Fun with rubber duckies!!
Another treat for me is that they have a bath. Please don't get me wrong, it's not that I haven't washed since Christmas, I just haven't had a chance to have a bath since then as Jim and Val only have a shower at the moment, although there are developments in the bath department as I write. The great benefit is that I have finally had a chance to try out the colour change rubber ducks that the youth group sent us for Christmas - thanks guys. And so without further ado, here they are - you'll be pleased to know I photographed them in the sink after I'd had my bath, I didn't get Heather to take shots of me in the bath with the ducks - I think I'd have to add a horror rating to the blog in that case!
So the rubber ducks have been great fun to play with - thanks guys, you know who you are!
Highway 16
I have become even more familiar with driving Highway 16 over the last week. This is the highway between Lloydminster and Edmonton and for three consecutive days I either drove up it or down it with Heather. On Wednesday we went on a mission to get more computers from Vanguard College in Edmonton for the church, but we were also commissioned to fetch Laura Barron of Jews for Jesus from Edmonton Airport on Thursday morning. It also came to light that the IBOLT guys were wanting to hold a telephone conference on the Wednesday afternoon.
So off we went from the house on Wednesday morning stopping at the church for some reason and were leapt on as we arrived to be asked if we would pick up Matzo Bread for the Sedar Supper the following evening - the main reason Laura Barron was flying over from Toronto was to speak at this supper.
Arriving in Edmonton about two and a half hours later, we were just in time to pick up the computers and then dive into Dale's office for the IBOLT phone conference. It is strange in a fun sort of way to have a phone conference with a room of around eight people and then a pile of others on their phones, some of whom you've never met before - it will be really odd when we probably end up doing it from the UK in days to come! So we did the conference and then took Dale to fetch his car which was in for repairs, went to Costco with him and finally picked up a couple of slices of pizza there for a rather late lunch at 3pm. We then went home with Dale and rang around numerous places to see if there was anywhere near that sold Matzo bread. We had the location of a Sobeys that sold it, but this was half an hour away. Nowhere else did sell it, so into the truck we climbed again and drove to Sobeys which turned out to be IGA. We hummed and haaahed over quite how much of the stuff we needed - it's unleavened bread rather like large versions of the crackers you have with cheese. We bought a pile of it and then returned to Dale and Brenda's where we spent the evening and met their daughter Linzy who was continuing an ongoing battle with her cell phone provider (unfortunately David has not yet overcome Goliath on the latest report from Dale and Brenda on Tuesday). It was lovely to get to know them all better enoying a very good chicken meal with them. We stayed the night and then set off for the airport at about 9:00.
We met Laura at the airport and then started the second time down highway 16 having a very enjoyable chat with Laura arriving in Lloyd at about 1pm. Rather than go straight to the church where things were getting set up we had lunch when we arrived which was good as Toronto is two hours ahead of Lloyd and so it was like 3pm for Laura who had developed quite an appetite by that point. Having got up at about 4am (2am Lloyd time) that morning she was also getting pretty tired. After lunching and a quick visit to the church, we took her to the Ramada so she could get some well needed rest before the Sedar Supper.
The supper was extremely interesting. Laura took us through the Jewish traditions of the Passover meal as a Jewish family would celebrate it today, Passover being the celebration of the Jews leaving Egypt led by Moses and this what Jesus celebrated as the Last Supper from where Christians get Holy Communion. She explained the various elements of the meal in light of the gospel, it was amazing to see how prophetic the whole meal is and how Jesus is seen in it all. You can see some of this on the Jews for Jesus website on the Passover Symbols page.
Later that evening, after returning home we received a call from Laura Berg who told Heather that Lyle's mother had just passed away that evening. She asked if we could return Laura Barron to the airport in Edmonton as they would no longer be able to. We were planning on driving to Gerry and Karen's house in Edmonton on Saturday anyway, so we said of course we would take her and so the following afternoon, after a long joint churches Good Friday service and a rather hurried lunch we set off down highway 16 for the third time in as many days for Edmonton Airport, getting Laura there just in time. Phew!
We felt it would have been far too little notice for Gerry and Karen to arrive that night or for Dale and Brenda, so we booked into the airport Travelodge and spent a very quiet and enjoyable night, sleeping very well indeed after laughing through the movie "Canadian Bacon."
Holiday in Edmonton
So now we find ourselves having a very relaxing time in Gerry and Karen's house, using the hot tub, cooking Indian and Thai food, enjoying the sunshine, and tonight feasting on an excellent meal at the Red Lobster restaurant many thanks to friends who gave us a gift of $40 to "do something we couldn't otherwise do." As we do have to be very careful with our finances this year, it was such a blessing to receive this gift and do what we really enjoy - to go out and have a really good meal. I munched through a steak and crabs legs while Heather tucked into a rather juicy salmon steak. It was a real treat.
Today, as well as eating out, we went for a walk in a local park. It was good to stretch our legs, get some exercise and fresh air. We saw a few different birds, something we really miss living in Lloyd which seems to have very little in the way of bird life. We saw a pretty large woodpecker which flew off after I had managed to take a few photographs. Annoyingly, the camera decided the batteries didn't have enough life in them to take a picture as the woodpecker flew off, but I'm quite pleased with the pictures I did get with the camera on maximum zoom.
It has been fun to be able to entertain friends here in Edmonton while we've been here. On Tuesday we had Dale and Brenda over for an Indian meal and then last night Sasha and Connie came and we sat in the hot tub chatting for an hour or so, both were such pleasurable visits. Tomorrow night (Friday) we are having Chris and Kim over for another Indian meal which we are also really looking forward to. It is funny to think we have quite a few friends here in Edmonton now, despite living two and a half hours away - IBOLT is responsible for most of them, it truly joins people together.
So on Saturday we return home (another drive on Highway 16 - groan) in time for a visit to our church from the Watoto children's choir from Uganda which should be an experience. I sadly missed them when they came to Morpeth last year, so I'm really glad to get to see them this year. It should be great.
Coming soon...
In a couple of weeks, Heather's parents are arriving in Lloyd to whisk us away for a week or so into the mountains for another holiday. We are really looking forward to this - to see Heather's parents and to see the mountains properly. We saw them very briefly last year and are looking forward to a longer stay this time.
After that, it's about six weeks before we return home to the UK, our journey incorporating another visit to the Moshers in Ottawa for a few days where we arrive for Glenda's birthday. We're really looking forward to seeing them again, and this time we continue our journey to the UK with Steve, Jenny's youngest brother who is coming out to the UK for a couple of weeks to visit Jenny. We hope we can spend some good time with Steve and Jenny before Steve returns home, Jenny is probably going with him to arrange another visa and to maybe earn a little money over the summer before returning to the UK. We're hoping everything will work out with us all so that Jenny can come and live with us again in Morpeth which would be really great. We have a confidence that we have heard what God is calling us to next, which is in Morpeth, but we don’t yet understand how this will work out—please pray that God would open the right doors for us and direct our paths. Thank you.
Whatever happens in the longer term we're really looking forward to coming home and seeing everyone. We wonder what we'll find strange having been in another country for a year, and we wonder how much people will see we've changed and in what ways. It will be tough to leave here, we have so many good friends and will miss them a lot, but we are confident that this won't be our only time in Lloydminster, Edmonton and Saskatoon. Whether we'll ever live here again, we don't know, but we know for certain that we'll do everything in our power to visit regularly.
One further thing - it's going to be strange to have to change the name of my blog! And "An Englishman in Morpeth" just doesn't cut it really (and I don't know about that colour either).
So that's what we've been doing, are doing and expect to be doing over the next little while. We're sure we'll be kept on our toes until we leave Canada, so keep an eye on my blog and I'll let you know what's happening when I get half a chance!
Oh, and by the way, do you like the picture slideshow at the top right of my main blog page? Creating the Javascript code for that was Monday night's entertainment for me.
God bless you,