When Ancaster, Ontario’s Tim Bosma went missing and was later found dead on a Waterloo-area farm, Canadians watching the investigation unfold in real time were shocked. In an almost immediate response, Ancaster churches mobilized—garnering support both locally and internationally, and across denominations—working together as Christ’s community to come to the aid of the grieving family.
This need for community, particularly in the midst of agonizing loss, is where the Church can play a most critical role.
“The churches go out of their way to support one another. We found this out in spades in this particular crisis,” said Rev. John Veenstra, Ancaster Christian Reformed Church’s interim minister and the Bosmas’ pastor.
Veenstra was the leading figure in this outpouring of support. He organized prayer services during the search, appeared beside Bosma’s widow, Sharlene, during press conferences, and acted as a buffer to the media and wider community once Tim’s body was found.
But he didn’t do it alone.
“A huge network sprung into action,” Veenstra told the Record. “We had two prayer services when they were still searching for Tim. He disappeared on the sixth [of May]. On the seventh a whole bunch of us church folks spontaneously organized a prayer service. Within four hours of deciding to do this we had 250 people joining with us at the service. They were from all over the community. Then on the 10th we had a community-wide prayer service—450 people showed up. The thing that struck me about the service on the 10th was the wide range of churches. There were people from 12 different congregations. I had 14 clergy there—I needed leaders for prayer rooms—and so we had six rooms for group prayer.”
And it didn’t end there. More than 1,600 people gathered in a Hamilton banquet hall for Bosma’s televised memorial service, and the Sunday following, about 600 Christian Reformed congregations across North America sang “In Christ Alone My Hope is Found” during their own services to express solidarity and support. When Veenstra himself needed someone to talk to, the Ancaster Ministerial Association was there.
“The second week this broke, I made a point of going to the association’s meeting, because the brothers and sisters gave me an opportunity to debrief and lean on them, which I did. So congregationally, the AMA was a big support, and personally as well. I genuinely appreciated it. It made the whole thing a little easier to cope with.”
Veenstra was quick to sing the praises of Presbyterian minister, Rev. Henry Huberts of St. Andrew’s, Ancaster. As the chairperson of the AMA—which also includes clergy from the local Anglican, United and Catholic Churches—he helped organize the ecumenical response.
“St. Andrew’s has been a leading light in this, and that was spearheaded by Henry Huberts,” said Veenstra.
Huberts, who has been involved with the Ancaster Ministerial for five years, believes strongly in the church’s calling to be community. “I would say it is among one of the most important callings of the Church, for it testifies to the unity of believers and the love of God to the culture in which we find ourselves.”
While the Christian Reformed Church, according to Veenstra, is known for its strong support to its members—Sharlene Bosma’s elder was at her home the day Tim was pronounced missing to offer whatever help was needed—this tragedy ignited a reaction that was much larger.
“I heard from other reformed churches—I had never heard from these guys in the past, as there are differences, and all of a sudden, these differences didn’t matter. They said, we’re praying for you. All of a sudden, churches that normally don’t talk to each other began to talk to each other. Then it went worldwide.”
Veenstra said he heard musings at the memorial service about how people were struck by the overwhelming sense of community.
“I had people say to me, ‘If that’s how church works, I’m coming.’ It expresses the yearning of their hearts.”
A CBC Radio report (where Veenstra was interviewed for his take on the matter) said that people who are members of an active religious community are happier than those who are not. This comes as no surprise to the 71-year-old pastor.
“Sharlene is going to walk a difficult road, and her family is with her, but so is the church community. She knows she can call and they will spring to action,” he said. “We often take this for granted in the church because it’s our everyday reality. But outside the church, there are a lot of people who don’t have that support, and could genuinely use it. It’s a wonderful thing.
“When it comes to understanding the church order, the ‘body’ is one of the most fundamental ideas found in the New Testament,” continued Veenstra. “We saw it here on the local, congregational level. And we found it at a community level as well because whatever we lacked as a congregation, the Ancaster community pitched in. In my experience it was a breathtaking example of the New Testament concept in action: the body in action.”
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