First, the famous nopuntia (sometimes called prickly pear), in Mexico known as the nopal, a type of cactus, with its fruit. You can eat the cactus, and you can eat the fruit, and you’ve seen it on the Mexican flag.
Next, Mexican doves (also known as Inca doves). We see them all the time, and hear them when we can’t see them.
So these aren’t necessarily the “memories” that we usually have in the retro posts, but these pictures were indeed taken ten years ago. I love the fact that the doves can look so peaceful in what is such a prickly place for the rest of us!
It was great to see many of you in central/northern Alberta over the weekend! I wish we could have visited longer with everyone.
From a spontaneous visit as a family to Johnson Lake…
We are looking forward to being in central Alberta for the next couple of weeks, so I just thought I’d stop by again to update our schedule for you, in case you can come and see us.
18 October 2020 (10:30am): Innisfail, AB – We will be sharing at Innisfail Baptist Church. Please contact the church for more information.
25 October 2020 (10:30am): Provost, AB – We will be sharing at New Hope Gospel Church. Again, please contact the church for more information.
I hope all of you in Canada enjoyed a very thankful Thanksgiving! We were able to be with some of Shari’s family. We’re also thankful to hear that most of the crops are in here in Alberta, thanks to God sending some great weather late summer/early fall.
I hope we can see some of you soon! I’ll try to post again when I have more information.
Late to graduate, that is! Through no fault of their own!
Yes, Hannah finally “officially” graduated from high school!
We’re so proud of all her hard work for so many years! Way to go, Hannah!
Speaking of late, I’m late posting this too! But the good folks at Prairie Christian Academy decided to do an outdoor graduation on the 26th of September. So we all sat out in the parking lot on a beautiful sunny day.
Hannah graduated with honours, and was nominated for the Timothy Award. Her tribute was read by her art teacher.
And it was very cool that Hannah’s Grandpa and Grandma Winger and Grandma Cottrill were all able to be there for the big event.
And we were able to be there! Because there were times when we thought it might not work out.
I’m sure I’ll post some better pictures in our gallery eventually, but I wanted to make sure I had something here on our blog for this big event. 🙂
I’m just stopping by to update those of you in Alberta about a couple of upcoming services we’ll be involved in, Lord willing. If you would like to come and see us, please be in touch with the churches below to be sure you know what restrictions or limitations they have due to COVID-19 regulations.
11 October 2020 (11am): Glendon, AB – We will be at a joint service of two churches in town. Please contact Glendon Evangelical Church for more information (but we will not be meeting at their church, but at a different location).
18 October 2020 (10:30am): Innisfail, AB – We will be sharing at Innisfail Baptist Church. Please contact the church for more information.
I hope we can see many of you at these services! If I get more information, I’ll try to update this post.
I’m finally taking a breath and sitting down to give you a bit of an update. But it will take more than one post to get through it all! So let’s go in order. 🙂
So after we talked to you last, we spent some time in Saskatchewan, in the Lashburn/Maidstone/Lloydminster area, with my Mom and other friends there. We enjoyed some time with the folks at Grace Community Church in Maidstone, and as planned I spoke there on the 13th of September.
Also in September I spoke at our church in Mexico! By recorded video, this time. 🙂 Actually, this was much more of an “adventure” than we intended. We have had tremendous technical difficulties with one laptop, and since then we’ve gone through hours of tech support, and the problem still isn’t solved. So that has certainly thrown a wrench into the works.
Preaching on the last part of Romans 5 from Saskatchewan to Mexico!
However, thank the Lord, the sermon somehow got edited and uploaded, though not quite with the excellence I would have liked. 🙂
Now, big news. For quite a few months (actually, even longer), my Mom has been batting around the idea of moving to Three Hills. Why Three Hills, you ask? Well, because of the lovely view of the three imposing hills, casting their massive shadows over the landscape of the vast Canadian prairies, of course! Well, a lot of reasons.
First, she has family here now (Hannah, her granddaughter), as well as “in-law” family – Shari’s parents. Also, there’s a place for seniors here (the Golden Hills Lodge), which has the bonus of providing meals (my Mom’s a good cook, but she’s been busy with a lot of things, so this is one big time-saver).
We came to Canada knowing this was a possibility, but she didn’t finally decide until we were in SK last month. Now, how this went down was interesting. Hannah was graduating on the 26th (more on that later). I believe my Mom decided to move on the 16th. And she also decided that she would like to move before Hannah’s grad, so that she could be there for the celebration. Which, when we worked in all the logistics, meant that we basically had 7 days to move, start to finish.
I’m not sure I would have been that ambitious, but since that’s what my Mom wanted to do, we decided to give it a try (and when we had time to think, we realized that there were a number of reasons why this may be a good idea, but we won’t get into all that).
So – the short story — we did it! By God’s grace and through a lot of insanity!
All packed up and ready to leave Lashburn, SK! (or, “Three Hills or Bust”)
So, my Mom has moved to Three Hills! Her address, phone number and email will all be changing, but there are forwarding services in place now. So get a hold of her while you can, and you can get updated on all the new info. 🙂
There’s still a lot to do while she gets settled, but we’re trying to lend a hand where we can. Otherwise, she’s doing well and enjoying catching up with friends and family, and making a lot of new friends.
So I’ll try to update you on our next speaking engagements, and also other adventures (including Hannah’s grad!) when I have the change to take another breath.
