Nadine Ness counts herself as a woman of faith, but she didn’t always think it would be this way..The founder of Unified Grassroots in Saskatchewan said her prayers were answered in 2015 in a “supernatural” encounter that left her a believer ever since..“I was raised in a Catholic environment. Even though I never believed, I still went to church when I was young. But my idea of church was not a positive one, to be honest. There was some hurt that occurred in the church. That one part’s really personal…vIt really turned me away from religion and God,” Ness said in an interview..Ness grew up in New Brunswick with five siblings, two step, two full, and one was a half sibling. She was raised by her father and stepmother, as her birth mom had a drug addiction. Later, her bilingual abilities helped her land government jobs in the West. She married, became an RCMP officer, and had two children of her own..“When I had children, I couldn’t understand how there was something more powerful than the love of a mother has for a child. I couldn’t understand how addiction was more powerful than that. And to me, addiction was the most powerful thing on earth. Even as a police officer, I would see and deal with people who are dealing with addiction, and it’s very, very rare that we would see anyone come out of it. I just saw the destruction on families, on communities, on the world.”.From 2012 to 2019, Ness had four RCMP postings in Saskatchewan, first North Battleford, then La Loche, then Rosthern, and finally Martensville. By 2015, she was in the process of separation and divorce from her first husband..“I just felt really, really alone. And someone asked me to go to church and I was so desperate for friends because I was just new to this town. I didn’t know anyone. And I went that day because I wanted to make friends, even though everything in me was like, don’t go to church.”.Ness said although she was inclined against religion, she was longing for God just the same..“I was in such a trench. I had been asking God, ‘Hey, if you’re real, can you show me that you’re real, that you exist? Can you show me like a miracle or something?’”.The day she went to Osler Community Church, a group from Teen Challenge was visiting, a ministry founded in 1960 in New York City by the Rev. David Wilkerson. The miracle she was looking for was found in the changed lives of the visiting group according to Ness..“I just heard these testimonies of them overcoming something that I thought was the most powerful thing on Earth. And a normal rehab center has like 2 or 3% (success.) Teen Challenge is 80%, and the difference between the two is Jesus,” Ness said..“They were all singing at the end. I was looking at them, eight men’s lives completely changed. And then I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, this is it! This is the miracle I was asking God for, like God is real!’”.Immediately the transformation she witnessed in the lives in front of her began to touch her own..“I get emotional talking about this. But in that moment, I had something supernatural occur. But I had this whole fire come over me, this white burning fire. And it was not painful. It was just this overwhelming joy and peace, and it just completely overcome me. .“I started crying in church — which I’m a police officer. You never show your emotions. I had put up this wall, eh, and now I’m just like this bawling mess.”.It was the Ness’ old life and the start of a new one. And as proof, she said that she had what resembled a near-death experience while still in tears..“They say your life flashes before your eyes before you die. Well, that’s how I would explain what happened after. I saw this life flashing before my eyes, but it was every time I had prayed to know if there is a God, and it was how He answered that prayer. And one of them was when I was three years old…He didn’t always answer it the way I wanted to, but he always answered it for my good.”.Ness went through adult baptism about a month later. In later years, the Osler church would split. Although it’s no longer her home church, many relationships she started there endure, as does her faith..“After I had that experience, there was no way I could go back to not believing. And there would always be these situations when I was working where God would tell me, ‘You need to drive down this driveway.’ I would and then lo and behold I’d find this woman crying and so depressed and I’d bring her back to the body of Christ..“I could tell you stories after stories. But yeah, that’s why I let Him guide me because I remember what life was like when I didn’t have Him and what it’s like now and I can’t even compare it.”.One of those remarkable stories is how she knew she would marry her future husband Jonathan soon after she met him..“I knew, God told me that he was it the first time we talked on the phone. And then his father knew about me before my husband even mentioned me because his father had gotten word from God. So, the first time he met me, he already knew I existed.”.In years past, the man who would become Ness’ father-in-law was arrested and jailed for selling grain south of the border in protest of the federal government’s Canadian Wheat Board monopoly..“He told me, he said that God told him not to worry about Jonathan, that he’s found her and she has a child, a nine-year-old daughter… I also had a son, but I don’t think He needed to give that away,” Ness recalled with a laugh..“That sounds crazy, I know it will to anyone who’s not a believer, but when I met him, I already knew. My husband was a bit slower… But now looking at what God has accomplished through my husband and I … I know why we were joined in union. We wouldn’t have been able to do what we’ve done and spread this message of love if we weren’t together.”.Ness says that “message of love” is Unified Grassroots, based on the premise that families and neighbours should stand together during the pandemic and not be driven apart by divisions over mandatory vaccination, masking and other issues. Ness said the organization is not explicitly a religious one, but faith plays a role in the lives of many members..“It’s really shaped who I’ve become. I think when your whole reason for doing everything changes and shifts to God, it can’t not completely drastically change your life because it’s not what you want anymore. It’s what pleases God. And you’re not doing things to appear to be good, you’re doing things to please God.” .Ness first achieved mainstream recognition after a video she posted last December that called upon Premier Scott Moe and the Saskatchewan Party to return to its founding principles. She says the idea came to her following bedtime prayers..“I was asking for God to give me directions as to what to do. And I woke up in the middle of the night at like two or three in the morning with this overwhelming thought that I need to do a video addressing the party’s guiding principles to try to bring them back on the straight and narrow. And it was so strong, I couldn’t even fall asleep.”.Not long afterward, Moe called Ness. The call drew fire from NDP Opposition leader Ryan Meili, but Moe said of Unified Grassroots, “These are our family, these are our friends, these are people in our community.” It was the very message Ness wanted Saskatchewan people to embrace..“I don’t think God has enough men or women yet. I don’t think His fishing is done just yet. So I think we’re going to see this huge move of God occur in Canada,” Ness said..“We’re going in a bad direction. I won’t deny that. I don’t want to think about it too, too much. I’d rather just follow what God says than worry about something and make it stop you from doing what He would want.”
Nadine Ness counts herself as a woman of faith, but she didn’t always think it would be this way..The founder of Unified Grassroots in Saskatchewan said her prayers were answered in 2015 in a “supernatural” encounter that left her a believer ever since..“I was raised in a Catholic environment. Even though I never believed, I still went to church when I was young. But my idea of church was not a positive one, to be honest. There was some hurt that occurred in the church. That one part’s really personal…vIt really turned me away from religion and God,” Ness said in an interview..Ness grew up in New Brunswick with five siblings, two step, two full, and one was a half sibling. She was raised by her father and stepmother, as her birth mom had a drug addiction. Later, her bilingual abilities helped her land government jobs in the West. She married, became an RCMP officer, and had two children of her own..“When I had children, I couldn’t understand how there was something more powerful than the love of a mother has for a child. I couldn’t understand how addiction was more powerful than that. And to me, addiction was the most powerful thing on earth. Even as a police officer, I would see and deal with people who are dealing with addiction, and it’s very, very rare that we would see anyone come out of it. I just saw the destruction on families, on communities, on the world.”.From 2012 to 2019, Ness had four RCMP postings in Saskatchewan, first North Battleford, then La Loche, then Rosthern, and finally Martensville. By 2015, she was in the process of separation and divorce from her first husband..“I just felt really, really alone. And someone asked me to go to church and I was so desperate for friends because I was just new to this town. I didn’t know anyone. And I went that day because I wanted to make friends, even though everything in me was like, don’t go to church.”.Ness said although she was inclined against religion, she was longing for God just the same..“I was in such a trench. I had been asking God, ‘Hey, if you’re real, can you show me that you’re real, that you exist? Can you show me like a miracle or something?’”.The day she went to Osler Community Church, a group from Teen Challenge was visiting, a ministry founded in 1960 in New York City by the Rev. David Wilkerson. The miracle she was looking for was found in the changed lives of the visiting group according to Ness..“I just heard these testimonies of them overcoming something that I thought was the most powerful thing on Earth. And a normal rehab center has like 2 or 3% (success.) Teen Challenge is 80%, and the difference between the two is Jesus,” Ness said..“They were all singing at the end. I was looking at them, eight men’s lives completely changed. And then I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, this is it! This is the miracle I was asking God for, like God is real!’”.Immediately the transformation she witnessed in the lives in front of her began to touch her own..“I get emotional talking about this. But in that moment, I had something supernatural occur. But I had this whole fire come over me, this white burning fire. And it was not painful. It was just this overwhelming joy and peace, and it just completely overcome me. .“I started crying in church — which I’m a police officer. You never show your emotions. I had put up this wall, eh, and now I’m just like this bawling mess.”.It was the Ness’ old life and the start of a new one. And as proof, she said that she had what resembled a near-death experience while still in tears..“They say your life flashes before your eyes before you die. Well, that’s how I would explain what happened after. I saw this life flashing before my eyes, but it was every time I had prayed to know if there is a God, and it was how He answered that prayer. And one of them was when I was three years old…He didn’t always answer it the way I wanted to, but he always answered it for my good.”.Ness went through adult baptism about a month later. In later years, the Osler church would split. Although it’s no longer her home church, many relationships she started there endure, as does her faith..“After I had that experience, there was no way I could go back to not believing. And there would always be these situations when I was working where God would tell me, ‘You need to drive down this driveway.’ I would and then lo and behold I’d find this woman crying and so depressed and I’d bring her back to the body of Christ..“I could tell you stories after stories. But yeah, that’s why I let Him guide me because I remember what life was like when I didn’t have Him and what it’s like now and I can’t even compare it.”.One of those remarkable stories is how she knew she would marry her future husband Jonathan soon after she met him..“I knew, God told me that he was it the first time we talked on the phone. And then his father knew about me before my husband even mentioned me because his father had gotten word from God. So, the first time he met me, he already knew I existed.”.In years past, the man who would become Ness’ father-in-law was arrested and jailed for selling grain south of the border in protest of the federal government’s Canadian Wheat Board monopoly..“He told me, he said that God told him not to worry about Jonathan, that he’s found her and she has a child, a nine-year-old daughter… I also had a son, but I don’t think He needed to give that away,” Ness recalled with a laugh..“That sounds crazy, I know it will to anyone who’s not a believer, but when I met him, I already knew. My husband was a bit slower… But now looking at what God has accomplished through my husband and I … I know why we were joined in union. We wouldn’t have been able to do what we’ve done and spread this message of love if we weren’t together.”.Ness says that “message of love” is Unified Grassroots, based on the premise that families and neighbours should stand together during the pandemic and not be driven apart by divisions over mandatory vaccination, masking and other issues. Ness said the organization is not explicitly a religious one, but faith plays a role in the lives of many members..“It’s really shaped who I’ve become. I think when your whole reason for doing everything changes and shifts to God, it can’t not completely drastically change your life because it’s not what you want anymore. It’s what pleases God. And you’re not doing things to appear to be good, you’re doing things to please God.” .Ness first achieved mainstream recognition after a video she posted last December that called upon Premier Scott Moe and the Saskatchewan Party to return to its founding principles. She says the idea came to her following bedtime prayers..“I was asking for God to give me directions as to what to do. And I woke up in the middle of the night at like two or three in the morning with this overwhelming thought that I need to do a video addressing the party’s guiding principles to try to bring them back on the straight and narrow. And it was so strong, I couldn’t even fall asleep.”.Not long afterward, Moe called Ness. The call drew fire from NDP Opposition leader Ryan Meili, but Moe said of Unified Grassroots, “These are our family, these are our friends, these are people in our community.” It was the very message Ness wanted Saskatchewan people to embrace..“I don’t think God has enough men or women yet. I don’t think His fishing is done just yet. So I think we’re going to see this huge move of God occur in Canada,” Ness said..“We’re going in a bad direction. I won’t deny that. I don’t want to think about it too, too much. I’d rather just follow what God says than worry about something and make it stop you from doing what He would want.”