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News and Ideas from around the Anglican World |
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February 2006
Dave Toycen
Dave Toycen is an Anglican. He’s also president and CEO of World Vision Canada. Dave Toycen is now in his tenth year of leading this country’s largest humanitarian relief and development agency. One-third of his time each year is spent travelling, most often to areas of the globe devastated by conflict, disease or catastrophe. TAP asked freelance journalist Patricia Paddey to speak with Toycen about how his faith and devotional life sustain him when he is repeatedly confronted with wide-scale suffering.
Photo: World Vision
TAP: As years go, 2005 had more than its share of natural disasters. What did that mean for you in terms of the year you experienced? Dave Toycen: [Last year] was an extraordinarily busy year because first there was the tsunami disaster. There also was a major food shortage in Niger, West Africa, then Hurricane Katrina in the United States and finally the Pakistan earthquake. I’m hoping this is an aberration and not the new future. It was a challenge as a Christian to hear people of both Christian and other faiths struggle with how to bring meaning to events like this.
TAP: In the course of an average year, you are exposed to more suffering than most people witness in a lifetime. How do you reconcile your faith in a good and loving God with the depth and scope of the tragedy that you see? DT: This whole issue of dealing with suffering in our world, at least for me, is never completely resolved. On the one hand I accept, as a Christian, that God is in the middle of this. But at the same time, there’s a mystery to it. There’s a tenderness, a fragility and a brokenness to it that’s never fully resolved. And to me, that’s a good thing, because we’re forced to our knees. It’s one of the greatest challenges we face as human beings, to have integrity with our emotions and our concern for other people, but at the same time to recognize God’s Lordship and love for the world.
TAP: How do you not become hardened or despondent over some of the situations you encounter? DT: I feel strongly that hope flows out of reading the Scriptures and that one’s spiritual life won’t run without it. I also believe that the ache in the heart—over the ills of the world—can never be greater than the joy of the Lord. It’s important for us to be engaged, because we are in a battle that’s taking peoples’ lives physically and spiritually. But you’ve got to keep that [engagement] in balance, or, if you’re not careful, you’ll become obsessed with it. That’s probably a bit of a temptation in the kind of Photo: World Vision work I’m in. But [it’s] my little reminder to myself; when the ache in the heart gets so great that I don’t really feel joy in the Lord anymore, then I’m in dangerous waters.
TAP: How do you prevent yourself from sinking when you hit those dangerous waters? Do you have a daily devotional time? If so, how important is that time to you? DT: Your spiritual life will never get higher than your devotional life. I believe in a regular quiet time. For me, it’s usually the morning. I am a great fan of having a devotional book as well as the Bible. I believe our devotional life is not just a private life either. It’s also connected with being a part of a witnessing and worshipping community; a church community. That’s also very much a part of my devotional life that keeps me on track. [Editor’s note: Toycen attends Trinity Anglican Church in Streetsville, Ont. where he serves as rector’s warden. His wife Diane works as director of programming and parish life.] Having a group of people that hold you accountable, who see you on a regular basis is also important. I’ve been involved in men’s small groups for more than 25 years. We study and reflect on what it means to be Christian men in our world today, while at the same time holding each other accountable. [And] my wife is the most critical person in all of this because she knows me best.
Photo: World Vision
TAP: What about prayer? DT: I tend to follow the ACTS format; Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, Supplication and Intersession, but I’m not legalistic about it. That’s been part of my training. I pray regularly for my family, for the people that I’m working with at World Vision, the leaders at our church, a list of people for whom I have concerns.
TAP: You fly about 120,000 miles each year. Is it difficult to maintain a regular devotional life when you’re travelling so much? DT: I find airline travel relaxing. It enables me to do more reflective reading. Of course, sometimes you’re just exhausted, but I do try to stick to my basic routine. You’ve got to find a few minutes in your day to just sit and be quiet and hear what God has to say to you. Now, there are going to be exceptions. I don’t think anybody should beat themselves up because they missed their quiet time. We’ve got to be careful to not create a new legalism.
TAP: How has your devotional life strengthened you to do the work that God has called you to? DT: It’s important to see our whole day as devotional time, to see our work always as an expression of glorifying God; so, no matter what I’m doing, I’m doing it out of my desire to glorify God. For me, there are two things that are the absolute highs in doing ministry. One is to see a person come to faith. It is a marvellous thing; humbling and glorifying. And the second thing is to see a starving child eat. Those two experiences for me are the deepest joys of being a human being.
Patricia Paddey is a Mississauga-based freelance journalist. |
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Copyright The Anglican Planet © 2006 |