Douglas Schofield: Why We Must Ask the Right Questions About Human Suffering

I was brought up in a Christian home, the youngest of four children until I was 14 when my parents had another child. She was born with multiple medical issues and spent the first 17 months of her life in hospital. Physically weak, unable to speak or walk, she had a delightful personality. She died at 4 when my parents took their first weekend away after she came home. God spared them being present for that trauma.I came to faith early in my pre-teens. My church was small but loving and committed to its youth. Our leaders, especially pastors, were biblically educated and committed to teaching the Scriptures, rather than their own opinions. Several of them were important mentors to me in my teens, twenties, and thirties. My parents’ generation made room for us in the church. The put up with our noise, our music, our overconfidence because they cared about our spiritual growth.Even with these advantages my faith was challenged by the Creation and Evolution debate, to the point that I refused to read the Old Testament for much of my teen years. Fortunately, I had a strong experience of Christ’s love and forgiveness, as well as a dynamic peer group in the Church.Only when I began to teach and found myself teaching Evolution in an Ancient History course, was I forced to confront the issue. Research lead to the development of a teaching unit on ‘Comparative Origins’ that I taught in a public school for the next 20 years. That also sparked my interest in apologetics. I remained active in leadership in the church, married a Christian girl between degrees at university, enjoy largely Christian friends and neighbours, traveled, built a house and began a family. Plus, I loved my career - teaching high school history students in a small school in rural Nova Scotia, Canada.After a 33-year career in education, I was able to focus more time on the historical evidence for Christianity and have written several books on the subject; ‘Examining Jesus: Lessons on the Historical Evidence for Jesus’, ‘Faith Building Evidence’ and ‘Frustrated with Faith’. Recently I have been writing short eBooks and creating related digital products, like tools for Christian parents to enhance family devotions and how to apply apologetics to teens tough faith question.Also, after my career in teaching and school administration ended, Kathleen and I began an apartment rental business at a local university. We thought it would allow us to travel - which it did, and help out our adult children - which we did, but I think God knew we would need extra financial resources when our oldest son had a traumatic vehicle accident in Thailand, where he had just gone to teach.That accident and the resulting multiple physical injuries and his traumatic brain injury (TBI) has defined much of our lives for the last 13 years. My writing was partly a bit of a release from the difficulty of dealing with his situation and partly a way I could minister to others and still be home. The first 5 years were hard for all of us, but God has allowed him to heal more than we ever anticipated. He still needs a lot of support, but he is back substitute teaching and that is a small miracle.Linkswebsite: www.faithbuildingevidence.comLinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/douglas-schofield-63748b291/Personal FB: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100009471635555FB Page: https://www.facebook.com/FBEMinistries/