Here you will find links to some of my articles found on the Internet, along with two other samples at the bottom of this page.

ON THE INTERNET
Click on each title to read the story

           Woman Passes on Leadership Skills
           First Nations Meet in Ottawa
           Ministering to newcomers from China and Hong Kong
           Bailey won over at study meeting
           Amity Press prints Bibles for Chinese Christians
           Christians don't have to face mental illness alone
           Pastor understands juk sing 

TWO OTHER SAMPLES

"Pastor Keeps Vision for Church Despite Cancer Battle"
Nan McKenzie Kosowan, Special to Christian Current, Golden Triangle

Wilmot - The pastor lifts his crutch, pointing enthusiastically to a portion of the church property's small lake and 4.4 lush green hectares.
    "As a church, we want to stay relational and relevant," he says, "and see things like kids from the senior public school across the road coming over here to fish."
  "Oh," says Don Mills, as he lowers his crutch, shaking his head and chuckling, "I shouldn't use my stick like that. After chemotherapy, I've needed crutches. My wife said it's not polite to wave them about. She's right."
   Mills tells how Christian use of this property began in 1840 with a Bible class of nine, taught by John Hamacher, who deeded the property to the church in 1856.
    Mills became Senior Pastor of "this rural church in the middle of nowhere" in 1987. Characterized by worship, life in the Spirit and evangelism, Mill's mandate is to lead the mission-minded congregation "to reach the uttermost part of the world."
    "We work to make it difficult for anybody from Wilmot to go to hell, which is our mission statement. So far, we seem to be doing something right. People go out of their way to attend this church that has only four families within walking distance."
    Jesus is celebrated at two services Sunday mornings. The priesthood of all believers develops through the pastoral care of the Life Group leaders, who meet in homes each week with 200 directly and indirectly associated with the church.
    "It's become so normal to relate, that growth and evangelism no longer center on the paid staff," Mills says. "But we know the worst thing a church can do is become complacent and stagnant."
    WCMC isn't pastorally centered, "but if a Senior Pastor isn't dreaming, seeking vision from God, there's probably something out of whack," says Mills.
    This year, he and members will vision cast with specific times of prayer and input about issues of major impact for the congregation.
    "We're in constant need of the fresh breath of the Holy Spirit. The message doesn't change but the way we share it must if we're to reach all generations from infants to seniors."
    Typical of enthusiastic and versatile leaders who accept that challenge is Paul Hutcheson. With wife Karen and friends Sam and Debbie Bitonti, he takes Sunshine Gang music, puppets, skits and crazy costumes anywhere they're invited to relate to unchurched children with the love and message of Jesus. Building relationships brings the life of Jesus to children inside and outside the church, agrees Peter Ascough, describing his own occupational passion as Youth Pastor. Congregational Care Pastor Wayne Domm visits those who make WCMC their church. He helps them recognize their gifting and serve others with it. Newcomers are encouraged to spend a year "sitting and listening" before serving, while they are helped to work through needs they bring with them.
    Music plays a vital role with six music groups, a rock band, several professional musicians and a barbershop quartet involved in times and places of worship and outreach, including Super Bowl Sunday, the outdoor Christian Music Festival on Labor Day week-end and the Bananarama family alternative to Halloween.
    "And at any of these, you'll find people with disabilities," says Hutcheson, an amputee. He credits Mills' openness about his condition, caused by the same type of hip cancer Terry Fox had, for the ease with which people with any disability, physical or emotional, relate with their pastor.
    Chemotherapy killed Mills' osteosarcoma but permanently damaged 85 percent of his nerves.  " I told the enemy he couldn't steal my faith, my   family or my calling, and I would not give in. I'm waiting for the healing God gave me to be completed.
    "My faith and the faith of my wife Marion (who never missed one of my 65 days in hospital in 1998) grew through all this. It had significant impact on the faith of our three teens, James, Philip and Andrew, as each in his own way dealt with the very real possibility of death.
    Mills says he doesn't focus on momentary affliction, though pain is constant and takes a lot of personal energy to ignore. He cites 2 Corinthians 12, "I quit focusing on the handicap and began appreciating the gift. Christ's strength moved in on my weakness.
    "Sometimes I've had tremendous feelings of embarrassment as a Bible-believing, preaching and praying pastor because I'm disabled. As a visiting preacher recently, I invited people forward for healing prayer because I so believe James. 5:14 that the sick should call the elders of the church to pray the prayer of faith to save them. There's nothing we can do to make ourselves better. We can't will it. I always come back to the fact that our trust must be in God. It's He who heals, not us."
                              copyright, 2006 Nan McKenzie Kosowan
               

"Helping Build Community for Women in Leadership"
Nan McKenzie Kosowan, Special to Christian Current, Golden Triangle

Guelph - In her dual role as mother and businesswoman, Bonnie Pioveson thoroughly enjoyed raising three children and running the Storehouse Christian Book Shoppe in Guelph with husband Glenn. But she sensed another call she couldn't quite identify.
    Abundant bookstore resources fed her desire for lifelong learning and gave a balanced overview for spiritual growth. She believed God cocooned her in the store for 15 years to learn management and service skills but there was little opportunity in this small vineyard to use other possible gifts. God began putting her into little leadership spots. Then a gifts test revealed her gift for leadership. Her vineyard widened suddenly with an invitation to join the board of Christian Booksellers Association. She eventually became its Executive Director.
    "I saw God equipping me as I discovered unrealized managerial, creative and artistic aptitudes. I was getting stretched," she laughs.
    Lack of opportunity to share psychological stretch marks with Christian women in top level positions kindled desire to see community established where women, called by God to lead, could be encouraged, coached and mentored in lifelearning skills. A door to such community opened with a project called Women in Leadership under the Campus Crusade Ministries umbrella. While encouraging and developing Christian women leaders to use their gifts in church or business, she could also reach these influential women for Christ.
    Women in Leadership breakfast workshops and seminars draw an average of 100 women to Guelph from southwestern Ontario communities twice a year, through word of mouth. WIL teams do follow-up with women converts from leaders' conferences to encourage and serve women leaders. Pioveson invites these new Christians to Bible discussion groups.
    A new phase in women's work, unique on the continent, began in 2000 at Bill Hybels' annual Leadership summit in Toronto as Pioveson shared with two like-minded women her passion to encourage and work with women in leadership. With Ellen Duffield, director of Leadership Development for Women of Muskoka Woods Sport Resort and Lynn Smith of Evangelical Fellowship of Canada's Forum for Women in Ministry, Pioveson met with Pat Webb of Life Long Learning of Tyndale College and Nancy Webb, executive director of Baptist Women of Ontario and Quebec. All shared the same driving concern.
    They knew of no Christian women's conferences across the continent specific to Christian women leaders in church or business that could answer the growing hunger for excellence in serving God. As the five women shared their desire to see women with a call from God go higher, the brainstorming began. The result two years later was "NextLevel Leadership", a high-level curriculum of lifelong learning. Coaching programs deal with specific areas of expertise such as strategic thinking. Ongoing small group teaching modules are integrated into a woman's life, work, character, competence and confidence.
    The NextLevel team was a partner in the first Canadian conference for women leaders, Leading Women 2002 Conference, foreshadowing an anticipated partnership of Canadian women's ministries in future endeavors for Christian women leaders.
    On March 22, the NextLevel team, representing a diversity of Canadian organizations concerned with women's leadership issues, presents "Elements of Successful Teams", a day-long seminar in Guelph, the first of many 2003 modules.
    The team agrees with the thesis of Lynn Smith's book, "Gender or Giftedness", that one serves the Lord more through giftedness than gender. "It's a matter of where one's gift fits in church or business, says Pioveson. "God created men and women to work together in Christ. He is bringing balance back into the Body of Christ in all things."
                                 copyright 2006, Nan McKenzie Kosowan