To know the warmth of community and thrive inside of it is wonderfully life-giving. I have been blessed to know this personally for over a quarter of a century within the Youth Unlimited (YFC) family in Toronto and across Canada. Likewise, I am so grateful for the wellness and care I have known in community with my Street Level kin across Canada, Muskoka Woods friends, Chartwell Church and Weston Park Baptist Church.
I have lived my entire adult life via “faith-support,” dependent on the generosity and kindness of those who have believed, and continue to believe, in the charitable and ministry endeavours I pursue. I am forever thankful for the support of so many individuals, families, churches, businesses and groups, shown in countless ways throughout my life and as I proceed—as donors, partners, encouragers, prayers and volunteers. To all of you, my endless and sincerest thanks!
I am continually humbled by, and grateful for, the gracious gestures of support and encouragement I receive from the Honourable David C. Onley and the Honourable Hilary M. Weston.
Over the span of time I spent writing The Yuletide Factor, and in context to this project, there were some very dear people in my life who provided unique inspiration and abundant encouragement in the process. Know that your support, generosity and love while I was working on this material hallmarked the very heartbeat of this book for me: Cheryl Bear, Nanci Bell, Marisol and Trevor Brisbin, Cathy Dienesch, Jan Fukumoto, Susie Griffin, Alison Hardman, Jodi and Mike Janzen, Sarah Lester, Gail Masson, Lori and John McAuley, Scott Moore, Melissa Morrissey, Carl Nash, Kelly and Brad Pedersen, Pauline and Ron Peneycad, Angela Porter, Ingrid Smith, Ruth Smith, Scott Snider, Brenda Tennant and John Wilkinson.
It is impossible to list the names of all the people who help shape, or have shaped, one’s world, ultimately impacting one’s writing. The names, voices and faces seem wonderfully endless and are similarly “time-capsuled” in my previous books. This is such a blessing, for sure! However, while it is no doubt a grand challenge, and subsequent risk, I cannot help but want to give thanks in written form to those whose goodness has felt particularly poignant or timely in context to the writing of this book: Patrick Boller, Paul Brandner, Laura Jane and Gordon Brew, Sue and Dave Bolender, Julia Cabral, Karen Chambers, Dale Cheslock, Colleen Clarke, David Collison, Marianne and Danny Deeks, Alan Davey, Jocelyn Durston, Teres Edmonds, Cheryl and John Frogley-Rawson, Bob Fukumoto, Mieke and Dave Geldart, Heather Graham, Pamela and Brian Hanford, Darrin Henein, Suzi Higgins, Julie and Steve Hill, Denise Holland, Lori Holtam-Weedon, Andy Levy, Jennine and Bruce Loewen, Louise and Kevin Loten, Debbie and Don Morrison, Len Janzen, Raymond Jung, Heather and Dave Kiteley-Gill, Sue and Mark Kocaurek, Donna and Clark Kostik, Diana and Stuart Lender, Marie MacNeill, Jennifer and Keith Martin, Dawn Millar, Sister Sue Mosteller, Pat Nixon, Dion Oxford, Maggie Paul, Cynthia Plett, Gino Reda, Shelley and Derek Rumball, Gordon Russell, Iona and Rob Snair, April Snider, Scott Taylor, Rick Tobias, Cindy and Dean Westacott, Trish Wilkinson, Collette and Lino Zecca, and Dave Zeglinski.
To the guys in the band Outrider (Pete Bowman, Steve Kennedy, John Russell): here’s to all the years we’ve been playing the music we love, and cheers to all the music, fun and friendship yet to come.
I am so grateful for those whose names appear in the author’s acknowledgements pages of this book and all my previous books. I am deeply thankful for them all, whether they represent a season, seasons or a lifetime of poignancy. However, this book is dedicated to a different group of people. The chapters that follow will introduce readers to some people who have impacted my life or stirred my soul by sharing mere moments with me, and some without even meeting me. Vital and too important to dismiss or forget, these too are undoubtedly torchbearers of the yuletide factor.
Foreword by Moira Brown
“The world seems to have lost its centre.”
With those uncharacteristically subjective words, a prominent Canadian journalist began a recent national newscast, echoing my own thoughts in response to unthinkable and terrifying realities.
Perpetual comfort and joy?
On this planet? Here? Now?
The prospect of Christmas all year round sounds like pure fantasy.
Tim Huff is not naive about the world we live in. For almost three decades this servant of the poor has been a friend and champion of the marginalized and misunderstood, expressing God’s love to “the least of these,” with a growing compassion for the caregivers who come alongside. Despite unavoidable heartbreak in those often-neglected trenches, his passion hasn’t waned. His hope is secure, and the hidden treasures of venturing where Jesus would, shared in his award-winning books, have warmed our hearts and illuminated our understanding about individuals who are homeless or living with disabilities.
Tim has been my tutor in this arena. Each opportunity to interview him on national television over many years has become a schoolroom of learning that sensitizes me, along with our viewers, to “neighbours” we perhaps have not met or considered how to love. We always gain a deeper appreciation of the value of God’s image-bearers, wherever we might be overlooking them.
In The Yuletide Factor, Tim takes us to “that time of year when the world falls in love,” wooing us to enduring hope-filled possibilities. If you love Christmas, you will savour every festive delight!
Prolific author Dame Rebecca West said, “Literature must be an analysis of experience, and a synthesis of the findings into a unity.” Tim’s literary artistry precludes speed-reading. Each word has meaning.
The gifted troubadour serenades us again with sacred themes that he has seen reinforced in life’s hard places. His well-crafted words paint soul-stirring images on each page, taking us into the heart of God and the world He loves. Beauty emerges in the brokenness.
Complacencies become unsettled as familiar Scriptures are explored, and not just ones about Jesus’ birth. Tim’s walk through The Lord’s Prayer at Christmas is a challenge to rediscover the riches of reflection and make personal what is promised.
And fun! Slices of Tim’s life from earliest childhood bring a smile and ignite one’s own precious memories. My own family plays Christmas Jeopardy every year; these pages contain so many eye-opening seasonal trivia treasures, unpacking historical insights from both culture and tradition. I was making my gift list having read just a few chapters!
Yes, Christmas desperately needs to be rescued from the high stress event we have made it. Just thinking about the pressures of the season can be a joy-stealer. The Yuletide Factor may be the very thing God can use to help restore the wonder of it all. I know the author would be deeply rewarded for his labour of love if you would respond with the enthusiasm of Charles Dickens’ Scrooge, who, after his spiritual awakening, exulted, “I will honour Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year.”1
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Moira Brown, a beloved and award-winning Canadian television personality, is best known as co-host of 100 Huntley Street, Canada’s longest running daily TV talk show. Since graduating from Capernwray Bible School in England and Briercrest Bible College in Saskatchewan, she has been recognized with distinctive honours for more than 40 years of commitment to the broadcasting industry. In 2013 Moira received the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal for “dedicated service to peers, to community and to Canada”; and in 2014, she was named one of Canada’s top one hundred Christian women leaders. Known and loved across Canada as “Television’s Encourager,” Moira recently shared her adventures of faith in her book Hugs from Heaven, where she reflects in a warm, conversational “show and tell” style on her life experiences as a wife, mother and television host. Moira is supported in her career by Richard, her husband of 26 years, who works on behalf of African orphans and widows as international director of Visionledd, and by their young adult children, Katherine and Davy.
1 Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol (London: Bradbury and Evans, 1858), 91.
Story Behind the Reflection and Discussion