In ancient Greek, the word “Kairos” refers to an opportunity, season or fitting time. Michelle Bonnier says her life can be divided into several such Kairos moments—times where God brought people and circumstances together in such a way that new revelation and life-change took place!
For Michelle, who grew up the middle child in a Christian home in Edmonton, the frightening events surrounding her coming to faith were her first “Kairos.” In May of 1992, when Michelle was just six years old, she woke one morning unable to move her legs. The previous evening, she had kept falling as she was playing, but everyone assumed she was simply being silly. Her terrified parents took her to the hospital, where her condition continued to deteriorate to the point of complete quadriplegia. The doctors did not know why this was happening, and Michelle’s parents were warned that she may not have much longer to live if they could not find and treat the problem. Her mother, holding Michelle in the hospital bed and stroking her hair, made a startling discovery. There was a bump on her head, previously unnoticed, which turned out to be a wood tick. In cases where they are not removed, these ticks can cause ascending paralysis and eventual death. By God’s grace, Michelle made a full recovery and regained control of her limbs once again. Michelle’s parents taught her that her life had been spared for a reason and God had a special plan and purpose for her future. With this revelation, Michelle made the decision to give her heart to Jesus!
Her family moved to Calgary the following year and her faith continued to grow. She says, though, that it was a “child-like faith” in the sense that she lived in a Christian bubble.
“My next big Kairos moment,” says Michelle, “was when I underwent my first of two major surgeries at age 16 and then again at age 18. My parents—and mom particularly, as a nurse—had been advocating for me for years to find help to manage a rare condition I had been born with. Before the surgery, I really started to contemplate my faith and decided I wanted to get baptized before my surgery. So just after my 16th birthday, I was baptized in the Silver Springs swimming pool. I really worked to focus on trusting God both before and throughout my recovery.”
Up to that point, Michelle says her faith had been quite easy. Always very shy and introverted, she had little interaction with kids her own age, which meant no outside pressure coming against her and no need to question everything she had been taught. That changed, however, after her surgeries. Though they both went well, they came with years of rehabilitation and medical management. A lot of her schoolwork, therefore, was done at home and resulted in her graduating a semester early. This launched Michelle into the world.
After working briefly as a full-time nanny, she decided to attend the French faculty at the University of Alberta and complete her teaching degree in French.
“Everyone had always pushed me to be a teacher since I loved kids, so as usual, I didn’t question it. But then at university, I realized I needed to start questioning some things. University life in Edmonton certainly tested my faith. I had believed ‘just because’ for so long, and now I had some real opposition to face. I can’t say I was swayed by much, but it certainly was a time where I called into question why I believed what I believed.”
Several challenges after her second university year led Michelle to the decision to move back to Calgary, and this was another important time when she felt unquestionable trust in God’s plan. Leaving Edmonton, she says, was her third Kairos. Though she faced a lot of opposition leaving her schooling in French, she felt incredible peace about coming home. It set her on a much different course—one God has blessed richly but has only illuminated one step at a time!
After completing a Biology degree by distance while again working as a nanny, and after visiting her sister overseas and travelling around Australia for a year, Michelle decided to enroll in the fast-track nursing program at University of Calgary.
“I wish I could say I leaned on God for guidance in this decision, but I decided to go into nursing for many practical and logical reasons. Looking back now, I can see how even when I was not as faithful, God was still at work in my life and has been able to use my choice of career for His glory.”
As Michelle began serving in her new field of nursing, and as she also began venturing out and trying to connect with Christian community, God was preparing her fourth Kairos—one of the most meaningful ones of her life. It came in the form of baptism in the Jordan River on a trip to Israel that Pastor Henry led in May of 2012!
Though she had taken this step of obedience previously, Michelle says she signed up to be baptised in the Jordan “because it was just cool to be able to say you’ve been baptized in the Jordan!” The morning of the baptisms, Michelle began jotting down some notes on what she wanted to say during her testimony.
“I had gotten up at 4:00 am to watch the sunrise on the Sea of Galilee. All of a sudden my testimony—growing up in a Christian home, always being faithful for the most part, loving Christ and giving my heart to Him at a young age—didn’t seem enough. It started to bother me. I wanted this baptism to mean something more. I prayed about it and sensed God calling me to live my life so much more wholly for Him. While I had been a good little Christian girl my whole life, I had never had to make my faith my own. For me, at that time, I thought one way I could do this was by doing short-term missions in nursing.”
Michelle says that from that moment, everything changed. She left Israel renewed and full of hope that her life was going to be different. She was more intentional about prayer and Bible reading and also began speaking more with her family and friends about her beliefs. Six months after she returned from Israel, she went on her first medical missions trip to Peru. She travelled to Rwanda the following year, and most recently, through CSC, she took a non-medical trip abroad and was able to meet, encourage and pray for ministry partners and believers who are facing great persecution for their faith.
“It’s been such a privilege to serve God abroad,” says Michelle. Mission’s trips can certainly grow your faith. Even on my medical trips where you are providing a tangible service to people, I’ve grown more than I feel I’ve given. It makes you grateful for what God has given you back home, particularly in the face of profound poverty. And when you pray and encourage and hear the stories of those you meet, you also see how God provides, how desperately He loves us and how He desires so much more for us than what this world can give. It also always reminds me, when I return, that my mission field is just as much at home as it is when I go abroad. You don’t have to go to the remote places of the world to live a life on mission!”
It’s a viewpoint that was strengthened after returning from a second trip to Israel in 2014 and being invited to a Missional Community back home in Calgary. The group meets together regularly, and in the context of friendship and ‘doing life’ together, they explore God’s missional purposes and grow in their understanding of what that looks like in their own day-to-day lives.
“I still love the idea of going away on short-term missions, but I began to long for what was happening in Calgary and seeing my city and my work as my own mission field. I began to contemplate discipleship and the importance of relationships. I shifted how I saw my job and began to take bolder steps to share my faith with others at work.”
This group held another huge blessing for Michelle. Through it, she found the community she had yearned to connect with for so many years but had struggled to find!
“They are a family to me. I am finding that I have more depth to my relationship with God, and I do think the people He has brought into my life have fortified me in that.”
God has definitely been at work in incredible ways in Michelle’s life, but as with all of us, she says, “I am still a work in progress.” When it comes to her struggles, she says, “What is crucial is not to define your life by society’s standards, but rather by God’s standards. I renew my trust in the Lord’s plan daily. Some days I still fail and feel discouraged and lonely, but I’m finding comfort in two ways. Firstly, I look backwards. God has brought me to an incredible place, for which I am so grateful. I have a career in nursing that I enjoy, a strong faith and a wonderful family. I have travelled and had the opportunity to serve Him in incredible ways around the world. I live each day recognizing that God has placed me where I am at today and I live that day to the full.”
“Secondly, I look forward. In the last few months, God has spoken to me about His promises for me and my future. As I’ve read stories in the Bible, God’s promises to His people resonated with me. He has led me to three verses that I hold to:
Jeremiah 31:3 – ‘I have loved you with an everlasting love.’
Hebrews 13:5 – ‘Never will I leave you, never will I forsake you.’
Jeremiah 29:11 – ‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future.’”
“I was once a sick kid, and I found complete healing in my Saviour. I was once a scared and lonely teenager and I found complete surrender and comfort in my Heavenly Father. I was once an adventurous young adult and I found the joy, peace and love of a relationship with Jesus. I am now an adult ... and I know I am more deeply rooted in God’s presence each day as He fulfills His plan in me!”
Michelle’s Service on CSC’s Board of Governor’s
“I currently serve as a Board member, and as Chair of the Human Resources and Compensation committee. I am humbled to serve on both, and to further support our church with the leadership gifts and experience God has given me. What a blessing to hear how God is actively at work at CSC! I’ve found that over the year and a half I’ve served on the Board, one of my most crucial roles as a Board member is a prayer warrior, seeking God’s will in all decisions. We’ve faced some challenging times in the last year, but I know God’s goodness and grace from personal experience. I know that He loves the church, His bride, and that as long as we continue to look to Him, seek Him and follow His will, God will bless our church. What an honour to be a part of that!”