Family

Just heading to bed here, and I thought I’d drop by and say a quick hello.  We’ve been enjoying a little family time before continuing our ministry tomorrow, in Billings Montana.  We’ll be sharing at the Westside Baptist Church in the evening.

Nathanael has tooth number 2.  I guess that means he now has one Canadian Tooth and one American Tooth.  How very multicultural!  Hannah has been enjoying a bit of swimming, and Nathanael – well, he has been really enjoying it.  Apparently we have a little water baby.

We’re looking forward to visiting some of our friends in Montana, although we won’t be able to see them all.  Then it’s back to…where do we live again?  Well, somewhere in Canada, anyway.  It’s been over 16,000km of travel so far (that is, over 10,000 miles), and almost 3 months.  Since we hadn’t been living in our apartment that long before we left, sometimes I forget what it looks like!  But soon enough it will be a familiar site.  An apartment filled with half unpacked boxes, suitcases, and us.  Hey, be it ever so humble…

I find that one of the best places to write to you is while I’m waiting at th repair shop.  Sad to say, we’ve spent hundreds of dollars in maintenance and repairs on our van since our trip began, but the greatest challenge is finding a good place to take it in when you’re on the move like we are.  Anyway, we’ll see what the folks here in Mount Forest can do for us.

We’re now 1300km (812mi) into our trip!  We’ve had a busy week, and weather wise we’re back where we were last week, in snow.  Most of our week has involved good visits with people all over the place.  On Sunday we enjoyed a visit to Heise Hill Brethren In Christ Church.  The folks at Heise Hill have been very supportive during our years in ministry, and we were able to finally meet the new pastor and his wife.  I led a Sunday School for the Jr and Sr High, which was a lot of fun (for me, anyway!).  We did a Bible study on clothing.  If you’re curious, hey, invite us to your church!  We also shared in the service and then enjoyed some time with relatives after the service.

Again, there’s too much to say to put it all here!  But I will tell you briefly about this picture:

On Monday we visited an old classmate of mine from NDCA, Greg Beros.  Greg caught me up to date on what some other elementary school classmates have been doing, and we enjoyed some time with him, his wife and his daughter, Hannah.  So this is a picture of the two Hannahs.  Knowing how common the name Hannah is, I’m surprised we don’t have more pictures like this, but no doubt there are many more to come!

Last night we enjoyed some time with our friend Amy and her Bible study group.  Amy was kind enough to recommend a great Mexican restaurant in Barrie which we went to for supper.  A taste of Mexico is always welcome!

We’re all still a little sick, but hopefully we’re on the way to getting better.  Still searching for a good night’s sleep, but we shouldn’t have too many more very late nights like last night was.  Today we start heading south, and we’ll end up in Ohio on Thursday, which is where we’ll be on Sunday, sharing at the Delaware Bible Church in Delaware, Ohio.  We’re looking forward to a great visit with friends through the northern States, and Lord willing a few chances to share in churches along the way.  We’ll let you know how it goes! 

On the 24th of November, our wonderful streak of good weather ended at last.  I loaded the van in a downpour, and I’m sure it will be some time before everything is dry again!  I was pretty wet, but the good news is that I already have a cold, so I can’t catch one.  I hope.  As we drove from Beamsville to Mount Forest, Ontario, the moisture in the van slowly filled the air, nicely fogging up everything.  The rain turned to freezing rain, and as it began to get dark we noticed that the ground by the road was starting to turn white.  Today there is actually snow on the ground, something new for Nathanael to see!

Yesterday was actually a special day for Nathanael, because he got a new car seat.  We were hoping we could wait until we got home – we certainly have enough expenses without adding this one – but the little fellow is just growing too fast.  He’s too big now to legally ride in the old seat.  So, here he is trying out his new throne, while Mom wades through the complicated instructions:

We’re now in our last week in Ontario.  This week will be full of travelling, as we get around to see people that we’ve missed so far.  Still, we simply won’t get to see everyone we were hoping to see (this is why we’re looking forward to an eternity in Heaven!).  On Sunday, Lord willing, we’ll be at Heise Hill Brethren In Christ Church in Gormley.  We’ll be sharing in the service and leading a joint Jr and Sr High Sunday School.  Seven days, one province and three states later we’ll be sharing at a church in Delaware Ohio (see our calendar for details).

On a personal note, I started a bit of a Bible study when we were at Fair Havens.  It’s a study by Jerry Bridges, based on his book The Pursuit of Holiness.  Actually, this is a three-in-one book, The Pursuit of Holiness, The Pursuit of Holiness Bible Study, and The Practice of Godliness.  It’s been pretty good so far, although I don’t agree with everything the author says.  (It’s always nice to be able to say that, isn’t it?  It makes you feel like you are a somewhat critical reader, and also means you can get away without fully endorsing everything, without having to write 12 pages of explanation!)

I do, however, agree with what the Author of the Bible says, and holiness is such a huge topic in Scripture that it’s good to come back to it every so often.  It is such a priority, in God’s eyes, that we live a holy life.  So it’s important that we know what that means!

I have a wonderful devotional book at home, it must be 100 years old or so.  Every devotional takes one passage that talks about holiness (and there are hundreds) and investigates it.  Every once in a while I’ve considered putting the pages online one by one (since I’m pretty sure it’s beyond any copyright).  Maybe some day.  It would be another good way to meditate on holiness.

Anyway, for now remember what God said:  Be holy, because I’m holy (1Pe 1:16, Lev 11:44).

The van seems, for the time being, to be better (although there’s a windshield wiper issue which I simply will not get into here), and Shari’s neck is getting better, so this is a good thing.  So after some good visits with folks in Stouffville and Newmarket today, we’re ready to go madly off in all directions over the weekend.  I’ll be heading 681.1 km north to Cochrane, and then meeting with folks in Sudbury on the way back.  Shari will be visiting with some folks in southern Ontario.  And we’ll all meet together again on Monday night to compare notes.  We’ll try to drop by to say hello to you sometime next week.

I’m writing with Nathanael here beside me.  It’s a little distracting.  He likes to roll over now, scoot around a little.  His favourite word is “dlah” (no, we don’t know what it means either), and his favourite song is Meredith Willson’s 76 Trombones.  He thinks it’s absolutely hilarious.  No, we don’t know why.  But if we could tell what babies were thinking, we’d be geniuses, wouldn’t we?

For a moment or so it seemed like we were more or less over whatever sicknesses we had.  But that’s not exactly the case.  Hannah is still rather sick with a runny nose, for one thing.  A few days ago I passed the driving over to Shari temporarily because of a mysteriously sore neck.  And today!  Well today it was Shari’s turn to get a very sore neck – so sore, in fact, that we ended up at the doctor’s.

Don’t worry, it wasn’t a deadly, contagious disease.  Shari was given some medication and special instructions, and sent home.  So, being the healthiest driver I dropped off everyone at home and headed off to do some errands.  I made it a few kilometers down the road before the van broke down.

A tow truck, mechanic’s and rental car later I was able to continue with the errands.  This was the emergency stuff that we simply had to get done, until we had time for a proper shopping trip (and that will be when exactly?!).  But I was able to go and pick up the cake.  The birthday cake.

Yes, Shari’s birthday is coming up on Sunday.  I’ll be gone for the weekend (assuming I have a vehicle, and assuming Shari isn’t incapacitated by muscle pain), so this was our last chance to sit back and celebrate.  Of course, Shari needed to go to the doctor first thing in the morning (although it was later by the time we got there), and I had only returned from my errands in the mid-evening.  So our day off turned into a half an evening off.  But that’s ok!  It was great cake (ice cream, you know.  Dairy Queen).  But please pray for the van repairs (for example, money to cover expenses like these – people who are committed to giving monthly to this ministry) and the health of all!

It’s days like this – or, weeks like this – that make you wonder – why are we doing this again?  Oh yes.  It’s the millions in Mexico who are in pain – all kinds of pain – but have no one to turn to for comfort and healing.  It’s the millions in Mexico whose lives are broken down – they don’t know anyone who has the answers.  They don’t know where to turn.  It’s the millions in Mexico with no reason to really celebrate.  In a few days many will celebrate the Days of the Dead, but they have no assurance and hope for the day of their death.  Why do we do what we do?  So that God can use us and you to bring hope to Mexico.  When you look at it that way, it sure is worth it.