For all those still trying to remember the date of Hannah and Brandon’s wedding – yes, it has happened! On the 30th of May 2026, Mr. and Mrs. Brandon Crotser were first introduced to the public. 🙂
(Click image for a larger version)
It was a wonderful day and a beautiful wedding, and if I start really talking about it this will be a very long post. So we’ll leave it there for the moment! …other than to say, thanks so much for all those who made their day so special!
Aside from the wedding, we enjoyed time with friends, family and churches here in Alberta.
We’re now still tying up loose ends from the big event, and preparing for the next big phase of our trip, our travel in Ontario! We would appreciate your prayers as we head out on the second half of our time in Canada. Pray for health and endurance, and that we can be a help as we serve.
Pray also for Hannah and Brandon, who are on their honeymoon in Iceland. Pray for safe travels and a good start to their marriage.
Pray also for Nathanael, who has lost a roommate! And for his future plans.
For us, the month of May has always been the crazy busy month. Sometimes it’s things that just “happen” to appear in May, without any specific reason why it should be that month. But, of course, there are other things that make May extra interesting. Such as yearly family events, typical spring ministry, and even national holidays and remembrances in Mexico.
Wedding Prep!
And as many of you know, we’re adding another special event in May – thanks to a wedding that is about to take place! Hannah and Brandon’s wedding is a mere 5 days away. So the million little details are all coming together, and/or still being worked on.
Brandon’s parents were kind enough to have a whole bunch of people from both sides of the family over to their home yesterday, which was lots of fun!
We are trying to help where we can, while also doing our regular personal and mission work. So it’s a balancing act to try to prioritize and get everything done. But I thought it would be good to pause and give a bit of an update, since things will be even busier after this. 🙂
We’ve enjoyed visiting some churches and connecting with lots of people over the last little while. And we’re preparing for our trip to Ontario, which begins in 15 days.
We have our suitcases replaced, but we’re still waiting to see if the airline will reimburse us.
Anyway, we appreciate your prayers for the wedding, and for our upcoming trip!
Which reminds me, I have some things to do! Excuse me!
If you’ve been paying attention, you know one of the main reasons why we’re heading to Canada around this time – there’s a wedding coming! Our daughter Hannah and her fiancé Brandon are deep into preparations, and hopefully we are being of some help!
We will also be visiting some churches while we’re in Canada. We’re hoping to get to see some congregations we weren’t able to catch the last time around in Alberta, and then we’re going to Ontario to visit some churches and various friends and family there. It’s been quite a few years since we have reported to our churches in Ontario in person, so it’s important that we take the time to do so. If you’d like to see us, drop us a line and we’ll see what we can do! If we’re at a church in your area, we would love to see you there too.
I’ll try to get a church schedule in our newsletter, and maybe even here on the website if I’m ambitious. But as you can imagine things are pretty busy right now!
We would appreciate your prayers, as this will be a pretty intense and busy time. Pray as well for Hannah and Brandon, and also for Nathanael, who will be facing big changes himself. Pray that we would be able to be a help and encouragement to family, friends, and churches as we serve.
Pray also for the church in Las Palmas while we’re gone. Not that we’re indispensable – by no means! – but naturally our absence means more work for those we are leaving behind.
Choosing a photo from ten years ago was hard – July 2014 was a very photogenic month. I guess that’s because we travelled all across Canada and the USA, visiting family and friends. Lots of great memories!
After a breakdown in the USA (which led to more time with some friends there!), and an equally disastrous “repair”, we drove madly on to Ontario where we were finally able to enjoy a break at Fair Havens. I’m not sure it ever lived up to its name more.
So this is a shot of Hannah and Nathanael from a day of fun family games – 10 years ago today.
I can’t help a bonus – strolling with the Canada geese down one of my favourite roads in the world, also at Fair Havens:
It wasn’t a surprise when the flight was cancelled. We had already heard lots of horror stories about travel in Canada – and around the world.
Our friends the Kolaris put up a flag just for our visit. We felt doubly at home!
So we were flying from Mexico City to Vancouver, and then Vancouver to Calgary. The cancelled flight was the second one. But the new flight that we were assigned to was only 1 hour later. And once we arrived in Vancouver, we realized that we actually needed that extra time to catch our next flight. God is good.
In fact, a verse was going through my mind during our time in Canada – the words of Joseph to his brothers: “…you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good…” (Genesis 50:20). There is so much going on that is intended for evil – but we saw God use these things for our good. We don’t always see how God is working, but this summer He allowed us a few glimpses.
That being said, we certainly saw for ourselves how difficult travel is becoming. But God allowed us to make the trip!
We went to Alberta first to spend some time with family, and to take care of a few practical matters. And, of course, to actually plan our trip, which happened very last minute!
We enjoyed a week off, all four of us, which was a real blessing!
And then we had a time of ministry in Ontario, travelling as far south as Dunnville and as far north as Moosonee.
We’ve never had a tour quite like it, for several reasons. For example, we were able to see firsthand how much Canada has changed in two years. Drastic changes. And we were able to talk to all kinds of people – from many walks of life, many contexts, two provinces, believers and unbelievers, old and young, people from all over the world (we used a lot of Spanish!). And we were able to hear their stories.
What kind of stories? Well, first of all, Christians especially can see how quickly the culture around them is falling, and they see what’s coming. They may not agree on all the details, but they can see what’s happening to some degree. They are also personally experiencing the results of their community’s active rejection of Christ. Families are being attacked and destroyed. Churches are being torn apart. Jobs are being lost. Resources disappearing.
But once again, we saw God’s Hand. Although we heard a lot of sorrow and concern, we also heard people sharing the gospel. People finding new ways to reach out and help others. People getting on their knees and calling out to the Lord. People being faithful. What an encouragement!
I just went through some notes and pictures from our trip, and I’m amazed again at the number of activities and visits that we packed in, the experiences we had, and the variety of people we saw and/or talked to. And, of course, an important part of our trip was reporting on our ministry to our supporters, and serving them where we could. And we will certainly continue praying about some specific needs we heard about.
One of the random things we did in Canada – visit the first Tim Hortons restaurant. We were staying just a few blocks away.
We’ve only been home for just over a week, although it seems longer! I think I’m still “debriefing” in my mind, and we’re still dealing not only with things that relate to our trip, but also things that we intended to do over the summer (originally thinking that we would be here in Mexico), and with our re-integration into ministry here. We’ve essentially been disconnected since we left for the conference in Panama on the 7th of June. There’s lots to talk about, but I’ll stop there for now!
