Christmas

Merry Christmas! 

Wow! Another Christmas has come and gone! We were able to spend it with Mitch's family.  I always enjoy going little his parents house.  They live out in the country and its always so refreshing to go out and get out of town. 

We have so much to be thankful for.  We are thankful for Jesus! He came as a baby so he could die as a sacrificial lamb.  It is becuase of this that we are eternally grateful.  We have peace and joy in our hearts because of the hope we have through Christ!

We are excited to see what 2013 will bring.  We are hoping to go the school this fall at the Missionary Training Center in Ontario still and are working towards that still. 

It appears that the trip to India that Mitch was hoping to go on will be heading out this fall, the same time we hope to attend the MTC, so we are thinking Mitch will not be going on that trip.  We are still very excited for those going on that trip and we just know that God will orchistrate the right people to go.  :). His timing and plan is perfect, we just have to focus on Him and trust Him to take care of the rest. 

Frost

It's finally happened.  Anyone who lives even the slightest bit north knows what it is and the scraping sound it makes on the car windshield...frost.  Winter has come and with that frost as well

The changing of another season has come to pass. I can't help but be reminded of Gods amazing creation, how amazing this universe is that He created! I get this mental image of our world moving through this galaxy at its amazing speed moving further from our sun...causing our breath to become visible as we walk outside and bringing the frost to cover everything that we see. This changing of the seasons brings to my mind the different seasons in life. I find that no matter how much I remind myself that winter is coming I still am in shock when the frost comes. It seems that I have told myself over and over that I will experience different seasons in life. Seasons of joy, sorrow, new beginnings, and stillness, yet I still find myself in shock when these seasons come and go! I'm so thankful that just as the changing of the weather is in Gods hands so is the changing of the seasons in my life. "For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven..." Ecclesiasties 3:1 This chapter in Ecclesiasties continues to go on about how there is a season in life for everything...to sow and reap, for joy & sorrow, life & death ect... I find this passage of scripture beautiful and can see a glimpse of Gods amazing design through it! I thank Him that He is the perfect designer and that when I find myself in shock from a new season in my life, I know He has planned it that way for a reason. All I need to do it trust him and enjoy the beauty of it around me!

Jam Session

Mitch & I have recently started to help out with our church's youth group.  When we lived in Idaho we helped with the Junior high and loved it!  We were SO excited when Micah, our youth pastor here, asked us to help out.
Last week was our first week.  We got to the church a little early and saw that there were a whole bunch of kids playing a variety of musical instruments.  We sat in the pews and watched them play and sing some sweet praises to our Lord.  As they were finishing up their practice, youth began to fill the sanctuary and then the youth group service began with worship led by the youth that were there practising.
After youth group had finished up I went and introduced myself to the brave man that was so willing to lead all those kids in learning how to play an instrument (everything from the piano, base, drums, and guitar!)
I recently began to play the guitar again, and Mitch has been wanting to play the base again as well.  So I asked this man if we could come early for youth group and play with them to get some much needed practice in, plus get some help from him if we needed it.  He was excited to have us join him and welcomed us warmly. :)
So today was youth group again, and we went an hour early to jam a bit.  I just love 'jamming for Jesus'!  The first half hour was with the little kids, and the second with the youth.  What a blessing it was to be able to play with them all.    
A 17 year old girl gave her testimony tonight, and it was SO cool to be reminded of how God uses the young in such a powerful way!  Several people came to an understanding of Jesus' saving Grace tonight through that girls testimony!  How cool is that!?  :D
I am happy to play more praises to God, with others, especially my best friend...and even more happy that there are a few more people that will spend all of eternity in a loving relationship with my Lord!  Praise God for a great day!  :)

I welcome You with praise!!!

Let our praise be Your welcome

Let our songs be a sign

We are here for You, we are here for You

Let Your breath come from heaven

Fill our hearts with Your life

We are here for You, we are here for You

I am here for You...I welcome You with praise...fill my heart with Your life...I am here for You.  That has been the cry of my heart of late.  I am in awe of my God!  He has brought me to a place in my life that I have never been  before...a dessert place.  He has brought me here and has been teaching me SO many things, with such tender and gentle whispers.  He has been breaking me down, stripping away my flesh, and giving me a very intimate image of His amazing love for me.  He has been actively pursuing me in the dessert, whispering to me that a promise land is coming, all the while holding me in his arms and loving me in ways I never thought possible. 

To You our hearts are open

Nothing here is hidden

You are our one desire

You alone are holy

Only You are worthy

God, let Your fire fall down

My heart is open to you...You are my one desire...You are worthy!  Only you are worthy!  This journey began some time ago.  God allowed several things to happen in my life that I never thought would.  Mitch and I were both struggling with different things and didnt know what to do, we were at a cross-road.  We both felt that the Lord wanted us to get together with a very good friend of ours who was a pastor from our church, Lynn Erskine, to have some wise council.  God used Lynn to speak directly to our hearts.  He had different things to say to both of us, and his words cut right to our hearts.  The Lord shared things with us through Lynn that only God could have known...and both Mitch and I have been impacted in ways that we will never forget. We were so blessed to have the Lord speak to us in such an intimate way, actively pursuing us and doing that by using our friend to speak it to us...

Let our shout be Your anthem

Your renown fill the skies

We are here for You, we are here for You

Let Your Word move in power

Let what’s dead come to life

We are here for You, we are here for You

Let my shout be Your anthem...Your renown fill the skies...I am here for You!  These words are my prayer!  I long to have my life shout an anthem for the Lord, that his renown may fill the skies...Mitch and I have both faced an unexpected loss recently.  Our good friend Lynn, that God used so amazingly in our lives, went to be with the Lord this past week - Sunday September 2nd.  

Lynn with one of his girls wearing the
birthday crown that she made for him. (He actually
wore it at church that day as he led worship)  :) 

A family picture taken shortly before
he went to be with the Lord.

As I have been going through the sadness of losing a friend, He has come along side me so tenderly and has been reminding me of his love for me, that He is perfectly sovereign, and that even when His timing makes no sense to me - it is perfect.  Lynn was 31, the healthiest person I knew and had a young beautiful family.  I am inspired by the life he lived, and I long for the intimacy he had with God.  He  truly is with his First Love.  His wife is a beautiful Godly women, and has that same heart and passion for the Lord that her husband had.  I pray for her as she mourns his physical death, but I'm excited to see how God is going to be glorified through all of this.  Let Your word move in power...I am here for You!  

* * *   

To You our hearts are open

Nothing here is hidden

You are our one desire

You alone are holy

Only You are worthy

God, let Your fire fall down

* * *

To you my heart is open...You are my one desire!  You alone are holy, only You are worthy!  God, please let your fire fall down!!!  I pray the words of this song over and over again.  It's crazy how God uses the hardest times in this life to teach us so much.  I often tell Mitch 'this is the kind of stuff that all those older wise people had to go through for years and years in order to have the wisdom that they have now''.  God is teaching me so many things...and I praise Him for that even if I don't understand his timing of them  because God is good and He knows the outcome.    

We welcome You with praise

We welcome You with praise

Almighty God of love

Be welcomed in this place

Let every heart adore

Let every soul awake

Almighty God of love

Be welcomed in this place

We welcome You with praise

We welcome You with praise

Almighty God of love

Be welcomed in this place
[Matt Redman - Here For You]

I welcome you with praise! Almighty God of Love, I pray that every heart adores You, that every soul awakens to You..  Almighty God be welcomed...I welcome You with praise, be welcomed in this place.

Amen

Prince Edward Island

August 6th, 2012 brought our 4th wedding anniversary!  Wahoo!  Time has flown by and its been great. In just 4 years of marriage we have moved 7 times! 2 of those moves we sold pretty much everything we owned and had to move across north america for, and 1 of them was to another country!

the lighthouse leaving the ferry terminal on PEI

It worked out great this year that my work's summer vacation just happen to fall on the week of our anniversary.  Mitch took that week off and we decided to take a trip with our friends David & Shannon and stay in Prince Edward Island (PEI) for a week!  Shannon's parents live there and offered their home for us to stay at.  What a blessing it was!

We were able to get lots of rest and relaxation.  We wanted to make sure we actually felt rested coming back from out trip.  For those of you who aren't from Nova Scotia...PEI is the smallest Canadian Province.  It's a small island that is nestled right above Nova Scotia.  It's the 'potato' province of Canada, much like Idaho is in the US.  It is also known for being the home of "Anne of Green Gables" and is quite touristy for that.   You can get there by either driving into New Brunswick and taking the Confederation Bridge, or by taking the ferry that leaves just 45 minutes north of where we live.  We opted for the ferry and it was beautiful!

LOBSTER!!

David & Shannon made sure that they gave us some great PEI experiences that they have enjoyed before.  We all went to have a lobster dinner together.  Lobster is delicious and reminds me of the craw-dads that I grew up catching in the rivers and eating, just a GIANT version of them!
The restaurant also had an all you can eat salad bar, and we all enjoyed many rounds of amazing muscles as well!  What a fun time!

More Lobster... :)

Ann of Green Gables

After we had finished up with our lobster dinner, we headed over to a mini-golf place that David & Shannon had been to before. We had awesome sunny and warm weather the whole trip.  What a blessing it was to get away and have nice weather to enjoy it with.

We were able to make it to Summerside as well.  We visited one of Mitch's friends for they day, and then drove back to where we were staying.  It was a beautiful drive that allowed us to see most of the Island.  Towards the end of our trip Mitch and I stumbled across a deep sea fishing charter that we decided to take advantage of.  We signed up and went out fishing that same day.  It was a really nice evening fishing trip.  We had to go down the river to where it fed into the Atlantic, and along the way we got to see all kinds of muscle farms.  Once we got to our fishing spot we fished for an our and caught several Makerel fish.  They are a smaller silver fish that gives you a really great fight. On the way back to town we stopped and got to see a lobster trap as well.  It was pretty cool!

Overall we were blessed to be able to enjoy celebrating our 4th year of marriage.  We spent time with good friends, were able to relax, and just have a really great vacation!

Faith vs Sight

By faith we see that hand of God

In the light of creation's grand design 

In the lives of those who prove His faithfulness 

Who walk by faith and not by sight 

By faith...What powerful meaning is packed behind those two words!  Having faith seems like such a simple and easy thing to do at times, and other moments it takes every once of strength within me to walk by it.  The ease of walking by faith usually follows right beside how easy or hard things are in my life at that moment, or whether or not things are going how I would like them to go.  Scripture is FULL of one example after another of individuals were faced with huge challenges, and either they had great faith from the beginning or they had to travel some rocky roads before their faith came through.  The one thing that was constant in every one of those circumstances was that God was right beside them, holding them up whether they realized it or not.  Whether they were crying out to him from the depths of their soul  like with David in the Psalms, or trying to run away from His presence like Jonah...He was always there.  

By faith the church was called to go 

In the power of the Spirit to the lost 

To deliver captives and to preach good news 

In every corner of the earth 

As most of you who have read our blog know, Mitch and I are passionate for the nations.  We long to go and serve our God across cultural borders, 'to preach good news in every corner of the earth'.  We have told many of you that we will hopefully be overseas serving in one way or the other soon...and we do hope for that everyday.  But our faith has been tested in the last several months in many, many ways.  As much as we long to be moving closer to being overseas-it appears that the Lord has different plans for us right now.  By faith we trust that He will move us forward when the timing is right.  We are more than willing, but this is ultimately HIS work, and until He makes the doors open for us to move forward we will be staying where He has placed us.  That seems like a simple concept to accept, but it has really been a challenge for us.  We have been placed in another amazing church that is passionate about global missions (first Christ Community in Idaho Falls, and now Immanuel Baptist in Truro).  God is working in our church's missions department here and we are very excited to be a part of that, but the details are still in the beginning stages and we are unsure exactly what part we might play.  We are excited to keep you all in the loop as things begin to come together as we see a bigger picture of what God is doing there.  

We will stand as children of the promise 

We will fix our eyes on Him our soul's reward 

Till the race is finished and the work is done 

We'll walk by faith and not by sight 

As for now, we are focusing on 'fixing our eyes on Him' because he is truly 'our souls reward'. This life is a race, and "I consider my life worth nothing to me, if only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me - the task of testifying to the gospel of God's grace." Acts 20:24.  It appears to us that the task that God has given us for now is to wait for Him, trust His timing, and well...to just live by faith.  So that is what we will continue to do...

Bolded lyrics: "By Faith" - Keith & Kristyn Getty

Spring/Summer 2012

So I cant believe how time flies!  Spring has come and gone, and we are now almost into July!!  Wow!

Pugwash Nova Scotia

Spring in Nova Scotia this year was unusually dry.  We hardly had any rain at all!  I was able to go on a women's retreat to Pugwash Nova Scotia.  It was SO wonderful!  A large group of like-minded women together for a weekend to fellowship, to grow closer to their Saviour, and all of that in a breathtakingly beautiful place nestled along the Atlantic Coast.  I made some new friends, and got to know some of my friends I have already been blessed with even better.

My Bunk-mates...such beautiful women!!

Mitch and I spent some time with his family for Fathers Day this year.  We went out to his parents house out in the country a bit, and really enjoyed a relaxing day with them.  We took out dogs to the river and taught them BOTH to swim!  That was so much fun!  We made a fire pit and of course a fire :), and enjoyed sitting by the fire as the sun went down.  

We have had some great times of fellowship with our friends.  The other night after time of amazing worship at our church we went and got ice cream with our friends, and walked along the lake for a bit.  Mitch is most definitely blessed with the passion for children.  No matter where we are, they flock to him.  In this picture, all three of them went to Mitch and asked for him to take them down to the water, I saw the moment and decided to capture it with a picture.  I sure do love him!  :)  

Mitch walking with some of our friends kids

Its been a beautiful year so far, and we are excited to see how the rest of the year work out to be.  Until next time...

Permanent Resident Approved!

SO...its finally come!  That letter in the mail that every person who is immigrating waits for.  The letter that the government send you to inform you that your application has been approved...and I now have it, after a year and a half of waiting!  The next step is to go to the local immigration office for an interview, which we have this Wednesday, pay them a bunch of money and wait for my permanent resident card to come in the mail.

We are very excited that I have my permanent residency not only because we are done waiting, but much more than that because I can now travel to the US and will be allowed to come back in!  As soon as I get my PR card I will be free to travel out of Canada...what a relief that will be!  

With my PR approval comes a potential trip for us.  I have a week off of work the week of August 6th, and we would love go to Idaho to visit all of our friends, loved ones, and church family at Christ Community Church!  We miss everyone so much and it would be such a blessing to us to be able to go and see everyone there.  

We have some prayer requested associated with going this soon.  First of all I actually need to get my PR card in the mail before we go.  The trip would be 5 weeks after my interview, and I have been told it could take 6-8 weeks to get my PR card after my interview.  I have been told this before with my work permit, and we received it in 2 weeks, not 8 so we are hoping and praying for the same timing with my PR card. Second, the price for the tickets for both of us to fly to Idaho.  We do have some of the money we would need to go, but we are praying for the Lord to provide us with the rest of the funds.  It will cost roughly $2100 for the air plane tickets alone.  We will be able to stay with family while we are there, and we aren't sure about having to rent a car or not.  It would be awesome if someone has an extra car we could cruise around in for a couple days, but if not then we would pay to rent one.    We know that if the Lord wills for us to go, the details will be worked out.  He is indeed faithful to provide, and we are trusting Him for everything! 

 On another notes, Mitch and I have been really encouraged lately.  We have had some amazing opportunities to talk with some people from our church, Emmanuel Baptist Church, about Missions and the Lord is working in some very exciting ways regarding missions in our church.  The details are still being worked out, but Mitch and I are extremely excited to be involved in it.  We will keep this updated as they happen for sure. :)

Amanda, for the both of us :)

Amanda's Work Permit Has Arrived!!

Wow!  After one year I finally have received my work permit. I got it in the mail the beginning of February and by the beginning of March I had already been blessed with a job!  I was hired at Mitch and my own Chiropractor office.  We have been receiving Chiropractic care there since we moved here, and I always told Mitch how much I would love to work there, and God did indeed provide me with that job!  Jehovah Jireh, the Lord does indeed provide!
     My parents just arrived back in Alaska, where they live, from visiting us for about a week.  We had such a great time with them!  It was SO nice to have them here in Nova Scotia and for them to see this part of the world.  We were able to travel around Nova Scotia and show them some of the Atlantic coast line.  We made it to Peggy's Cove, which was very beautiful.  And it was great to spend some quality time with them!



We ended up having a very mild winter this year.  Our spring season have arrived and its turning out to be quite nice!  I always love the changing of the seasons.  The green colours coming back, the robins returning to eat the worms and bugs in the thawing soil.  Its a beautiful reminder of how God has blessed us.  He has given us so much to enjoy in life!  Even when we are in a rough season in life-like winter, we have hope for the spring to come!  I love how God can teach us lessons through His creation.  Just like when in Luke 20:40 Jesus said "I tell you...If they keep quiet, the stones will cry out."  All of creation screams God's glory!  And Im so thankful that He gave us beautiful things to look at on this earth...
Mitch and I have really enjoyed that last couple of months learning how to live with not only 1, 3 year old Pug dog, but as well as a 7 month old very large puppy!  Xerxes is growing like crazy!  He is now roughly 85 lbs.  He is a very good dog, and him and Sampson have grown into the best of friends.  Sampson takes care of Xerxes and sticks up for him at the dog park when other dogs pick on him (its so funny to see a pug protect a Mastiff!).  And to our surprise,  we found out that Xerxes is not just an English Mastiff, but rather a n English Mastiff/Great Dane mix!  He is far to tall and thin to be full English Mastiff.  Its not a big deal to us, but it makes it a mystery how tall and heavy he will end up being.  It was great to have my dad help us in training Xerxes while he was here visiting.  He helped us to get him to heal with us when we walk him, and I can now walk him through town with his leash in my pocket!  He doesnt pull, and its so nice to have him gently walk beside me.
As far as my immigration goes now that I am able to work...we still are waiting for my Permanent Residency paperwork to be approved.  There is no way in knowing how long that will take, but once I have my P.R.Card, I will then be able to travel out of the country, and can start applying for my citizenship.  We know that it all will work out in God's perfect timing!

God Bless!
Amanda, for the both of us! :)

The Pages of My Life

" When I stand before God's throne, nothing hidden nothing unknown...When I kneel down that day, looking upon His holy face I will remember with trembling every single moment, every memory...He'll be staring at the pages of my life. Was my passion just to know him, did I really let it out and show him? "

Music artist's Leeland couldn't have said it better. These lyrics are from their song 'Pages'. The reality of the above lyrics have really hit me hard lately. As we bring in a new year I cant help but reflect on all that happened this last year. In the same way when we stand before God after our earthly body has died, He will look back at our life-much like people reflect on the past year at new years.

God will look at my life-the 'pages' of my life. I ask myself- was my passion to know Him? What kind of fruit did my passions grow? No matter what the answer is to that question, God will see them, those pages, and it will be too late to go back and edit or change them.

I have always loved music. It seems to speak to my soul. I can look back at times in my life and certain songs will take me back to those moments as if I was re-living them all over again. Some songs I can listen to with joy and happiness, others I cant listen to because of the raw emotion and challenges I was facing at that point in my life. I love that God has given us the ability to express ourselves through an enormous variety of arts. Knowing that He created man in His image, and seeing how man has the ability to express himself, I cant wait to be in glory with God to experience Him in a perfect state! He has so abundantly expressed himself on this earth with the amazing beauty of creation all around us...I cant even begin to grasp what it will be like in heaven!

This past year was a challenging one for sure. It was our 1st year back in Nova Scotia. I really love it here, but I found myself riddled with health struggles. After struggling for a couple months with a variety of concerns I found out that I had Mano. I also fought a nasty respitory infection at the same time. Right after that we experienced the immense loss of losing a baby. Those details will remain unwritten about at this point, but all I can say is God is sovereign and His timing is perfect... We had a pretty good summer. We celebrated 3 years of marriage in August, and in September moved into a bigger place with a back yard for our dog. I began having more health concerns in October, and after a series of blood work, ultrasounds, and a diet change I discovered that I have a sensitivity to gluten. We spent the holidays with Mitch's family and had an overall pretty relaxing season with them. Our car was totalled and we had to go through the fun process of finding a new one. As I look back on all of this I can say that God definitely and absolutely is faithful! In the midst of a trying year He has stayed a solid brick of strength in our lives. James 1:2-4 says "Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything." No matter what I face in this life I believe this verse to be true! I once heard someone say that without difficult times one cannot know pure joy.

So we have been in Nova Scotia for a year. As I have written before we want to go on with our schooling to serve overseas as missionaries. The question to answer is are we any closer to meeting that goal? As it would appear to us and to put it simply - no. This has been another struggle for us of late. We both really desire to go back to school. But there are several things that need to take place before that will happen, and so far many of those things have been left unchanged. We have really struggled to understand why God has not made is easier for us to get all this stuff done so we can go. I mean, after all there are unreached people groups out there that need to hear His perfect and holy word right? As true as that is, for His reasons only, He has not led us in that direction yet. Mitch and I have both reached the point that we have no choice but to take each day at a time-trusting God to lead us, praying that we will be faithful with what He has given us, and believe that when it is His time for us to go to school doors will begin to open. I can say with complete honesty, as best as we can understand, that the doors have been closed for us to go any time soon (not to say He cant and/or wont open them).

Many of our classmates have finished their training and are serving overseas right now. I love seeing all of the pictures and stories from them, hearing how God is working in amazing ways in the hearts of the people who are in remote tribes around the world! It brings such joy to my heart to see the great commission take place in such a raw manner! Both Mitch and I know that God has placed us here in Truro for a season, and we need to focus on being here 100%. As my friend Tenley recently said: "choose to bloom where you are planted"...I couldn't have said it any better my self! I desperately want this 'page' in my life to show that my passion is to truly know Him. In my weakness He is strong, by the power of the cross! I praise my Creator God that He is indeed strong when I am weak, for "I delight in weaknesses...in hardships...in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong." 2 Corinthians 12:10.

~Amanda~