Meetings & Montana

     Mitch and I have the opportunity to be leaders for our church's senior high camp!  The camp is located near Whitefish Montana.  We will be participating in white water rafting, cliff jumping, and touring Glacier Bay National Park.  We are really excited to be able to go!  Mitch and I have never been to Montana and we are thankful for the chance to be there for the next week.  :)

     Earlier this week we met with the missions team from our church here.  It was a wonderful time of encouragement and sharing.  We were able to share about our training with them, and discussed the church's ability to partner with us.  It was amazing to see how God has orchestrated the timing, yet again, for us to be able to move towards with our training through the partnership of others!  Please be praying as the missions team will  be sending forth a proposal to be reviewed by the elders team regarding the church's partnership with us.

    Within the last couple of week we have had numerous opportunities to get together with friends new and old.  It has been wonderful to reconnect with everyone!  After we get back from camp we will have roughly 2 weeks left here in Idaho before we go back to Ontario to begin our training.  We are So excited! :)

House Sitters

Mitch and I have been in Idaho Falls for about a week and a half now.  We were able to spend lots of time with my aunt and her family, it was great to catch up with them!  Fishing has become a new favourite sport for them, and we had lots of fun going along with them.

The view from our fishing spot (notice the beaver damn)

Mitch & I giving it a shot

The family fishing it up a bit too!

We also were able to celebrate my cousin Hailey's 13th birthday with her!  We had a volleyball party at a local park and had some other friends and family over to celebrate with.

My aunt and I at my cousins birthday party

Mitch & I with the birthday girl! :)

Mitch with our youngest cousin :)

One of our goals while being here was to be a flexible as possible as we re-connect with our friends and family.  As we have begun to re-connect we have been given several opportunities to house sit, so we have gratefully accepted the offers.  :)  It is exciting to see God provide for us, while providing for those who are seeking people to look after their homes while they are away at the same time.  Its pretty awesome how He has it all planned out, and just provides exactly what we need in the time that we need it. :)

The cost

   The cost of going.  

     This has been on my mind a lot lately.  The price that we are choosing to pay in order to pursue taking Gods Word to the nations...It is a price we are most certainly willing to pay, but I am beginning to feel the depth of the cost.  

     Last week we met our niece for the first time.  The picture below was taken as we were leaving to go to the other side of the state for the rest of the summer.  

A 'Goodbye' picture with our adorable niece 

     We will be able to spend some more time with her and my brother and sister in law before we fly back to Ontario, which we are very excited about!  Man, I really love this picture!  It is such a sweet thing to have a niece, and I LOVE her so much!  Every time I look at this picture I am reminded of the cost of going.  
     I would like to ask for your prayers...as we spend time with those we love we again realize the sting of leaving them behind as we move forward.  For the sake of taking Gods freeing Word to those who do not have it, we go.  

Travels

Here is a picture post!  I figured I would post pictures to explain and show what we have been up to in the last couple of weeks.  :)

Mitch and I had the chance to go to Newfoundland to visit some friends there.  It was so pretty and we really enjoyed spending time with our friends, and seeing the sites we have never seen before.

having a bbq on the beach

a little lake behind one of the banks in town

Mitch looking off over Saint Johns

The most eastern point of North America.  The next land is Europe!

An old armoury

Next we traveled to Ontario.  We packed up everything and set out to travel to where we will be living over the next 2 years while we study linguistics.  We arrived in Durham (the town of the training center) and had a few days to relax and unpack before we headed west to Idaho.  One of the evenings we spent out on the lake fishing for some bass.

We next jumped on a plane and flew from Toronto to Boise Idaho.  My brother and his wife live there and they have our niece who we have not had the chance to meet before now.  We will be in Boise for a few days and then we will be going to western Idaho to visit the rest of my family.  :)

 playing in the morning

 having some fun with the blocks

 So far we have had a great time!  We are so blessed to be able to travel a bit and catch up with friends and family before we start our training in August.  We are looking forward to the rest of our time in Idaho and so thankful for this gift we have been given!!!