Zabeth and Paul Bayne – Part 75 – The Bayne Campaign for Justice

A LETTER FROM A HURTING PARENT
Zabeth and I correspond frequently. She will play a musical concert this coming Sunday evening to raise funds for legal expenses. The court dates are set for January 12-15 2010, so her emotional generator is pumping hard. They have such little time with their children each week. This sordid mess has gone on for over two years. I want you to read some of the letter Zabeth wrote to me yesterday, when I asked her how they were doing and how I could pray for them.

"Thank you for asking as to our welfare and direction for prayer. Even though our Christmas was directed at helping others yes, it was hard to get through as we watched families out shopping and passed homes decorated for celebrating with their loved ones. Now we are looking to the future. Paul looks ahead confidently, with hope and trust in our Lord, believing that His will is the return of the family He has given us, but nevertheless God's will be done. I look ahead with mixed feelings - following in the path my husband has laid out but knowing that I must take the same path of trust and faith in our Lord Jesus."

"Yesterday when we had to put our children back in the drivers van to take them away our son K. pulled Daddy to the back of the van and whispered. "Daddy do I have to go in her van again. When can I come home?" Daddy told him that it would be soon. In the van as I hugged them goodbye I said in three more sleeps we will see you again. He kicked his feet and said yeah in three sleeps I can come home. Sadly I told him no, we would only be visiting, but we see the king (judge) in I think sixteen sleeps and we are asking him to have you come home. Our children are praying too."

"It is hard to write of the court day and how our lives hang on this without crying. No one can understand the pain of having your children ripped from your arms and then to have your heart torn to shreds daily. To have social workers lie about you and to be accused of something so repulsive is utterly humiliating. Wherever we go we are faced with the assumption of guilty until proven innocent. We love children and absolutely adore ours. It is hard to be branded a child abuser when you are innocent. Pray that one day this "brand" is removed and we can be the parents we want to be."

If you care to attend Sunday's Concert, then due to limited seating we ask you to indicate your intention to come by calling 778-228-4717 to reserve your place or send an email reservation request to sendthechildrenhome@gmail.com

Concert at 6:30 PM at Richmond Peace Mennonite Church, 11571 Daniels Road, Richmond, BC

Zabeth and Paul Bayne – Part 74 – The Bayne Campaign for Justice

I WISH THIS WAS ONLY FICTION

I wouldn't call it a thriller but Paul and Zabeth Bayne have been living a nightmare for two years that could easily pass as a dramatic novel manuscript. The problem is that this is not fiction but real life, and the life of the Bayne family needs a happy ending unless this is a Stephen King product.

I am calling this story, A STATE OF EMERGENCY

WHAT AN INCREDIBLE PLOT
Here is the plot line. Picture two small boys, two and four years of age playing in their family home. Their baby sister is lying quietly and contentedly on a blanket placed in the living room floor. The children's father prepares a family dinner. Their mother leaves the living room momentarily to express milk for her infant daughter. Upon returning to the room fifteen minutes later she sees one of her sons running through a doorway and stumbling and falling upon the infant girl. The initial concern dissipates as the baby stops crying and settles down. Later however, the mother and father become concerned about the baby girl's behaviour. They take their child for examination in several local hospitals and these prove inconclusive. Unsatisfied, they at last take their daughter to a city Children's hospital. There, a physician renders a Shaken Baby diagnosis. The parents are immediately suspected. Child Protection personnel come to the family home and take the children away. The parents are subsequently arrested for aggravated assault on their own child, separately interrogated. The mom is traumatized by these events and is briefly hospitalized until she is stabilized. Then they learn that the police have determined there is insufficient evidence to proceed with charges. The charges are dropped and their case record expunged. In fact the police issue an apology to the parents for wrongfully taking fingerprints and photos and then they wish the Baynes the best of luck. The government's Child Protection agency nonetheless refuses to believe the parents' version of what happened. The agency is convinced that this was non accidental and therefore the parents are under suspicion and considered a potential risk to their children. Months pass as the parents try to assert their character credibility and to retrieve their children but all their efforts are unsuccessful and in the process their legal expenses require them to forfeit their new family home and to sell the mother's grand piano which is her livelihood as a teacher and concert pianist. During all of this time, the young parents are living with the young woman’s parents because it shortens the distance of their weekly visitations to the children and it provides some mutual moral reinforcement. The boys are permitted by Child Protection to live with the parents in the supervised arrangement of their maternal grandparents’ home. They are still without their tiny daughter.

The Bayne’s tortuous story gains public attention and television journalists clamour for their narrative. They agree to a televised interview which is recorded for later showing. Between the day of the recording and the date of the airing of the segment, a mediation arrangement is introduced by the Child Protection agency by which the parents are promised that the two boys may live with the parents wherever they choose to live. This is permanent and it is wonderful news. Then the TV segment airs. Without announcing their arrival, the Ministry people accompanied by police, interrupt the birthday of one of the small boys in the Grandparents’ home. They seize the Bayne boys amid the screams and cries of children and adults and once again have custody of all three. The Ministry justifies this action on the basis that the parents contravened the agreement that curtailed media contact. Little attention is paid to the fact that the interview was agreed to and videoed days before the Baynes learned that they could have full custody of their boys again.

This is a devastating occurrence for the family and for their friends. The parents are known and respected by a vast friendship network that write countless letters of appeal to the Government and for many months scores of people stand in front of elected officials' constituency offices holding placards of protest and appeal. After some time even the Ministry's lawyer says there is no ground for holding the boys and advises the Ministry to return the sons. The Ministry disregards the advice. The Ministry will put these children up for adoption and is moving this case to court, but again slowly, very slowly. The Baynes are unable to afford any more lawyers. Then remarkably the Baynes are met by a high profile Canadian lawyer who expresses willingness to represent them. It is now over two years that the Ministry in the Baynes contend is a violation of the Ministry's own governing ACT and allegedly without an updated court authorization beyond the initial order has held three children from their parents.

That is not the end of the story. It is still being written. You have only finished half of this narrative subtitled, “The Bayne Campaign for Justice.” This tale could go in several different directions. You are going to help to write the conclusion.

Today, please go to the petition page to sign for them, and send this link to your friends.

And if you wish to attend a piano concert this Sunday Jan 3 2010 in Richmond BC., in which Zabeth will be playing, and funds will go into a trust to allay legal expenses, you must reserve you free admission seat by calling 778-228-4717 or sending an email reservation request to sendthechildrenhome@gmail.com

Zabeth and Paul Bayne – Part 73 – The Bayne Campaign for Justice

“For Love and for Justice”

This coming Sunday will be a special day for a select group of 300 or so people which is the maximum seating in a venue in which a musical concert will be played and heard this evening. These guests have all reserved a seat for the evening. Three musicians at this concert will provide us with a musical treat. Two are concert pianists and one is an accomplished flutist. Those of us who attend have not had to pay an admission price. The expectation with which we are going is that our donations will be welcomed. We are convinced that this is for a good purpose and the title for the evening concert reflects this conviction.

For the love of a family, for the love of two parents, and the love for three children we come together to make contributions to a trust fund to finance the legal expense that the Bayne family must pay in order to restore their identity as a family. We are hoping that the Bayne Family story will be finished in January when a Judge issues custody rights to Paul and Zabeth after two years of separation.

“For Love and for Justice”
A piano duo Fund-Raising Concert
The Bayne family’s unfinished story
You are cordially invited to attend the
“For Love and for Justice” Fund-Raising Concert
At Richmond Peace Mennonite Church
11571 Daniels Road, Richmond, BC
January 3, 2009
6:30 pm to 8:00 pm

One of the pianists is Zabeth Bayne, mother of Kent, Baden and Bethany. She is joined by a friend, internationally known pianist DIETMAR SCHMUECKER, and flutist CRYSTAL YANG. Mr. Schmeuker has performed publicly in Germany, England, Australia, the United States and Canada. Since settling in the Vancouver area in 1986, Dietmar has been widely active as a performer in recitals, programs of chamber music and with local orchestras, as well as an accompanist, teacher, and church musician. Ms. Yang holds a Bachelor of Music degree with distinction in Flute Performance from the University of Victoria. Crystal has performed widely in recitals and chamber music groups and has won numerous awards including BC representation at the National Music Festival competition in 2008. Zabeth studied with such instructors as Dietmar Schmeuker, Walter Bresch, the late composer of many of the two piano selections to be heard today and Alice Enns, professor at UBC. She received her ARCT. Zabeth has taught piano for over eighteen years, been active as an accompanist in church performances, school productions and competitions and performed solo, duo and in chamber groups.

If you care to attend, then due to limited seating we ask you to indicate your intention to come by calling 778-228-4717 to reserve your place or send an email reservation request to sendthechildrenhome@gmail.com

Zabeth and Paul Bayne – Part 72 – The Bayne Campaign for Justice

The Bayne Case was featured in an online Vancouver Sun article on Sunday.

In yesterday's blog post I wrote, "In hanging on to this case, a local MCFD division has dug a mudhole so deep that the entire Ministry countenance is going to be covered with it. The media will have a field day. If MCFD has been seeking to follow through on Hughes recommendations, these efforts may be lost in the shadow of the mess this case will create."

Well guess what! The Vancouver Sun carried an article yesterday written by Raphael Alexander, entitled 'A Family In Need Of Reunification.' I urge you to read Mr. Alexander's well written material and trace the links that the online copy provides to the Bayne Campaign for Justice Facebook site, the Petition site, and this GPS blog site and the approaching Fund Raising Concert.

He has done the Baynes a service by objectively disclosing the facts that are already known that warrant the restoration of this family unit. It is the only conclusion to which fair minded people must come after two years and two months of family dismemberment.

It is unfortunate that well intentioned purposes like protecting children and developing families can result in a bureaucratic tangle of reports, misunderstandings, disagreements, legalities, tensions, conflicts and antagonisms.

Adrian MacNair is a Vancouver writer who sometimes writes under his middle name, Raphael Alexander who is cited as a Vancouver-based blogger. His blog is entitled Ambiguously Ambidextrous.

See the Facebook Event announcing this Sunday's concert.

Zabeth and Paul Bayne – Part 71 – The Bayne Campaign for Justice

These five people deserve to be together. There is no question in my mind. I have to believe that the Judge who presides over the court case that opens on January 12th 2010 will be similarly convinced that three lovely children must be returned by the Ministry of Children and Family Development to their birth parents, Zabeth and Paul Bayne. It has now been two months beyond two years that this family has been ripped apart and hurt so deeply that words fail a description.

Not even a defense that this was a sincere attempt to protect children satisfies the magnitude of this wrongful insistence to keep the children away from parents about whom there is no evidence of parental dereliction, or abuse, or cruelty or instability, or character deficit.

In hanging on to this case, a local MCFD division has dug a mudhole so deep that the entire Ministry countenance is going to be covered with it. The media will have a field day. If MCFD has been seeking to follow through on Hughes recommendations, these efforts may be lost in the shadow of the mess this case will create.

When her parents brought her for examination reporting that one of the small boys fell on Bethany, only after multiple opinions were offered by medical professionals did one doctor diagnose her as a shaken baby. It was the most informed opinion this doctor could provide at the time. It is possible that this doctor is no longer willing to maintain this opinion as the only possible explanation for Bethany's condition twenty-six months ago. This doctor has been made aware of the dozen or so contradictory medical opinions that the Baynes have received.

The penalty of this long separation from their children which Paul and Zabeth Bayne have borne is an unusual cruelty now, rather than anything remedial for parents or anything helpful for the children. MCFD regionalized the Ministry placing Directors in various geographic sectors, and while this has some validity, in a case like this, the primary leadership, the Minister and the Deputy Minister and their aides may be so removed from the day to day decisions that have affected this family's life, that not until it is this grave, do they become aware of the debacle.

Paul and Zabeth are fit parents. They have demonstrated this valiantly under the most trying circumstances, with just a few hours of visitation privilege each week, and with understandable calls and letters regarding their children’s health and well being when they flag concerns that are missed within the foster parenting program or ignored by MCFD that do not want to fund further medical examination. All three children should be returned to Zabeth and Paul.

Zabeth and Paul Bayne – Part 70 – The Bayne Campaign for Justice

It’s December 26th and it is St. Stephen’s Day. The day is more familiarly known as Boxing Day in Canada and a few other countries. It was perhaps during the Middle Ages 800 years ago in the UK that collection boxes for the poor were opened in churches so the contents might be distributed to needy people. This tradition continues in some churches. Similar collections in Holland were contained in earthenware pottery shaped like pigs and it is surmised that this was the origin of the term ‘piggy bank’.

A familiar carol tells the story of King Wenceslas called ‘good’, because he looked out on the Feast of Stephen on a snowy day and spotted a poor man gathering fire wood. The King asked his page who this man was and when he was told who he was and where he lived, the king did something generous and exemplary. He and his page took meats and foods and firewood and trudged through the blowing snow to this poor man’s residence to offer him a feast to remember. The frigid temperatures made the page want to give up but the saintly monarch was undaunted and told the page simply to follow his steps. Their unselfish gesture would soon make them warm.

"Mark my footsteps, good my page. Tread thou in them boldly
Thou shalt find the winter's rage freeze thy blood less coldly."

In his master's steps he trod, where the snow lay dinted;
Heat was in the very sod which the saint had printed.
Therefore, Christian men, be sure, wealth or rank possessing,
Ye who now will bless the poor, shall yourselves find blessing.”

That’s the spirit of community concern, accountability for one’s wealth and a sense of responsibility for those less fortunate at the moment, that thoughts of Christmas invoke. We will all agree that philanthropy and sacrifice doesn’t need to be limited to one season of each year. Paul and Zabeth Bayne will soon need the generosity of friends and supporters to aid them with legal expenses as they struggle to recover their children. I will tell you more later.

Zabeth and Paul Bayne – Part 69 – The Bayne Campaign for Justice

This is Christmas Day

Merry Christmas visiting friends. Your reading visits please me greatly. For the past three months my GPS blog has concentrated upon the dilemma of one family – the Baynes. Reading regularly, you will have become familiar with their story of shock, despair, loss, faith, advocacy, encouragement and optimism.

The conclusion to their story has not yet been written. At least we don’t have access to the manuscript.

Paul and Zabeth Bayne and their children Boy K, Boy B, and Baby B have awoken this Christmas morning in different houses. Paul and Zabeth together today, are without their children for the third Christmas in succession. The children will open presents and foster parents will watch their faces. Behind the happy eyes of children at Christmas, what inarticulate, indefinable sadness is concealed? Customarily when young parents with children at home read this account, the needle of their sympathy meter is in the extreme zone. Grief and disgust are apt descriptors of the intuitive response that most of us have to the grim tale of the Baynes.

A child injured, a medical diagnosis, a suspicion, a confiscation of children, no opportunity for defence, no access to appeal, a shattering legal bill, sale of a home and grand piano, a stack of injustices, a catalogue of discourtesies, unresponsiveness to birth parents, a flouting of law, an unconscionable delay of legal hearing, an appalling demonstration of administrative incompetence and a family devastated but not yet broken.

And here is the reason why these particular parents are not broken. On this Christmas morning Paul and Zabeth rejoice in the birth of another child, not to them alone, but to the world. A birth of God’s own Son Jesus Christ. People of faith, Paul and Zabeth, before they had children of their own, committed their lives to trust exclusively in Jesus Christ as the Lord and Saviour. They know that Christ came to make things right. Righteousness is the economy in which Jesus operates. They believe that during this year 2010, righteousness will be administered to them and to their children. Surrounding them even now is a vast number of supporters, some of whom do not necessarily share their faith commitment but who nonetheless are encouragers because it is the righteous thing to do.

Merry Christmas to each one of you and Merry Christmas to you Paul and Zabeth.

Reader, please hit this link and sign this petition

Zabeth and Paul Bayne – Part 68 – The Bayne Campaign for Justice

GOD SENT HIS SON

Exact words are important, specially when they are scripture, and specially when it is believed that these were inspired. The New Testament was written using Aramaic Greek, and the apostle Paul who wrote a letter to the Christians in Galatia chose his words carefully. For that reason the Greek verb exapostello is significant. You will recognize the prefix ‘ex’ meaning ‘out of’ or ‘out from.’ The body of the word then sounds like apostle. An apostle like Paul was a ‘sent one.’ Apostello is the verb “I send.’ The word exapostello then means ‘sending out from’ and carries the idea of going forth from a place at which the person has been before. It is found in Galatians 4:4 which is translated, “But when the fullness of time had come. God sent forth his Son, born of a woman…” When the time was right, God sent His Son out from Himself. His Son left heaven with divine authorization.

Understanding this commissioning, the words of another text, John 1:1-2, and 14 become an inspirational revelation. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.”


So we know that Jesus came from God and he did so by becoming human. But exactly how did he pull that off? By being born. This is not a reference to the beginning of his existence but to being born as a child of a woman. Jesus came a long way from his exalted position to take on this likeness of ours. An Old Testament prophet named Isaiah foresaw this and wrote, “behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.” That name as you may know means, “God with us.” How profound is that?

That involvement of God in our ordinary lives is precisely what Paul and Zabeth are counting upon. Sometimes human decisions must run their course until the time is just right for the establishment of a righteous statement – a declaration of authenticity, and a broader outcome than anyone can imagine. Within three weeks a court of law will convene at which time it is believed that truth will be clearly in evidence, and that truth will set the Bayne children free to return home to their parents.

It’s Christmas Eve. May the blessing of God be your experience and Paul’s and Zabeth’s comfort tonight.

Reader, please hit this link and sign this petition

Zabeth and Paul Bayne – Part 67 – The Bayne Campaign for Justice

THE MEANING OF 'THE FULLNESS OF TIME'

There is a danger that after the passage of generations, an historical personality as remarkable as Jesus, will be mistaken by cynical minds as merely a character from a pleasing but imaginary story. Even we who are so familiar with the details of Christ's life need to be reminded that there is nothing mythical about the coming of Christ.

The birth of Jesus Christ happened in time. Real earth time. What is real to us as humans is what occurs in time. Time is our sphere.

The Bible, communicates that the One True God has existed before time itself began. From outside of time, God spoke and his words created everything that we understand and everything that we cannot possibly comprehend. When he created finite things he created time. Sun and moon, and days and nights became instruments by which God marked time for us. God created humanity. Early in human history on earth, God spoke to people to reveal who he is. But through his very own son he has most effectively revealed himself and spoken the things he wants most to communicate. He did that in real earth time.

God made time as a preparation for eternity. It is within time that we acquire our admission to heaven or our entrance to hell. These verses are of great importance to our destiny.

Zabeth and Paul Bayne believe what the Bible tells them when it says, “But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying “Abba! Father!”

But why did God’s Son come at the particular time that he did? Because it was the right time. If you are running bath water in the tub and you leave it momentarily in order to do something else, the water keeps rising. It won't run over the sides until it has crept up to the top, edged along the surface, and not until the last moment when the tub space is filled will the water overflow. When the tub of time was filled to the brim with everything that God determined should happen, then Jesus came. The fullness of time is the fittest time, the most suitable time in the world's history for the event we commemorate at Christmas.

Next year Paul’s and Zabeth’s children will be involved with other children in a Christmas pageant that honours the Saviour with thanksgiving for his birth. They will arrive in the parents' car having come from home - the family home. Their deliverance will have happened in the fullness of time.

Scripture from Galatians 4:4-6

Reader, please hit this link and sign this petition

Zabeth and Paul Bayne – Part 66 – The Bayne Campaign for Justice

TIME

We are constantly talking about time. We feel its constraints. Time is money. Time ran out. It's about time. There is a time for everything. Time is of the essence. Time's up. Time out. Don't waste my time. We're out of time. Give me a little more time. I didn't have enough time. Where did all the time go? How time flies! I'm just killing time.

Time is the sphere in which our lives are contained. All of your lives you have filled in forms on which one of the priority questions was the date of birth. Grave markers have two dates, one noting birth date and the other denoting a person's date of death. Time holds the boundaries of our earthly existence.

C.S. Lewis, the prolific novelist and Christian apologist wrote the Narnia series of children’s novels. In the realm of make-believe a writer can manipulate time. In the first book, "The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe," four children, all siblings spend several days in an old professor's house. In one room is a large wardrobe. When they open the wardrobe they see only hanging fur coats. One by one the children hide inside the wardrobe and each finds that there is no back wall. Rather, behind the fur coats is an entrance into another world of strange creatures and difficult struggles. When at last, they come back to the real world, after a journey that seems months long if not years, they discover that in real earth time it is only the very next moment after they climbed inside the wardrobe.

For over two years Zabeth and Paul Bayne have survived emotional and psychological collapse while they have subsisted on a few hours each week with their three children. It must seem longer than twenty-six months to them. It must feel like a decade. They have waited all this time for the suitable time to defend themselves and prove to an impartial judge that the initial diagnosis of shaken baby was hasty, unreliable, mistaken and that they have never harmed any of their children and that they are fit and good parents who deserve to have their children returned to them.

On January 13th to the 15th an impartial judge, having listened to the legal counsel for the Ministry of Children and Family Development and to the legal representative for the Baynes, will pass judgements, the affects of which will mark this time forever. I am trusting that the Baynes will be able at last to emerge victorious from their nightmare. Not victors over human foes and systems but rather victorious over personal long term emotional wreckage and bitterness. I want them to be victors over crushing disappointments and demoralizing discouragements. Government has let them down, has let their children down, and has bred distrust in the people it serves. I am hoping that the Bayne family will come out from behind the fur coats in January and the day will be like the continuation of the wonderful life they were enjoying two years ago. Earth time will yield to God's good time.