(e)mergent Voyageurs

Throughout my journey of life and faith the impact and importance of women cannot be understated. While the church is beginning to celebrate and honour the importance of women in the Body of Christ, we still too often take them for granted. I know that I do. Therefore, I want to briefly introduce you to three women who have been so very important to me. They by no means represent all or even most of the women who I would do well to honour, but these three are particularly unique, both for theis influence and the generations they represent.

Helen Ricci (Grandmother)

From my earliest childhood memories to the day my Grandma was someone whose love for me was never in question. Not simply the warm love most grandmothers have for their grandchildren, though there is nothing lacking in such love, but a commitment to seeing me grow mentally, spiritually and physical into the kind of young man she knew I could become. Our nature walks through the woods or along the shores of the Rainy River opened up a love for nature, especially the diverse beauty in the bird world.

Before I even realized that it was my passion I would come to love, she introduced me to books that opened my mind to the world. Fiction and non-fiction, she brought me titles that inspired and challenged me, many of which were intended for older readers. She wasn't simply educating me, but sharing with me her own love for ideas and stories. She did so as an equal and a friend.

Her faith was firm and real, but never pushy or in your face. She had her beliefs and her convictions based on her wisdom and understanding, despite growing up in a generation that had only recently decided that women were persons under the law. As one of the few women who I remember from my childhood speaking from the pulpit, she did not concern herself with debating the theology of women in Christian leadership. Rather, she modelled it in her home and her service.

Even in her death she rallied her family, her church and even the larger community together. Despite the deep grief we all experienced at her death, anyone who spent any time with her in her final days- family, friends, nurses, doctors- were blessed by her strength, love and wisdom, even in the midst of her weakness and suffering.

Elizabeth "Lou" Ricci (Mother)

Born seriously premature, my mother is a tiny woman who is larger than life. Like so many of the women in her community and church, she serves tirelessly for anyone who needs her help. I have little doubt she would be embarrassed by such praise, which is perhaps her one flaw, but nonetheless, it is on the shoulders of tiny giants like her that the church- nay, the world- survives.

I fully believe that women should have the same freedom and authority as any man, be it in society or in the church, and so does my mother. And yet, despite all the things she could have accomplished with her life, she choose the important and sacraficial life of serving her family, not because it was expected of her as a woman, but because it was vocation, her calling, for which she is so incredibly gifted.

In fact, her gift of motherly love and care extend beyond her family to others. Whether it was the foster children who still call her mother or the troubled teens in the community she meets on the street, she make people feel loved and accepted with uncanny ease. The early church lived and breathed hospitality, something lost to so many of us in the church today. Women like my mother must become our teachers and our leaders if we are rediscover this central gift.

I look forward to the day when we can give my mother the gift of grandchildren, as I know she will be to them what my grandmother was to me. A selfless source of love and encouragement that will forever shap their lives.

Kim Arpin-Ricci (Wife)

When I met Kim, she was fresh off the plane from Australia ready to attend a missions training program (on which I was staff) in a new culture and country. Further, she was living with debilitating disease that would have left others bedridden. Unwilling to be stopped, she pursued God's calling with unwavering perseverance. It was not long before I began to find myself smitten.

Since that day she has followed God's calling to full time missions, was miraculously healed of her disease and for some unknown reason agreed to be my bride. When I considered what I wanted in a wife, Kim was not the first thing to come to mind- proof in itself how desperately I needed her! Kim is my best friend, my partner and at times my leaders. We live our lives together as equals in everyway, each leading where the other needs leading.

Where Kim outshines me in many ways, but especially in her apostolic gifting. At 21 she was not only the youngest base director in YWAM Canada, but the co-founder and director of a pioneering work in one of Canada's most challenging inner cities. So often people assume her position as co-director in on the merits of being my wife, a hurtful and offensive assumption, especially given that she is one of the finest leaders in our mission. Despite these assumptions, she continues to serve without complaint.

I can only imagine all that the future holds as Kim leads our ministry and co-leads our family. Not only do women like Kim represent the best past, present and future for the church, but they reflect aspects of the nature of God that we have lost by ignoring or devaluing these women for so long. I love her more than I can say, ever aware of how much more I could and should demonstrate that love to her.

Who are the women who have shaped your life?

Emerging Church, Missional