May 15, 2025

I have written about the reasons for my upbeat attitude in the past couple of months.  In this blog post, I will share insights into how my journey with stage 4 colorectal cancer has impacted my understanding of prayer.

Prayer is one of the key practices in the Christian life, and I have committed…

This is the third post in a series trying to answer the question ‘Why so upbeat in the face of a devastating health diagnosis?  In the first post, I gave the background story and wrote about the medical angle.  In the second post, I wrote about the community angle.  In this post I’ll tackle the…

The second reason for being able to face the stage 4 colorectal cancer diagnosis with a positive attitude is the incredible support I have received from our community.  First of all, my dear wife Caroline has been a rock on this journey.  Having her by my side to share the most intimate struggles with has…

How can you be so positive?

I have been asked this question, or ones similar to it, many times since the cancer diagnosis last November. And it’s a fair question as, medically speaking, the diagnosis is not good.

I will do my best to answer this question with the hope that my/our experience will encourage you as…

This past Sunday we hosted our first ‘normal’ coffee hour in over two years.  It surprised me just how much I enjoyed being able to see people’s faces and sitting down with them to enjoy a cup of coffee.  It’s been a long couple of years…

And yet, here we are, hopefully at the tail end…

These are challenging times…

The COVID-19 Pandemic is having far-reaching effects on society beyond anything we could have imagined just a few weeks ago.  In an effort to keep healthcare systems from being overloaded ‘social distancing’ is a concept quickly being adopted around the world. 

As a pastor of a small church in rural Nova Scotia, Canada,…

It seems surreal… I just returned from an unplanned trip to the Netherlands. You see, my dad passed away unexpectedly on December 24th.  He had just completed his chemo treatments and we were all looking forward to him regaining his strength.  But instead, he passed away peacefully during the night. 

I got the news early on…

For Christians, the weeks leading up to Christmas are known as the Advent Season and is used to prepare ourselves for the celebration of Christ’s birth. We light candles, read certain Scriptures, decorate our homes and churches, and often focus on the themes of hope, faith, joy, peace and love. It’s a time steeped in…

Three years ago, I attended a Church Renewal Conference that has made a drastic and positive impact on both my personal life and my role as a leader in the Christian community.  My relationship with Jesus has deepened, and my vision for what the church can be has grown exponentially.  At the time

It all started with a children’s story during a worship service in late September.  I gave each of the kids who came forward a loonie or a toonie, and instructed that they could spend it on anything they wanted, but, that they had to let me know what they did with it…  I then talked…

Most people, when hearing the word ‘church’ picture a white building with some type of steeple.  Inside that building you’ll likely find wooden pews, hymnbooks, and on Sunday mornings, a group of like-minded people gathered for worship.

This past Sunday the Emmanuel congregation gathered at the Centennial Park with the folks from Middleton Baptist and Brickton…

I like a certain rhythm to my life.  To be honest, I don’t like to change things too much.  No specialty coffee – just a regular…  No fancy ice cream – just vanilla… Ask my kids what I had for breakfast this morning, and they’ll be able to tell you.  Why?  Because I have the…

 OK, I admit it. Sometimes I’m a little slow on the uptake…

 Though I have had many opportunities to learn and apply this essential lesson, it’s taken 50 years of life experience; 18 of which have been spent in pastoral ministry!

 And all the while I should have known better…

 I mean, when I taught our girls how…

With the Set Free Retreat just over a month away, I have invited Joanne MacGregor to write a blog post on why you might want to consider attending this retreat.  It is my hope that you will consider her thoughts carefully and respond appropriately.

                                                                                                                        ~ Sweis Ubels

Is the Set Free Retreat for Me?

Four…

There is this great passage in the New Testament in which Jesus said not to worry.  He said it to a crowd that was likely largely made up of poor peasants who had ‘good reason’ to be concerned about what they were going to eat.  Jesus, though, said not to worry about…