About Dave Cottrell – pastor, writer, translator and photographer.
Learn more about Dave Cottrell
He formerly owned a heavy equipment maintenance business, before contracting Chronic Lyme Disease from a tick bite. Lyme disease, unless diagnosed and aggressively treated early, makes life rather difficult.
What about Dave Cottrell’s activities? What does he do? Dave is the owner of American English Translations. He offers accurate translations into native American English from most languages, as well as writing services of all kinds. He is also the owner of Classified Ad Land and the online newspaper, Wet Coast Daily.
Dave owns West Coast Opinion, a blog created specifically for his rants and otherwise providing an outlet for his sometimes very strong opinions. As he says, you can always hit your back button!
Home
Until June of 2022, Dave Cottrell lived in Gibsons, BC with his wife, Kathy. They have four adult children & ten grandchildren. He is an outdoorsman, with a passion for photography, especially in the outdoors. Dave, Kathy and their children have spent a lot of time camping, fishing, berry-picking, hiking, and hunting in the nearby mountains and around BC.
What does Dave do?
He had a successful career as a self-employed heavy duty mechanic until Lyme Disease hit. He was called as the pastor of Sunshine Community Baptist Church in 2007 This was a small, Independent Baptist church started nearly twenty-five years ago. Being involved in online business helped to support him in this ministry, even after Lyme Disease ended his career in industry.
Status
Dave & Kathy Cottrell were married in 1978. A short time later, they were introduced to their first experience in direct marketing. He was the naive young face in the group who was quickly recruited to present the business plan. Dave has built very large international organizations, and has also managed a large online international affiliate database.
Sickness forced Dave to drop out of all marketing activities for a number of years, as undiagnosed, untreated, and incorrectly treated Lyme disease took its toll. He is very thankful to God for His grace in sustaining them. Dave is also thankful to Dr. Ernie Murakami for diagnosing him, and to Dr. Eric Chan of Pannaturopathic in Steveston. He confirmed Dr. Murakami’s diagnosis and began treating him with the antibiotics that brought him back from the brink.
More information on Lyme disease is available on Dave’s dedicated site at www.LymeClinics.com. It is treatable, but a cure for chronic or long term Lyme disease has not yet been found. But there is good news. It’s possible to regain some of what was lost and to live a relatively normal life. Follow Dave’s journey as he battles back on The Lyme Files.
Dave & Kathy moved to tātl’ā (Dease Lake, BC) in June of 2022.
Heritage
Dave Cottrell is a North American. He was born in Canada, in a mission hospital in northern BC. His family tree includes Scottish, Welsh, French and depending on who you ask in the family, Cree or Ojibwa. A cousin told him his great-grandmother on his dad’s side was French and Cree, and joked it was the French in her that inspired her to give his grandfather the middle name of Cuthbert. Cuthbert just doesn’t sound as good in English! Further back, family legend says there is a Jewish great-great-grandmother. (Anyone who is working on their family tree knows just how difficult, if not impossible, it is to nail everything down!)
Some of his ancestors have lived in America for as long as it has been inhabited. Some more recent ones were born in Canada. Some were born in the USA. Some came directly from Europe to settle in Canada. Though he holds Canadian citizenship by birth, he is at home on both sides of this still friendly international border between Canada and the USA.
An interesting development occurred in 2019. Dave and Kathy both had their DNA tested by 23andMe. It shows no close Cree, Ojibwa or Jewish connection. Instead it shows a much closer connection to mainly western and northern European ancestry. The Scottish is the strongest, with a major Viking influence from the far north. But it also shows no connection whatsoever to the strong, well-known and well-documented Welsh ancestry.
But another company, looking at the same DNA information, found a substantial link to Cree ancestry. It’s pretty complex science.
Upon further digging into the genetics of heritage and after corresponding with a highly qualified geneticist whose specialty is inherited DNA, it has become apparent that it is still a very unsettled science, deeply rooted in the probability associated with certain markers.
People who decide to have their DNA tested need to be aware that the results may be in conflict with known family heritage. Dave’s advice to readers is to believe your elders when it comes to family history. But don’t try to identify as part of a particular community unless you can name your family members who connect you to that community. It might seem innocent enough, but some have made unfounded and unsupported claims to gain privileged positions in universities and other places.
The reality about today’s knowledge about DNA is that two people in the same family with the same parents can have very different DNA tests in the area of heritage. According to the most recent information on DNA testing, the tests are based a lot on probability, and may be as high as 50% inaccurate! Stay tuned…
Dave is thankful for the dad he had, a warrior, survivor and a real man who knew how to treat others with kindness, while expecting much from himself. He passed on his attitude of “If something must be done, it must be done. No excuses.” That has been of great benefit, both during his career while raising a family, and in fighting the disease that keeps trying to make him quit.
Dave Cottrell’s experience, persistence, and never say die attitude can help anyone who desires to succeed and is open to learning and hard work. Contact him here, on this website.
EDUCATION
- UBC
- Sir Sanford Fleming
- SOHK (School of Hard Knocks)
- Sunshine Coast Gospel Church
- Sunshine Community Baptist Church
WORK
- Writing
- Proofreading & Editing
- Translation
- Photography
- Affiliate Marketing
To learn more about Dave Cottrell and what he does, subscribe to his blog.