The Beacon - January 2025

REDEFINING RESOLUTIONS

by Amy Dykeman

MAKING PROGRESS!

by Justin Reimer

JASPER BURNED DOWN

THE BEACON

by Moriah Stagg

NO.5

JANUARY ISSUE NO. 5

Welcome to 2025! What happens now?

We’re a quarter of a century into the 2000s.

The 2025 FIFA Club World Cup will take place in the United States.

The Eurovision Song Contest 2025 is scheduled to be held in Basel, Switzerland.

There will be approximately 24 scheduled general or federal elections across the world.

This year has been declared the Year of Jubilee by the Catholic Church and is focused around spiritual renewal, celebration, and forgiveness. It began on December 24 with the Pope opening the Holy Door in Rome and will last until January 6, 2026.

Microsoft will officially end support for Windows 10 after 10 years.

So whatever you find yourself doing this year, know that God has a plan for your life even in the mundane.

Editors: Malcolm Ohlhauser, Alley MacDonald Beacon Writing Team: Evan Carr, Abeni Knowles, Suava Hoffman, Justin Reimer, Amy Dykeman, Moriah Stagg

Special thanks to the CSA and Our Daily Bread Devotional

The Beacon staff reserve all rights to edit submissions for the purpose of producing quality, relevant, and tasteful content.

To submit an article, or if you have any questions, please feel free to contact us at crandallbeacon@crandallu.ca.

All content is the property of The Beacon unless otherwise stated.

January 2025 Calendar Schedule

Crandall Memes

Welcome to the New Year!

Would you like your society’s event included in the monthly schedule? Let us know by the last Thursday of each month!

PAGE ONE | THE BEACON

Redefining Resolutions

By Amy Dykeman Another year has come and gone, and the overwhelming promise of a clean slate prompts one to consider their goals for the new year. These form the basis of New Year's Resolutions, known for initial promises yet eventual disappointments when they are forgotten not even a month later.

I can’t say I’ve ever been particularly successful in my own resolutions, either falling short or forgetting my goal entirely. So, in the spirit of starting afresh, I am aiming to better myself through a slightly different method—New Year’s Bingo.

My main gripes with traditional New Year's Resolutions are that they are either too lofty, do not provide sustainable motivation, or both. This method tackles both of these issues. The goals are bite-sized, limiting them to smaller stepping stones rather than an overwhelming achievement. This format also allows for more fun activities to be scattered in.

The end goal is to fill out the entire board. With only tasks that are short-term pain for longterm gain, this would not sound appealing. With the addition of some more enjoyable personal goals, hopefully you will be encouraged to achieve some of your personal desires and have half your board filled out before you know it!

Below is a template with some potential goals. However, please customize it to what’s meaningful and relevant to you. Best of luck, and hope that everyone’s 2025 is successful and fulfilling!

Amy Dykeman is a third year psychology student. One of her goals for this semester is to build a snowman tall enough to be featured on the front page of the Beacon!

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From 1925 to 2025: A Look Into the Past

By Alley MacDonald Happy New Year, Beacon readers!

To celebrate the start of 2025, let’s dive into history and see what was happening exactly one hundred years ago, in 1925…

On January 1, Norway’s capital city changed its name from Christiania to Oslo.

On January 5, Nellie Tayloe Ross became the first female governor in the United States.

On January 24, a solar eclipse was witnessed by residents of Long Island, New York.

From January 27 to February 1, the “Great Race of Mercy” occurred, in which a serum was raced across Alaska by dogsled to save the town of Nome and its surrounding communities from a diphtheria epidemic.

On April 6, a movie played on a plane for the first time.

On April 10, F. Scott Fitzgerald published the now-classic novel The Great Gatsby.

On May 19, civil rights leader Malcolm X was born.

On May 29, English explorer Percy Fawcett (an inspiration for Indiana Jones) sent one last telegram to his wife before disappearing into the Amazon rainforest in search of the Lost City of Z. On June 13, American engineer Charles Francis Jenkins successfully synchronized a transmission of pictures and sound, calling it “the first public demonstration of radiovision.”

On July 21, English motorist Malcolm Campbell drove his Sunbeam 350HP over 150 miles per hour, becoming the first person to exceed that speed on land.

On August 31, famous anthropologist Margaret Mead landed in American Samoa to begin nine months of influential field work.

On September 6, 1925, a silent film version of The Phantom of the Opera premiered at the Astor Theatre in New York.

On October 1, the Mount Rushmore National Memorial was dedicated in South Dakota.

On October 2, John Logie Baird transmitted the first television pictures in London.

On October 16, British actress Angela Lansbury was born. She would go on to play and voice several roles, including Mrs. Potts in Disney’s Beauty and the Beast.

On November 14, the first Surrealist art exhibition opened in Paris.

On December 10, 1925, Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw received the Nobel Prize in Literature.

On December 13, American actor Dick Van Dyke (who you might know from Mary Poppins) was born.

Solar eclipses, classic novels, lost cities, and speed records…1925 was an eventful year! Here’s to 2025 and the exciting history yet to come—history that we get to witness!

Alley is a fourth year history major who’s happiest when reading action-packed historical fiction from her evergrowing TBR pile.

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God “Won” the Election…Again (and Forever)

By Evan Carr 2025 is a new year full of new opportunities, experiences, and hopes. There are also concerns, anxieties, and uncertainties surrounding the year. Many new world events will happen this year; the USA will swear in a new president, Canada will hold an election, and war rages on in the Middle East. Many people are divided on these issues, and many predicate their sense of stability on such events.

Though we may feel that we are living in crazy and unique times, the writer of Ecclesiastes reminds us, “History merely repeats itself… Nothing under the Sun is truly new” (Ecclesiastes 1:9). What is more, God has endured through all these repeating cycles of the past.

Though world events have ravaged the world over the course of history, God has remained on the throne, and He has never changed. People are seeking a place of stability, and there is only one person who can satisfy it. He is the one who does not cast a shifting shadow nor ever change (James 1:17–18).

God’s power and might is impeccably illustrated in Isaiah 40, where the writer states that “all the nations of the world are but a drop in the bucket…He picks up the whole earth as though it were a grain of sand” (Isaiah 40:15). Even the most powerful nations are under God’s control, and God is infinitely more powerful than they will ever be.

Acts 17:26–27 tells readers that God determines appointed times and boundaries of leaders and nations. Daniel 2:21 also states that God controls the course of world events and installs and removes leaders. Ultimately, such leaders will have to give an account for their appointed time of leadership. Therefore, though the world may seem out of control, God has everything between his fingertips.

Why, then, does God allow wicked rulers such as dictators, terrorists, and those who persecute his own people? We must remember that we are under the age and rule of darkness and Satan (Ephesians 2:2, 6:12). Though God ultimately is in control, Satan rules the hearts and actions of people who are not of the light (Ephesians 2:1–3), resulting in terrible things.

However, the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness cannot overcome it (John 1). The cycle of world events is a linear trajectory to the reign of Christ. The devil’s time is limited (Revelation 12:12), and someday he will be bound forever, never again to tempt or destroy.

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Jesus will have a global rule, and we will reign with Him forever. All will be made new, peace and righteousness will reign, and there will be no more wars, famines, diseases, division, or unrest.

All evil will be purged, and we will experience a return to the age of the Garden. Just as the Bible starts with the tree of life, so it ends with it (Genesis 1; Revelation 22).

In the meantime, know that God’s got you. Just as He knows all the stars by name, He also knows you by name (Psalm 139; Isaiah 40). And “this is what the LORD says: I would no more reject my people than I would change my laws that govern night and day, earth and sky” (Jeremiah 33:35). That is a pretty solid promise—literally. It also demonstrates God’s power over the laws of the universe and His capacity and competency to hold us together.

So as the unknown unfolds, know that God controls it all, and He holds you all the way.

Evan Carr is a fourth year science student who loves watching star wars

From the Beacon team!

Have a great semester!

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MAKING PROGRESS!

BY JUSTIN REIMER SECOND HUNT DOWN AND YOU’RE MAKING GOOD PROGRESS! RUST MONSTERS ARE ESPECIALLY NASTY. INSECTOID LITTLE CREATURES THAT SWARM EVERYWHERE! THEY EAT YOUR GEAR! OR AT LEAST, THE METAL PARTS—BUT YOU KNOW THAT NOW. EITHER WAY, RUST MONSTERS ARE A NICE UPGRADE FROM THE MEPHITS! I REMEMBER A BUDDY OF MINE, JOTHOKI CRAGHELM, WAS SENT TO DEAL WITH SOME RUST MONSTERS EARLY ON. HE HAD JUST GOTTEN SOME NEW GEAR AND WAS RUBBING IT IN EVERYONE’S FACE. WHEN HE CAME BACK, HE DIDN’T HAVE A LICK OF METAL ON HIM! NO ONE LET HIM FORGET IT FOR MONTHS! EVEN NOW WE GIVE HIM A HARD TIME ABOUT IT. HE TAKES IT A LITTLE BETTER NOW THAN HE DID BACK THEN, HAHA. HE WAS SO MAD! I HEARD THAT YOU DIDN’T LOSE GEAR BUT GAINED SOME INSTEAD! YOU FOUND A CLOAK THAT THE RUST MONSTERS HAD LEFT COMPLETELY UNTOUCHED? SOUNDS PRETTY AMAZING! MAGICAL CLOAKS CAN BE EXPENSIVE AND HARD TO COME BY. FROM WHAT NATAMA WAS SAYING, IT’S NO SIMPLE ENCHANTMENT AND WILL PROBABLY SERVE YOU WELL FOR THE REST OF YOUR HUNTING CAREER. YOU MUST BE THE BESTDRESSED ROOKIE IN BES! EXCITING STUFF FOR ONLY YOUR SECOND HUNT. YOUR MOM’S EXCITED TO KNOW THAT YOU GOT SOME STRONG GEAR. SHE STILL WORRIES ABOUT YOU, DESPITE MY REASSURANCES. REMEMBER TO WRITE TO HER AT LEAST ONCE A WEEK! SHE LOVES HEARING FROM YOU AND COULD USE THE ENCOURAGEMENT. MY GREATEST REGRET AS A HUNTSMAN WAS FORGETTING ABOUT MY LIFE BEFORE BES. JUST SEND HER A NOTE—DOESN’T HAVE TO BE LONG—AND TELL HER ABOUT HOW YOU’RE DOING AND THE FRIENDS YOU’VE MADE! ANYWAY, THAT’S ALL FOR NOW. YOUR MOTHER IS CALLING ON ME TO GET OUT AND HUNT. NOT THE SAME KIND OF HUNTING YOU’RE DOING, OF COURSE! DEER AREN’T NEARLY AS EXCITING AS MEPHITS OR RUST MONSTERS. BUT SHE WANTS FRESH MEAT TODAY, SO I’D BETTER BE OFF. SEND A LETTER SOON! I’D LIKE TO HEAR HOW YOU FEEL YOU’RE DOING, NOT JUST REPORTS FROM NATAMA! SHE’S GOT A GOOD HEART BUT DOESN’T HAVE THE FLARE FOR STORYTELLING. UNCLE DESNER JUSTIN REIMER IS A THIRD YEAR WHO HAS CHANGED MAJORS 3 TIMES. HE STARTED WITH PSYCHOLOGY, SWITCHED TO COMMUNICATIONS: THEATRE, TOOK A BRIEF HIATUS OVER COVID, GOT MARRIED, HAD A KID, THEN CAME BACK AS A HISTORY MAJOR, AND FINALLY HAS SETTLED IN (OR AT LEAST HE THINKS HE HAS) AS AN ENGLISH MAJOR. TURNS OUT THAT FIGURING OUT WHAT YOU WANT TO DO WITH YOUR LIFE IS HARD...

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SHALLNOT A place for creativity Sometimes

By Elisha Reimer Sometimes the words you need to hear, Are not your own.

Sometimes the choices you need to make, Don’t feel like choices.

Sometimes the path before you is twisted, Are you your guide?

Sometimes the vision that you see disappears, Will you accept fear?

Sometimes you stumble.

Sometimes you doubt.

Sometimes you tremble.

Sometimes you pout.

But always God is by your side.

Beauty in the Insignificance From Anonymous

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Jasper Burned Down

By Moriah Stagg “Jasper burned down,” people kept telling me.

Every year in British Columbia there are countless wildfires raging across the province.

In the summer of 2023, I was working in Switzerland, and it was through Instagram that I learned how bad of a fire year it was. I would soon learn that my grandparents were evacuated and my parents had the car packed with the essentials, anticipating their own evacuation order.

This summer was a lot different. All my memories from the summer are full of sunshine and clear skies. There was rain in the spring, and it was looking like the Okanagan skies wouldn’t be filled with smoke this year. It was a beautiful summer, but there are always fires somewhere.

Late July is when I started to hear it: “Jasper burned down.” I didn’t know what to make of it.

There was no way that Jasper could have burned down! I didn’t understand how they let it happen.

I learned later that the whole of Jasper did not burn, but a huge part of the town of Jasper and a pretty significant part of the park had burned. The crazy part was how fast it happened. This fire had made history.

So what happened next?

Well, I drove through Jasper shortly after Christmas. The mountains are just as beautiful as I remember, but huge sections of the forest have been reduced to bare tree trunks. It is kind of scary to look at the destruction of Jasper, but there is a beauty to it too. Fires are a natural part of a forest’s lifecycle, and multiple species of trees actually need fire in order to regenerate.

That isn’t to diminish the tragedy and loss that people have faced. I have nothing but sympathy for those who lost their homes to the fires, but in that I am also endlessly thankful for the people who were able to evacuate and save themselves. And thankful for the firefighters who protected so many other homes.

There will definitely be more forest fires in BC and Alberta this coming summer because they are part of life. But even after tragedies like massive wildfires, life goes on. Next time I drive through Jasper, I know that there will already be some new growth, and more every year! And Jasper might have been hurt, but it is still going strong!

Moriah Stagg was born and raised in British Columbia, Canada, and what she misses most from home are the mountains.

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Photos from Jasper National Park, B.C.

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