Building

Who needs a house when you can have a swimming pool?

 

Thankfully most of the water has since been pumped out. When the hole for the foundation was dug, bedrock was discovered much higher than expected in parts. So...the last few weeks have been spent trying to figure out solutions and pursuing many different options. We are now hoping to do a walk-out basement, which means we can stick to our original house plans and still minorly adjust a few things to make the walk-out possible. The downside is that everything has been pushed back by about a month because of the delay. We are still seeking the Lord for His wisdom as we continue.

I love this spot now! It actually looks like a real house will look out onto it someday! This is part of our driveway and looking out to the septic bed. They filled it all in and placed the rocks there and seeded it...so grass has since started to grow! There was a little hill there before, but not any more! We'll actually have part of a yard!

A few more of the rocks that were uncovered during the excavating process. We may be able to use the top flat one for a step somewhere! The others will be useful for landscaping...whenever that happens.

Traveling

Yes, the train is really called "The Polar Bear Express" that goes from Cochrane to Moosonee!
I am so thankful for the Lord's trustworthiness throughout my trip. I was so blessed by the people I met and stayed with in Cochrane, Moosonee and Moose Factory! Most exciting is that we are able to send a team of Summer Missionaries to Moosonee this year too! We are also looking into a trip for January to do some training for parents, grandparents and children's ministry workers and maybe even do some children's outreaches further up the coast.

This is the street by the docks. Some interesting things I discovered:

• All the roads are dirt roads, except for a paved sidewalk in a few areas
• Everyone deals with dirt everywhere b/c of the roads, so you have indoor and outdoor shoes, even for church
• Nobody wears their seatbelt "there's no point and no laws about it" they say 

This is from Moosonee looking across to the island of Moose Factory. The only way across is by water taxi (or helicopter if you're trying to get to the hospital)

This is a water taxi! Nothing too fancy, but it worked. The ride is only about 7 min.

 This is the closest I've ever been to Polar Bears (in Cochrane)!

This was my big string of tickets to get from Cochrane to Port Sydney by bus. I left at 7:45 pm and got home at 4 am!!!

I don't want to leave!!!

David knew that I was terrified of going to Moosonee alone and we really didn't want to be apart for 6 days, so he was SO SWEET and made this incredibly amazing breakfast for me the day I had to leave.

On top of that, when we went out to the car I saw the other surprise he had made- a royal carriage ride in our grand pontiac...it felt grand with all the roses at least! =]

Arrival in Moosonee & Moose Factory

After staying overnight with the Gauchers (a French family) in Cochrane and getting acquainted with more of their family, I boarded the Polar Bear Express headed north to Moosonee. The ride was a little over 5 hours and quite bumpy as the frost is coming out of the ground now.

I was SO scared going into this trip- terrified to go alone, to find my way around, try to meet up with the right people, to know what to share in the Bible study I was asked to lead...the one good thing out of my fear is that I finally took it to the Lord and realized I couldn't do this on my own, it would only be in His strength! I am so amazed that He gave me peace before speaking last night. I had to laugh when I was introduced to the all Native church as "the little white lady".

It has been eye opening and heart breaking to see and hear about the problems that these communities face, especially the extremely high suicide rate. There are many young moms around too. I spent the day in Moose Factory with a pastor's family yesterday. Moose Factory is an island that you take a water taxi to and most everyone on the island is Native. I got to hear "How Great Thou Art" song in Cree yesterday! Very Cool!

Keep praying that God will open doors and the children will be eternally changed by Him!

Trillium Takeover

My friend Heather invited me over to see all the Trilliums behind their apartment. It was amazing!!! It was as far as you could see, almost like snow, all the beautiful Trilliums! Yay for the Ontario provincial flower! We were good and legal and didn't pick any either.

Drive-In

One week after the Lord allowed the road restrictions to be removed, excavation work was started on our land to create a drive-way!

This allowed for a monumental moment...this morning we DROVE onto our land for the first time!!!

Hole Punch, Anyone?

So...what do you do when you're preparing for a Sunday School lesson and realize that the single hole punch that you were sure was around when you moved a year and a half ago has gone missing? Why you get your handy husband to use his drill of course!

It ended up being way faster in the end and the kids had no idea that the holes for the yarn sewing of the paper robe for their lesson on Tabitha being raised from the dead were made with a drill bit! =]

SPRING!

We went to see our friend's new fixer-upper house and there were flowers blooming!
We are so blessed to enjoy a beautiful spring this year, an early spring! PRAISE THE LORD, that the road restrictions DID come off early, 41 days early in fact, on Monday!

 Yesterday we marked out with blue yarn where we want to put the house! It was neat to "stand" in our house and actually see the dimensions for the first time.

Excavating!!!

NOTE: Please pray that the road restrictions will come off early so we can get things started!!!

I was THRILLED when David cleared more trees so that we can actually see sky from one side of our property through the trees, because our neighbor has a cleared field beyond the trees. Even though it made a lot more work for us (when we thought we were done clearing and hauling brush, it's definitely worth it!)

It is amazing to see a machine able to tear out stumps that seem impossible to take out. God provided a guy who has his heavy machinery ticket to drive the excavtor most of the time so a lot more was able to get done!

Heather and I had fun hauling logs and brush together while the boys played with the big machine. I did get to pull out a stump though!

We've now seen frogs, a black cap chickety, a butterfly, a squirrel and a salamander on our land! Thankfully we haven't seen any black flies yet...but we know they are coming.

Clearing Our Land

This picture is from a couple weeks ago when David's family and some friends came to help pile up brush and logs for a few hours. It was SOOO much more fun and way faster when there were so many people!!!

David is shown cooking our first meal made at the property...hot dogs! He and I worked all day in the rain burning and piling brush. We were able to finish up the main area and finish burning just a couple days before a burning ban went up (because all the snow had melted).