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Edmund John Shepherd Bergen
- Bradley Bergen
- 16 hours ago
- 8 min read
Hello friends and family of the northern Bergens!
It has been quite a bit of time since we last shared officially with anyone about how our lives have been getting on. We come to you now at the turning of the tide after many up's and downs to unload the incredible details that you've always wanted to know but have been too afraid to ask, praising God for His faithfulness to us both in our ministries and in our family life. Most of you will know that we welcomed a brand new boy into our family on March 23rd after a 4 day long labour. We thought it appropriate to share some of the details surrounding the entry of Edmund John Shepherd into the world as we know so many you have been praying for us, and specifically for Eddie and Luke and of course for the safe delivery and health of Cristyn.
We found out in February of 2026 that Cristyn had been suffering from an iron deficiency. Along the way she battled against gestational hypertenison, high blood pressure which was a sign that things could turn bad quickly. This caused much anxiety as every BP check could have lead to a rush to the hospital. An added complication for us was that the hospital is 35 minutes from our house and so even a false alarm was treated very seriously because if it was real, we knew that every minute counted. Gestational hypertension can be very dangerous to mom and baby as it can lead to the shutting down of internal organs and so Cristyn was scheduled for an induction.
Thankfully God allowed Cristyn to see out her months of pregnancy until the scheduled induction date at 38 weeks. Full of excitement and trepidation we drove into town that Friday morning hoping for a quick delivery similar to how it had gone with Luke who also had been induced for the same reasons. That was not to be.
The next four days were made up of disappointment as Cristyn's body didn't seem to take the hint that a baby was supposed to be coming out. There was constant contractions but they were very slow and so it was on the 4th day at 2:30 in the morning that the doctors finally gave Cristyn the good stuff (more powerful medication), and then at 10:00 that her water was broken. We had spent the previous 3 days watching through the Lord of the Rings movies(extended edition) and praying, and reminding each other of important Scriptures. These all came in handy as things started happening, but not in the way that we had hoped. Cristyn had written out some scriptures that she wanted me to read as she was going through labour, some of her favourite psalms and then a quote that would come to define this journey as we went through what felt like the valley of the shadow of death. It came from a man named GK Chesterton, someone who my pastor Trevor had introduced to me when I was still in highschool and someone that I had then introduced to Cristyn. From his book Orthodoxy came a reminder of the words of Christ
“For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.”
Chesterton in remarking on this passage says:
“Courage is almost a contradiction in terms. It means a strong desire to live taking the form of a readiness to die. “He that will lose his life, the same shall save it,” is not a piece of mysticism for saints and heroes. It is a piece of everyday advice for sailors or mountaineers. It might be printed in an Alpine guide or a drill book. This paradox is the whole principle of courage; even of quite earthly or quite brutal courage. A man cut off by the sea may save his life if he will risk it on the precipice.
He can only get away from death by continually stepping within an inch of it. A soldier surrounded by enemies, if he is to cut his way out, needs to combine a strong desire for living with a strange carelessness about dying. He must not merely cling to life, for then he will be a coward, and will not escape. He must not merely wait for death, for then he will be a suicide, and will not escape. He must seek his life in a spirit of furious indifference to it; he must desire life like water and yet drink death like wine. No philosopher, I fancy, has ever expressed this romantic riddle with adequate lucidity, and I certainly have not done so. But Christianity has done more: it has marked the limits of it in the awful graves of the suicide and the hero, showing the distance between him who dies for the sake of living and him who dies for the sake of dying.”
Christ spoke of a dying that happens in order that life might arise, and this is spiritual and about our salvation but Chesterton rightly makes the point that it applies to all areas where we must be brave, and the one line of his quote that became a rallying cry for Cristyn and I was “ He must seek his life in a spirit of furious indifference to it; he must desire life like water and yet drink death like wine”
We were in the midst of desiring life like water, both Cristyn's and Eddies, but to gain their lives back we must drink death like wine, that is the danger of death. You see not all was well with the birth. Cristyn laboured over 15 hours coming so close to giving birth, but every time Edmund would descend towards life, his heart rate would drop and he would push back up. Eventually after so many hours of labour and the baby still not coming the doctors offered an epidural, and Cristyn a true soldier who had been pushed to the limits of her strength accepted it. Believe me when I tell you that it was needed. It gave her a chance to reset and even nap. I have to mention(though not by name) that a dear friend of ours a doula came and helped Cristyn to labour and also in that moment ran out to buy myself and her supper. Her support was so appreciated and she stayed with us all the way through the day and evening.
Along with our doula, Cristyn's favourite doctor that had helped her through her sickness during pregnancy was on shift that evening. We also had the nurse that had monitored Cristyn's NST's(non stress tests) on shift that she had gotten to know throughout the coming weeks. And, it just so happened that the OBGYN who is stationed at the UNBC hospital to help with risky pregnancies was on shift that night. Everyone was helping and working together. As things went on, it became clear that there was a mystery happening with the umbilical cord that was preventing Edmund from coming out. And one that we could only solve through a C-section.
All along we had been trying to avoid a C-section knowing how hard it was to recover from, but at this point there was no other choice (Although, later on Cristyn had said she felt God was preparing her for one throughout labour). We were so ready for life that we had to take one last step into death and send Cristyn to surgery. While C-sections are routine, we knew that this delivery had not been, and as it turned out the C-Section was not either. I was able to join Cristyn for a time before they brought Edmund into the world, and we thank God that we got to hold him, and take pictures and feed him before I was rushed away as they then had to work to put Cristyn back together again. Let me tell you friends that the cry of Edmund, drinking in life instead of death brought so much joy to our tired hearts.
As he cried and was safely delivered, the doctors and nurses exclaimed with a loud “Oooooo!” They had discovered the mystery. We didn't know it at the time but as we would later discover, his umbilical cord was tied in a true knot, something that only happens to 1.4 % of babies. The doctor later said that she had never seen it in her practice before. Every time Edmund would go down his blood flow would be cut off. If we had continued with natural birth, it would have been an incredibly scary delivery. As I (Brad) left the OR knowing that Cristyn was in good hands but feeling so helpless, I took Edmund back to the hospital room and for the first time in my life I held Edmund alone. Luke was at his grandparents house that evening, and Cristyn's sister had come up to meet Edmund but had to go home as he hadn't come quickly, and so the only family that was there to welcome Edmund was me. I won't lie, I was scared for Cristyn, and my prayers were for her life to be preserved
We sat there for 2 more hours (C-sections are normally about 45 minutes), getting to know one another until Cristyn was returned groggy but well from the recovery room where they had sent her to sleep off the anaesthetic. They had done an incredible job on keeping blood inside her, but she still had lost about 2.5 L out of about 4 L in her body and her uterus had to be massaged so that it would stop bleeding enough for the sutures to hold. None of that mattered anymore as we gratefully fell asleep at 3 in the morning after having battled through the darkness for 24 hours. We ended up coming home 4 days later and now it has been a month since our journey into that valley of the shadow and back out again.
The name Edmund, although yes a reference from Narnia, means “rich protector”. We witnessed God be our rich protector throughout his labour. Afterwards, the nurses and doctors came throughout the week to greet Edmund and check up on Cristyn. Both the doctor and nurse who had been present during the operation told was separately, “There was a higher power in the operation room that night and throughout your labour”. We praise God that we were able to be a witness as we prayed, played worship music and relied on God for wisdom as we walked through this labour. (Cristyn particularly enjoyed it when the song “Hard” by Rich Mullins came on. While it played during the stressful time before the epidural labour it was clear that the mood shifted in the room through Rich's plucky guitar playing and witty lyrics.)
Our story continues, in the next letter. What we will be doing for the summer and starting in the new year as a family is something that we also want to share, as well as how ministry has been doing both at Lakes Community Church and at UNBC but in conclusion for this missive, Edmund is healthy and has exceeded expectations mightily. He is already wearing 3 month old clothes while only being a one month old, has lots of chub and enjoys cuddles and snuggles. Luke is adapting well to being an older brother, though there have been a couple of times where we have had to stiff arm him and tackle him off of Edmund as Luke attempts to practice WWE moves on him. Luke is now 2 1/2 years old and is precocious, curious, energetic and loving that there is dirt everywhere in our backyard!
God is good, and we continue to drink life like water and death like wine as we venture further up and further in to God's work and Kingdom in Jesus Christ. Thank you for your prayers, until we meet again.
With Love,
Brad, Cristyn, Luke, Edmund (and Olive)
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