsveld, Henry (Marnie) Kranenburg, Janette (Dale) VanderVeen, Yvonne (Brian) Schenk, and Renita (Michael) Reed-Thomson, along with twenty grandchildren, and 28 great-grandchildren.  He is also survived by his brother Henk, and sisters Nel and Gon.  He is preceded in death by his parents Hendrick and Elizabeth Kranenburg, brother Adrian, sister Co, sister Bep, and son-in-law Bob Reed.

Peter, born in Leiden, the Netherlands on November 7, 1929, immigrated to Canada after World War II at the age of 18, in order to go to Calvin Seminary.  He was ordained as a pastor in the Christian Reformed Church in 1957 and served in the following churches in Ontario, Alberta, and British Columbia:  Athens CRC, Westside Community Church Springdale, Ebenezer CRC Jarvis, First CRC Red Deer, Ladner CRC, Strathroy East CRC, Second Toronto CRC, and Grace CRC Chatham. Peter then served as a Chaplain in Queen Elizabeth Hospital and at Holland Christian Homes until his retirement. Peter loved his Lord and Savior, and it gave him joy to share about the love and forgiveness of Jesus.  He continued to do this work, even after his retirement, by corresponding with prisoners. 

Peter was a man of many talents.  He had a beautiful singing voice; he was an artist, painting in oil, acrylic, and watercolors; he loved to garden and excelled at growing vegetables and flowers of many types but had a special love for orchids.

Welcome, 2025! It's time for workplace rededication!

We are thankful to God for the ability to see a new year, and to continue to join Him in what He is doing to reclaim the redeemed marketplace!  And we are thankful for the partnership of many of you who join us in prayer, encouragement, and financial support, to make this possible.  

In our workplace ministry calendar, January and February are the months where we ask every local church to do a business or workplace rededication.  This is a time where every person considers their workplace and asks God to help them fulfill HIS will in their workplace, as it relates to the three great directives from God and the quadruple bottom line.

So we pray together that God will help us to fulfill his Great Commitment Directive from Genesis 1:28 and Genesis 2:15, which brings us to an economic and environmental (creation care) goal.  How does God want me to contribute to the flourishing of my workplace and my environment in 2025?

We pray together that God will help us to fulfill his Great Commandment Directive from Matthew 22:37-40, which gives us a social goal of loving God and loving our neighbor.  What does it look like to love God and love our neighbor in our workplace?  What does righteousness and justice look like there?  How does love manifest itself?

We pray together that God will help us fulfill his Great Commission Directive from Matthew 28:19-20, which gives us a missional goal of being disciples and making disciples in every nation.  Who might God be prompting me to disciple in my workplace?  And as I prepare, am I acting as a disciple in order to be a good witness?

Rev. James Mwalubalile from the Tanzania Assembly of God church in Dar es Salaam (and a DML leader in Tanzania) held this service at his church yesterday and shared these pictures.  His members brought items from their workplace to lay on the alter and they prayed over them together.  They shared testimonies of what God is doing in their workplace and how they are joining Him.  

It's also a time to share laments of the challenges of doing work in places that are challenging, especially to our faith.  And it's a time to pray for those who are looking for a job, so that they too can contribute to the flourishing of their community.

And you can see that his leadership team are all wearing t-shirts that say "work as worship" on them!  

We are thankful for this happening across the 21 countries where we are working, and the many denominations who have said "yes!" to this needed area of discipleship!  

As you enter your work year, we pray too that you will see where God is working, and join Him in His goals for that place!  May you find joy and fulfillment as you contribute to the flourishing of others through your work!

From Malawi: "Living for Christ in the Marketplace"

This week, I received the 2025 theme from one of our partner churches in Malawi: "Living for Christ in the Marketplace." When I see that a church has set a year-long theme like this, I praise God for what He is doing in the marketplace!

What better gift can there be during Christmas then people being discipled to live as Jesus did, being a witness every day, in every way!

This outline came from Pastor Francis, with the City Pentecostal Church of Malawi. Their vision statement for 2025 is, "Empowering believers to embody Christ-like values in their workplaces, businesses, and daily interactions, becoming ambassadors of Christ in every sphere of influence."

They have selected these three verses to support this theme: 

Matthew 5:14-16: “You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden... let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.”

Colossians 3:23-24: “Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men... You are serving the Lord Christ.”

Proverbs 22:29: “Do you see someone skilled in their work? They will serve before kings; they will not serve before officials of low rank.”

 They have identified these thematic objectives:

1. Equip Believers for Influence: Teach practical and biblical principles for living out faith in professional and social spheres.
2. Foster Excellence and Integrity: Encourage Christ-centered values in work ethics, business dealings, and relationships.
3. Promote Marketplace Evangelism: Inspire believers to share the gospel through their actions and testimony at work.
   
4. Encourage Work-Life Balance: Help members integrate their faith with their professional and personal lives in a holistic way.

And these are the key pillars of the theme:

1. Faith at Work: Develop workshops and sermons on how to live out Christian principles in daily tasks and decisions. Explore stories of biblical figures who influenced the marketplace, like Joseph, Daniel, Lydia, and Paul.
2. Excellence as Witness: Teach the importance of excellence in work as an act of worship. Offer training on skill development and professional growth grounded in biblical values.
3. Ethics and Integrity: Highlight the role of integrity in building trust and reflecting Christ. Discuss real-life challenges like honesty in finances, workplace conflicts, and ethical dilemmas.
4. Evangelism in Action: Encourage creative ways to share faith in the marketplace (e.g., mentorship, acts of kindness, prayer groups). Provide resources on starting workplace Bible studies or small prayer groups.

Great stuff!  So practical and applicable to every believer in every workplace!

For me, this is a gift, all wrapped up in a beautiful vision of members being change agents on the front lines, reconciling people to Christ through their work.  

What a gift to the world, through Christ, that can keep on giving!

Please join us in prayer for this church, and so many others, who are seeking to help the church be the church every day of the week!

From DML, we wish you a blessed Christmas!

The Adventure of Becoming

This week I turn 56 years old, and I finally know what I want to be when I grow up! 

Well, maybe it's more accurate to say that "I now know better who I am," as I'm not planning on changing anything with this realization.  

And the funny thing is that apparently, I have come full circle.  

When I was young, I wanted to be a social worker.  That is what my first degree was in, and that is what I did for the first sixteen years of my working life.  But then I moved to Liberia and got involved in business development, while still doing community development.  I then dropped the community development and moved fulltime into business development.  Felt a bit like a fish out of water.  

In 2013, I began to bring the message of business development into the church and found myself teaching at seminaries and mostly speaking to pastors and denominational leaders.  I usually would start my self-introduction by saying that "I'm not a pastor."  Felt even more like a fish out of water.

Over the years, I often struggled with the fact that I was working primarily with three groups of people (pastors/church leaders, businesspersons, and missionaries) and I didn't identify with any of them!  [While many missionaries say they wanted to be a missionary since they were a child, it wasn't even on my radar until I was 36 years old!]

But this last year confirmed to me that I am, and always have been, a social worker.  The goal of this social worker is to see people flourish and poverty alleviated.  That passion is driven by my faith which says that ALL should flourish, regardless of race, tribe, or creed, for the glory of God...and that the need is urgent.

Why am I telling you this story?  Good question.  Give me another minute and I'll get there.

When I married Bob Reed, attending Madison Square Church in Grand Rapids, I was exposed to the challenges of racism.  As a Canadian, it was not something I was aware of growing up.  Bob and I decided to live a life that would seek to be good neighbors to those suffering under the weight of racism, and for me, also wrestling with the accompanying poverty that comes with racism.  We moved into our church neighborhood and the community development organization, Restorers, was started in partnership with five neighborhood churches and a great team of neighbors linking arms to work together.  We lived and worked there for seven years.

Then Bob had a burden for Africa. I resisted it for a number of years.  But when Restorers was ready to be turned over to other leadership, I agreed to go on an exploratory trip to Liberia.   Upon seeing the devastating poverty there, as a result of a 15-year civil war, Bob and I prayerfully decided to move there with Hannah and Noah.  Through a path that is much too long to write here, I found that business was the best solution for long-term alleviation of poverty.  I did that directly for the next seven years and furthered my education (MBA and PhD in sustainable development) in this regard. Then, DML was born out of the need for ongoing discipleship for the workplace, leading to the next twelve years.

And now the reason for this tome.  

My husband Michael has been working with Christian theologians and authors for the past four years relating to the plight of the Palestinians. As he is an AMAZING supporter of my work with DML, I told him a few months ago that I would support him if he wanted to do something related to this passion of his. That led to us attending a conference last week in Southern California, put on by the Network of Evangelicals for the Middle East (NEME), entitled "How American Christians Should Respond to Palestine and Israel."  

And my heart was broken again by what I heard and saw.  I know I have a lot on my plate with DML, but as my heart broke and my anger was stoked, I again saw that the root of who I am as a social worker. I get angry at injustice and inhumane treatment of humanity.  I learned about my own uninterrogated assumptions regarding Palestine and Israel. 

[And of course, it made me realize that there are countless uninterrogated assumptions that I hold!  In some ways, there is safety in that.  If I truly knew the depth of human depravity relating to every issue, my heart couldn't hold it.]  

So my question to God over this past week has been, why this issue at this time?  Am I supposed to do something with it or is it just Michael's issue?  In the past, Madison's issue became my issue.  Bob's issue became my issue.  What about now?

As I've started reading books written on the history of Palestine and Israel, I feel, at the very least, I need to share what I'm learning.  

It is for this reason that I have kept the "Reeds in the Wind" blog and not given it up to only focus on the DML blog.  The Reeds in the Wind blog was started by Bob in 2005 (formerly called Reeds in Liberia) and it allowed us to chronicle our life journey, being blown in the Wind that is the Holy Spirit.  We've been able to share not just our ministry journey, but our family and faith journey as well.  

So I'm going to write a three-part blog on this particular issue.  This is NOT a DML issue.  This is a "Renita the social worker issue."  I hope that makes sense.

Part one of this blog will look at the actual historical formation of the country of Israel and the interaction with Palestine.  Part two will be to examine the role and beliefs of Christians in relation to the formation and the current situation.  Part three will examine the current war between Israel and Palestine and how Christians should respond.

I hope you will join me on this journey.  I'm not an expert by any means.  I will provide some book recommendations, articles, and links for you to do your own exploration should your curiosity be piqued.  I would welcome your feedback as well as we journey together!

Not everyone will be an entrepreneur. But everyone should be entrepreneurial.

There are some sayings that I run across now and then that stick.

One such saying is that "not everyone has a job, but everyone has work."

Another saying is that "not everyone will be an entrepreneur, but everyone should be entrepreneurial."

We are made in the image of a creative, working God, who is innovative and entrepreneurial. While many of us may never start a business or be called an entrepreneur, we are all to be entrepreneurial in how we work. This means that we are to look at how we can bring creativity and problem-solving skills to our workplace - wherever it is that we spend our time. And this means that we must be in a posture of learning and creativity.

At our recent Global Summit, we declared 2025 to be the Year of Entrepreneurship and Agriculture - in other words, YEA 2025!  Regarding entrepreneurship, many of our partners are receiving invitations to speak at denominational youth conferences.  The young adults in the majority world (ages 18-35) are facing significant unemployment, despite having university degrees.  We have access to millions of these young adults through our denominational partnerships!  In fact, one of our key leaders in a very large denomination is now the leader of young adult ministries, opening the door for us to break down the sacred secular divide in significant ways.

The impact study that we just concluded with 500 marketplace ministers across ten countries tells us that for every business trained, five jobs are created!  This is an increase from last year's impact study which showed two new jobs created for every business trained.  This is truly exciting as it means more people can care for themselves and their families and find their way out of poverty.

Imagine the potential if every young adult is trained in entrepreneurship?  The median age in Africa is 19.2 years old (compared to 38.5 years in the US and 44.5 years in Europe).  Imagine if every young adult understands that they can be job makers, not just job seekers?  That they can bring solutions to problems, for the flourishing of their communities and nations, and not just work for money?  That they can have a Biblical worldview towards work, doing their work with excellence and integrity, while loving their neighbor and being mission minded?

Are you ready to say YEA 2025???

This Tuesday is Giving Tuesday, and we have a donor who will match all gifts given in the last six weeks of 2024, up to $25,000.  Will you partners with us to reach this goal so that we can move into 2025 with strength? With your partnership, we will have the ability to bring this message to 21 countries, through 28 partners.  To be a partner with DML, please click here for more information.

Thanksgiving: Scientific Facts About Gratitude

Recently some of the DML leadership team spent time looking at an article that discussed some scientific facts about gratitude.  This was not an article written by a Christian (as far as I know) or by someone who referred to the Bible verse which says that we are to be "grateful in all things."  

The author gave the following facts:

1. Gratitude is good for your cholesterol and lower blood pressure.
2. Gratitude can improve your sleep.
3. Grateful people spend more time exercising.
4. Females are more grateful than males, from an early age onward.
5. Gratitude can help you achieve your goals.
6. You can overdo it - which is explained by saying that if you view it as a chore, it might not have the positive effect. 
7. People are less likely to express gratitude at work than anywhere else.  Only 10% of people say thank you to their colleagues on any given day, and 60% of people never express gratitude at work.

Some of these can generate some interesting conversations around the Thanksgiving table this week - for example, thankfulness relating to gender - what about cultures or people groups?  Are some more thankful than others?  Is it related to contentedness or simply politeness?

But it is the last one that caught my attention - our lack of gratitude at work.  At DML we have seen the impact of seeing work as worship, understanding that work is not drudgery or a mere means to get money (which is never enough!).  When work is understood as a gift, that we have been created to create and to do work that contributes to flourishing of all, it can help us do a 180-degree change in our attitude about work.  And when we understand the positives of gratitude, we recognize that it is not just good for our colleagues and customers, but also for our own health!

I encourage you to ask these questions around the table this week:

1. What are you grateful for at work?
2. What is God doing at your workplace?  Where is He at work?
3. How can you join Him in that work?

Happy Thanksgiving from the DML team, for whom I am so grateful!  Allow me to share some pictures of our summit that convey the joy and family atmosphere that we have, hoping that it will put a smile on your face as well!