Providence 100 Year Anniversary

I came across this message I gave at the 2014 harvest Festival at Providence. To my surprise I was the keynote speaker that Fall. On the eve of Providence’s 100 anniversary I thought it might be of some interest to repost it here.

"The theme this evening is A Legacy of Faithfulness but it could also be about connections. Without these connections there would be no legacy to remember.

In May 2000, my wife, daughter and I arrived at Winnipeg Richardson airport. I was on my way to interview for a position in the BTS faculty. My wife and daughter came along for moral support and to investigate what I was potentially getting us into. We had no connection with Providence. And no family in the prairies. My roots lie in Quebec and Nfld and my wife is all Newfie.

From our vantage point Manitoba was a foreign country.

Greeting us at the airport with a handheld sign that spelled my name wrong was a wide-eyed Michael Gilmour – not Dr. Michael J. Gilmour the publication giant and sought after Oxford speaker that he has become today but Michael Gilmour a common lecturer that couldn’t even pay for the parking when we left the airport.

At the time I knew just enough about Providence to know that the college campus was outside of Winnipeg. Of course, descriptors like “ just outside,” “near” are relative terms to prairie folk where driveways can extend for a mile or more. We left the airport, drove past the Bomber stadium and with anticipation I looked forward to the freeway that would take us outside the city toward the campus. Again I discovered there is no such freeway. The kind folks of the city of Winnipeg prefer punctuating their roadways with traffic lights, stop signs speed bumps and road barricades every few hundred feet. A kind welcome to Winnipeg and smell the flowers.

Eventually we made it outside of the city. I assumed as much because suddenly we were surrounded by a whole lot of nothing. Understand I am not a farmer. From where I came from no buildings, no trees, no lakes, no hills equals a lot of nothing. Mercifully, and probably wisely Michael did not drive down one of the gravel roads that leads to Prov with our first initiation.

Three months later I would return with having accepted a job offer. It was the middle of August. Our house remained unsold in Peterborough, and our daughter elected to stay behind in Ontario. It was not the best of times. Little did I know that working at Providence meant learning the way of providence: no rush all in good time.

It was a Friday morning. We had stayed overnight in Winnipeg and depending how you look at it as we proceeded down Hwy 59 we were either ascending to Otterbourne or we were descending into the pit of despair. I say that because suddenly halfway into the trip dark clouds the color of sin, swept in. In something right out of the book of Exodus the heavens roared, with rain and hail in biblical proportions unleashing their force. Either God was happy and he has a funny way of showing it or someone was going to make sure we did not arrive. Fortunately, I was also pulling a small sailboat and if needed I could bail out to escape.

Finally, we made the turn toward the college and as suddenly the rains began they stopped, the sky turned blue, the sun came out and we pulled to a stop before the emerald bell tower. Incidentally our house in Peterborough sold the very same day we arrived. Providence: all in God’s good time. I have reminded God at some point we will do this face to face, but we will have a talk.

14 years later, (2014) here we are – still in Otterburne

What can I say, looking back I can now see how much God looks forward.

Now can I pause and just say if any of the architects behind our current name are in the audience. What exactly were you thinking? Providence. Really? You know that is like giving God a license to stir up testing bitter waters. – Marah?

I can only imagine the conversation that took place in heaven. “Providence, you are going to call yourself Providence, wonderful we are already thinking of certain outlanders, outcasts, that we can send your way to mold and shape through the crucible of testing, and trials. It will be a great partnership. And when you release them, with confidence we will send them to forsaken lands, troubled places to bring light, and healing so the world can see what the least of these can do in our providential hands. This is going to be so much fun. “

In preparation for this talk I did some research on the college.

In particular, I perused Presidential statements to the board of Governors. You could not help but notice a certain pattern or liturgy.

Quote:

When compared with past years this has been a year of growth and stability. Salaries have been paid quite consistently on time and our accounts receivable still exceed our accounts payable. (1969)

         Between the lines: This year every other month employees received pay on time.

         Providential factoid. People still worked here and believed in their cause and vocation.

Quote:

“Financially, what is the state of WBC? In a word, improving but still not healthy” (alumnus 1969).”

Between the lines: At the end of last calendar year the banks have given us a one in a million chance of starting this next year. Now they are saying it is one in ten.

Providential factoid: in a survey at the tim,e out of 156 Bible Colleges reporting WBC ranked among the lowest paid but was first in the degree status of its professors.

Quote:

“Starting in September our goal is to reduce expenses, raise income.” (as opposed to what?)

Between the line: This year God will have to squeeze lemonade out of a dry lemon.

Providential factoid: As a university college and Seminary we have never been sustainable, at least sustainable in any modern economical best practice sense of the word. Look at the record and you will search in vain for even an Elim moment somewhere in the story of Providence. You know that mythical place mentioned in Exodus 4.  A place with 12 springs of water and 70 palm trees. Okay Elim only gets one verse in the Bible, and nothing happens before Israel is led into the Valley of sin…but that is beside the point. A year in Elim would be nice.

Quote:

The issue of campus development is too complex to simply list a few steps to be taken.

Between the line: the situation is as hopeless in the natural as improving Winnipeg roads

Providential factoid: we, Providence could never write a manual on sustainability that the banks would understand. If we did it would be short. To rephrase a line I heard from a movie I saw this summer, it would simply say,

It will all work out in the end God provides and if he doesn’t it isn’t the end.

Or if that is too long it could simply say Trust in the Lord

Do not misunderstand me. Sustainability is a noble and worthy goal and for the banks sake we will include it somewhere in our literature. But a better word might be resilience.

90 years and many sustainable companies have come and gone and we are still here thriving, equipping, leading, sometimes running on nothing more than 5 loaves and 2 fish but God provides in the end, and if he doesn’t it isn’t the end.

At Providence we know a thing or two about resilience in the face of adversity. Of the possible in the impossible.

I begin my 15^th year here at Providence. If you had asked me 14 years ago would I still be here, I would probably have said not likely.

I came as a refugee. To be honest at the time, in my way of thinking I was leaving a difficult situation more than I was coming to a new place. Funny the way Providence sometimes works - we think we are in control.

To be honest over these past years I have had my share of grumbling. The older I get the more I dislike winter. And where do I live? I can’t say I am fond of commuting and some of the company I have had to keep in carpool. Present company not included. There was the story about…I know what happens in carpool stays in carpool.

But in the end, I cannot honestly imagine a better fit for me, spiritually and professionally.

So what is it about this place that has kept me here, that has brought so many of you back here, again and again, that connects us in some kind of bond. That has left us with a legacy to identify with. Sure, we are in the education business. But so are many other places that have better budgets, more resources and so forth.

We are a Christian University College A Christ-centered Christian university…I get that and speaking personally being Christ centered means a centering focus grounding my faith and vocation.  But there are other good Christian University Colleges and Seminaries that are Christ-centered.  What is distinct about Providence?

We might say it is the people that make up Providence. And that is certainly a significant part of the equation. You will be hard to find a more committed group of employees, from the faculty to Joel Jolly on sound. And at Providence it is not likely you will find a greater diversity of people: Diversity of languages, cultures, and religious backgrounds. I like to think there is a dignity of difference recognized here where diversity is a blessed grace filled opportunity to grow in the image of God. Because God loves difference. You thought the tower of Babel was a punishment. Scattering was an act of redemption. God loves difference but they wanted to be the same. And Providence has come to embrace difference.

Which left me thinking. What is left that is unique to Providence?

There is one thing we have that no one else has and is sometimes vastly underappreciated - it is the very ground we are sitting on. Did you know that in Ojibway:  Otterbourne means “rivers of healing and grace”

Ok I made that up entirely. I have no idea what Otterbourne means but I know it has a history of caring for the unfortunate, of being a hub of ecological activity and a place of learning.

Now it is not a very evangelical to reflect about place.

In the evangelical tradition we make short thrift of place in our theology.  In our tradition place is simply the space where two or three are gathered together. Place is a convenience certainly but not a necessity. Buildings are functional but we are slow to think of them aesthetically or as carriers of the gospel themselves. All of which is surprising because as OT Scholar Walter Brueggemenan points out, in scripture land is a “central, if not the central theme of biblical faith.“

Brueggeman opines,

This sense of place is to be sharply distinguished from a sense of space…Space means an arena of freedom without coercion or accountability, free of pressures and void of authority.  Space may be imaged as a weekend, or holiday, and is characterized by a kind of neutrality or emptiness waiting to be filled by our choosing. Such a concern appeals to a desire to get out from under meaningless routine and subjection. But place is a very different matter. Place is a space that has historical meanings where some things have happened that are now remembered and that provide continuity and identity across generations. Place is space in which important words have been spoken that have established identity, defined vocation, and envisioned destiny. Place is space in which vows have been exchanged, promises have been made and demands have been issued. Place is indeed a protest against the unpromising pursuit of space. It is a declaration that our humanness cannot be found in escape, detachment, absence, commitment and undefined freedom. The land for which Israel yearns and which it remembers is never unclaimed space but it is always a place with Yahweh.”

No A displaced disembodied salvation has no resemblance to biblical theology

I can prove it. Most of you who are here this evening have come because you have a connection with this place. How many came early to revisit the campus? To see what is new, but also to remember the familiar. You checked out an old classroom, dorm room, that triggered the memory of an answered prayer or a particular moment in time that indelibly changed you. Those moments, those stories are triggered by place.

In fact, all stories are placed.

I don’t know why we are sometimes so slow to acknowledge the role of place in God’s Kingdom. Reread Genesis one. God steps down from the firmament and creates land, mountains, trees, rivers and lakes and says yeah baby that is good. I am going to make a place for my people to dwell.

Leading the people of Israel by hand, the Israelites cross the Jordan river and leaders pile stones to remember what God had done to bring them into this place the promised land. The stones were to help future generations remember that God brought Israel to a particular place. And what place was that? A place of Pomegranates, a land of wheat and barley, orchards of apples in which they will eat bread without scarcity.

Place

Even the incarnation - as an event it was universal, but it was rooted in a place

Like nothing else Place pulls the past through to the future.

For 4o years (okay it was actually 45 but 40 sounds prophetic) Providence (or if you prefer pick any of the other 5 names the college had before 1990) wandered in the wilderness (in this case) Winnipeg with nowhere to lay their head. At least nothing they could truly call home. 14 locations in total.

And then a gift.

One minute the college was wondering how they would find the funds to build on some 10 acres of purchased land in Charleswood, the next moment they we were sitting on 90 acres of land replete with buildings on site to accommodate the needs of Providence. St Joseph’s College became Winnipeg Bible College. In all it took one month from making the first call to purchasing the property. It was so fast there is nothing even in the minutes of the BOG on the purchase.

The March 1970 edition of the Witness announced the miracle. The article was entitled Winnipeg Bible College and the Providence of God in bold letters. And God does not have a sense of laughter, irony?

The then president Ken Hanna writes,

“Giant trees from little acorns grow, That is also how many great events take shape. The purchase of St. Joseph’s College seems to be a sudden miracle, Yet behind that has been years of prayer, hours of work and above all great faithfulness on God’s part.

We might call it Providence: “God coincidences”

I did a little more research.

In 1911 this place was christened Saint Joseph’s Home. Originally it was an orphanage, a refuge for unfortunate children regardless of their nationality. It became a vegetable garden and an apple orchard for the local people. It was a tree farm for trees that would eventually line Portage Avenue and Windsor Park. St Josephs college would later become a secondary school with grades from 7-12 that served the area. It was financially self-sufficient as the Catholic fathers believed they could subsist from Christian generosity personified in the protection of Saint Joseph in whom the Home had placed all its confidences.

What is Prov house today became the residence of the “Little Missionaries of Saint Joseph” who took in and cared for the sick as a kind of hospice. The story is quite remarkable. And as we look back, we can again see how God looks forward.

Here is the hidden truth.

Places and their inhabitants are always involved in a symbiotic relationship. People shape places and places shape people

St. Joseph’s was an orphanage, a place for refugees

It was a garden a place for nourishment

It was a tree farm, a place for new beginnings

It was a personal care home, a place for healing the sick.

It was a place on the boundary, both geographically and spiritually.

You are smart you know where I am going with this.

Fast forward Providence University College and Seminary

is a place on the edges, it is not the city, but it has become a safe place for those who find themselves living on the margins, side by side we harbor those with strong faith and those with little faith. We build up the weak and sometimes bring down the proud.

We in the business of seeding and transplanting to bring beauty, hope and salvation into dark places around the world

This is St. Joseph’s collaborative Providence

A Place to believe…a safe place to work through our unbelief

A Place to grow in Christ, to grow together to grow while serving, to grow in knowledge to grow through competition, to open up intentional places for listening, learning, lamenting, repenting and beginning again.

A Place of trust for stories to be told, appropriate boundaries negotiated, diversity honored

A Place of patience that resists expecting quick solutions.

A place of hospitality that welcomes diversity, difference, ambiguity and paradox.

A place that resists judgment always with the possibility of forgiveness, and reconciliation

A place of compassionate hearing where someone’s story is never too dull, uninteresting or inconvenient

A place where vulnerability is not a liability or weakness but is embraced as the pathway to creativity  

A place to laugh again and again at ourselves at each other and sometimes at the pure imagination of God’s resourcefulness

That’s my Providence.

Of course I am only kidding, who could expect or dream that much.

Or am I?

That’s why I am back for year 15.

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Post Script – In the ensuing 10 years since I gave this talk much has changed at Providence. Covid happened, faculty and staff cuts were made, and my own tenure was cut short by a year before my planned retirement.

On the plus side athletics continues to grow. A significant growth in international students gave the college a downtown Winnipeg campus and a new financial foundation.

But alas, the government is culling the numbers of international students, and it looks like rain is again in the forecast. But with 100 years behind them I have no doubt Providence resilience will live on.

Events are planned for the 100 year anniversary this fall. For more information see their website at www.prov.ca