Editorial
Stéphanie Potter
This article originally appeared in the Spring 2025 issue of FOCUS magazine.
In 2020, CMDA Canada was set to celebrate our 50th anniversary. A global pandemic wasn’t exactly how we planned things. Like having an unexpected tornado during your birthday party – nature and viruses don’t much care about your plans. This time 5 years ago, we were wrestling with how we, an organization that values fellowship so much, would maintain the rhythms of grace we had built our lives on for 50 years.
2020 was also the year we finalized our 5 year strategic plan. The process of creating that plan started in April 2019 and was completed in September 2020, which feels like a lifetime ago. As the Board initally gathered to pray and discern God’s plan for CMDA Canada, none of us knew how critical this work truly would be. By March of 2020, a pandemic swept across the world, leaving chaos and uncertainty in its wake.
The Student Leaders Conference (SLC) was the first major event affected. CMDA Canada has held the SLC every year since 1987. Knowing how critical it was to form our student leaders, we rapidly moved to deliver it online, which gave us the opportunity to update the content and reach a larger group of student leaders. It was a blessing and the start of broader changes to the SLC program, culminating in it being included as a track of the National Conference in 2024.
The Annual National Conference, which had been running uninterrupted since 1971, had to be cancelled in 2020, then held online in 2021 and 2022. While this was a blow in the moment, it both reaffirmed our strong desire to get back to in person fellowship and opened avenues for fruitful online workshop delivery. We now have regular programming planned for the Fall and Winter seasons, presenting on topics of interest to members. Out of challenges, blessings grew.
By the end of 2021, we prepared to review our progress against the expectations set out in the 2020 strategic plan. I had assumed we’d be chalking up some lack of progress as a casualty of the pandemic. And yet, despite all the external limitations put on us, we’d managed to find ways to continue to engage, encourage, and equip members across Canada. Online devotionals had fed our souls in what could have been a spiritually devastating season. Online workshops had brought us together and given us valuable perspectives on a variety of topics. Online Conferences had high attendance, bringing together our community and reconnecting old friends. In a season that was in many ways marked by isolation and loneliness, we continued to reach out to one another. Our roots as an organization are deep and are nourished by Living Water. While some things at the surface had been brutally pruned by circumstances, new life bloomed.
In that same spirit, we approach a new season of strategic planning. Once again under the guidance of Dr. Gene Rudd, we are seeking the Lord’s will for CMDA Canada. To know where we’re going, we wanted to reflect on where we’ve been. This year, CMDA Canada celebrates 55 years of the Lord’s blessings. As we have said goodbye (and see you again in Heaven) to several of our founding members this year, we felt it was timely to think back on our beginnings and history as an organization in FOCUS. We also invited Pastor Seth Fancy to reflect on how God’s grace is moving within CMDA Canada. Dr. Shari Falkenheimer, the ICMDA North America Regional Secretary, shares with us about our connection with the International CMDA and the opportunities to get involved on an international level.
This issue of FOCUS is also filled with reports from a variety of student activities – the Eastern and Western Student Retreats, Kingdom Doctors Academy, and dental mission electives. It is encouraging to see all the activity among students. The Lord is truly raising up a godly generation! We also have a piece from Dr. Peter Agwa on EMAS Canada, two beautiful reflection pieces – one from Dr. Geoffrey Saroea and one from Dr. Tyler Jorgensen, and a helpful article on estate planning from trustworthy Christian financial advisors Nikolaus Reuper and David Salama.
Looking at this issue of FOCUS, it’s hard to ignore the good strong branches growing from our deep roots. Five years of intentionally following the 2020 strategic plan is bearing beautiful fruit. God has been faithful to us at every turn. As we look forward to the next five years, I have no doubt God will not change His nature towards us – His faithfulness will remain. We, in turn, will stay faithful, by trusting in His promises and following His lead. Whatever storms come, whatever trials await, God is still good.