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Oromo Evangelical Church of Toronto
and 2 others have purchased flowers for the family of Ronald Ward. Send Flowers
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Stephanie Lewis posted a condolence
Saturday, August 20, 2022
My dearest Uncle Ron, you were always bigger than life to me. When I was a little girl, you would pick me up and twirl me around. I would say higher please and you’d lift me way up high above your head, your arms extended all the way up and I was certain, this is what it was to fly, and you would stop only after one of us got too dizzy. The last time I saw you in Lakefield, you looked me up and down and said “I guess I’m not twirling you today but I bet I can still get a lift off”, and you wrapped your arms around me and stood straight up, and at 5’3, compared to your tall stature, indeed, you lifted me right off the ground. For all my life, you and your family have always been a part of it, our families intricately intertwined, through the years, for you were there for longer than I can remember. I am beyond grateful for your presence in my young years, you are deeply loved.
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Tama Ward Posted Aug 22, 2022 at 9:22 PM
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Shamsudin A posted a condolence
Saturday, August 20, 2022
We would like to extend our deepest condolences to your family. May God give you strength and comfort in this time of loss. Ron Ward holds an exceptional place in our family's heart. I particularly want to mention how he was key in reuniting my family in Canada. He has been my eyes and ears during a very difficult time of my life when I was separated from my family in Oromia. He would visit my family abroad and bring pictures, news, and messages. When he visited my wife and children, he would visit the Canadian consulate and plead on my behalf to inquire as to the time our family may be reunited again. He played an important role to change the trajectory of our life for the better. He continued to show his care after our arrival to Canada. He often visited us and shared in our joys and sorrows. Ron also invited the whole Oromo Evangelical Church of Toronto to his home in Lake Field, where we had a wonderful time. Our last meeting with Ron was when he visited our family in Calgary a few years ago. We have been very blessed to have him in our lives. Our family is thankful for the kind of man Ron was. Ron will be greatly missed. May God's face shine upon him and be gracious to him.
Shamsudin and family.
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Jane and Terry Snyder posted a condolence
Friday, August 19, 2022
May Ithe wa Karanja rest in peace. My husband and I were blessed to know him and I will treasure his blessing at our wedding in 2009. I will always treasure visits to the Anchorage and our last visit to his apartment in Lakefield.
Thanks to him for believing in my home country Kenya and dedicating his life to improving the communities he served. We will miss his sense of humor.
Our thoughts and prayers are with you and family
May he rest in peace!
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Susan Twist pledged to donate to The UN World Food Programme
Friday, August 19, 2022
I am saddened to hear of Ron's passing. May your memories keep him forever in your hearts.
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Oromo Evangelical Church of Toronto purchased flowers
Friday, August 19, 2022
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Oromo Evangelical Church of Toronto
purchased the Freedom for the family of Ronald Ward.
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Dear families and friends of Rev. Ward, We are thinking of you during this difficult time. May God touch your broken hearts with his comforting hands.
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Eric Westberg posted a condolence
Thursday, August 18, 2022
Walking at 10pm back from the internet café in Garissa was exhilarating. The town was at last cool and alive with shoppers at the phone card kiosk and fans at the enclosed hut watching Arsenal play over the sound of the generator. To the untrained eye, I was walking alone. Back to my friend Jeff at Ron and Joan’s rented house. Like every adventurer, my dream was to be an anti-tourist, away from my fellow wazungu in their compounds and into authenticity. For a month (Aug 2005) I was steeped in it, helping advance (or stem the ebb) of Ron and Joan’s work in their off-season.
In fact, I did not walk alone. I never heard the banter in Somali or Swahili but could imagine it—
“Who’s this muzungu… he is walking alone?! Here?”
“He is from Canada… he belongs with Ali Dheeri.”
Thank you Ron for gifting me a transformative and lasting experience… which continues to unfold in my own long-term African friendships back here and in my thirst for meaning and impact in lands near and far.
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Paul Carline posted a condolence
Thursday, August 18, 2022
I didn't like Ron at first. On our first meeting, he sized me up and told me his disappointed thoughts. Opinionated! As he mellowed and I matured, he grew on me (I on him?). A contrarian with content. No one (in our circles) said the things he said. Wise people listened. A Kenyan mission founder and leader told me he didn't think Ron was a Christian and asked if I understood Ali Dheeri any better than he did. When I mentioned that Ron was in line with African missiologist, Lamin Sanneh, the wise man said, "Then I will read Sanneh's books." He saw something he wanted. Despite the dissonance Ron massed produced, his disdain for and distancing from most missionaries and Christians, and his maverick miraa-chewing ways, Ron loved. No other mission colleague so naturally opened the Scriptures and prayed with me or spoke so openly of mistakes and of the regrets and hopes he carried. He persevered. He believed things could change. He befriended me and my family. Thank you! The Lord Jesus hold and help you, dear Ward family.
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Michael Frederiksen uploaded photo(s)
Wednesday, August 17, 2022
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Ron Ward inspired and encouraged me to launch an NGO in Kenya that provides access to education for orphaned youth. As a mentor he taught the basics of survival and keeping ones wits intact. As a leader he displayed the qualities of servanthood and inclusiveness. As a brother in Christ, he modelled what it takes to share a message of hope to vulnerable peoples.
Ron was a founding member and served as Patron of Community Education Services (CES) Canada (est.2004). CES Canada is a humanitarian education charity that provides access to secondary school education for youth orphaned or affected by the HIV/Aids pandemic. Its base of operations is in Kakamega, Western Kenya.
Ron is pictured here with the Principal of Garissa Boys High School - Mohamed Abdulahi.
To have known Ron and learned from him has been a privilege. I consider Ron a great Canadian who served well and who ran a race worth emulating. His candle continues to burn brightly.
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Rev Denise Gillard uploaded photo(s)
Wednesday, August 17, 2022
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So sad to hear of his passing; so thankful that Ron is safe in the arms of His Heavenly Father. Ron was one of those extraordinary men who marched to the beat of a different drummer as he humbly served God and people with grace, humility, empathy and a justice lens that helped dim eyes become enlightened. I am grateful for the impact he had on my life. He voluntarily served as my "Assistant Pastor" when I was at Ferndale Baptist Church dealing with all the "isms and schisms" that a Black woman in her first Senior Pastorate has to face. We learned a lot of things that made us laugh and cry together! Rest in peace, dear brother.
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Peter Young posted a condolence
Wednesday, August 17, 2022
I first met Ron in North-East Province, Kenya in 1984, having been introduced by our mutual friend Jeff McCarrell. I was immediately deeply impressed by Ron and Joan; by their holding together and leading of a lovely extended family of Canadians, Kikuyus and Somalis in Garissa; their compassionate engagement in the wider community tackling vital issues of health and social justice; their deep and gentle faith that found space to build bridges with their Muslim neighbours; and their personal kindness to me, a twenty-something British volunteer emerging from the semi-desert of Kenya’s NE Province, no doubt looking somewhat gaunt and ready to lap up their wonderful hospitality.
Times spent with Ron always combined a sense of lightness and laughter along with a depth of thoughtfulness, care and of rich insight into our various cultures and traditions. Having had negative experiences myself of overseas mission work, along with serious doubts about the very basis of it, Ron was a complete tonic. He knew when to stand up and defend a cause, and when not to take things seriously and to let things be. The way he expressed his faith taught me more than any sermon ever has. Indeed his life was an embodiment of the heart of the Christian message and I am enormously grateful to have known him.
My love and condolences to Tim, Tama, Phil and Paul and their families.
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Anonymous purchased flowers
Tuesday, August 16, 2022
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Our condolences to the Ward Family in loving memory of our dear Uncle and Brother-in-law. The Cardwell Family.
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Carl Friesen pledged to donate to The UN World Food Programme
Tuesday, August 16, 2022
Ron Ward -- friend and fellow outdoor enthusiast. Thank you for wonderful weekends at Stoplog Cabin.
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Enkosa posted a condolence
Tuesday, August 16, 2022
I know Rev. Ronld Wad 28 years ago when I was a development project manager in a rural village of wake Tiyo, East Shewa of Ethiopia. Our friendship continued even after I moved to Canada & we become closer to one another as family friend. I am a great beneficiary of Ronld’s kind advice personally & most importantly, his critical assistance in establishing the first Oromo Christian Church in Toronto, Canada was enormous. We miss him dearly as he was a great friend of our community at large. Your humanitarian work & spirts lives within us. Rest in Peace Brother. Enkosa & family from Toronto
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Brenda Mann lit a candle
Tuesday, August 16, 2022
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Ron was a friend and relative whom we always enjoyed visiting; a great man with rich insights into life and faith. We send our sympathy to the family in the loss of their loved one. We remember from out of the country. Ralph and Brenda Mann
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Metisha Kenneth lit a candle
Tuesday, August 16, 2022
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I knew Ron from when i was a 7 year old girl in Kenya. He had essentially saved mine and my mother’s life. We were refugees in Kenya migrating from Ethiopia and had nobody to help us or look out for us. He picked us up from the lowest points in our life and I know for certain, if it wasnt for him, we wouldn’t be where we are today. I am now 22 years old, living in Australia, and kept his middle name as my last name in his honor. He was a father figure for me when i didn’t have one and I wish he would have seen the woman i became today because of him. I am deeply sorry for your loss, just know that Ron made a difference in the lives of every person he has come across. May his soul rest in peace and may all his loved ones find comfort.
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M Besha from Australia purchased flowers
Tuesday, August 16, 2022
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With heartfelt condolences, Mr Ron was incredible human being who helped countless people when they really dont have anyone to Rest in eternal peace
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Anne Drost posted a condolence
Tuesday, August 16, 2022
Ron lived his life large as a follower of Jesus. He walked the walk and wasn't put off by what anyone else might think or say. I first met Ron and his family over 40 years ago in Garissa, NEP Kenya. My life was deeply impacted by what I saw lived out in Ron's life. As a young, impressionable woman, my life was forever changed as I witnessed and experienced what it meant to serve the marginalized. Sending condolences to all the family.
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Sarah posted a condolence
Monday, August 15, 2022
Many years ago, I was fortunate enough to share some time with Ron Ward and several other family members at the family home in Lakefield, and in the years between then and now I have heard many stories of weird and wonderful and quite extraordinary Ward family adventures. If these stories are so vivid for me, how must they feel to those who lived them directly, and how strange to think that the author of so many of these adventures is no longer here. I think that many of us can learn a lot from a life lived with such curiosity, openness and dare I say fearlessness. To the whole family: I am very sorry for your loss.
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The family of Ronald Kenneth Ward uploaded a photo
Monday, August 15, 2022
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