Family
Van’s still moving
I’m writing you as we drive down the Highway between Leask and Parkside. For those of you who don’t know where that is, it’s about in the middle (a little to the south) of the Province of Saskatchewan in Canada. And no, I’m not the one who is driving, so you can relax. We’re driving beside a railroad track among some trees. It’s a nice day.
We enjoyed the hospitality of Maidstone Baptist Church on Sunday, where I led adult Sunday School, sang and preached in the service, and shared a little about Mexico too. I don’t know if they got sick of me, but we didn’t get sick of them. It was great to worship there and make some new friends.
We spent some time with my parents, who are 15 minutes away, and now we’re heading over to Prince Albert to see Shari’s parents and, Lord willing, her sister.
While in Prince Albert, we plan to spend some time with family, celebrate our anniversary (#9), and um…er…get some van repairs done….
Yes, I’m afraid it’s true. The hundreds of dollars we poured into the van in the last few weeks was enough to get us to Saskatchewan, but just not enough to get us back. Some strange and disturbing sounds have been coming from … well, there’s a disagreement about where from, but from somewhere. I suggested to Shari that we could fix the problem by turning up the radio, but she eventually convinced me that we need to take more drastic measures.
…….
Sorry, had to stop to blow my nose. Yup, we’re still sick. But we’ve been trying to share compassion and not congestion, though I’m not sure how successful we’ve been. If I can get rid of it without someone else getting it, I’ll be satisfied.
Other than that, we’re all doing fine. Hannah and Nathanael are listening to a kid’s song about patience (well, Nathanael is studying the bottom of his shoe too). And we’re looking forward to seeing Grandpa and Grandma Winger at their new home in less than an hour. And hopefully we’ll have a van to return to Calgary in this coming weekend (I really hope so because we have company coming!). After that, we’ll be making some serious decisions about whether or not to buy another van in Canada, how much to repair this one, and all that fun stuff. Talk to you later!
Put the brakes on!!
We’ve had a good month. But it’s been a busy month. Very busy. And when you’re that busy, one or two unexpected events can cause things to veer out of control.
For one thing, sickness has struck again. Nathanael had it bad, as you can see…
Well, he’s getting better now, though a face plant on the pavement today didn’t help the condition of his over-blown nose. But the rest of us are sick now, in particular Hannah. Lord willing we’ll be better by the weekend, when we start a week-long visit to Saskatchewan.Then there’s the old van. Several hundred dollars have been poured into it over the last few days – the majority of that dealing with a replacement of the brakes. Sure, that’s a normal maintenance issue. But the reason why it had to be done was because of another problem, which may cost us a few more hundred. Plus a few other things we know need to be done – a few hundred dollars more – and before we know it we could be over $2000 and rising.
But wait! This is not the van we’ll be using in Mexico. We’re still looking over whether or not we should buy a van here or drive one down and buy another in Mexico. But the point is, we’d better decide what we’re doing. Spending thousands on a van that isn’t worth it isn’t exactly a good use of funds. So we’re working on the specs of what exactly we want and where we should get it.
Ever since we started with CAM International we’ve had money to raise for a vehicle. We raised a portion and used it to buy this van – leaving us with about $14 raised for a new one. So if we’re going to need a van before we leave for Mexico, that’s money we’ll need to raise (see the current status of the van project).
Of course, the added expenses are a strain on the pocketbook. Just when we thought we were recovering from expenses in the fall (which also involved van repairs), we get hit again by a number of things. We just found out that our laptop needs a new battery. How much are laptop batteries? Well, it varies, but this one is CA$200! Ouch!
But we’re still looking forward to the days ahead, though we’re hoping we can put the brakes on life just a little after the weekend. We appreciate your prayers! Now, I’d better get Nathanael to his crib for a nap.
Eggs, Bibles, preaching, and the Resurrection…
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It’s been quite a weekend, I have to admit. But, a good one. The Good Friday service at our Church seems such a long way away! Since then, the kids went to a birthday party, there was Easter egg decorating and a dinner out with family, I preached at Cremona Country Fellowship, there was that delicious dinner and of course the Easter egg hunt, and yet another delicious dinner, and today the kids went to the Zoo with Mom and Aunts and cousins. Wow.
Seriously, it was a good weekend. We really enjoyed being back at Cremona Country Fellowship. We were honoured to be there two weeks in a row, and I hope we can come again. We were invited out for lunch, and even got to take part in an Easter egg hunt.
Shari’s parents and her sister were around, so we enjoyed some time with them and her brother’s family. I uploaded a few pictures from the weekend, and even made a little video, so they can tell the story better than me! Check out our recent pictures.
Now we have another crazy week – every day is packed full and we’re off to Saskatchewan on the weekend to speak at the Maidstone Baptist Church. In there somewhere we’ll be continuing our prep for Mexico – we’re looking into paperwork issues and other practical things we need to deal with. Fun stuff!
This weekend Hannah and Nathanael got new Bibles. They each got their own, and they got a nice Spanish/English Bible to share, which means we all have bilingual Bibles now. How cool – and I great way to remember the Word who became flesh – who died and rose!
Making dessert with Grandma
This is just a little blog in honour of Video Blogging Week 2006. Thanks to Dennis for letting me know about this week! It was a busy week, so I just had a chance to do a little footage of Grandma Cottrill and Hannah making dessert (click below)…
Kids’ books at Easter
This Easter we’ve been working on new ways to try to share the
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Easter story with Hannah in particular. Actually, between Christmas and Easter I was reading her an adapted version of The Pilgrim’s Progress
I was wondering how much she would get out of it, but the imagery certainly came alive for her. Now she’s going around acting out the story. It’s a great opportunity to explain in a concrete way what the cross means to us, in particular. (Note to parents – some of the pictures in the book are pretty graphic…I just kind of covered a couple of them up and went on by!)
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Now that the Easter Season is upon us, we’ve been going through a book with stories and hymns related to Easter. Do you remember the one we did at Christmas? Well, this is the Easter version, Passion Hymns for a Kid’s Heart. Although there’s the occasional thing I don’t agree with, most of the stories are excellent (so far) and it’s a great chance to learn the hymns. Hopefully when we’re at church around Easter time the songs will be a little more familiar to her.
We sing the hymns a couple of nights in a row, and there’s a story, a verse and a prayer with each one. Anyway, hopefully we’ll have more opportunities to talk with both Hannah and Nathanael as Easter gets closer. Of course, anytime is the right time! 🙂