Fun with rubber duckies!!

This week Heather and I are on holiday in Edmonton housesitting for our friends Gerry and Karen. We realised that this is the first prolonged time we have had on our own for six months, so it's a real treat, especially as there is a hot tub on the deck! We have taken advantage of this little luxury three times so far, including last night with Sasha who is studying in Edmonton and her friend Connie.

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!

We're ready to go...

Yay!! Going for a spin in the sink

'Hey Presto' - Colour change ducks!!

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,

Steve

Happy Easter!!

Easter is not about bunnies or eggs or chicks or anything of the like. It is about the pivotal moment in history as Jesus Christ, the Son of God, paid the penalty for our sin by his death upon the cross, as he was buried in a tomb and as he was raised to life again on the third day because death had no legal claim over him. Because of his death and resurrection, those who will believe in him and submit their lives to his lordship can know forgiveness of sins, release from shame, purpose in life, the promise of eternal life with God and the power to live before God in the way that pleases him. Jesus said, "I have come that they might have life and life to the full" (John 10:10) This is what Easter is about!!

There in the ground His body lay
Light of the world by darkness slain
Then bursting forth in glorious day
Up from the grave He rose again
And as He stands in victory
Sin’s curse has lost its grip on me
For I am His, and He is mine
Bought with the precious blood of Christ

(S Townend)

Jesus Christ is ALIVE. If you have never submitted your life to Jesus Christ you can do so today and know life and life to the full. If you want to do this, you can pray this simple prayer and make the biggest change in your life you will ever make.

"Dear Jesus, I admit that I have done things that offend God, that I have lived in a way that displeases you. I have not loved God with my whole heart and have not always lived to please him. Please forgive me for living like this and come and let my heart be your throne. I want to live my life for you, to serve you, to know you and I thank you that as I do this, you will give me life and life to the full. I turn my back on the way I have lived and instead set my will to live for you. Thank you that you promise me eternal life and that when I die I shall go to heaven and live with you forever. Amen."

If you seriously pray this prayer, please let me know I would love to help you as you start off on the most amazing adventure of your whole life.

God bless you,

Steve

And the race is on...

Who will be the first to read and comment on my blog?

And so the first to lose "The Game" again!! (A game only played by people in the know, if you've not heard of "The Game")

Hee Hee!!

:-D :-D :-D - Boy aren't I mean? !! :-) But you know you still love me!! :-)

Love y'all lots,
Steve

Snow, Saskatoon and other Stuff

I’ve been away from blogging for a week or three due to busyness, frying my brain with a bit too much programming of Word macros and having to take some time out as a result. However, I seem to be coming back up to speed, which I am happy about, so here I am again in blogspace.

Some good clean fun
It seems everyone is going to Flixster to write and read film reviews. I haven’t succumbed myself, despite Heather inviting half the world to join, I guess I make up part of the other half of the world, in fact, being Heather’s “other half” I shouldn’t be surprised at this!!
Anyway, Flixster or not, we did decide to hit Blockbuster tonight and hummed and hahed over “The Net2” or “In Her Shoes”, but then we came to “Chicken Little” and the little kid in both of us won. Drama, action, romance and an alien invasion, what more could you want from a movie? Val and Jim realised we were enjoying it as sitting downstairs with visiting friends they could hear us laughing aloud upstairs. If you want a fun, harmless bit of entertainment, I’d recommend it. The other two movies will have to wait a bit longer, but we do have $2 off any rental in April, so one of them may not have to wait too long!

Snow and even MORE snow!
The last two or three weeks have indeed been full of life, last week there were seriously strong winds and snow such that we decided it safer to stay at home rather than venture into town. Val pleaded with us to decide this knowing that the truck we drive would get stuck in the slightest snow. Having had Jim tow us out of a couple of small drifts as the wheels slid into the drifts the day before, we were quite in agreement. It was quite gratifying when both Jim and Pastor Lyle agreed that driving the truck in such conditions was anything but easy, it wasn’t just us being pathetic Brits. Heather and I went for a walk one of the mornings that we stayed at home to look at the road up to the house. It was three feet deep across the whole width of the road for big stretches and so we took advantage and made our first ever snow angels. Sadly the snow was a bit hard so the results weren’t too impressive, but I was glad to cross this off from my list of winter activities to yet experience. Ice fishing and skiing remain on the list, but I’m not too worried about that.

With Takoma and 3 ft of snow!

A snow angel!

You may be wondering if the road was that bad how anybody got into and out of the house, well Jim keeps a path clear between the house and the farm over the fields, so that’s the route they take. We probably could have managed this part in the truck, but as soon as any significant drifting comes across the road, the truck loses speed and then just gets bogged down altogether and no amount of jiggling it back and forth makes any difference. It sure is different to anything we’ve experienced back in England.

Saskatoon with Dave and Tanys
Last weekend we were in Saskatoon for a day conference on the Saturday and jumped at the opportunity to extend it to a weekend visit with Jenny’s brother and sister-in-law, Dave and Tanys. Between arriving on the Friday at 6pm and leaving Monday morning at about 8:45 we ate steaks at the Keg, white chocolate brownie at Moxies, chicken curry that we made, Mexican quesadillas that they made and large amounts of Munchie mix. We also played a couple of games of Puerto Rico, went to the Mendel art gallery, visited their church, experienced our first Mario party (courtesy of their Gamecube), spent 45 minutes relaxing and chatting in Tanys’ parents’ hot tub, petted Berkley the dog, and chatted just getting to know each other. It was a wonderful weekend and one we shall remember for a good long time. We are hoping that rather than flying to Ottawa in the summer to visit Gord and Glenda before going home to Morpeth, we might be able to do a road trip there with Dave and Tanys instead, driving from Saskatchewan to Ontario. That would be SOO amazing! We really hope it will work out that we can do it.

In Moxies with Dave and Tanys

Oh, the conference was very good too!

Slipping back to Ol’ Blighty
We have booked our tickets home from Ottawa and will be taking the same flight as Steve, Jenny’s youngest brother who is visiting Jenny in Morpeth for a couple of weeks. We are flying on the 1st of July to arrive at about 8 in the morning on Sunday 2nd July in Glasgow. We are both looking forward to going home to see folks and experience again some of the things we have missed whilst here in Canada, and at the same time we are sad that we shall be leaving some wonderful friends here and many of the amazing experiences we have had this year. At this moment we are thinking that we shall be staying in Morpeth when we return home instead of coming back to Canada to live, but we are open to the possibility that God may decide to call us to live out here. We are continuing to pray that God would make it clear and suspect it will become so when we return to the UK.

Second Servings
Second Servings is the monthly service for senior members of the church which runs on the last Thursday of each month. I must say that I do find it much less stressful and tiring than MOPS where Heather and I look after a bunch of 4-8 year olds! This week I was speaking at Second Servings and decided that I should just share some passion rather than try to teach anything particularly deep. As it was I probably ended up sharing stuff that really is very deep yet extremely inspiring. I was preaching from Revelation 4 and Psalms 89 and 97, looking at how wonderful our God is and how the demands of His righteousness and justice are satisfied in Jesus sacrifice for us and how His love and faithfulness go before Him and so meet us before His righteousness and justice do.
Many of the people came up to me afterwards to thank me for the message and to say how encouraged they had been by it – that really did my heart good. Whilst being here in Canada it has been so refreshing the amount of encouragement I have received from people each time I have preached, not something I am used to back in the UK. It has also been so touching the number of people who have said to Heather and me how much they will miss us when we leave, we really feel appreciated primarily for who we are rather than for what we do. Such comments certainly make it easier to consider the idea of returning to and staying in Canada if that’s how God leads us. It’s funny how as we moved further north in the UK we found people more and more friendly and then coming over to Canada, we find them even warmer still. Maybe they’re making up for the cold winter environment! This isn’t a bash at the British, simply an appreciation of our friends and extended family here in Canada.

Saving my brain…
Finally I should like to thank Jenny for her brilliant idea of creating Magneto style helmet to protect my brain from the evil rays of the computers that I work with. It is her theory, and I am inclined to agree, that computers are inherently evil and are out to destroy us. They use methods such as frustrating our attempts to use printers, or they simply try to fry our brains using their deadly computer rays. My problem is usually the latter and so her brilliant suggestion was to take note of Magneto’s defence against Xavier in X-Men and use a helmet such as he has. I was unable to persuade Heather to design me a very elegant model (I’m not sure she’s convinced that Jenny is right) so I created one myself, maybe not exquisite in style, but as you can see below, very effective in practise. For those of you who work with computers and find your brains being sucked out or fried from the inside out, I cannot recommend such a helmet too highly! As you can see, it takes a little getting used to, the first time of wearing it is quite an experience, but it soon settles down. Even Yoda decided to give it a try, although I sadly suspect it is too late for his little brain.

Weird to wear at first

But you get used to it

And then you can see it really works

Even Yoda the cat wants to try it!

Well, it’s time I went to bed, I guess. I have a men’s conference at the church tomorrow (Saturday) and may be needed to operate the projector software as Pastor Lyle speaks. It is a “Good husband / Good father” conference and I’m sure it will be a great blessing to all who attend it.

This blog has been brought to you by the number ‘1’ and the letter ‘S’.

Steve