So Blessed!!!

One of the biggest differences between living in the U.S. and in Canada is the pace at which the holidays come in the fall. The first couple years of living here I found it incredibly strange to celebrate Thanksgiving in early October rather than the end of November...so we just did it twice. This year I found I settled in to the Canadian rhythm and it felt right to celebrate Thanksgiving October 14, especially since we were doing a CEF Fundraiser Banquet and Dessert Auction on November 28, American Thanksgiving. My family in Minnesota is celebrating Thanksgiving today, while we head off to David's extended family's Christmas gathering...it's all the same food and the same intent - a reminder to be thankful for all that God has given us...so it all works out. As we all know, Thanksgiving isn't about a specific day of platitude gratitude but a reminder of how we should live each of our days - with thankfulness...something that too easily escapes me.

As much as I thought I might just shift to complete Canadian style, some things die hard when you grow up with them. So this year, my American Thanksgiving celebration was boiled down to 3 things:
1) Watching a live stream of part of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade (no commercials that way either =]) while dancing around trying to entertain a sick baby.
2) Making 2 pumpkin pies- one for the dessert auction and one for us to eat...that's really the best part of the traditional Thanksgiving meal anyways. We'll now have pumpkin pie for a week!
3) Sharing my "5 Thankful Corn" things on facebook today so even though my family may not even know it, I'm partaking in the Nydam tradition.

Since the point of Thanksgiving is to ponder those gifts which we don't always realize we're surrounded by, I thought I'd share a few things I'm thankful for...though the list could go on and on and on and on.

Teaching Children Effectively in Gravenhurst!

At the moment I am writing this, Nathan is in bed!!, laundry is running, the dishes are done and snack is ready for tomorrow's teacher training...while David is in Gravenhurst teaching weekend 3 of 4 of TCE 1 (Teaching Children Effectively Level 1). It is so strange to be at home while David is teaching the course, especially since the course is only 20 minutes from our house. It's ironic that after driving 3+ hours to teach TCEs since arriving in Ontario and coordinating courses around the province, when a course finally happens in our area I'm on maternity leave. =] This time our co-worker, Vance, has had the privilege of the long drives to the course. We certainly don't have the Toronto traffic, but the first weekend of the course Vance was greeted with snow (which has since left) and the next weekend we had a power outage at our house for 36 hours (Vance stays with us since the course is Fri night & all day Saturday). I think he should be safe this weekend...maybe. 

The really exciting thing about this particular course is that all of the students are already involved in ministry with us! They are so excited to learn and to see kids come to know Jesus! Last weekend they did their first practicum of telling the Wordless Book, as if to a child, while being evaluated. The next day Robin, one of the students, called to tell us that she taught Sunday School at her church and knew the lesson tied in with the Wordless Book. She prayed beforehand and told God that if there were any new kids in Sunday School she would share the Gospel using the Wordless Book. They usually have 8-10 kids but instead had 20 with several being brand new! Robin was so thrilled to be able to share the Gospel with them after having learned, practiced, prepared and prayed for it. 

We look forward to what God is going to continue to do in the student's lives and the lives of the children they are able to share with as a result!