Things have been a little unusual the past few days… but I guess that’s the life of a missionary, right?  On Sunday morning we were at SouthCreek Community Church here in Calgary.  We’ve had a great time with the children there this fall, and on the 16th they showed off their Spanish skills in front of the rest of the church.  I also had the opportunity to preach.

The idea was that the kids were now trained to be missionaries to Mexico, and so this week was our visit to Mexico.  After the service there was a potluck, arranged by people at the church.  It was a Mexican potluck, and it was fantastic how much everyone got into the spirit of things!  There were decorations the colour of the Mexican flag, home made tortillas, authentic Mexican rice, salad, and many other latin dishes.  There were even piñatas afterwards!  It really was like a little visit to Mexico.

We also visited Tennessee on Sunday morning . . . sort of.  I got a call before church from a man in a Baptist church who wanted me to visit his high school Sunday School class by phone.  Sadly, due to some sort of glitch in the phone service, at the appointed time the phone rang once and then went dead.  The class left an encouraging message, but we never did talk in person.  I’m still trying to track down the teacher so that I can explain what happened – if you’re reading this please give me a call!  In spite of the problem it was encouraging to hear that people so far away are remembering us in prayer.

The days since then have also been full of the unexpected.  We were loading and unloading our fridge because it was malfunctioning.  Our plans for today have been constantly changing due to an overnight snow storm.  And there has been the “good unexpected” as well.  Shari was given some gift certificates that will help her get some things that she needs.  We got a gift of some grocery gift certificates.  We were able to visit Shari’s parents and brother and his family in Banff on Monday.  We got an unexpected call from someone in Mexico who gave us some encouragement.  What can I say?  Life is never dull!  Mexico, Banff, Tennessee … what will the rest of the week be like?

I walked up to the receptionist and said,”I need a wife.”  That just goes to show how tired I was!  It was the 4th of November, and I was in the lobby of a hotel in Rocky Mountain House.  Snow, ice and cold couldn’t keep us from making it to the conference at PRBI, but sickness was keeping us from making it home.  (Typical for Canadians I think – we’re good with weather.  I recently heard that more Canadians die from falling out of bed than from weather.  That means either we’re very weather-wise or very restless sleepers!)

First, Hannah got sick.  Then me.  Then Shari.  We had been planning to visit some friends of ours in Sherwood Park, but the thought of passing around a rather nasty bug led us to change our plans and try to make it home.  We drove about 777km from Rose Prairie BC to Rocky Mountain House AB, but by that time we were all so tired and sick we decided we’d better stop for the night.  It was only about quarter to nine, but we’d been ready for bed for several hours already.

Ok, I meant to tell the receptionist that I needed a room for my wife, my daughter, and I.  But instead I told her I needed a wife.  Fortunately, I think she was already married, so there weren’t any likely candidates in the area.  I quickly recovered my senses and explained that I already had a wife.  What I needed was a room!

We made it home the next day and are now trying to unpack, do laundry, and recover at the same time.  This really is a nasty bug, so we’re having trouble doing more than sitting up for a few minutes.  But at least we’re home at last!

We are thankful that this time we got sick at the end of our travels, and not at the beginning.  We had a good trip up north to Grande Prairie, Sexsmith, and Rose Prairie.  We enjoyed some good visits with friends and had some good talks with students at the school. I even met a distant relative, Annelise Cottrell.  I taught a new seminar, entitled,”Maximizing Your Short Term Mission Trip” which went well.  PRBI is sending out 8 mission teams next year – amazing for a student body of only three hundred or so!  A few of those team members were in my seminar, as well as others who were going on trips or thinking about it.

If you think of it keep us in your prayers.  We are going to be leading a children’s Sunday School this Sunday, and have lots on the go besides, so we need that extra energy and wisdom from the Lord!  Thanks again!

Those of you that knew we were going to Grande Prairie yesterday may be wondering if we made it!  Well, believe it or not we did. Yesterday much of western Canada was hit with a big snow storm.  This was the first snow that I saw this October, so of course drivers weren’t really prepared.  In the morning I listened to someone from the automobile association describing the roads that were the worst, and it sounded like they were reading our itinerary!  In fact, Highway 2 north of Calgary was closed for a while. It must have just opened up before we got there because we made it right through the Red Deer (very slowly, of course!) and then we went across to Highway 22 and continued north.

Anyway, I think we must have had at least 4 angels (one for each tire) looking out for us yesterday, because not only did we make it safely but we made it all in one day.  We were certain after the first couple hours that we’d be looking for a hotel – we were just going to try to get as far as we could.  The roads were mostly very poor (some were downright horrid, and a few were actually quite good), but we just kept going, and Hannah was very well behaved which made a big difference!

So now that we’ve had a good sleep we’re ready for the start of the PRBI missions conference which begins this afternoon.  No more long drives until Monday when we “pop over” to BC to visit some friends there.  It’s nice to be here at last!  We’re staying with some friends that have kindly showed us hospitality.  They even have a one year old boy that Hannah has already had lots of fun playing with!

We enjoyed a good visit with my parents this past week, so that was nice.  They were here for a conference but managed to fit some time in for us, and especially for Hannah!  And you all know what tomorrow is, right?  Shari’s birthday!  Yes, it’s also “Reformation Day”, but Shari’s birthday is the REALLY big celebration.  We’ll be busy at the conference, but hopefully we’ll be able to squeeze in a couple minutes to sing the traditional song.  🙂