Having been an educator for 31 years working with children, teachers, and parents has afforded me many lessons. I recently retired at age 53 and can't wait to see what God has planned for me next.

Now that I have a few extra minutes during the day, I've had the opportunity to gather personal writings from my diary. Sharing this personal journey is meant to encourage, bless, and give hope to those who read it.

Having been an educator for 31 years working with children, teachers, and parents has afforded me many lessons. I recently retired at age 53 and can't wait to see what God has planned for me next.

Now that I have a few extra minutes during the day, I've had the opportunity to gather personal writings from my diary. Sharing this personal journey is meant to encourage, bless, and give hope to those who read it.

Nestled in the hills and forests of Northern Nova Scotia is Oxford, a small, unassuming village. It was in this unlikely and rather remote community that the Church of the Nazarene in Canada had its birth. At the end of the 19th century, a significant moving of the Holy Spirit characterized by clear holiness preaching and an emphasis on personal experience took place in Eastern Canada. One of the dominant voices of that period was a holiness evangelist named L. J. King, a native of Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, who was a converted Roman Catholic priest.

Karl Giberson is professor of physics at Eastern Nazarene College (ENC). He teaches, writes, and edits publications dealing with science and religion. Oxford University, the Vatican, and many colleges have invited him to lecture. He met his future wife Myrna (Fuller) Giberson at ENC and recommends Nazarene colleges as good places to find spouses. They have two daughters. His Ph.D. in physics is from Houston's Rice University.

Q: Where were you raised?

The essence of Christian worship is captured in these two excerpts written 260 years apart—one now considered a classic hymn of the Church and the other an often—played contemporary chorus, respectively. They both capture the interplay between who God is and our response to God’s work. 

In worship, we focus on the love and glory of God (who God is and what God has done), and then respond both with awe (“And can it be that I should gain an interest in my Savior's blood?”) and action (“I’m coming back to the heart of worship, and it’s all about you, Jesus”). 

All Christians believe that God expresses grace. And all Christians believe God is the source of salvation. But Christians differ among themselves about how best to understand grace and salvation. The key to John Wesley's view of salvation is his understanding of divine grace.

At its essence, God's grace is God's loving presence active in the world.

Solomon would have loved the Internet. If he could have asked a computer's search engine to find everything in print beginning with the words, "What I have learned," he would have discovered millions of references in English alone. He didn't have the Internet. But based on his own experience, he wrote about what he was learning from life.

As a child, I remember having a night light. Many years later, when I became a dad, my children had night lights in their rooms. Though small, these nightlights gave a soft, warm glow to their rooms and gave them comfort as they settled in for the evening. That small light was a source of guidance and peace.

We are in the season of Christmas: the season of light. It is during this season that the whole world pauses to remember and celebrate the small light that shone in Bethlehem to bring guidance and peace to our lives regardless of where we are from or where we are headed.

In my September 2005 "Compass" column for Holiness Today, I wrote about the Cali, Colombia, House of Prayer Church of the Nazarene. I jubilantly testified to worshiping with nearly 6,000 happy Colombians in March 2005. Nine months later, Louie Bustle, director of World Mission, was honored to speak there to more than 12,000 people in a combined stadium service! More than 500 friends embraced faith in Jesus. ¡Gloria a Dios!

Holiness Today visited with Carlos Saenz, field director for the Spanish Caribbean Field, which according to recent figures has eight districts, 238 churches, and over 18,000 members. He shared highlights of the church's work there.

Q. Where are you from originally?

A. I'm from Panama.

Q. How did you come to the Church of the Nazarene?