By Ron Baker
With many businesses and individuals in the area celebrating milestones, we couldn’t not mention Ron Baker, who recently celebrated a milestone with us here at Kindersley Social—Ron has been writing for us since January, 2016 with his first article officially published in February of that year!
Ron’s roots and connection to the Kindersley area go way back. Son of Calvin and Mary Baker, grandson of Carl and Clara Baker, and Sydney and Naomi Merrit, his grandfather Carl homesteaded in 1909 on the far side of the Kindersley Motherwell dam.
“My father bought the farm from his dad but sold it a few years after I was born. He became a weather forecaster, and we resided in such places as Moose Jaw, Toronto and Regina, where I graduated high school,” he shared.
After high school, he then went on to college, where he trained for Christian ministry. “My first posting was in Kindersley, from 1976 to 1980. I then went on to take two Master’s degrees—one in Divinity and one in Library Science. From there I served as a registrar at Canadian Theological Seminary, as a Pastor of Worship and Music in Prince Albert and finally, before retiring, as the pastor of the Kindersley Alliance Church. I retired in 2015 here in Kindersley.”
Over the years, many have ask Ron what drew him to the Church. “I am thoroughly convinced that our world is based in a greater universe of ideas and reality than most people entertain or even imagine. I want to expose people to the creator and at the same time show them how the everlasting God, through Jesus, snatched a space in time to show us himself as a Father, His son as a rescuer of humans, and his Spirit as the sustainer of human beings. That is a huge task for anyone—and I take it seriously as a writer. I do know, on the one hand, that this causes people to ignore or even lambast my writing, but at least they are reading! On the other hand, people find inspiration from my writing.”
Lucky for us, Ron found his love of writing at an early age and has been honing his craft ever since. “In grade six I was placed for one day in another class (my homeroom class was on a trip that I wasn’t able to attend). We were asked to describe a picture—I had a white-tailed deer in flight in front of me. My five or six sentences were amazing, or so I thought. Each sentence began, “The white-tailed deer”. When I read these sentences to this strange class, they laughed—supported by the teacher’s comment that I should not start each sentence with the same phrase. I was ashamed, but also my resilient side (or maybe it was my rebellious side) said I would get better at this. That event, along with other more affirming events showed me that I had a talent in this area that needed to be explored.”
Over the years, Ron has wrote countless articles for us, ranging from funny or thoughtful to the more serious nature, but whatever the topic he tackles it seamlessly. “I enjoy the feel of words, the flow and rhythm that can be achieved in good writing and even the sense of portraying a world around me in a format that can last for a very long time. But most of all, I hope that what I write can help shape people’s thoughts and emotions towards the good, true and just.
And YES, I love words. The best basis for good writing is a strong vocabulary, and then spending time reading—learning how other people use that vocabulary. Finding your own voice over time lets you extract yourself from the classic rules of writing. I started a novel somewhere around 20 years ago. Called Jos and Jerry, it was a story about King Josiah and the Prophet Jeremiah in the Bible. I got a few chapters in—had Josiah’s sister as the love interest of Jeremiah. I realized this was a great novel but not so much true to history. The novel had a fun story line which was really a way to talk sociology, psychology and anthropology. It still sits on a floppy disk somewhere. I found that writing about actual stories and events, and using principles of the social sciences to explain life events around us was more my thing!”
When Ron isn’t writing for us, you can find him over on Kindersley Social TV, where is part of the duo on The Ron and Kevin/Kevin and Ron Show. Together both Ron and Kevin chat about topical issues while also using their humor to take a well meaning jab or two at each other.
From all of us here at Kindersley Social, we thank you for your time and dedication to helping us spread the word! Cheers to many more years!
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