3 Pictures

Our home for the next 18 months,

Learning how to do this...

So that even they can know Him.

"But I have raised you up for this very purpose, that I might show you my power and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth."

Exodus 9:16

Am I Prepared???

     I sit in the laundry room, listening to Matt Redman's "10,000 Reasons" album.  Singing along to the songs in worship, and in awe of my Lord.  It is often through music that I reflect on the big and important things in my life.  As I sit here, I cant help but me in utter amazement as to where I am.  I am finally here!  In Durham Ontario, at the missionary training centre and we begin classes tomorrow.  Wow!

     Matt Redman sings "You are faithful, God you are faithful!  You are!", and I am reminded just how true that is.  It is by no power or ability of our own that we are where we are today.  We tried for 4 years to get here, and we just couldn't.  It wasn't until we gave it up that God gave it to us, in His perfect timing.  Saying that He has been faithful to provide for us is the biggest understatement!  We are humbled and encouraged by those who have given to us so far, and to see how God has provided for us the very things we have needed in the time we have needed them is amazing.

I cant help but stand in awe...   

     I have been reflecting on where I am at, and what God has brought me through up to this point in my life.  I want to take every opportunity here to grow and learn.  I have so much to learn, and this is an amazing environment to help me in that.  Am I prepared for this?  I believe God has been preparing us both for a very long time to be here.  I love looking back and seeing the trials we've faced, and to see how God has used them to grow us both in different ways.  He is faithful. 

 I simply pray that I will learn, in every avenue I can... 

Retreating and Impending Travel

Mitch and I returned from the senior high retreat last friday.  It was an amazing week filled with wonderful fellowship, spiritual rejuvination and tons of time enjoying Gods beautiful creation in northern Montana!
The first day we were there we went river rafting on the Flathead river (the river that A River Runs Through It was filmed on).

We also spend part of a day cliff jumping at a nearby lake.  It was such a beautiful day, and the water was the perfect temperature!

Tatum (one of the other leaders) & I swimming after jumping off the cliff

On the third day that we were there we spent the day in Glacier National park.  It reminded me so much of Alaska in some ways, and had a beauty all its own in another way.  We had moutnain goats come right up to us as we were hiking, and even got to have a snow ball fight on the last day of July!

Overlooking Glacier National Park

A mountain top meadow in the park

A little ground squirrel having a snack

A momma and baby Mountain Goat 

a lone goat

mountain top pond

It was a hot day, but what a beautiful view!!!

Mountain wildflowers along the trail

As the month of August has come we are reminded of our time left here.  We have been so blessed by our time spent here so far and we cannot believe that it is winding down.  We are helping with our church's VBS this week, and next week we hope to spend most of it with friend and family before we head back to Boise in preparation to fly back to Ontario.  We will be back in Durham two weeks from today!  It is SO crazy how the time has flown by!  We greatly look forward to the rest of our time here, and we cannot wait to return to Ontario so we can begin our training.

We are waiting on news from our church here as to in what way they will be willing to partner with us as we train, and then serve with NTM.  Please join with us in praying as we wait for a response from the elder team.  We are thankful to be a part of the body of Christ here, and are blessed by their willingness to partner with us. :)

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!!!

807 Pounds

  Boxes.  Boxes and then more boxes.  Packing, weighing, writing with a sharpie, taping, recording the weight and the boxes contents, then setting that box aside and moving on to the next one.  That is what I did today.  I went through all of our boxes that hold all of our personal belongings in them.  I removed more items that we dont really need so we can hopefully sell them this weekend in our yard sale.  After I finished that task I added up the weight...807 lbs.  807 pounds of clothing, and household items.

   At first I was kind of taken aback at that number.  I expected it to be much less than that!  I got rid of 4 boxes of stuff, most of which was the heavy things like glass cooking wear, and books with lots of clothes and other miscellaneous things to go along with them.  I got to thinking, when we graduate in a year and a half, we are going to have to whittle this down a whole lot more!  I was reminded of a friend of mine who, upon graduating and leaving to begin her deputation, said that all of her families belongings were in their 4 suite cases!  If each one of those suit cases were at their max capacity , they are looking at around 200 lbs of stuff.  We have a ways to go before then I guess!

  Thinking about being that mobile, or really have the bare minimum for the sake of being able to travel, seems like it would be both freeing & yet at the same time very uncomfortable!  We are coming from a culture that has the mentality of 'he who has the most of the nicest things in the ends wins', and choosing to pursue this life of cross-cultural ministry challenges us to live a life contrary to that.  Being willing and able to give up our 'stuff' time and time again is, at times, uncomfortable but it is more than worth it!  I would rather live a long life with very little means if it makes it possible for me to reach those who live with very little means, including the Bible.  

  My prayer today is that God will help me to look past the 807 pounds of stuff sitting in storage, and see the faces of those who dont yet know Him.  I pray that I will find joy in Him, not in the things that I have, and I pray that whether I have much, or very little I will find my peace and fulfillment in Him! 

    

Laying on of Hands

  This past Tuesday at youth group we were blessed beyond words by the youth and leaders there!  Mitch and I both lead a small group with the youth.  Last week was our last youth group to volunteer.  I am one of those people who really find goodbye's to be awkward.  I have moved a lot, and have had to say goodbye to many, many people.  I also am one who really hates to cry in front of others.  So over the years I have come to the point where I just go on auto pilot when it comes time to move again.  I struggle with this about myself.  I truly care about and will miss those we are leaving!  I really am sad that I wont see them again soon, but I just dont like tapping into my emotions out of fear of crying.  I find myself in the midst of this again...
  The girls in my small group bought me a bouquet of flowers!  I was so blessed by their love and generosity!  We took lost of pictures and had a wonderful time together.  It was truly a blessing to have been able to get to know them, and to be able to learn from them and to invest in their lives the amount that I did. :)
  One of the things that they did for Mitch and I was pray for us.  This wasn't an average prayer though.  The entire youth group came up and laid their hands on us!  They, as a body of believers, prayed for Mitch and I as we leave and move forward in ministry.  What a blessing that was!  This Sunday the entire church is going to do the same in order to commission us before we leave.  It warms our hearts to have the support of our church family here.
  We fly out this coming Wednesday to visit some friends in Newfoundland.  We are very excited to visit 'The Rock' as they like to call it.  We have never been and are really looking forward to visiting this part of Atlantic Canada.
  As we leave this place, we will be returning to an old place.  A place that we have had to say 'goodbye' at before.  This is the part that I like about saying goodbye!  Its when you get to return and see them again that makes the goodbye sweet!  As much as I dont like saying goodbye I love it when you are filled with joy upon reuniting with them!
  We are having to say goodbye to so many here in Nova Scotia right now, but we greatly look forward to when we get to come back and see everyone again, just like we are getting ready to do to our friends and family in Idaho!

So rather than focusing on the sadness of departing from those we love, lets focus on the joy of the reunion instead!!  That is my goal in this season in my life.  To choose joy.

Change is not always bad, it brings with it newness of life, and opportunities for us to grow and learn. :)  So I  thank God for the change, and I trust that He will grow me through this season he has brought me to!

Prayers

I wanted to post quickly to ask for prayer!  A Proposal went through our church here regarding the church's support and partnering with us.  The missions team, & leadership team approved an amount and it will go to the congregation May 22 for voting.  Please pray that everything will go smoothly with that!
We have been overwhelmed with Gods amazing provision lately.  We have really been challenged in our faith to trust the Creator of the universe for our every need...and He has proven Himself to be more than faithful!  We are so blessed by the body if Christ, and we are enthused to see the Lord continue to work in our lives. 


May 23rd, 2013
An update to this post is that it was approved!  The church approved an amount that will cover half of our training costs while we are in Durham.  Our church has the desire to support global missions and has chosen to do so by supporting New Tribes through us! God is truly Jehovah Jireh!  He is paving the way for us to move forward with our training, so that we will!