Magic Statistics

Very sad news.  Reverend Harry Lehotsky, founding member and Pastor of New Life Ministries, a community church on Maryland Street, Winnipeg, has been diagnosed with terminal cancer.  In over two decades of inner-city community ministry, Harry has had an immeasurable impact in Winnipeg by providing food and housing for the poor, helping them connect with jobs and caring friends, and speaking out effectively against crime and easy availability of drugs and alcohol.

Well known minister and outspoken activist Harry Lehotsky, who has spent years fighting drugs, crime and disrepair in Winnipeg's West End neighbourhood, now has another struggle ahead of him, this one for his life.

Lehotsky was diagnosed Monday with pancreatic cancer, which has spread to his liver, spleen and other organs. He says his doctors have told him his cancer is inoperable and have given him six weeks to nine months to live.

"Oh, man, you think, 'Why me?' and then the next thing you think is, 'Why not me? What makes me different from anybody else?' There's mothers and fathers, daughters and sons that die of cancer and so many other things. I mean, we're all finite. So I think about that," he told CBC News on Tuesday.

"If God chooses to do a miracle, that'd be awesome and I'd be very pleased and thankful. If not, what I've been living for my whole life is just the ability to meet Him one day and for Him to say, 'Well done, good and faithful servant.'"

Rev Lehotsky writes a weekly column for the Winnipeg Sun, the most recent of which is posted here.  He says he will continue in the work to which our Lord has called him for as long as he is able.

Lehotsky, 48, is well known because of his work to discourage violence, gangs, drugs and other problems that plague his neighbourhood.

He's been a vocal resident of the West End for 24 years, establishing New Life Ministries and raising three sons with his wife, Virginia.
. . .
He's drawing strength from his family and prayers. He's vowing to remain positive and continue working to help and guide people.

Lehotsky said he is not going to take off his writer's cap because he thinks his weekly column will be therapeutic.

Published Sundays, his thought-provoking columns revolve around raw issues such as prostitution, violence and drugs.

They pressure political leaders and suburban Winnipeggers to pay attention to the plight of people living in the city's core.

Please pray for him, his wife, and three sons as they face this time of trial.  God be with you, Harry.

CBC Manitoba link via Dust My Broom.

Other bloggers with today's news about Harry:

• Smalldeadanimals
• Muttering in Manitoba

Harry recently discussed his travails getting diagnostic health care in Manitoba.  He was in such agony from abdominal pain that he finally went to a doctor in North Dakota.

Rev Lehotsky was born in New York City and has lived in Winnipeg since 1983.  He received his M.Div. from North American Baptist Seminary, Sioux Falls, South Dakota, in 1982 and is ordained by the North American Baptist Conference.  More biographical information can be found here.  The website of New Life Ministries has a great deal of detailed information on their community service work, philosophy of urban ministry, and theological beliefs.

I blogged one of his columns here.

UPDATE (21 May): Harry Lehotsky testifies.

UPDATE (12 Nov.): Harry Lehotsky succumbs to cancer.

At the UN conference now being held in Bonn, India firmly declares that poor countries have a higher priority than climate change.

India said on Tuesday that poor nations had to give priority to ending poverty rather than fighting global warming at 189-nation U.N. climate talks criticised by environmentalists as a rambling talk shop.

Nations from Papua New Guinea to Iceland gave speeches during a novel two-day U.N. "dialogue" trying to bridge huge policy divides about how to slow a rise in temperatures that many scientists say could trigger catastrophic climate changes.

In one of the most forceful talks, India told rich nations to take the lead in cutting emissions of heat-trapping gases from fossil fuels, saying India needed more energy to end poverty for the 35 percent of its people living on less than a dollar a day.

"Removal of poverty is the greater immediate imperative" than global warming, Prodipto Ghosh, Secretary of India's Environment Ministry, told the 1,600 delegates.

Sounds wise to me, but some observers were nonplussed.

Environmentalists expressed disappointment at the free-wheeling nature of the speeches.

"There was no sign of real momentum here, no sign of a focus to go anywhere," said Bill Hare, a climate policy adviser for the environmental group Greenpeace, after the meeting of senior officials ended on Tuesday evening. "This was a talk shop."

Greenpeace has its agenda and doesn’t like to hear officials on the ground voice dissenting opinions.

This conference is not going well for Kyoto enthusiasts.  On Monday, they were aghast that Canada’s Environment Minister Rona Ambrose is chairing the meeting because she has pointed out that Canada is not going to meet its Kyoto emissions target.

Environmental groups have called on Ambrose to resign as chair of the UN negotiations because she maintains Canada can't meet its obligations under the Kyoto Protocol.

Now India has joined Canada in questioning Kyoto’s absolute goodness.  No wonder Gaia devotees environmentalists are upset over the direction the UN conference is taking.  Heretics are running rampant.

This next comment comes out of left field—literally: it’s from the NDP.

NDP environment critic Nathan Cullen, who attended the opening of the conference, said the [Canadian] government is lying, since developing countries such as China and India had more advanced and ambitious targets than Canada.

''In front of my eyes, I watched the erosion of what Canada has built up over generations: the credibility to talk about the environment, to talk about the international community,'' he said. ''There was not a country at Bonn, who brought the perspective and the defeatist attitude that Canada brought forward.''

Mr Cullen may have attended the conference’s opening, but he should have hung around long enough to hear what India actually had to say.  Then he wouldn’t have made himself look foolish.

Canada.com link via Dust My Broom.