Christmas Party Volunteers

We are praising the Lord for the 5 Christmas Parties that were held in the public schools in Orillia, plus the Christmas Party at our Good News Club. 8 children made confessions of salvation. It was so exciting because these children all clearly knew that they wanted to have their sins forgiven! Some of the volunteers are pictured here.

CYIA Retreat

It was neat to join the 19 young people that gathered from Friday to Sunday for the "CYIA" (Christian Youth in Action) Retreat. Once again I was so impressed and encouraged by the desire of these young people to love the Lord and praise Him even when it is tough.

One of the fun things that happened was a time of drama exercises. Some of them were quite hilarious. The picture shows a restaurant scene. They also acted out the Christmas story. It was really neat to see them get involved in personalizing it.

Montreal!

Arret (stop) sign to prove it was Quebec! It was so neat to be in the midst of a French speaking "country within a country". Although most of our time was spent in meetings, we did get to have fun and see a few things over the five days. The sad part was that David had to stay back at home to keep all the work going there, while Debbie and I got to represent Ontario.

Overview from Mont Royal over Montreal.

Sarah and Naomi (from Manitoba) sharing a dessert.

Summer Planning Meetings with 11 CEF workers from British Columbia, Alberta, Manitoba, Ontario and Quebec.

Poppies

Something I'm still getting use to about Canadians is that in November they all start wearing poppies in honor of Remembrance Day that's November 11. That's why the American girl (me) thought a boy in our Sunday School class said he "got a puppy" and began asking about it. Thankfully, David (the Canadian) could whisper to me "He said he got a poppy not a puppy"! As I then noticed the 5 year old with a red flower straight pinned to his shirt.

I've discovered it's actually quite a neat thing as the poppy is in remembrance of those that have died in war. Everywhere you go, everyone has the red flowers pinned to their coat or shirt, or a box sitting on the counter of a store to sell them.

I tried pasting in the poem about Flander's Field that inspired all this, but it's not working for me. It's proudly placed on the back of the $10 bill. It was written by a Canadian Doctor in the Canadian Medical Army Corps in Belguim in 1915.

IOT 2

This was our class of six with our three instructors who taught the two week course on teaching teachers to disciple kids. This is the last official level of training in CEF that I can take.

Can you figure out who are the students and who are the teachers???

American Musings

While we were in New York I made a list of the things that I noticed after "returning to the motherland". I guess it shows how shallow I can be.

There is:
-Yoplait Yogurt (yummm!!)
-Cartoned Milk
-We could use the top numbers on our spedmeter, that was wierd to use mph again...the speed limits are actually a bit faster than in Canada
-the sizes are HUGE, a small drink in the US is about a large in Canada
-things seemed much sweeter, like actually too sweet, I couldn't believe it
-way more drug and medical commercials
-Bic Black Pens, my favorite, trusty and cheap pens
-Plan-Ahead Day Planners, the kind I like and can't find the same format in Canada and it's cheaper too
-they sell Bibles, good Bibles in Wal-mart, I forgot about that!
-Nabisco brand rather than Mr. Christy (yes, Oreos etc. are made by somebody else here, so wierd)
-Gas is much cheaper!
-Paper Towel in Washrooms rather than blow dryers

Housing

Here is a view of our outside view along with the entrance into the house where we live. (Our entrance is through the garage on the left.) The outside was very nice in the summer! Please pray with us about our housing as it is very difficult to live and work in a basement apartment. The neat thing is that our landlords offered that we can come upstairs and work some days when they are gone. We are planning on looking at property to build on as our search for a house over the last year has turned up nothing. Eveything is overpriced and falling apart. We want to do what would be the wisest thing and know that building would require a lot of time from David this spring, breaking for summer and then beginning in the fall again. Having a house would really help in our establishing ministry here, though.We really need the Lord's wisdom in this whole thing!

Only 3 more days...

In 3 days David and I will finally get to go home together! He has been at home working the past week and a half since vacation, while I have been staying with co-workers/friends, Ivhan and Charlene Rusli and their 2 1/2 year old son, Brandon, who live in Markham (part of the Greater Toronto Area "GTA"). Ivhan and I are both taking the course "Instructor of Teachers Level 2", along with four other students. It's been hard to go back and be a full time student for 2 weeks, yet in some ways I rather enjoy it. It's good to be reminded of how scary it is to do an evaluated Bible lesson practicum, yet invigorating to have excellent teaching to learn from and to learn ways to expand my teaching style and keep working to become a better teacher.

The funny thing about this whole "IOT" thing is that David is just now old enough to be able to begin the process to start his training and evaluatons etc. for IOT level 1 in February, so we'll have to go through this seperation thing again, most likely! So for now, we live one day at a time and enjoy or phone chats at night like we did in our dating days.

Cold Stone Creamery

We were able to go on vacation to New York for a week and I enjoyed many things about returning to the U.S. like Yoplait yogurt, black Bic Pens, Plan-Ahead Day planners and COLD STONE ICE CREAM!!!! (Yay for David's birthday and the free coupon!) We had lots of fun exploring the Adirondack Mountains. We are so thankful for the chance to be able to take a bit of well needed rest and fun!

Leanne and Daniel's Wedding

Congratulations to Leanne (David's sister) and Daniel (his friend) who were married September 12! Here's the current family group (Sarah, Melissa, Karen (mom), Leanne, Daniel, John (dad), Matthew, David).