Christmas Service： A Story Of Hope
Episode Stats
Length
1 hour and 7 minutes
Words per Minute
163.0146
Summary
Pastor Dan Vachon shares his story of hope in the midst of pain, suffering, and difficulty. He shares how the presence of Jesus in his life is the real meaning for his existence, and how the birth of Christ has never been a one-day event, but a constant relationship with a Savior, Lord, and ever-present friend in times of trouble and need.
Transcript
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And now I'm broken, like I've got nothing, I've got nothing left to give, like what's any of it
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worth anymore? And the Lord kind of whispered in my heart, and the Lord said, it's not
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what you do for me that has your value, it's who you are in me. And I got to tell you,
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that verse of scripture, Emmanuel, I realized the Lord was with me. And for the next two years began
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the healing process, where every time I opened God's word, it was the Lord just ministering to me
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and putting me back together and healing me. But it was also during that time that tragedy began
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to strike in our home. You know, as I was starting to put this kind of life aside, I was still having
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the bad dreams, the nightmares. I could literally feel in this one call, this young girl punching me
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in the back, because I couldn't save her mother. You know, her mother was 51 years old. But then
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Hello and welcome. We're so happy you can join us for this very special Christmas service. Tonight
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is the final show of 2025. And we're so pleased that Pastor Dan Vachon is our featured guest,
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and he'll be sharing a remarkable story with us. The title of tonight's show is A Story of Hope.
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It's December 17th, 2025. And this is the Empower Hour.
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We are so pleased to have Action for Canada's very own Pastor Dan Vachon sharing with us tonight.
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Dan believes that the Christmas story is encompassed in the words of Jesus when he said in John 10,
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verse 10, I have come that you may have life, and that you may have it more abundantly.
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Christmas is not just about the birth of Christ. It's about Jesus giving hope, peace, and joy in our
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everyday life. Dan was a pastor in Ontario and Nova Scotia for over two decades, as well as a
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missionary in former communist Romania, and in the Amazon jungles of Brazil. He also worked as a
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paramedic in Nova Scotia for 30 years, where he was diagnosed with complex PTSD in January of 2020.
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In May 2025, he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, and in July, underwent a full pancreatectomy,
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having several internal organs removed. Through all these experiences, he attributes the presence
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of Jesus in his life as the real meaning for his existence. The birth of Christ has never been a
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one-day event for Dan. It has been a constant relationship with a Savior, Lord, and ever-present
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friend in times of trouble and need. Tonight, Dan's testimony will give you the hope you need this
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Christmas, pointing you not only to the true meaning of the season, but to the true meaning of life,
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even in pain, suffering, and difficulty. And here's the good news. You can also have a life full of joy,
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hope, and happiness when you discover the Christ child and his purpose for your life.
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Will you all please help me welcome Pastor Dan to the Empower Hour. Hello, Dan.
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Hi. Thank you, Heather, for that. And Dan, I'm just looking so forward to your service tonight
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and to your testimony. And I know that it'll be a blessing to our viewers and to the Action for Canada
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team who love you. You are our family, and you have been on quite a journey this year. And we know
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that quite often we say, you know, what the enemy meant for harm, God will use it for good in his
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glory. And we are praying that what you have been through in this last year, God will truly use your
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testimony for his glory. And I know that that's very important to you as well. Amen. Well, I'm looking
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forward to it. You know, it seems like just a few weeks ago, I was doing the Christmas program last
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year. And the years kind of zipped by. Yeah. And yeah, so I'm going to share a little bit about
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that. But I'm just blessed to be here. It was touch and go there for me a number of times this
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year. But yeah, so I really want to encourage people this year, this Christmas, I feel people
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have been under a lot of a lot of oppression this year, you know, the state of our country,
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it's a beautiful country we live in. And I think people can still have hope in this day and age.
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So thank you. By the way, my wife was gone for a while today. So I had to do my own hair
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and makeup. Okay, you do. Your clothes match. You're doing okay, Dan. Good job. Okay. Yeah.
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All right. Well, I'm going to hand that over to you then. And I look forward to your message. Thank
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you. All right. Just before I go to a PowerPoint presentation, I didn't want to just sit here in
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front of you folks tonight and talk, but I want to share a message to two groups of you tonight.
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So the Christmas story, you know, we're all very familiar with it. It doesn't matter how old you
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are. And first, the first group of you that I want to share the story of hope to are those of you that
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would be born again believers, you're part of the body of Christ, and you're familiar with the
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Christmas story. However, maybe you're at a point in your life where, you know, you have relegated the
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story of Jesus. He's still kind of in a manger in your life where he hasn't had that impact in your
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life on a day-to-day basis, maybe like he should. And what makes my story so special is that for most
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of my life, you know, for 22 years or so as a pastor, missionary, as a giver that way, as I like
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to say, as a lifesaver, you know, trying to save people's souls. And of course, it's not me that
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does it, but it's the Lord, but through our ministry. And also as a paramedic for three
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decades, you know, trying to save lives literally as giving that way. The thing with the Lord is he
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has to be present in your life and he has to make a difference. And I'm going to share some verses of
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scripture to show you that. So maybe you're here tonight and Christmas is coming, but you know,
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it's just another one of those ho-hum Christmases. And the Lord of the Christmas, the Christ of
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Christmas, you know, he's real and you know, you've committed your life to him, but he's not as real
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to you as he should be. And tonight I want my story to change that for you. The second group of people
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I want to talk to tonight are those of you that Christmas is more of the commercial part, you
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know? Oh, you know, Jesus was born on Christmas and you know, he died on Easter, but that seems to be
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your, the extent of your knowledge of Christ. You know, he, he was born and he died, but you don't
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really know much more about that. And you don't really know what that means to you. And you don't
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really maybe know why you're even here or why God even sent his son to be born. I want you to leave
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here tonight knowing that you can have hope in this life and hope in the next life. All right. So the
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scripture tells us, as Heather read earlier, Christ came to give us life. So in John 10, 10, the scripture
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says the thief, which is the devil, our enemy comes only to steal and kill and destroy. And Jesus says,
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I have come that they may have life and life to the full or life more abundantly. And tonight,
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whether you are a child of God already, or maybe you're not, you may be looking at your life and
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thinking my life is so ho-hum. Your life may be comprised of just going to work every day and you're
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stuck in that cubicle or, you know, you're stuck in your family life or you're stuck in and out of
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relationships. Maybe you're stuck in debt. Your life does not have that dimension, that 3D dimension.
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You don't have that enthusiasm in life. Maybe what's going on in our country in Canada right now has got
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you worried, or maybe the future has you worried. You know, what you're seeing on, um, on the internet
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or in social media has you so, uh, concerned about the future, the future of your children and your,
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your grandchildren. And, uh, you know, I have nine children and 12 grandchildren. So that's certainly
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a concern for me. What about their future? Right. And, but Jesus says, I've planned that you may have
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life and life to the full. And so maybe this is kind of what the whole, um, story of Christmas is
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for you is just that baby in a manger. And that's all it means to you. But I want you to know that
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Jesus is not still in a manger. He didn't just stay there. Jesus grew up. And for the first 30 years of
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his life, he lived as a normal, uh, person, you know, with his mother and his father, uh, uh, you
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know, we know he was a carpenter and, uh, but then he began his ministry after he was baptized by John
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the Baptist. And, you know, his claims that he was the son of God were not just claims. As a matter of
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fact, there were, there were hundreds of prophecies that were fulfilled. And the prophet Isaiah tells us
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about Jesus, therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Now this is very important. Listen to
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this. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son and shall call his name Emmanuel. Now the term
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Emmanuel means God with us. Now I want you to let that sink in for a second. God, the creator of the
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ends of the earth, the one who made the moon and the stars, the bugs, the trees, the changing of the
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seasons, all of the sounds and the smells, God who made all those things came to be with us. He came
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to walk with us. He came that we would know his heart, that we would hear his voice, that we would
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understand his character and his personality. He came to be part of our lives. And that's what I
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want you to walk away with tonight and give you hope. You're not just here taking up space on this
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earth. You're here so that you can know him and he can know you. And so there's a group called for
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King and Country that have a, has a beautiful rendition of that Christmas song, Emmanuel. And I,
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as you listen to it, I want you to pay attention to the words before we move on, but let it minister
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to you and just let it, the message of it sink in. So listen to this song, Emmanuel.
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So Emmanuel has been part of my family since the very beginning of my life. Like most people,
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I was born at a very young age. In 1966, I was born in the tiny little village, mining village
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of Val d'Or up in Northern Quebec. And my father was a pastor, a missionary, and an evangelist.
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And as you can tell by the writing on this little pamphlet of a ministry he used to do,
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that's in French. So French is actually my mother tongue. And this is just one of the ministries that
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he used to do. And you can see in the date in the bottom right corner there, that's in July 1967.
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Now, a couple months later, in September 1967, my dad got really sick. And in December 1967,
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my father passed away. As a matter of fact, tomorrow will be 58 years that my father passed away.
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And so as I was putting this together, it kind of hit me, you know, I never really knew my father.
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And that kind of hits hard sometimes, you know. That's my dad and I on the top left-hand corner,
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just a few months before he passed away. And so my mother moved us to Montreal, where she can support
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us. My mother, by the way, was six months pregnant when my dad died. And just the shock of it, she lost
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the child she was carrying. And that's me in the middle there, just literally like during the week
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of my dad's funeral. And my mother bought me my first race car. She loved me that much.
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We lived in an apartment in Montreal. And I never really knew my dad. So I, you know, grew up in a
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single family home. And everything I kind of taught myself as I grew up, I kind of had to teach myself
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myself. But the whole time I was growing up, I heard my mother say to me that she was praying for
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me to follow in my dad's footsteps. And I'd ask her, what does that mean? She'd say, I'm praying that you
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will be a pastor like your dad. And I had no desire, no inkling whatsoever to do that.
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That was the furthest thing from my heart. But growing up, I wanted to be a pilot. You know,
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I wanted to fly jets. I always loved speed. I was a big NASCAR fan growing up. And what ended up
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happening in my life was my loves were baseball and riding my bike. And I played baseball for 14 years.
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As a matter of fact, I got so good at it, I had some scouts looking at me in Montreal,
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I grew up six blocks away from the Olympic Stadium. But through a freak accident one year,
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I was a pitcher and a pretty darn good pitcher at that too. I ended up breaking my right knee. And
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that kind of ended my baseball career. I did play football in college, but then I broke the same knee
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again. And so that kind of ended my my athletic career. But growing up, Montreal taught me a lot
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of things. I became street smart. And then when I was 10 years old, in 1976, in the month of July,
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Montreal hosted the Olympic Summer Games. And my home church hosted three weeks of special meetings.
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And under the preaching of David Wilkerson, I realized as a 10 year old boy, I was a sinner.
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Now you might think, how much of a sinner can you be as a 10 year old child? Well,
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nobody had taught me to steal, or to lie, or to say unkind things, or to cheat. But when I heard
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the preaching over a few consecutive nights, I realized that if I were to die that night,
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my conscience told me that I was not going to go to heaven. I was a sinner, and I was separated from
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Christ. And so I went up to the front, and I confessed my sins to the Lord, and I repented of
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my sin. And it wasn't just me saying a prayer, I was genuinely sorry, I had tears of sorrow. And I asked
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the Lord to forgive me of my sins, and to come into my heart. And I told him, I want you to be my Lord
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and my Savior. And there was an instant change in my life, I had a desire to read God's Word and to get
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close to Him. And then in November of that same year, in 1976, I was baptized in water. And that
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scripture, for God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him
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shall not perish but have eternal life, that became so real to me. And that's when Emmanuel, God with me,
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became so real. I could tell you a story one time. It was shortly after that time that Mom and I
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switched to a different church. We'd been going to a small French church, but there wasn't very many
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young people there. So we went to the big Evangel Church in downtown Montreal, right across the road
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from the Montreal Forum. I remember one time we had gone to McDonald's across the road for lunch after
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church one day, and then we were crossing the road. The light turned green, and so I started to cross,
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and this car came down Green Avenue. It was a black car, and I stepped right out. I was about four steps
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into the road, and this hand just grabbed me by the shoulder and pulled me back. And there was a clink,
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clink, and the car just clipped me, and it hit the steel rivets on my jean jacket. And I turned around
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to see who had grabbed me. There was nobody there. There was about seven people on the street corner,
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including my mother, who had her mouth covered. She was trying to scream, but everybody was about
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four steps behind me. There was nobody there. I feel it was the hand of an angel that had grabbed me
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and kept me from walking right in front of that car. That car was probably going 70 kilometers an hour
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by that time. It would have been game over for me. And I could tell you story after story of how God
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with me, Emmanuel, had just really touched my life. And so there I was, continued on to school
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and high school. And in the summer, sorry, in the spring of 1983, I went to fulfill my dream. And so
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I enlisted in the Air Force. I passed the aptitude test, the physical, and there was three or four other
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tests. And in May of 1987, I turned 17. And in June of 87, I graduated high school. And so I was ready to
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go for basic training in Nova Scotia here in, or I forget the name of the place here. But anyway,
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in September, but in the month of August 83, I found myself at teen camp, which would have been
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the last time I was going to go. And Rich Wilkerson, David Wilkerson's cousin, was the speaker that year.
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And on August the 3rd, 1983, Rich Wilkerson spoke from Acts 26, 14.
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Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads. Now,
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some of you would know the story. This is the conversion of Saul, who was a dedicated
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follower of God, but an unbeliever in Christ. And it's the Saul's conversion on the road to Damascus.
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And Saul said, who are you, Lord? And the Lord said, I am the Lord Jesus Christ, who you're
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persecuting. Go into Damascus, and I'll tell you what to do. And Rich Wilkerson was saying to us
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young people, now there was 800 young people at this camp, and I felt like he was just talking to me.
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He said, some of you have your whole life planned out. You've had childhood dreams that you're
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pursuing. Some of you have grown up in Christian homes. Some of you even have fathers who are
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pastors. Now, even though my father had passed away and I didn't even know him, the influence of a
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pastor in a pastor's home was always in my house. And I tell you, everybody that knew my dad as a pastor
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were fathering me. My dad was well-known. He was well-loved, talented. He played 11 instruments.
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I played one in the radio, if that counts. But people were looking after me. And that night,
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I knew at the altar call, I had to go. And when I went, the Lord got a hold of my life. And let me tell
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you, every desire to go to Shearwater, that's where it was, for basic training, completely left.
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And I knew that God had put his call upon my life to go to Bible college.
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And so I called my mother that night and I said, you'll never believe what happened. And she said,
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yeah, God called you into the ministry. And I was like, wow. Yeah, that's what he did. And the Lord,
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by the way, the Lord provided somebody to pay for my years of Bible college. And so long story short,
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I ended up in Bible college. I had to wait a year because I had to be 18 to go and I was still 17.
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But in the summers, my grandmother worked at Norton Telephone in Montreal. She offered me a job at $35
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an hour back in 1984 to help pay for my Bible college. And I prayed and I said, Lord, I need to
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work in ministry. And so that photo on the bottom left is me and my buddy, Eamon. We worked at a
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place called Camp Curio, where I got to lead hundreds of children and young people to the
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Lord. That's my faithful dog, Marina, an ex-police dog that I had for a number of years. And I ended up,
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long story short, spending nine years in Bible college and seminary. And I ended up pastoring
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in Ontario for a few years, in Nova Scotia for 20 some odd years. When communism fell in Romania,
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I got to go and work planting churches and working in orphanages. I got to work in the jungles of the
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Amazon in Brazil for three years. We got to raise some support there. But it was while I was pastoring
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this very church in South Park Harbor, Nova Scotia one day in the middle of nowhere. Beautiful people
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there. This was my hunter's paradise, okay? I used to wear my chest waders to walk down the river with
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my shotgun to hunt ducks to go to this church. My office was, I used to hunt deer behind there.
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But I was in my big bay window in the living room one day, one Sunday afternoon. And I said,
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Lord, how can I reach this community more for you? And just as I was praying that,
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this ambulance went by my window, lights and siren. This was in 1983. And I thought,
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wow, I wonder what it takes to become an ambulance driver. And by the way, don't you ever call somebody
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that works in the ambulance an ambulance driver? Those days are long gone, okay? But I called the local
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person that ran the ambulance business at the time. And again, long story short, in Nova Scotia,
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we had 54 different ambulance operators. They were consolidating it all into one. But Wayne Giffen
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said, you know what, I'll hire you. I'll put you through the training. You'll be grandfathered in.
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And I ended up getting my EMAs, emergency medical attendant, my EMTs. And in 1989,
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where were we? 1989, I forget the year now. But anyway, three years later, I got my paramedic,
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my full paramedics license. And so I ended up working 30 years as a paramedic in Nova Scotia.
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Now, the average lifespan of a paramedic now these days is five years, and then they burn out.
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But let me tell you, it was such a privilege to work in this province during that time. And I was
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doing the two jobs at the same time. Now, the next church that I pastored was a smaller church,
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you know, and so I got to work bivocationally. And at the same time, I specialized in pediatrics.
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So I was a pediatrics advanced life support instructor. I got to work as an instructor at
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the IWK in Halifax, which was the main tertiary hospital for pediatrics for Nova Scotia, New
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Brunswick, and PEI. So I used to teach nurses, doctors, nurse practitioners, and other paramedics
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how to take care of a pediatric patient. I was on the accreditation committee for a regional hospital.
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I was one of the driving coaches to teach new paramedics how to drive. I mean, I was a fairly
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busy person. So for 30 years, you know, I had a very interesting career. I spent three years as
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an industrial medic in the oil fields in Alberta, worked with some tremendous people. But then
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something began to happen. I began to see our workload go up and up and up. Our 12 hour shifts
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quickly began to turn into 14 and 16 hour shifts. We weren't given breaks anymore because we were so
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busy. And I began to see the burnout rate in my coworkers happen so quickly. Then a number of my
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friends and coworkers began taking their lives. And for 21 years of my 30 year career, my beat was the
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undivided TransCanada Highway where I worked. And I estimate that during that time, I responded to
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anywhere between 25, 30, 2000 calls. And there were some shifts in the summertime where, you know, we
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would do four head on collisions in one shift. And they weren't pretty. And by 2017, I was a mess.
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It was hard to go to work. You know, I would show up at shift, and I would go into the stock room and
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just curl up in a ball and start to cry and pray, Lord, please don't let the tones go off. I can't do
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another call. I can't do it. But, you know, I was the senior medic on my platoon. And, you know, we were
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called to so many of these calls. And it came to the point where, you know, we would be calling life
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flight on on scene landings like so many times. And some of the life flight medics would be like,
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like, I won't use the language on here, but they'd be like, yeah, like, we hate you on shift because,
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like, you're like the magnet, you know. And it began to really take its toll on me.
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And it came to a point where I knew that I was messed up. I was averaging one to one and a half
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hours of sleep every 24 hours. And this went on two and a half years. It affected my marriage to the
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point where my 30 year marriage came to an end. And physically, I had, I can't tell you how many
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ailments I had. I had IBS and high blood pressure and two or three other things that I had to be
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medicated for. But I came to a point where everything came to a head. But I got to tell you,
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this is my hope for you. Your story may be different. But this same God, Emmanuel, who came,
00:27:25.580
was with me the whole time. Because when those suicidal thoughts came through my mind,
00:27:30.780
when the doctors were trying to push medication on me, I sat down and I cried out to the Lord.
00:27:37.340
And I said, Lord, where are you? And that's all it would take. The presence of God would completely
00:27:43.660
surround me. And I could feel the arms of the Lord around me. And he will do the same for you today.
00:27:50.860
Okay. So whether you're a believer or not today, Jesus is not still in a manger. And this Christmas
00:27:58.540
season could be a turning point in your life. You may say, I've just got an office job. I work in a
00:28:04.300
cubicle. But I know the pressure you may face. You may say, you know, I've got a small family. I
00:28:10.460
don't have nine kids like you do. But I can't even afford to buy them gifts this year. Hey, I know
00:28:15.420
there's no pressure. But you know what, the same Jesus that came, he could be the best present of
00:28:21.660
all that you can have this year. There's another song we're going to pray. And it's called Shoulders.
00:28:28.220
And that same Jesus that came, that God says, I'm sending you the Savior. He will carry you on his
00:28:35.820
shoulders. And that's exactly what the Lord did at the time and at the moment that I thought was my
00:28:41.580
lowest. It turns out that wasn't my lowest time. And we're getting to that part of my story.
00:28:47.620
But I want you to listen to the song and let it minister to you, because sometimes you need to be
00:28:53.980
carried on the shoulders of another one. And if that's you tonight, let this be the beginning of
00:28:59.280
you being carried. As you listen to this song, Shoulders.
00:29:12.980
Came to a point where I thought the one of the worst things that can happen is when you get sidelined,
00:29:18.340
you know, in ministry, when your marriage ends, when you have a fairly successful career, but then
00:29:26.060
you just can't handle it anymore in your head. And you, you know, you can't sleep anymore. And your
00:29:32.420
whole physical body breaks down because of it. Especially when one of your favorite life verses
00:29:40.360
is, first that's the one in 411 to 12, that says, make it your life ambition to lead a quiet life,
00:29:46.240
to mind your own business and to work with your hands, just as we told you, so that your daily
00:29:52.300
life may win the respect of outsiders. And so that you will not be depend, dependent on anybody.
00:29:59.360
Now, you have to understand a couple things about me as well. Even though
00:30:04.840
things had been very busy in my life in ministry, in as a paramedic, I had other interests growing up in
00:30:15.340
the city of Montreal. I believe it or not, I detested the city. I was more of a country boy.
00:30:23.140
And I didn't know anything about the country. I didn't know much about building construction or
00:30:27.900
anything. But now that I had a large family, I thought I got to keep these children busy.
00:30:33.280
And I thought I have a lot of children. And if they want to eat, they got to work and they got to
00:30:38.140
learn things and they got to learn skills. And so I ended up having six boys and three girls.
00:30:43.360
So I have a girl at the beginning and two girls at the end, my weekends, six boys in the middle.
00:30:49.860
And so through the course of my lifetime, we had three farms. We had a 36 acre farm,
00:30:55.800
a 56 acre farm, a 200 acre farm. But we also did tons of fun things together. You know,
00:31:02.660
when I had time off, we took the time off. We did a lot of kayaking, boating, traveling.
00:31:08.360
You know, I've always said to people, when I die, I'm going to move to Cape Breton Island.
00:31:15.520
And so that's where I live now. Most of these photos are part of our 200 acre farm that we had
00:31:21.620
in Nova Scotia. There I am at Bob Middle picking wild blueberries on our farm. We even had, you know,
00:31:29.560
cows in our house. But we did a lot of hunting, a lot of fishing. We grew our own fruits and
00:31:37.700
vegetables. That particular farm, we had an old house that was built in 1880, the barn in 1881.
00:31:44.260
But the old house, you know, it needed a foundation, but I didn't like right where it sat. So we picked
00:31:49.420
up the house. We put a new road in and we about a quarter kilometer, half a kilometer into the woods
00:31:55.740
and we moved the house. So I taught children how to do wiring and plumbing and roofing
00:32:01.540
and drywall. And by the way, I absolutely hate drywalling. I'll never do it again if I don't
00:32:09.300
have to. But we resettled the house there and lived there for a number of years. And it dawned on me,
00:32:16.740
you know, every once in a while, I get these things on my phone, you know, that like this time 10 years
00:32:21.660
ago, 15 years ago, this little girl, Hannah, she's number eight in the lineup. You know, this is when
00:32:27.700
she was small. This is just like a few years ago to now, you know, her going through high school and
00:32:34.420
university and just on the far left there, that's her getting married just a few months ago. Bottom
00:32:42.140
right earned her husband being commissioned out of their church in Moncton, New Brunswick to being
00:32:48.120
involved in ministry here. So they actually live in our basement until I think Friday because they
00:32:54.220
just bought a house. And I think they'll be moving out this coming Friday. So that's how quick
00:32:58.800
children move. And we've always taken pride in our children and in the activities that they've taken
00:33:05.240
part in. All of my children are preppers. If doomsday were to happen tomorrow, they can go out and forage
00:33:12.780
and can and hunt and fish. Most of my boys were always involved in cadets. I've had three, four of
00:33:23.080
my children serve in the military. I've got three of my grandchildren now serving in cadets. And, you
00:33:30.020
know, Caleb there, bottom right, we've always had our own smokehouse and that. So even my youngest
00:33:37.380
daughter there, Sarah Faith, the two on the on the far left, you know, anytime we did some work,
00:33:43.900
the chores or building or whatever, the children have always been very, very busy doing things with
00:33:49.660
us. When I was raising support to do my missions work in Brazil, for a year, we traveled around in
00:33:56.820
Florida, raising our support. We lived in Florida for two years, North Carolina for a year. We bought
00:34:02.220
an old MCI bus and that's it there. We it came with all the seats in it and everything. We gutted it
00:34:07.800
and we transformed it into a livable home. It's slept eight comfortably. It had two full bathrooms.
00:34:16.160
And so that's what we did. Another fun project, you know, and we ended up bringing the thing home and
00:34:20.940
some guy bought it so he can rent it out as a novelty novelty thing. Then when we settled back into
00:34:28.280
Canada in 2010, 2010, 2011, in the village that we lived in, where I had a farm working as a paramedic,
00:34:38.500
an old store came up for sale. So I bought it. It was an industrial farm feed store. And by the way,
00:34:47.040
look at all the ivermectin I had there. We had gallons and gallons of it there. Right. And so we had
00:34:53.580
about an 8,000 square foot warehouse in the back. We ended up, and this is my dream, by the way,
00:35:03.980
you know, having had farms in the past. So we had our own store. We ended up putting in an outfitters
00:35:09.980
and gun shop. We, you know, we, we sold more guns than Canadian Tire did. We ended up putting an indoor
00:35:15.720
archery range. We had a bakery in there. People in the community used to call me the mayor. But,
00:35:23.000
you know, this is about the time where everything started to kind of crumble in life, you know, and I,
00:35:28.240
I came to a crossroads and, and I realized, wow, things in my life are really, really a mess. But the
00:35:36.160
one thing that really wasn't a mess was my God, my relationship with the Lord. And I remember sitting
00:35:41.680
in my dad's old recliner chair. That's the only thing I have left of my dad now is that old recliner.
00:35:47.180
And my little kitten was sitting beside me and I had my Bible on my lap. And I said, Lord, you know,
00:35:51.840
I've got nine years of Bible college and seminary training. I've got like years and years and years
00:35:59.280
of like trauma training. And, and, you know, I used to work in the, in, in the trauma department
00:36:05.080
in our hospital with, with some of the best trauma people. And like, I, and now I'm broken. Like I,
00:36:12.300
I've got nothing, I've got nothing left to give. Like what's any of it worth anymore?
00:36:18.260
And the Lord kind of whispered in my heart and the Lord said, it's not what you do for me
00:36:25.180
that has your value. It's who you are in me. And I got to tell you
00:36:31.380
that verse of scripture, Emmanuel, I realized the Lord was with me. And for the next two years began
00:36:41.440
the healing process where every time I opened God's word, it was the Lord just ministering to me
00:36:47.940
and putting me back together and healing me. But it was also during that time that tragedy began
00:36:56.780
to strike in our home. You know, as I was starting to put this kind of life aside,
00:37:02.360
I was still having the bad dreams, the nightmares. I could literally feel in this one call,
00:37:07.900
this young girl punching me in the back because I couldn't save her mother. You know,
00:37:12.720
her mother was 51 years old, but then tragedy began to strike in my own home.
00:37:18.340
My son, Samuel, from the time he was just young, he used to sit on the toilet middle of the night,
00:37:22.800
complaining, rocking back and forth. My tummy hurts. My tummy hurts. My tummy hurts.
00:37:29.000
Now, one thing I got to tell you about myself, when I was 24 years old, I began having extreme
00:37:34.240
pain in my chest. And I would be taken to the hospital and they discovered it was pancreatitis,
00:37:40.500
acute pancreatitis. And I asked the doctor, so what in the world is that? This is before I was
00:37:45.740
a paramedic. And they said, well, technically it's an alcoholic's disease. And you know, it's
00:37:50.440
your pancreas is inflamed and it's backing up. And the pancreas juices are digesting your pancreas.
00:37:56.340
And let me tell you, it is very painful. Now I have a very high pain threshold, but it kept getting
00:38:01.480
worse and worse and worse and worse. So for the next six and a half years, I had 36 pancreatitis
00:38:06.340
attacks. I was hospitalized for 24 of them. I had a couple of procedures to kind of fix it.
00:38:12.620
But the specialists told me by the time I would be 35, I would either be a diabetic or have pancreatic
00:38:20.540
cancer or both. Well, 35 came and went and I was still around and I didn't think much of it
00:38:27.120
until Samuel started to have pancreatitis, pancreatic pain. And then my daughter, Sherea,
00:38:34.620
that's her in the middle and bottom right. And then my son, Kenan, my youngest son, Kenan,
00:38:40.320
and then my granddaughter, that's her at the top right. And then my youngest granddaughter.
00:38:45.720
So as it turns out, my son, Samuel had a full pancreatectomy. So they took out his pancreas,
00:38:51.140
his spleen, his duodenum, his eugenium, part of his small intestine, part of his
00:38:56.640
small intestine, part of his bowel, and part of his large intestine. And I think one other part.
00:39:08.360
Then they did the same thing with my daughter, Sherea. Then they did the same thing with Kenan.
00:39:12.700
And then they did the same thing with my granddaughter, Tears Up. Now I'm sparing you
00:39:17.520
all of the gory parts because I have photos of their pancreas and all their parts and all their
00:39:22.380
scars and all their surgeries and all that. Okay. Then it began to hit home. So we took some genetic
00:39:29.140
testings and it turns out we have a PRSS1 gene mutation in our family. So in October 2024, I began
00:39:39.120
to be sick. I was at my son's place on a hunting trip. It was a very successful hunting trip, but boy,
00:39:44.720
was I sick. I came home. I spent 10 days in the hospital. Then in January, I went back to,
00:39:52.040
I was not feeling well. I had some blood work done. My doctor called me the very next day, said, Dan,
00:39:57.980
get in your car right now, drive right to the regional hospital. They have a bed waiting for you.
00:40:03.720
You are to see the surgeon immediately. I ended up spending
00:40:07.480
10 weeks in the hospital. I had so many tubes shoved down my throat. I ended up getting my gallbladder
00:40:20.340
out. I almost died. I spent five days in ICU. I ended up having, I would keep you here all night
00:40:30.940
to let you know all the procedures I had done. I had a procedure I had to have done in Halifax.
00:40:36.300
They sent me back to the hospital here in Cape Breton for a few days. They sent me home on a Sunday.
00:40:43.680
Two and a half hours later, I came home and I basically died on my bathroom floor. I came to,
00:40:52.080
my wife said there was so much blood on the floor. The poor paramedics showed up and they wanted to know
00:40:58.640
if that was all my insides that had come out. The one paramedic knew me. He didn't recognize me at
00:41:04.760
first, but he saw the photo of Melanie and I on my bedside table. He's like, holy cow, that's Dan.
00:41:09.860
He's like, he's one of ours. They stepped it right up. It turns out I needed eight units of blood,
00:41:16.380
two units of plasma, two units of platelets. Back in the OR, they found the bleed. I had come to the
00:41:22.420
ambulance dispatch coaching my wife how to do CPR on me. She took pictures of that and I'll spare you those
00:41:27.800
as well. I came home towards the beginning of April. I had gone from 192 pounds to 145 pounds.
00:41:37.400
I was home for about six weeks. I started feeling better. I got sick again. I went back into the
00:41:44.100
hospital. They kept me for the weekend, but this time the prognosis was really, really bad. They said,
00:41:51.480
you have some tumors in your pancreas and it's pancreatic cancer. And they said, but this time,
00:41:58.080
prognosis is not good. There's a surgeon in Halifax that got a hold of it. And he said,
00:42:03.140
we need to get you into surgery. Like right now, we may be able to save your life. And I said, well,
00:42:09.060
here's the problem. I said, my daughter is walking down. I'm walking my daughter down the aisle in
00:42:14.560
Brunswick in about four weeks, three weeks, and I have to walk her down the aisle. And so they held
00:42:21.040
off as long as it could. And here I am walking my daughter. Well, you don't see me walking down the
00:42:27.920
aisle, but here I am. We walked her down that path and my daughter is happily married. And here I am
00:42:34.060
taking the first dance with my daughter. And let me tell you, I prayed for that. My next prayer was
00:42:40.180
like, Lord, I would like to make it to Christmas. They did do the surgery. And I don't know why I
00:42:47.880
threw this in here, but this is where God has me living now, by the way. If any of you have ever
00:42:51.420
been to Cape Breton, this is part of my healing journey. One of the most beautiful places on the
00:42:57.300
earth. Cape Breton is one of the top, it's the third top most beautiful islands in the world,
00:43:04.160
by the way. And this is where I'm talking to you from right now. But that verse of scripture that I
00:43:08.380
read to you earlier, make it your life's ambition to lead a quiet life. I have always been busy with
00:43:14.260
my hands. I have to be busy. I have to keep my head and my hands busy. And during that
00:43:21.140
small remission time, when I felt good, I was able to do my firewood, build my sawmill shed
00:43:27.000
because it was down by the river. And you know what? I felt good, but I knew things were not going
00:43:32.480
to go so well. And so here I am. The surgeon said, your surgery is going to be 50, 50. You may or may
00:43:39.360
not pull out of it. And I think the surgery was about six and a half, seven hours. Sorry for the
00:43:45.400
boar. But I showed this to Kim McBride, that photo on the left. And I said, look, Kim,
00:43:53.280
the staples are going kind of crooked. They couldn't even do a straight line. And she says,
00:43:58.500
geez, Dan, like they had one job. So my zipper goes a little crooked now. But they transferred me
00:44:06.320
from the QE2 Health Sciences Center after four days, where I had been seeing rats go all over the floor
00:44:13.420
and a nurse walk in one side of my bed to the other. My wife took pictures. She's like, Dan,
00:44:19.580
there are no doors. And so the drugs they had me on were pretty darn good, though I was seeing things
00:44:25.800
that weren't there. The paramedic that took me from one hospital to the other, a life flight medic,
00:44:32.300
he's like, in my 27 years, Danny says, I've never transferred a patient with so many IV pumps. I had
00:44:39.820
12 IV pumps running. And it's really, truly a miracle that I have survived. Now, the survival
00:44:46.160
rate of the cancer that I have is of one year is 20%. And I'm on month number five. I am in chronic
00:44:54.520
pain right now. And I became a diabetic moment they took out my pancreas and a bunch of other parts.
00:45:01.840
And again, I've got pictures of those parts, but I'm sparing you. But it's truly a miracle that I'm
00:45:06.220
still here today. And it's by the grace of God. Every morning, I spend an hour to an hour and a
00:45:11.360
half with the Lord. My wife and I spend time in the Word. This Jesus that was born at Christmas time
00:45:16.620
is not just a baby in a cradle. And I got to tell you, you've got to have hope. There's a reason why
00:45:23.640
I'm here. There's a reason why you're here. There's a reason why Jesus Christ came at Christmas time.
00:45:29.160
And it's to give you hope. And I don't care who's prime minister of Canada. I don't care what they
00:45:35.880
say they're going to do. My God sits on the throne of heaven, the maker of heaven and earth. And he's
00:45:42.200
in charge. He's in charge of Canada. He's in charge of you and me. He's in charge of this world. He's in
00:45:51.040
charge of eternity. And your situation may be dire tonight. It may or may not compare to me. And there
00:45:57.620
are people whose situations are 10 times worse than me. I want to tell you, I have no fear, none
00:46:03.680
whatsoever. And I struggle sometimes. I'm like, Lord, I wish I could go to heaven and leave all this
00:46:11.160
behind. But I got a dear wife that I love to bits that needs me. I have my son Samuel that's living with
00:46:18.940
us now. My daughter Hannah and her husband Andrew have been living with us for three months until they
00:46:24.860
get their home. They depend on us. So that's why I'm here. And I'm going to skip through this really
00:46:30.620
quick. The last few years have been horrendous. And the fight that is in me has not slowed. It has
00:46:38.220
slowed somewhat. Because when I'm in pain, I got to sit on a certain place on the couch with a heating
00:46:43.860
pad wrapped around me and I've got my pain meds. But this is the fight we've been involved in. And the
00:46:49.840
ministry that I no longer have, I have a new one. And I discovered Action for Canada a number of years
00:46:55.520
ago or Action for Canada discovered me. And we would go to these rallies and I would be speaking
00:47:02.380
in Halifax. And lo and behold, like a thousand people would show up or two thousand or three thousand.
00:47:09.200
I would go to speak in in Moncton, New Brunswick, and two thousand people would show up or three thousand
00:47:15.860
people would show up. And we have this incredible new family that we would meet. We started doing
00:47:21.600
these prayer walk for revivals for five weeks every spring from Passover to Pentecost. And the people
00:47:30.240
that would come and pray their hearts out over our schools, our elected officials, our elected
00:47:36.780
officials in our buildings, the people that God has placed into our hearts. On the bottom left-hand
00:47:43.860
corner, I can't say enough of these people. Pastor Bruce and Tom and Bev will lead our Wednesday and
00:47:50.140
our Friday prayer meetings. We have an incredible prayer team with Action for Canada. You know,
00:47:56.220
we've met Max Bernier a couple of times. He's come to our church. That fellow with right in the middle
00:48:01.840
there, me and my younger prime days, Dave Mills, you know, a mentor in my life. You know,
00:48:08.040
Rain Roslin, McDonald, they're here from, they're from here in Cape Breton, right here in Sydney. But,
00:48:14.980
you know, they've got a ministry in Israel, Lekit. And, you know, Heather, a friend of mine from Bible
00:48:22.980
College, you know, was involved with Action for Canada. I mean, incredible people. And I can't be
00:48:30.120
remiss to tell you how important and how incredible God is. Every time there's going to be a storm here in
00:48:36.660
Cape Breton or the tail end of a hurricane or something, we pray Psalm 91 over a property.
00:48:41.820
Now, two years ago, we had Hurricane Fiona. We live on a dirt road and all of our neighbors,
00:48:48.060
their properties were a mess. Uprooted trees, shingles off the roof, power off. I have a prayer
00:48:54.740
bench that overlooks the river. We live on a river here. It's a beautiful spot to pray. My little prayer
00:49:00.180
table was overturned. The top of a birch tree fell on my prayer bench and broke one side of the armrest.
00:49:08.980
This is not a staged photo. This is exactly how I found it the next morning. This is my prayer bench
00:49:16.580
where I pray for my children to come to know the Lord and to get right with the Lord. This is where I
00:49:22.240
pray for protection. And this is how it fell in the shape of a cross on my prayer bench. To me,
00:49:29.440
this was like the enemy rattling things, but the Lord reminding me, I've got you. The Lord has a
00:49:36.460
plan and a purpose for your life. I want you to know that there is hope in this season. And that
00:49:43.300
hope is found in Jesus Christ. And you can know him. God has surrounded me with an incredible family.
00:49:50.360
Here I am spending time with my boss, Tanya, and my coworkers, Kim, and her husband,
00:49:56.820
Renee came up to visit my lovely wife, Melanie. She is my rock. And she has been so great with me
00:50:02.540
through this, this time of illness and sickness, you know, and she's already lost the husband to
00:50:07.980
cancer and a son to cancer. So this is difficult for her too. So I appreciate the prayer team and
00:50:14.320
everyone covering her in prayer because this is hard on her too. But I just want to thank the Lord that
00:50:19.920
this journey of mine is not over. And, you know, I may have a day left. I may have a year left. I may
00:50:26.280
have 10 years left. I don't know. But it doesn't matter. Every day is a gift. And for 30 years as a
00:50:33.180
paramedic, I've watched people put on clean socks and underwear in the morning, perfectly healthy, and
00:50:38.760
not get 20 minutes into their journey. And that was the end of their life. Nothing is guaranteed.
00:50:44.520
But, you know, when you're a child of God, you know, Jesus Christ, that baby in a manger who came
00:50:51.080
to be your savior. That's all you need to know because he offers eternal life. For God did not
00:50:58.660
send his son into the world to condemn the world, it says in John 3, 17, but that the world through him
00:51:04.080
should be saved. And so as I wrap this up here, I want you to know God gave me a great posterity.
00:51:10.740
And this is another reason why I'm here. This is another reason why I have hope. On the bottom
00:51:16.180
right, that's, I think, seven of my nine children. And I think it's eight of my 12 grandchildren.
00:51:24.880
And on the top left, my little brother standing next to me there. He lives in Austin, Texas with his
00:51:29.820
wife and some of his children there. But and again, that's only some of our family. That's not all of
00:51:36.540
that's my mom that prayed for me to follow in my dad's footsteps. And I still have a ministry
00:51:41.900
with Action for Canada. I'm proud to say I'm the national Action for Canada pastor, church coordinator,
00:51:48.700
and it gives me great pleasure to lead as I can and just to be an encouragement to to our folks.
00:51:54.980
And just as we wrap up, you know, people say, oh, you know, at Action for Canada, you preach the
00:51:59.700
Lord and that you believe in Santa. Well, there's me as Santa a number of years ago. My daughter's
00:52:04.620
Hannah and Sarah Faith. Believe it or not, they walked into the room I was in. They didn't even
00:52:08.760
recognize me. That's how good of an actor I can be. And that's my little pup over there
00:52:13.400
encouraging me through this cancer journey. But let me tell you, I got to tell you, the Lord loves
00:52:18.980
you so much. You can have hope this Christmas. And I want you to know that someday when this life is
00:52:25.660
over, we will stand before God. I want him to stand you to stand before him as your Savior and as
00:52:31.580
your Lord, not as your judge. Will you make this Christmas special? I want to close in a quick
00:52:37.620
prayer, and then we're going to have one last song together. Heavenly Father, this world may seem so
00:52:44.120
hopeless, but these people that are either watching this live, Lord, or will watch the recording,
00:52:50.960
they may feel so hopeless. They may be broke. They may feel broke. They may feel our economy is broke.
00:52:55.800
They may feel Canada is broke. It really doesn't matter who is in Parliament in Ottawa. It makes
00:53:03.000
no difference. None of them are there, and you're not worried about it. You're not saying, oh no,
00:53:08.940
I can't believe so-and-so got voted in, or so-and-so crossed the floor to the liberals. That's nothing to
00:53:14.760
you, Lord. You raise people into power, and you depose them. And Lord, we just got to trust you.
00:53:21.360
We just got to trust you, Lord, this time of year. And so, Father, I pray for those that are seeking
00:53:27.420
hope this year. May they find you. And Lord, for those believers that have maybe left their first
00:53:34.320
love, or maybe that don't take you to school, that don't take you to their cubicle, that don't involve
00:53:40.380
you in their family affairs. Father, may they find you again. May they find you and bring you back into
00:53:46.740
their life. And Lord, if there's anybody on this show right now, and they say, well, I've never had
00:53:51.680
a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. I've never thought of Jesus more than Jesus in the
00:53:57.480
manger, or Jesus dying at Easter. May they come to know you. And if that's you tonight, and you'd like
00:54:04.860
to know Jesus Christ, the Bible says if you believe with your heart and confess with your mouth that Jesus
00:54:11.560
Christ is the Son of God, you shall be saved. So I invite you to just simply pray and invite Jesus
00:54:18.100
Christ into your heart to be your Lord and Savior in your own words. And the Bible says, you shall be
00:54:24.560
saved. So as we conclude this part, I invite you to listen to the message of this wonderful song,
00:54:32.920
Mary, Did You Know? And then we'll turn it over to Tanya. Thank you.
00:54:41.560
Wow. Dan, you know, I've been sitting here watching the chat and the love for you. I thank you
00:54:57.700
for providing a full story of your life. I appreciate seeing from your childhood. And you are just really
00:55:07.000
at this time of year a living testimony that just because we hand our lives over to the Lord and
00:55:13.420
we make that decision one day does not mean that our lives are going to be easy. But compared to
00:55:21.060
unbelievers, we know where we're going, we have faith in Christ, and we see our trials differently.
00:55:28.740
And that helps us to get through them in a different way. I'm not going to say easier,
00:55:33.460
because I've watched you in the last year. And I know it hasn't been easy for you. I know that our
00:55:50.480
You are, you are family. And I just think about the years ago when when you came into our lives many
00:55:57.100
years ago now. And at a sense, you know, we all know now that you are a paramedic. And,
00:56:04.060
you know, where was your ministry going to go? And I remember being you being excited that you could
00:56:09.260
stand up before the crowd and start to tell people about Jesus again. And that's why I've said about
00:56:16.740
Action for Canada. Action for Canada is indeed God breathed. He's created this organization.
00:56:21.900
He's given us this platform. And I couldn't imagine a more important time in the history of Canada
00:56:29.980
for us to be telling people about Jesus. Because of how dark this world has become,
00:56:37.080
and that our only hope is in Him and eternal life. That's where the priority comes. And so I'm very,
00:56:44.780
very grateful that you gave your testimony of what you've been through in the last year as well.
00:56:49.680
And we, as your Action for Canada family, have loved and adored you. And I know that in your
00:56:56.300
heart, I just want our viewers to know that in your heart, always, every time, whether he was in
00:57:01.220
at the hospital or just finishing up with surgery, there's more to his story about, you know,
00:57:08.020
Dan's life being made a priority to save over somebody else's and what that effect that had on Dan.
00:57:14.580
And that it was always a matter of how could he use what he was going through in his trials
00:57:20.280
to minister to somebody else. And again, you've done that again tonight, Dan. And I've always said
00:57:27.960
you wore many hats. I would say you're Pastor Dan and Prepper Dan and Action for Canada Chapter
00:57:34.440
Leader Dan and Provincial Leader Dan. You're a missionary and a mayor, apparently.
00:57:38.980
And so many different things. So I just couldn't imagine a better way for Action for Canada to
00:57:46.960
finish off our year and to have a Christmas service celebration than you giving your testimony.
00:57:53.440
And I truly believe that it is going to give people hope and that whatever heaviness that
00:58:00.140
they are making their way through right now, I believe they will know there's another side to it.
00:58:06.540
And that, as always, we've welcomed people to reach out to either pastors at actionforcanada.ca
00:58:13.580
or call to at actionforcanada.ca or reach out to our chapter leaders in your community.
00:58:20.880
And that's why the government wants to divide us because we're strongest when we have community
00:58:24.680
because we sometimes need the help of support and family and friends to get through the trials
00:58:30.060
such as Dan has been in this last year. So thank you, Dan, from the bottom of my heart.
00:58:34.680
You're welcome. And just let me say, if you're going through a hard time, don't get angry with God.
00:58:40.460
That's not the answer. I don't regret one second of any thing I've gone through, even the pain in that.
00:58:47.920
It has drawn me closer to the Lord. It really has. And you have to go through it to understand what I'm saying.
00:58:54.440
But getting angry at the Lord for the circumstances and for what you're going through is not the answer.
00:59:01.500
And I know people say, well, how could a good God allow that to happen?
00:59:06.560
And I have seen so many people die in front of me.
00:59:14.180
I've seen the light go in their eyes and I've seen them enter eternity.
00:59:18.180
And I have felt my own self die, you know, to know that the one sure thing about life is death.
00:59:28.480
And it's inevitable. But to face life, the difficulties in that with God on your side, it makes all the difference in the world.
00:59:38.780
So let him into your life, let him into your heart and allow him to make that difference.
00:59:49.140
I've mentioned that I've been through, you know, trials within my own life as well.
00:59:53.200
And I've got to say, there's sometimes I got angry.
00:59:56.220
What are you doing? You know, and that sort of thing.
01:00:02.020
And but that's where we need that community continuing to encourage us, just like Dan has just done now, that you can and will make it through this and that you will find on the other side, you're a better person.
01:00:17.060
And I'm actually thankful for my trials now because of what I'm able to accomplish today.
01:00:23.800
You have been called to Action for Canada and within your community.
01:00:27.660
And you continue, no matter what, to minister to people and to serve them.
01:00:32.580
And I just, yeah, again, thank you for joining us tonight and for giving this amazing testimony and service.
01:00:45.700
Well, everybody, I just want to remind you that Action for Canada has taken a break, a much needed break over the Christmas holiday for a couple of weeks.
01:00:54.400
And we will launch the Empower Hour, as it says here, on January 14th in 2026.
01:01:00.860
And I want you to know that we are prepared and we're going to hit the ground running in 2026.
01:01:05.920
I just want to encourage you to join Action for Canada.
01:01:09.080
If you haven't already signed up, do the call to action campaigns.
01:01:13.500
Bill C9 is going to be a really, really important one going into the new year.
01:01:17.920
We've got new actions that we've just launched last night on that.
01:01:21.480
And then so to close off as well, I just want to read a final verse.
01:01:28.320
And I think that it really adds to and complements what Dan has said tonight.
01:01:33.860
For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions
01:01:42.420
and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope,
01:01:50.300
the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us,
01:01:55.780
to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself, a people for his own possession, who are zealous for good works.
01:02:05.100
And that's, you know, this is my prayer for you.
01:02:08.180
And Dan gave an invitation that if you don't know Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior of your life,
01:02:12.720
and you want to take that step of faith, please reach out to Action for Canada and we'll have somebody get in touch with you.
01:02:22.040
And there are so many people, it's generally when times are good, that that is when people stray from God.
01:02:31.420
And it is through the difficult times when he brings oppression and persecution,
01:02:34.940
when we finally get on our knees and look up, when we finally get on our knees and say,
01:02:43.920
And I think that God is giving us a season of grace right now and giving us an opportunity to get right with him.
01:02:50.620
So, I just want to wish you all a very Merry Christmas.
01:03:13.240
And God alone for the ground that I'm standing on.
01:03:17.940
I'm going to thank our founding fathers for giving their lives and sacrificing so much for our freedom.
01:03:55.060
We are going to be in every town and every city.
01:03:58.780
And we are going to build communities within these communities of like-minded people
01:04:03.460
who are actually going to care for one another again and love on each other
01:04:07.320
and give each other the help when they're down.
01:04:10.620
We are going to use the teams and the people that build within chapters to support our businesses.
01:04:17.200
The government's actions are completely, 100% unlawful.
01:04:24.900
Judgment will again be found on justice and those with virtuous hearts will pursue it.
01:04:33.140
You have a virtuous heart if you are here today pursuing freedom and righteousness.
01:04:45.280
God says he will turn the sins of evil people back on them.
01:04:56.080
I take great comfort in that because I serve a mighty living God
01:05:02.260
who has allowed us to go through this season of discomfort
01:05:07.800
because we as a nation have turned our backs on him.
01:05:18.700
I'm going to say God bless you and God bless Canada.