Ministry glimpses

Hello again!  I’m writing you today from Hamilton.  We’ve enjoyed some good times with people since we talked to you last, and even had a couple of days off.  We were at Fair Havens for three nights.  Fair Havens is a Christian camp just south of Orillia on the Trent Canal Waterway.  The weather was nice enough that we could spend some time outside, and we enjoyed browsing the bookstore there and doing some indoor activities as well.  I have an album dedicated to Fair Havens in our gallery that you can check out, for those who haven’t been there for a while, or those who are looking for a good camp.  Most of the pictures there now are from our brief stop there in October, but I’ll try to add a shot or two sometime of our most recent visit.

On Sunday we were at Bethany Community Church.  Our former director at Venture Teams International, Len Lane, was leading a seminar on short term missions and we were asked to come and give a bit of a testimony.  So we really enjoyed that.  Len and Carol Lane work with Global Outreach Mission.

Now we’re planning our last week in Ontario, still looking for opportunities to share on Sunday, and trying to visit a few more people.  If you visit our “More News” page, or our Yahoo! calendar, you’ll see our trip home is partially planned as well.

Thanks to Pastor Bob of London who pointed out the problem to me, I’ve repaired a problem in the comments on this blog, so y’all should be able to leave comments now without getting an error message.  Try it out! 😎

It’s been an interesting weekend, so I’m stopping by one more time to let you know what’s been up.

If I took the time to write about all the fascinating people we’ve met and all their interesting hobbies, I’d be spending so much time writing that I wouldn’t meet any more fascinating people!  However, there was one thing on the weekend that I want to tell you about, because it connected in an interesting way with another part of our trip.

On Friday we were in Hamilton visiting with my Dad’s best man (yep, from my parents’ wedding).  He took us downstairs, and all of a sudden – poof!  We were back on the Ontario Northland railway, and way up in Moosonee.  How could this be?  It was because of a beautiful model railway.  It was small, but beautifully done, and included Moosonee, Cochrane, and North Bay in miniature.  Words can’t describe it, but the walls and everything were beautifully painted, there was even a police car parked outside of a Tim Hortons in North Bay, and if you looked closely you could even see the shimmering northern lights in the sky.  They sure were surprised to see the photo at the bottom of our recent newsletter! 😉

On Saturday, we were at Shari’s cousins’ in Kitchener.  They honoured us with a wonderful Mexican meal.  Here’s a shot of the feast:

Yes, it was every bit as delicious as it looks.  This is making me hungry.  On to another topic.

On Sunday we were at Stoney Creek Baptist Church in London.  In the evening I was with a group of about 40 or so doing part 2 of the 2000 Years of Missions seminar, which I think was fun for everybody.  I met some people who were a part of the recent history – a lady whose parents and grandparents were with CIM (J Hudson Taylor’s mission – now OMF), and another lady who had a part in changing policy at Gospel Recordings many years ago.

For lunch we went over to Pastor Bob Cottrill’s house.  Bob is the Worship pastor at North Park Community Church.  Some of you will notice the similarity to my Dad’s name – yes, it’s exactly the same.  Middle name too.  Bob’s dad’s name was the same as my dad’s dad’s name.  They both own golden retrievers.  And the list goes on.  🙂  It’s a strange story how the two Bob Cottrills got in touch with each other, but this Bob invited us over, since we were in the area, and we had a great visit.  And they sure know how to make lasagna.  Are the two Bobs related?  That’s a mystery that has not yet been solved.

We’re still busy finishing up a few more things here in Beamsville and area, and then as of Tuesday night we’re taking two or three days off.  Can you believe it?  We’ll talk to you when we get back.

The days of constantly unplugging the car battery are at last over.  The back hatch latch has been replaced (the mechanic found a hatch latch match), the interior light that I broke while trying to remove has been replaced (I did that one all by myself – are you impressed?), and the other minor repairs…well, they can wait for now (later in the week I’ll try to pull out my tools).  Now we can load things back in our van, rather than stack them in all corners of the house, and hopefully we’ll be feeling a little more organized pretty soon.

Tomorrow Shari will be speaking at the Ladies’ Coffee Time at Garside Bible Church in Hamilton.  We’ve been able to enjoy some time at Garside – it’s nice when we can go to church at the same place, and Hannah can go to the same Sunday School with the same children, and we can worship with people we know and hear God’s Word preached.

On the weekend we’ll be heading back west – well, a little west.  To Kitchener and London, Ontario.  I’ll be speaking to a group on Sunday night at the Stoney Creek Baptist Church in London.  Next week we’re actually going to take a couple of days off – a rest we very much need and are looking forward to.  So if you’re trying to get a hold of us in the middle of the week next week, and we’re strangely silent – that’s why!  But keep trying (especially if you know of some ministry opportunities during the following couple of weeks)! 😀

We wish we could do it all.  But we can’t!  It’s a major frustration right now as we try to see people, but we’re having trouble seeing everyone we want to see.  Perhaps some people are thinking that we’re ignoring them, or that they’re not a priority, but that’s not the case.  We’re trying to get things planned but it’s very difficult.

We did have a good weekend.  I had a good time in Cochrane at the First Baptist Church there.  Thanks to all of you there for your warm hospitality and spiritual encouragement!  Shari was back in Stouffville, and was able to celebrate her birthday on Sunday with some cousins, which was nice.  We seem to be in Ontario quite often for Shari’s birthday, but always with different relatives! 😛

So we’re all back together again, which is nice.  We find ourselves often busy with the unexpected – a flood in the place where we’re staying, the realization that we need to go and find a new car seat for Nathanael because he’s growing so fast, van repairs (you heard about that one), and so many more regular parts of life that refuse to be put off just because we want to stop by and see our friends.

So we just trust that you in Southern Ontario will be understanding, and that the Lord has a plan in all these frustrations of life!  We will try to be faithful in the mean time – do what He has called us to do, and be what He has called us to be.

It’s hard to coordinate schedules, but if you have some free time to see us while we’re here, please give us a call or contact us from the website.  That would be a help.  Thanks for your prayers!