By all accounts, he was a really good guy--good father, good husband, good church-goer. In some ways, on paper at least, he seems quintessentially CRC. While he didn't go to Redeemer, to Dordt, to Calvin, or to Trinity, he and his wife, Sharlene, and their darling two-year-old were by all accounts faithful members of an Ancaster, Ontario, CRC.
The Bosma's preacher was not in attendance at the retreat I led last week, although he certainly could have been. Many of his colleagues from around the adjacent classes were. But that pastor had a horrible problem on his hands and in his heart, the abduction of a member of his church and a woman, that man's wife, who suddenly found herself without her husband and her little girl's dad, a woman who was herself, I'm sure, scared to death.
I first heard the story at that retreat, when one of the leaders announced how this young man named Tim Bosma had left home with a couple of men who were interested in buying his truck, a vehicle they'd seen advertised somewhere on the internet. Someone said, later on, that he'd heard Bosma himself had worried a bit, since the potential buyer had asked, strangely, if he could meet Tim somewhere--at a restaurant or something--and take the truck for a test drive from there. Bosma had insisted they come to the house--and that he go with them on this test drive.
It was the last ride he'd ever take. Police discovered his burned body on the lot of the man who has subsequently been charged with first-degree murder.
Monday, May 20, 2013 at 9:49AM 
Graphic by Timothy Aivazian (http://timothyaivazian.com)Happy Pentecost Monday, friends. As I was reflecting on the layers of meaning that Pentecost carries, I found my way back to a quote I'd copied down years ago from one of German theologian Jurgen Moltmann's books, The Spirit of Life: A Universal Affirmation. It resonated deeply with me right now and I wanted to share it.
