May 10, 2008
It for me has now arrived at the point where to say that we have been busy seems to be no different from any other post I’ve put up in the last year. It has been busy… however it has been good. I type this as we are staying in a church in Pierre, South Dakota.
We’re on our way to Nebraska, but we were held up when we ran into a snowstorm in the Calgary area. It snowed 14 inches. It was pretty crazy… and we couldn’t make it to the training centre that night… let alone get onto the grid roads that would have taken us there. A church in Cremona let us stay there overnight, and then we drove down to Briercrest yesterday and now we’ve arrived in the States… I should add, for once we got through the border without difficulty.
May 18
It’s hard to believe that it’s been 8 days down here in Nebraska already. We did a children/youth service last night in a Hispanic church in Lexington. Earlier this week we’ve been going to schools in and around Beaver City, as well as a seniors home. It’s been really good. I’ve enjoyed being back into the touring! I don’t think I got a picture of it, but at the new school they’ve built a large auditorium with a huge stage for dramas and musicicals and whatever else. It reminded me very much of Russia. It was a really cool feeling being that Bruce was there too.
May 27
It’s hard to believe that we’re leaving this morning from Beaver City. One thing that I really don’t like about travelling around to all these different places is that you always leave a piece of you behind. Lol, funny how you can do that and still gain weight… What I mean is you leave a piece of your heart there. In Beaver City here, we had the chance to stay in ‘relatively’ the same place for a couple weeks. You learn who people are. You learn about their struggles… their joys… their past… families…friends…experiences. It really is sad to leave.
By the way, that Hispanic Church in Lexington? Well apparently 12 people came to Christ at one of the services. That was exciting for our whole team to hear and certainly a highlight.
After we did the majority of our programs everywhere else, we helped the town out by preparing the area for memorial day. We planted some flowers, helped plant Pastor Dwayne’s garden, destroyed a rotten stump, rote-tilled the garden before we planted it, weeded, transplanted strawberry plants, and cleaned out flowerbeds.
Karina meanwhile had been sick for a bit and while she was home, she wrote a song called ‘Ebenezer’ for the town of Beaver City. They were just celebrating the 100th year of a statue that was erected to honor those who died in the civil war. Anyways, to Karina, it was like an Ebenezer (which means, ‘thus far God has brought us’) and so anyways, we got to play this song for them on Memorial Day. They fired 4 canons off at the end of the ceremony too. Wow… you can really feel the blasts.
And right up to date here… yesterday was the imfamous ‘Memorial Day’ and we had the privilege of helping to raise flags up in the cemetery early in the morning as well as lead the singing in the ‘Star Spangled Banner’ and another hymn ‘My Country tis of Thee’ (it’s the tune of God Save the Queen). Anyways, it was a really great time to be there with the veterans. Oh, and they fired off a canon at the end of both memorial services we did. It was really special. Finally last night we had a supper with the church that we didn’t get to do a service for because of being stuck in the snowstorm in Calgary. Not everyone there was a Christian and I hope and pray that the songs we sang and the stories we shared will encourage them to take the risk of stepping out and giving Jesus everything. It was really cool.
Now we’re here. Ready to leave… but not ready to leave. It’s been a good time, and great to see God work. I will miss this little town of Beaver City and the amazing people we’ve met here.
And Connie, we’ll even miss cutting out all that flannel graph! :P
Grace and Peace
- J
P.S.
The Website wouldn't let me put up all the pics I wanted... so you'll have to copy and paste this link into the address thinger.... (There are a few that are labeled... :P)
http://s128.photobucket.com/albums/p174/encaitar777/?mediafilter=images
Hope that works... :P
