 By Naomi Parke The first time my daughter ever rode in a vehicle, she was in an ambulance. Her first hours earth-side were spent surrounded by a NICU team struggling to figure out why a seemingly healthy baby had low oxygen levels. My first hours as a mother were a blur. I don’t remember enough. I remember too much. My first days as a parent were the hardest thing I’ve ever walked through.  My daughter, Eleanor Grace, was born at 11:30pm on February 12th, 2026. Her birth was beautiful and perfect. Thankfully, the natural water birth I had planned at the hospital with my midwife and husband was all I hoped it would be. Our girl we spent years praying for was here, and life as we knew it would never be the same. Mere hours after delivery, our baby was taken straight to the NICU after showing signs of concerning low oxygen. My rational brain told me this was all just a mistake; she’d perk up in an hour, and we could spend the rest of the day recovering together. Soon enough we’d be home and settling into life as a family of three. My pregnancy with Nora was low-risk and perfectly healthy. She passed her anatomy scan with flying colors and measured exactly on time at every visit. Her heartbeat was always strong on the doppler. As for me, I had a lot of anxiety while pregnant. Every day was an act of surrender. I would often hear God say, “Do you trust me?” He was actually preparing me for the most life-altering moment of my life, right there in a NICU room with my baby in a hospital bed. Test after test came back clear. No sign of infection, no significant amount of fluid in her lungs. The doctor then wanted to do an in-depth look at her heart through ultrasound. I remember asking him if he really thought something could be wrong with her heart. “Honestly? I don’t,” he said. “That’s pretty rare.” Once the test was completed, we received the answer no one was expecting: Eleanor was diagnosed with a congenital heart defect called Total Anomalous Pulmonary Venous Return (TAPVR). The NICU doctor promptly informed us that an ambulance was on its way to take us to Children’s Hospital, where our daughter would need open-heart surgery. On her second day of life, she would undergo one of the most invasive surgeries that can be performed. I remember feeling like I was underwater. I blinked; everything was blurry. Muffled voices everywhere, none of it making sense. Maybe I was having the worst nightmare of my life I just couldn’t wake up from. I begged God to let this all be a dream. “Please, let me wake up and start this day over.” Maybe if I try hard enough, we can go back to the beginning. Hadn’t I just birthed a perfectly healthy baby? This couldn’t be happening. Our surgeon met my husband in our hospital room where we’d essentially be living for the foreseeable future. Unfortunately, I was still at the other hospital waiting to be discharged. He pulled my husband aside and asked him where I was. When he learned I was still at the other hospital, he offered to drive both of them together in his own vehicle to where I was. “I want to find your wife and let her know everything will be okay. She needs to know her baby isn’t going to die.” Garrett and I moved to Omaha almost 3 years ago. We grew up in the beautiful state of Idaho, in a suburb just outside the capital city. A lot was changing in our hometown, and we were itching for a fresh start. Essentially, we could go anywhere. We nailed down the fact that the Midwest seemed like a good fit for our lifestyle and his upcoming career change. As we crossed potential cities off the list, it was between 2 places: Grand Rapids, Michigan, and Omaha, Nebraska. For whatever reason, Omaha just seemed to be the place that felt right. My parents had spent some time here for work and raved about potential life in Nebraska. We had an undeniable pull to risk it all and move to a city where we didn’t know a soul. We thought we were making the move for us, but as God would have it, we know now that we moved here so our daughter could have a fighting chance. Eleanor was always going to be our girl, and she was always going to be born with TAPVR. That’s something only God knew when we decided on Omaha. Eleanor’s heart surgery was successful, and we were now on the road to recovery. Living at the hospital is unlike any experience I’ve ever had. Hours go by, but they all feel the same. Day shift and night shift. Nothing ever stops moving. Constant monitoring, adjusting, and watching. Unfamiliar sounds that eventually lull you to sleep when you can manage to get any. As we settled into our unfamiliar new reality, anything to bring normalcy into our day was life-changing. Every single day we had people from our church show up with meals. Our pastor prayed with us the morning of her surgery. We had gifts and check-ins. Millions of prayers for our precious baby. There was truly never a moment we were without support.
Our gratitude can never ever be expressed adequately to the members of our church family at Crosspoint Bible Church. I attribute so much of our daughter’s rapid recovery to the people who showed up, day in and day out for us. In the beginning, we were trying to hold up a ceiling that was falling. Cracking. Breaking. The weight of it crushing. One by one, people came and lifted their hands to that ceiling. The unbearable weight of it lessened. Most nights, I still go to bed wondering why I have to endure this trial. Most of the time, it’s still a heavy weight. The beauty of it all is found years back, when God put it on our hearts to leave our hometown. When we decided to move to Omaha, Nebraska, for our daughter that only God knew about. Even when God feels distant, He’s always working behind the scenes. I’ll leave you with our daughter’s life verse: “And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you.” 1 Peter 5:10 ESV Indeed He has. Indeed He will.
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To The Least of These2/4/2026  “Lord, open doors of opportunity so our community can see that we love them—and that Jesus loves them too.” Those weren’t the exact words of our Elders’ prayer, but they captured our shared burden. We long to be a church that does more than offer programs designed to draw people into our building. We are asking God to open opportunities to show our community His love, even if they never step inside our church. When those opportunities came, we hesitated. Would this truly fulfill our calling as Christians? Would the community welcome us? Did we have the skills and resources? Would people volunteer? We learned quickly that those answers don’t come all at once. What we do know is that today we are serving our community of 1,800 people through two programs deeply connected to our local schools. Literacy Partnership In the spring of 2024, news across our province focused on growing concerns about students lacking adequate classroom support, especially in their early developmental years. Many children struggle to learn to read and do not receive enough support at home, while schools have limited access to support staff. Regardless of where blame may lie, these children are falling through the cracks, and the long-term consequences of poor literacy skills are significant. We at Dalmeny Bible Church began consulting with K–6 school administrators, who welcomed us to come into classrooms during school hours to provide a volunteer-led Literacy Program. Initially, there was understandable hesitation from teachers, likely due to concerns that we might have an agenda to evangelize students. Over time, trust grew as they recognized that our motivation was compassion, not coercion.
School Nutrition Program Elders continued praying for more opportunities, and another door opened—far sooner than we expected. We received a call asking if we would consider applying for a School Board grant to start a student Nutrition Program. The timeline was tight, but after brief consultation with the Elders and our Property and Finance Committee, we moved forward. Conversations with school administrators confirmed a clear and pressing need. In June, we were stunned to learn that our application had been approved. We later discovered we were the only grant recipient in the entire school division. Implementing what is now known as the Dalmeny School Nutrition Program has been a steep learning curve for our church community. Our existing kitchen lacked the space required for new equipment and proper food storage, so we had to create and prepare a new inspected area by the end of August. While the grant supports the program, we are responsible for purchasing the food. God has faithfully provided through generous support from our church, community members, local businesses, and food suppliers. When we shared the vision with our congregation, 50 people attended the initial information meeting. One important decision was whether to offer the program universally or selectively. To avoid marginalizing students with nutritional needs, we chose to provide healthy food for all students. The program continues to develop. Four volunteer teams rotate weekly responsibilities for food preparation and delivery, including baking and hot meals. Elementary students receive nutritious snacks or fresh baking twice a week, while high school students have access to a daily nutrition break with fruit or prepared snacks. In addition, we provide school-wide hot meals monthly or bi-weekly, always mindful of severe allergies. The response from school administrators and teachers has been deeply encouraging. Strong, healthy relationships have grown between our church and the schools. One teacher shared that the program has made a significant difference in her classroom. Some students arrive without enough food; others bring food that is not nourishing. Nutritious meals help students regulate, focus, and learn. Fulfilling Our Mandate Should literacy and nutrition programs be part of a church’s mandate to make disciples? Three years ago, we would not have thought so. Today, we see differently. We’ve adopted the motto “to the least of these”, now stitched onto the aprons our volunteers wear.
When people ask why we do this, it gives us the opportunity to share how our crucified and risen Lord compels us to love others as He has loved us. These initiatives haven’t replaced teaching or outreach at DBC. Instead, they have created tangible ways for our people to live out their faith in the community. It’s been a challenging and humbling journey, and we continue to pray that we would be followers of Jesus who are united, patient, merciful, generous, kind, and loving. We would gladly share what we’ve learned, but above all, we encourage you to pray and ask the Lord to open new doors of opportunity—so you can love your community, and so they might know that Jesus loves them too. By DENNIS FRIESENDennis Friesen is the Pastor at Dalmeny Bible Church in Saskatchewan. Tags:
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8/5/2026
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