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~

Some pictures of the local scenery - SUCH beauty!

My friend Brittany and I went on a walk in Victoria Park-which is just down the street from where we live. It is SO beautiful! There are several waterfalls like this one, and so many cool deeply rooted trees in the sides of the hills...what a relaxing and beautiful time it was!










These pictures were all taken out in the country a bit about a half an hour from where we live. I just love all the farm houses painted such bright colors! They have so much unique and aged characteristics to them...

A Season of Waiting...

Summer has arrived! Yet again another season has passed. Winter is over, the snow and ice have melted away. Another beautiful layer of Nova Scotia has surfaced and I am in awe of God's creative beauty! I was driving to a friends house yesterday to do some baking. She lives out in the country a bit, and I couldnt believe the things I saw as I drove. Huge fields of corn just starting out, with big red barns and grazing holstine cows in the background seeming like they have been there for as long as time itself. How amazing it was! I would have tried to capture it with a photo but our camera has recently broke, so there might not be as many picture posted for the next little bit.

(I didnt take this picture, but found it and thought it captured the local scenery very well)

With the changing of the seasons has also brought the changing of our location. We found a cute 2 bedroom apartment in town and moved in the beginning of April. We are really close to everything in town, and while we miss the beautiful half our drive into the country, its quite nice living so close to everything. Mitch has been at his new job for almost 6 months now and he is really enjoying his work. He is able to commute with quite a bit of people who live close to us, and he has made some friends with the guys he works with. We are so thankful for Gods provision through his job while I have not been able to get work.
As I titled this post a Season of Waiting I chose those words becuase that is exactly what I have been doing! Waiting, waiting, and more waiting! For my work permit that is. After some miscomunication from the Canadian Immigration Services, I submitted my work permit form at the same time as my Permanent Residence form but I mailed them to the wrong places. As a result, my work permit form was rejected and I have been waiting for my Permanent Residence form to process so I can then re-apply for my work permit. The Lord has definantly been teaching us patience in all of this, as well as constantly reminding us of His amazing love in His daily provisions for our needs. He is truly a God who cares about every detail of our lives!
What are the next few months going to bring? Well, we are planning a trip to Halifax, Nova Scotia's capital, for our 3rd wedding anniversary in August. We are also working on getting things paid off and saved up so we can go back to school. We are constantly reminding ourselves to enjoy each day, but we are also so very excited to finish schooling. We are so thankful for the time we have had here so far, and we love the relationships God is building for us here. We know that God will lead us on to that next phase in our lives after He has prepared everything perfectly for us here. His will - not ours. What a re-occuring theme that is for us in our lives!
We look forward to what the Lord has instore for us this summer, and we pray that all of you, our friends and family, will be blessed and encouraged this summer.

Take care and God bless,
Mitch & Amanda

Snow in Canada?

So we finally have begun to get some snow. It has been kinda a funny winter. We have had more rain than snow, which people find ironic with this being Canada and all. We took a day to go outside and play with our pug dog Sampson and to just enjoy Gods beautiful creation. Here are some pictures from our day.

And...2011 begins!

So, time has just been flying by since we arrive the end of October! Mitch has been working a lot. He was blessed with another job working at Mcdonalds. We have gotten involved in a great little church in town. Its a recent church plant and we really like the people that are attending there.
We had a great Christmas and New years. We both had colds and werent feeling great, but we had a very relaxing and nice time with our close family and friends.
I have been keeping myself busy with a handful of different things. I have been quite suprised how fast everything is going with me not working. I have been helping a Lebonease women with her English speaking a few times a week. Ive been really busy with trying to get all of my imigration paperwork in order.
I was hopeing to get it mailed in last month, but as I was going through the checkoff list, I discovered two things that I hadnt done yet that would take some time for me to do. I didnt realize I needed my medical exam and background check done before I would submit the paperwork. I thought that they would tell me when and were to get them done after I sent in my paperwork. So I did get the medical exam done, and I mailed off the the information for the background check. The results could take a while to get back though. I am going to submit my paperwork soon, and then will have to submit the background check results after I get them back. We are hoping that I will get my work permit soon so I can start working!
We will definately keep things updated as they change! Thanks so much for all your support!
Untill next time...
The Chaplins'

Our Arrival in Canada

We made it to Canada without any major problems. We almost missed our connecting flight in Detroit but made it just in time! Sampson, our dog did great with the flying. Mitch is already adjusted to being back home, and I am doing well getting used to all the new things. We have already made some great friends, and have gotten plugged into a Bible Study.

Mitch has found a part time job at a Pizza shop, and is looking for another one that will give him more hours. We have almost got all of the paperwork and documents ready to send in for my immigration stuff too. We are thankful to have been able to use Mitch's grandma's car up to this point and we just found a great little car that we will be able to get within a couple days.

I was able to carve pumpkins with Mitch's brother, sister, and her boyfriend while Mitch was at work. That was a lot of fun!

We will continue to keep things updated as things change and come about. :)

What should stay? What should go?

So we have been going through all of our things and we have decided, for the most part, what to keep.

This is a good part of the items here. 7 Totes to be precise. We have already mailed 3 filled with books and a couple blankets.

This is the luggage that we are taking on the plane with us, plus Sampson's travel Kennel. We have been getting him used to it. In fact, he sleeps in that by choice more than he does in his bigger kennel. Hopefully that way he wont be quite as stressed for the long flight.

We still have to sell our cars and our TV. And in just over 3 weeks we will be off!

So many changes!

Wow! So much has changed in the past few months! The Lord has really provided for us in so many ways. Arround thanksgiving we prayerfully decided to start looking for a new place to live. We decided this because we figured we could find a cheaper place to live so that we could save more money to go back to school. Boy oh boy were we amazed at what God had in mind for us! We told some friends that we were looking for a new place. One of our friends from our church told us of a coworker of hers that wanted to rent out his house for cheap we couldnt help but be interested. To make a long amazing story shorter we are now living in a 3 bedroom house with a wonderful landscaped yard, with a fence, and even a hot tub! The really amazing thing is that we are paying $200.00 less a month for rent than we were for our tiny 1 bedroom! all we can say is Jehovah Jirah! The Lord does indeed supply!

We moved into our new house one week before Christmas. And had a very relaxing time celebrating Christs birth with our family. We got to go to Boise for new years eve to visit Amanda's brother as well as to go to a friends wedding from college. We ended up meeting up with two more friends from college and we were blessed to have them stay with us for two days. It was truly a blessing to catch up with them, AND to have a place for them to stay!

Bot of our jobs are going well. We are blessed to be establishing some new relationships with our co-workers and we are so excited to see how God is providing some great opportunities for outreach and we are so thankful for it.

We are still helping out with the youth at our church here, Christ Community Church. We are constantly challenged and encouraged by them. We have been teaching through a book called the Stranger on the Road to Emmaus, which is a chronilogical approach of teaching through the Bible. It is designed to establish a good overall understanding of Gods Word and all of the youth that have been going through it with us have really seemed to learn a lot and they all have really enjoyed it.

We added a member to our family right as we moved into our new house! His name is Sampson and he is a 1 year old Chinese pug. We were able to adopt him from a couple that could no longer have pets in their apartment and he has brought a lot of fun into our lives. It has been great having him to play with and it has also been great for us to have to learn how to work together a bit more on things. He is another great blessing to us, and we are thankful that we were able to get him.

As for right now, we are working on saving up for a newer vehicle, as well as for money to go back to school. God has been so faithful to provide our every need and we are so excited to see how He is constantly working!

We are still working for the goal of returning to school the fall of 2011. We are really loving it here, but our hearts yearn to finish our training. We are excited for so many things!

We are truly blessed by every one of you in our lives. We thank God for you and will do our best to keep you updated on things. Take care for now!

The Chaplins'

A Late Summer Update

So far this summer has just been flying by! We have been busy getting into our work routine as well as doing stuff with our church here.
We made it up to Alaska for a friends wedding and to visit Amanda's parents. Despite the trip going by way too fast, we had a great time. It was wonderful seeing Amanda's parents, and we had a blast going fishing up on the Talkeetna River and catching our limit of Red Salmon. :)
After getting home from Alaska we had a wonderful opportunity to lead part of the Missions rotation at our churchs VEBS (Very Exciting Bible School). That was great. There is a small missions conference coming up too, and we might be able to have a spot in that as well. We have signed up to help out with the middle school youth group this year. We went to a meeting the other day at our youth pastors house and had a great time. We are really excited to be involved.
Mitch has been working at a McDonalds down the street. He really enjoys it and is thankful for a fellow Christian that works there. They are both excited to have another brother in a town with so few fellow believers.
As far as our future is concerned. We are starting to save as much as we can. We are not sure about how long we will be here, but we are thankful for how the Lord has provided so far and we are excited to see how He continues to work in our lives. We are looking forward to continue our training with New Tribes, but will have to wait on the Lords timing to see when it happens.
Thanks so much for reading, take care and God bless!
the Chaplins

Upon Arriving...

We’ve arrived, got moved in, and begun to work. Everything has gone very smooth and we are so thankful in how the Lord has provided for us every step of the way! As we begun our move across the country we were no more than 30 minutes outside of Jackson when our Nissan blew a tire. We are so happy that nothing bad happened and that the car wasn’t damaged at all, but after 4 hours and 4 new tires we were on the road again. We arrived at our first destination (Lincoln NE) at 12:30am. The next day went much smoother. We stayed in Colorado Springs the next night and had a great visit with a friend. We drove to Salt Lake City on our third day and stayed with Amanda’s uncle. We had a short drive to Idaho the next day and arrived around noon. We got most of our furniture right away and got everything set up in our new home. Amanda begun work and bit by bit is adjusting to working 12 hours shifts. Mitch started work today and is very excited. He is working for a close family friend who owns a building business. This will be a temporary job that will end in the fall, but Mitch will be able to learn some great things that will be helpful in overseas work.
We are leaving in one week to go up to Alaska. A friend is getting married and we will be visiting with Amanda’s parents also. We really hope to be able to live up there for some time before we go overseas. But we will just have to see how the Lord works out His timing.
Yesterday we received some news that broke our hearts. After almost a year of fighting an aggressive brain tumor and dear friend of ours, Joanna Bergman, went home to see the Lord. Her and her husband, Curtis, were Mitch’s youth group leaders when he was in high school. They went through New Tribes and they were the ones that encouraged Mitchell to go there. They were on their way to Mozambique with their 3 young children-Natalie-5, Rueben-4, & Kaylie-18mo. We are happy to know that Joanna’s suffering is no more and cant help but to be jealous that she with before the Lord and this very moment! At the same time our hearts break fo Curtis, the kids, and the rest of their family. We pray that they would be comforted now, and that they would seek God for their strength. He is the only true source of strength and only through Him will they find rest and comfort, even in the midst of the pain. We ask that you too would join with us in prayer for this family. God is bigger than anything else and he knows exactly what they need! He hears our prayers and is faithful. What an amazing God we have!
Thanks to every one of you for all you do. We will keep you updated on anything new that comes along. We are pressing forward to save as much as we can as fast as we can. We also are desiring to raise support while we are in Idaho. We do have some debt to pay off as well. Please pray that we will be wise with our finances and that we will be good stewards of what He has provided us. We thank God for every one of you.
In Him,
Mitch & Amanda