Mirrory Chrissmas!

Merry Christmas!
Behold.... our team is halfway through Christmas day. We spent this morning in a Church service and this afternoon we’re helping out with getting Christmas Dinner all ready for the newly arrived YWAM team from Hawaii. This last week we have been doing the typical ministries with widows, street kids and the different chores and tasks around the base. On the weekend though, we did some outreaches for the community here. We rented a projector and after doing some testimonies, illusions, dramas, music and then after all was said and done, we played a movie (to which Sylvan translated all the way through as well as presented the gospel throughout and near the end of the movie. The first night we played Narnia, the Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe... the second night we watched the second half of the Ten Commandments... (yes, the old ten commandments). Over 100 people showed up each night, and it was cool to see God work there. In total, there were at least 35 people who accepted Christ over those two nights.


This last Sunday there was a big YWAM thing for the supporters of this Training Centre. We made a Rwandan/Canadian band for the night and we played a bunch of songs and Tabitha did the ‘I Celebrate the Day’ chalk art at the end. (It’s the chalk art with the Cross and the Manger talking about how at Christmas we are celebrating the birth of Jesus, who was born in order to die, so that one day we could ask Him to save our lives)



Our team had our own Christmas here just before REAL Christmas, and we gave each other some gifts. That was special. Karina got me a dagger. :D We made cookies (chocolate chip , and peanut butter squares) and stuffing, mashed potatoes, and some chicken...Chicken is a little different here. They are smaller and tougher. But it was all really wonderful, especially with the gravy!!



We hope it rains soon. It’s been dry here, and our allergies have been giving us a little grief... Health-wise, we’re starting to adjust to the climate and chores...but our food still does some strange things to our digestion. Nothing is constant yet. I’m sure that will get better with time.


It’s interesting being here at the YWAM base. There are a lot of Rwandese people who are used to us. And we are used to them being used to us. So, when we go out of the YWAM base on a walk somewhere, I somewhat feel surprised that the people on the street STILL come up to us and point, and stare saying “MAZUNGU!” Even though Karina has braided hair, she still sticks out like a sore thumb. At least people really appreciate seeing her braided hair.



Anyways, merry christmas everyone! Have a grand day of eating the poor turkeys... or ham... or beef.. or ... ice cream. Run for the hills ice cream! :) And come to Rwanda... there's not enough ice cream here...

We had peanut butter today... it was beautiful!

I think I lost 1 litre of sweat yesterday...Whooo!

Well, the last few days have been really busy and exciting. We have been doing ministry with Street Kids, Widows, and HIV victims... as well as whoever else shows up in these locations. It was a bit difficult starting off because we weren’t really sure what to be doing... What the expectations are. Now we know a lot more of them.

1) Repeating songs is not only encouraged, but it is preferred! (not like Canada!)
2) People are quite willing to listen about the Bible, Jesus, and preaching is often encouraged
3) People like different EQ (sound) settings... (you thought we like loud music in Canada!)

There have been others too, but those are the first that come to mind. The other day, Karina, myself and 4 others (I think) were going into the hills nearby to work with HIV victims and along the way we saw some large tents with goats and cows nearby. Karina took a picture of the goats and off we went. Very shortly after we were stopped by a very agitated soldier. Turns out, the tents were part of the army airbase area, and when they saw a camera, they started freaking out. He tried to stop the vehicle, but nobody saw him, and our driver didn’t see him either. So he had to go and grab a bicycle and chase down our taxi van. When he caught up with us, they brought us back to the road by the base and then they took all our cameras to make sure we hadn’t been spying for the French or the Germans. We were there for a good hour sitting in the van while all this was sorted out. Meanwhile we entertained a group of kids that were so excited to be visiting with some Mazoongoos! Lol, it was quite the experience!



We just were at the slummish area of Kigali again last night. There are some street kids there who have been chosen to play soccer. While they do however, they get to learn about Jesus and the Bible and they disciple those who want to follow Jesus. Their soccer cheer is, ‘1, 2, 3, JESUS!’ Very cool. Anyways, while we wait for them to finish practice (2 hours), we whipped out the guitar and instantly there was 20 people there. Granted in the end, there was more people there the first time, just because of the time of day... but there was still a lot of people and we had so much fun singing songs and talking, doing illusions and we even brought out a couple puppets too!

The area we are in is called Samadooha, and it’s the last stop for the buses in this part of down. Nothing like long bus rides home!
We have been trying to find the right adapter for a transformer we got to use for our sound system. However, most of the ministries we’ve done so far have had no power, and have been in places that people like us (if we were tourists) would never go. As such, we hear, ‘Mazoongoos!’ Everywhere we go... (it means White man...) and yes, they even call Nathan a Mazoongoo. Hehe.



Oh, yesterday, I was helping whack weeds out here. The tool I used is a little shorter than a golf club, but angled the same way... straight all the way down, with a crook at the end. Only that the metal is flat and wide with a sharp end at the bottom. Almost like a Machete. Anyways, I was out whacking stuff and the people kept commenting as they walked by. One told me I should be wearing gloves. Lol. Anyways, soon there was a group of 5 kids. They were having a grand time watching me swinging away. All of a sudden while I was swinging, I lost my grip on this weed whacker! It went flying straight up. I covered my head, ducked and went running. It landed harmlessly a few feet from me. One of the boys who had been watching just started to laugh, and laugh, and then he picked up a piece of grass and acted out what I had just did. Swinging and then losing my grip on it and then running away with my hands on my head, and then they laughed all over again. Lol, kids are funny. And I think they think I am. :)

There is a graduation for the students this afternoon, and so this morning we are going to be helping them get
ready, and this afternoon, they’ve asked us to lead the music worship. :D It’s going to be fun!



Therefore, I’m off to get ready, and oh, we’re going to be at one of the biggest churches in the area. Apparently 300 people is a little church... so we’ll see what happens! Thanks for your prayers and we are doing well. There’s the occasional sickish person and the occasional weary weary day. Everyone says Hi to everyone at home!

*********

The graduation was good! We had an amazing time leading music with them. lol, they just LOVE to sing and dance and cheer. It was really fun. The downside is that some of the students are going to be gone now... They're done the communications course here.

Today though is still going to be busy. There's a church nearby that Sylvan's brother is getting married in today and they want us to bring the whole sound system over on foot and do a drama and maybe a song! lol, we'll see what happens with that!

Jembe's not a Jembe here anymore!

Yesterday, our team went and visited the Rwanda Genocide Memorial. It was a trying experience for everyone, and feelings were a bit mixed. It was a really good thing for our team even if it was hard to go through.

Over 1 000 000 people died in three months.

Yet despite all the evil that took place here not very long ago, the country has changed a lot. Sylvan, one of our hosts here, came to Kigali (the capital) one year after all these things happened. He was completely overwhelmed with what He saw. The system was gone, and it was everyone for themselves kind of thing. But in the time that has gone, people have changed. People have turned from a lot of the hatred that was consuming them for so long.

When we were driving yesterday, we saw at least 5 vehicles with Christian slogans... Phrases like, God is Love, Praise God, Jesus loves You... things like that... It was really cool to see how much healing has taken place and to see what is going to happen.


Most of our team now is over the travelling tiredness. Joanna was wandering around yesterday and the day before giggling at nearly anything that was normal or mildly amusing. She wanted people to know she hasn’t lost her sense of humour.

We actually have had some sun here once in a while, and we had a quick thunderstorm yesterday evening. The weather can change very quickly, though it’s not likely we’d ever get snow or anything here. The coldest it gets seems to about 15 degrees Celsius and it seems to usually be between 20 and 30. Not bad for winter! :)
There about 1 000 000 people living in the capital today. And they tend to live a lot closer to the tops of the mountains than the valleys. I know how most of the world lives in the valleys between mountains and hills... here they kind of live along them. I suppose the rainy seasons have something to do with that.



We are looking forward to going into town for a few hours today... I still want to find a jembe... and it seems Cody, from Rhys and Janelle’s GAP team this summer had a similar experience in a shop. He asked to see the jembes and they brought a garden hoe out to him. He was surprised and was like, ‘no a jembe I can drum on...’ ‘How are you going to drum with a hoe?’ was basically the reply he got. They still laugh alot about things like that here! :)

Everyone from the team says hello, and some should be able to send some emails today.
From F&F65, thank you all for your prayers and for your love!
Grace and Peace
- James

finally... internet...

Well, it’s now 12:11am on the 4th in London right now... but we’re not in London anymore. Currently we’re halfway to Ethiopia from England where we will have a short layover and then continue to Rwanda. Roughly, it has been 24 hours since we have left Calgary and a good number of us are tired...
Lol, for the few who have never really gone flying before, I decided to see what they thought about this ‘flying’ stuff. They seem to share my opinion. Fun.... but wow... it’s a lot of sitting.
I and I think a continually higher number of the team are getting really excited about going to Rwanda. There’s a lot that we aren’t sure what to expect. Things like ‘rainy season’ come to mind. And being that I’ve never been in Africa ever before, it’s a completely new experience for me.
I am sure though that is where God would have us be right now. After the letdown of the Mumbai thing not working out, I wondered what God might do, and I certainly didn’t expect Rwanda. But I’m very excited though. Rhys, who was on my team for the last two years, spent the last bit of time on VTI in the same location as we are flying towards right now. He really was excited to see what God is doing there and what He did through the members of Rhys’ team. I am looking forward to the same.
As far as I understand, a very large part of our diet there is going to consist of rice and beans. Lol, I remember having similar meals in Costa Rica. It was kind of a staple meal.
Now, before I forget, on the way we have been running into different people associated with Rwanda. For example, the first flight Karina and i were on , we met a Christian brother who works with a sort of humanitarian aid organization in Africa, and as such has spent a considerable amount of time in Rwanda and many other countries. He was very excited about our going there and wanted us to know that we would really love the people there.
Then when we were in England, Joanna was visiting with an American guy who also does a lot of work with humanitarian aid. He was travelling, at least at the time, with the Rwanda ambassador to the UN, and so he quickly whisked us over to meet him.
We had a great talk with them both, and when they found out that we do some music, this guy from the UN wanted to hear something. Rhys, just yesterday was teaching us some kinyarwandan songs and so we sang for him, ‘I will love the Lord with all my heart, soul, mind and strength.’
It was really cool, and I think it also encouraged all of our team, and helped to get some who were less than really excited to start realizing that this is going to be a great experience.

In any case, thank you for all your prayers, thoughts and for reading this. I’ll do my best to let you know what we are up to. I’m excited for what Jesus will do in not only the people we wish to serve,, but also in our very team. I love seeing God show us time and time and time again that He is worth trusting and He is the only one who in the end will never let us down.
With much love and greetings from everyone here in the stuffy plane,
James Witherow



We are now safely in Rwanda at the YWAM base. And nope, we didn’t lose any luggage... though I was quite worried for a while. I’ll fill you in more about what it’s like here soon. [and it is rainy season by the way]...

Wheee!


****

I'll send more news soon... almost another day has gone by. I'll post some pics too... But what I will say now is that we all slept good but some woke up a little confused.
Blair watched as Dillon was wrestling with his mosquito netting... He was trying to sleep while he was holding it up with his hand....
Dillon also tried shaving this morning with his toothpaste... The Rwandans probably think we're a little loopy.
Also... I found out very quickly that a hand drum, what I call a jembe (that's Swahilli)... in Kinyarwandan means a garden hoe. So I said I wanted to go into town a buy a jembe for our music... they just looked at me like I was from the moon and pointed out the window at a lady gardening... 'That's a jembe...' was all they said, and then we all had a good laugh.

Anyways, fare thee well for now!

Stubble Jumpers

Today I am wracked with bittersweet thoughts...

Our team is now on the road, and we're in the Vancouver area. We'll be heading to Saskatchewan tomorrow... yay for long road trips.

For the last 2 days we have been working with the UGM, Union Gospel Mission and doing programs and other stuff around there to encourage the staff and the homeless. It has been a really cool time of growing spiritually (especially... though we've all been growing sideways as well)...



The other day, the team was approached by a deaf lady on the street and nobody knew what to do with her... that was until Nathan walked up, tapped her on the shoulder and started to talk with her in sign language... :D That was a really great experience for the team. I actually wasn't there to see the event though. Karina and I were in the Indian Embassy place when the team met the deaf lady... we had to wait about 3 hours to get through the line up... It was a busy day.

We were also at a church youth group last night and were able to do a program for them. That was a fun experience too.

Today though was a lot harder on me.


We as a team had planned to have some time to relax and take in the Vancouver sights. We went to stanley park in the rain and the team went down to the ocean front. Karina and I were talking at the van for a couple minutes, then we locked up the van and caught up with our team. When we got back, one of the girls was missing her backpack of clothes and her cell phone. Karina was missing some loose change that was in her backpack under the seat and my laptop bag was gone. (laptop, portable hard-drive, cds, mouse, wallet... flash drives... everything was gone... including my folder of my own written songs)

*sigh*

That was about 6 hours ago...




I suppose when you're on the road a lot and your bag becomes your life, if it disappears... it's kind of the same feeling you'd have if your house washed away.

So, I guess this next while is going to be a lot of making lists of things I'm going to have to find all over again. I'm not really looking foward to that. Really though, there are two things that trouble me about all of this the most. It's losing a lot of the pictures that I probably don't have anywhere else... (perhaps of my honeymoon and being in Ontario with Grandpa before He passed away) I hope I have those somewhere...
and the other is the songs I've written...

I hope the same God who has inspired to date, will help me to write again... and maybe... maybe even a little better.



I know that God is in control... whatever comes will come because this life is temporary. I know that some day we will wake up and everything in this physical world that we have cherished will be gone. The only bit that is left will be what we have done for Christ, that is, what Jesus has done though us for His glory.

I pray that I won't let this theft make my heart cold for the homeless... there are a lot of people out there that are desperate for love.

a minor update...

Practice to Practice is where we’ve been at now here at VTI. We’re still in the Water Valley area. We’ve been trying to learn programs and get music together in general here so that we won’t look terrible when we go on the road. I’ve been sick for the last week and am still fighting off its remnants. It’s been tiring during this rush of information and trying to be creative on purpose is much harder than being ‘inspired’. In any case, it has been fun working with the team and I really enjoy working with them. It’s hard to keep track of 11 people besides myself. Heh. I’ve been listening to Christmas music already. I know, I know … it’s early… well… I like Christmas, and so it’s been refreshing to listen to some festive songs once in a while.

In any case, supper has now come and I am being whisked away to eat. I do like food.

Thank you all for your prayers... there have been many spiritual attacks already this year. I don't think the darkness is pleased we're going to India. I really hope that we'll be able to bring some light there especially. Pray that we will press on.

Sorry I haven't been writing much... I'll try to remedy that sometime soon and post up some fun pictures of our day off yesterday. We dressed up weird and went into town... :D

Lookin' for the Beary fat Bears!

Training camp is now in the ‘full swing’ of things. We were running around Calgary yesterday trying to find team outfits for this year (minus the ones that we will get in India). It’s been good being back on team. Very different… but good! I’ve been used to 5 other people on a team with me (team of 6) for the last 2 years, and with that, familiar people on my team. Now there’s new faces, new stories, and a team exactly double the size. There are 12 including myself. 8 girls, 4 guys. It makes great for the statistic books that say that for every guy on the mission field, there are 3 girls. I think that’s right anyways… lol… it’s been a while since I took the classes here.

This last bit has been particularly stretching for me because of the musical diversity here as far as experience goes. There are people here who could be teaching guitar or piano… or vocals… and there are some who don’t play anything and don’t sing anything. All of them want to learn and soak up as much as they can, lol. It’s tiring teaching stuff, but wow, it’s really worth it.
One of the guys that I’ve been teaching a lot of things to is Dillon from Montana. We met him both years that we went down to the States. He’s wanted to come on VTI for about 8 years and so for him to be here and wake up in Canada, learning about how to share his faith through the arts is a living dream come true. The kind of passion that radiates from him is catchy, and people like that make me really love doing what I’m doing.
In this next month and a half we’ll be learning some ‘canned’ program material and practicing all the facets therein. Drama, Music, Art, Speaking, Illusions, and good ol’ Children’s action songs! :D On that note, of learning stuff, I learned a new guitar strum! I’m not positive of the name of it, but it sounds pretty trippy. It’s like combining drums’ rhythm and strumming with it. Weird. Took a good 2 hours just to do it right. *sigh* I hope you all get to hear it sometime to actual Hindi words! :D
It’s strange trying to tell you everything that’s been going on because it doesn’t feel like we’ve done much…. But that’s just because we’ve been going so fast that I don’t remember much of what happened past a day or two ago. Time just keeps flying.
I’ve been trying to write some songs again a bit. While they’re learning some of things that us ‘experienced’ team members have already learned, I have a little free time. Time to write this, time to sing… time to practice… so much time that gets eaten up by all the things I should do… need to do… should have done… practical things… thoughtful things… *whew* lol… it’s true… there are never enough hours in the day.
We have had some chances to goof around and expend some energy doing creative games and activites. Luke (from the Artists in Residence program here at VTI) and myself just did a scavenger hunt a day or two ago. Lol… we got them to take pictures of their team doing all kinds of strange things. Lol… I’ll try to include a pic or two on the blog here… ^_^


For those just tuning in, or for those who have been following my adventures for a while, my email is still: encaitar777@yahoo.com You can get a hold of Karina or I through that pretty easy. Thank you all for your prayers and notes and visits and lol, thanks Grandma for remembering Karina’s birthday! That was a blast for her… oh, lol… and Mom too! For calling and singing in the morning and making sure to check up on Karina and Nathan and Myself and everything…  Feel free to call again sometime!

Please keep praying that God protects our team and helps us to grow. I think pretty much everyone here has a passion to see Jesus move through the people we meet… here, Canada, USA, India, the UK, wherever, I hope and pray that God will do something sweet.
It hasn’t been a field of velvet though… there have been struggles on team… Usually pertaining to self-esteem or lack of a specified talent…. It’s been pretty emotional at times, but the team is really supportive of everyone and best of all I haven’t heard any cutting down of anyone. Very little sarcasm and… it’s just a bunch of young adults passionate to see God move. Lol… they make me feel old sometimes! :D I want to keep that kind of passion with me. Pray that God will keep us Passionate for Himself and for us to be passionate to share about Him everyone we meet whether by word or deed.
In the meantime from here in the foothills, Grace and Peace
James

what for is the grass but for standing?

Well, we're sitting here right now in Budapest airport waiting for our flight. I think it's coming around sooner or later. Most likely in a while. I will have to put up an entry to mention some things about what has transpired while we've been here in CentralishandWestern Europe. Oh, for those wondering about my stomach problems and my ankle, i'm not entirely better, but I have definitely improved. Whee! lol, signs around Europe are crazy. If you're looking for an important road, there are often signs two or three streets before that for any of us looking for directions, we end up on entirely the wrong roads. We even got lost trying to find the airport... not for long mind you... And we arrived to find the airport basically empty...and once it filled to the brim we found out that our flight was 'lost' as well. Cancelled. However, we are on the 9:30 flight and this set back doesn't interfere with our connecting flight back to Canada... that's a huge... HUGE... blessing.

It's been a hard few weeks... Good few weeks... Hmm... here are some simple highlights.

The first few days we were at Pista's (Peeshta) we were able to help with some of their haying stuff out in the fields. That was sweet. They had a horse and cart... and horse flies LITERALLY an inch and a half long. A fleet of those could carry off a horse. On that note, i also that day saw the biggest flying bug I ever saw. It was longer than 2 inches and the hugarians described it to be as the 'Oh, the one that sounds like a helicopter?'.....it was big.

And I clubbed it with my hat... Never the less, it picked itself back up and flew away. I could still see it a hundred feet away.

Did I mention it was a big bug?



Ok, so getting away from the bug thing, we had the opportunity to go to some orphanages and churches and youth groups. It was fun. The kids loved the silly songs ... though the teens did too... And they loved balloons and music... It was really cool to hang out with these kids.

In Romania we went to the farthest Hungarian speaking villages. They had never even seen an evangelical Christian before. As such, in the one village especially we had a particularly unfriendly welcome... They wanted us to keep off their grass too... That's when Pista turn to us very confused...'What for is the grass but to stand on?!' It was pretty funny. Sorry if the humor is too removed from this situation. I suppose you'd have to hear him say it. Grand I tell you.

Anyways, about this lady with the unfriendly welcome. When we finally brought over some kids, we got down to business. We did games and balloons and ate chocolate... sang some songs. And suddenly our host lady changed. She stopped frowning and started to be excited and supportive of what we were doing. We weren't able to share the gospel there at that time, but we were able to build valuable bridges for the next time Evangelical Christians come to visit. I don't think they've ever met a foreigner... most of them anyways.

I know Jesus will visit them again.

A last quick note...
One night we needed to sleep outside on our trip around South Central Europe. As such we were looking for a building a bit out of the way with some roof in case it rained. We stayed that night in a ruined 150 year old ish Jewish Synagogue. The entrance was covered in Anti-Jewish/Christian slogans, sybmols etc. I have the distinct feeling that whoever did it though was pretty out of it. On one wall they had tried to spraypaint 666, but it ended up 665. Sad.
Point of all this?

We reclaimed it for Christ. Karina and some of the others prayed that night that Jesus would protect us there again where for many years had been worship of the same God that we worship. Then in the morning... (after a GOOD sleep I might add) Myself, Jeremy and Beth picked up some chalky stones and rid the Synagogue of the terrible graffiti.

Truth being rediscovered... Being reclaimed... It was a beautiful thing to see Jesus' name on that wall instead of Satan's.


This whole trip we have seen God at work. There has not been a day when we needed Him (even knowingly) helping us some way some how to get through the day... or find something... or to open our eyes to something that has always been there but that we just haven't been able to perceive.

To see God actively involved beyond anything I can or could ever do on my own was amazing. Awe Full.

Looking forward to hearing from you all... If you have questions, please write, and I'll try to answer as best I can.
Please pray for Pitti (Petey) and Pista as they're still travelling and Pitti's back really bothers him from time to time.

I'm almost home everyone! I hope to see many of you soon.

Oh... and Please, pray for my Dad's family...especially my Grandma. My Grandpa Witherow passed away the same day I became an Uncle. And if Grandma is reading this, I love you very much, and it's going to be terrible landing in Toronto and not being able to see you again yet. I love you and Grandpa, and I'm praying for you. Jesus will be with you as surely as he has been here to protect me on this trip...

*And despite all this driving (over 4000kms...I'll find out for sure how many later), I STILL haven't had any back trouble... despite other sickness... lack of sleep... sitting too long... sleeping sitting... tenting climbing and walking...

Man is He faithful or what?!

He's worth trusting. :)

Modern Times!

Well, just a few days ago we arrived back from Montana. We spent almost a week at a camp and then we spent another…almost a week at a Day Vacation Bible School. For the camp part we had the privilege of staying with the Carolls and with the family that Janelle and Coralie stayed with last year, Tom and Anne. It was a great time there. At camp, there wasn’t many people who showed up, but I knew a good number of them and because there weren’t many of us we were able to have everyone hanging out a lot of the time.

The weird thing was that, even though it was June, they had been having a lot of rain. Then when we started up the camp, it snowed. Not just the little wimpy snow either. It was that fat, wet, thick snow. We got near 6 inches in total. As such, we were freezing often in the Hall where we had been meeting for chapels. It was a long log cabin with holes through it here and there. One thing I liked about it was a big fireplace in the side of the hall. While we were all standing around the fireplace trying to stay warm, Dave Caroll (camp director guy) lamented the fact that most of the heat was actually going up the chimney. Not missing a beat, Dylan (who I might add has been VTI’s biggest fan for years) spoke up, “Let’s block up the chimney!!” It was a lot of fun being at camp. While it was snowing the rest of the week we eventually moved everything into the dining hall. We did EVERYTHING in there. Chapel, eating, board games, music, talking, movies, cup stackers… It was great. I even learned how to play Axis & Allies (it’s a WW2 board game that’s pretty complicated) while I was there.



After camp, and right before we left Tom and Anne’s, Tom and Dave took, Rhys, Karina, and myself out to some random road with a small valley between us and the next hillside. He brought with us a 30odd6 and a gun that was a little less powerful. In any case, we had fun trying to shoot some rocks. Being that I had never shot anything bigger than a pellet gun, it was a pretty big shock. We had a great time though and it was an experience that I will probably never have up here in Canada.
After that we went to Ulm, Montana. It’s a really small town about an hour and a half south of the border near Great Falls. Last year, Ulm was our first stop in the USA. It was nice ending there and again seeing some old faces. We even met another few kids from camp last year. I realized around then how tired I really was. When I sleep now, I can sleep a lot longer and soak it up like a sponge. As such, this week I’ve really tried to get a little more sleep this week because GAP teams are coming up very soon. Karina and I were briefed a little on our trip that’s coming up and I know it’s going to be a stretching experience. I thought we had to be flexible in Russia! It’s going to be a whole new experience… In fact, I don’t think VTI has ever sent a team there yet, so we’re going to be treading on fresh turf. Actually, Rhys and Janelle will be too, they’re going to Rwanda and I don’t know if VTI has ever sent a team there either.


So, what this all means is that in the next while Karina and myself will be closely watching some videos that Mark brought back of how to pronounce the words of certain songs and say certain phrases. We have to see if we can learn how to say these things to some extent so that we can teach the kids who are coming in less than a week. It’s pretty crazy stuff!


And that brings us to now I think. I’m in the van again driving towards Calgary to practice more Hungarian. I feel for Rhys and Janelle even more… they have to learn some French AND Kinyarwanda… that will be stretching for them I’m sure too.
Please be praying that we will do our best as we get ready for GAP teams and that God will not only be stretching and showing new things to us and to the kids, but that God would really do some awesome stuff in the lives of the people we’ll be with overseas… and the many orphans we’ll be with while we’re in the Hungary area.


Grace and Peace to you all! Fare thee well.

To leave again...

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

BC... Wales.... What's the Difference?

It’s been a long couple weeks. We’re on the road again and it feels like we’re ‘finally’ going home. We spent this last while in Abbotsford and Vancouver primarily. I’m afraid that even though we missed the snow that came down in Calgary (28cms), we did leave some snow there before we left. Actually it was a really funny thing. Karina and I were invited by our hosts to go and see the view from the top of Burnaby Mountain. We got to the top and everything was covered in snow… it was snowing and you couldn’t see any of the amazing view they kept mentioning. It ended up going something like, “Right in front of you there is Vancouver Island, most of the Burnaby area… the river over there… and you can usually see for miles. Um… Yes… Usually!” It was a great tour. Karina and I thought we’d enjoy the trip up the mountain by rolling down the big hill there a few times. Me in my flipflops rolling down a snowy hill. It was quite the sight I’m sure.
I really enjoyed our time here ministry wise. We spent a good deal of time with Union Gospel Mission. At UGM we worked at sorting clothes, simple maintenance, doing programs as well as praying and visiting with people. It was a really cool experience. I’ve never been down to the Vancouver area here…
1) Daffodils everywhere (the yellow ones)
2) Some areas of road have traffic seemingly on the ‘different’ side of the road due to the parallel roads
3) More roundabouts than many of the Canadian cities I’ve visited
4) Only place I’ve had Potato and Leek soup
5) UK and BC are the only place we’ve hooked up our sound system and had radio start coming through the speaker system…
6) The abundance of Tetley’s tea and the number of tea drinkers
7) We stayed with Rhys’ Grandparents… who are in fact Welsh… that just made it all the more Welsh
8) Being tired all the time
9) The climate… Green and Oceany… O.o
10) Welsh cakes (they’re basically tea biscuits)
11) The Fraser river and the bridge reminded me of the Rhine River that separates England and Wales
12) The one time we put on the Weather channel there was a British lady doing the news
13) The massive amount of religions and immigrants
British…Columbia… trippy.

Anyways, it was really great to see God working wherever we looked. At UGM we were there to see a lady who has been bitter and angry for a very long time come to Christ! The most amazing work that happened though was on our very own team. The short of it was that one of our team members was frustrated with a lot of little things and let it build up until they were so bitter they were ready to leave the team. This person even said they were going to leave. But God started working, and in the midst of our brokenness Jesus began to heal our team. We are again united strong and excited to still be doing His work. Pray that God continues to unite us.

We are now headed back to the training centre for a couple weeks before we head down to Nebraska. That’ll hopefully give us some time to brush up on our Spanish songs. In any case, thank you to all who have been praying for us. We’ve needed them more than you know. Especially since the end of the year is now coming into sight (though it’s still a ways off) and the stresses of deciding our futures are beginning to mount.


***April 19thish***


** As an update, I am now at the training centre with a bunch of mission reps and bible school reps. We're having a good time hearing stories and praying and whatnot. Please pray for Karina and myself as we are trying to stay focused, refresh ourselves spiritually and physically while at the same time asking God for where He will lead us in this next while. Please pray for our direction and for us to wait for His leading.

The epic of Costa Rica

The epic of Costa Rica

March 18, 2008
1:33am
We’re awake because of the Mission Heights team who came into the training centre (it’s a really large team, so I’m not surprised) and our own adrenaline. Who in their right minds would be up this early? My stomach’s a bit upset so I’m probably not going to eat. I’m excited though. We’re leaving VTI’s training centre at 2:15am. See you on the plane. I’m going to be a mad house.
12:20pm(1:20pm Texas time)
So, we’re in Wichita Falls. TX while we wait for the tornados to clear out of Dallas area. They’re ordering pizza for all of us as we sit here on the tarmac. We’re not really sure how this is all going to work, but we’re all enjoying the hospitality and visiting. I wish my guitar was out. It’s cool to see God working.
3:25pm(TX time)
We had some Domino’s pizza, a prayer time, and it looked like we were just about to leave and then another system has moved in. It sounds like our flight for now is cancelled, but I think we’ll still be going. Food was good to this plane. And to me for that matter!
4:35pm
We’re leaving…Bu the way, an hour ago we had some Dr. Pepper Coke. That was a blast. Here we go to Dallas! (Coke is the word for pop down here…. Coke coke, Dr. Pepper Coke, Pepsi Coke… it’s weird)
6:30pm
We are stranded in the airport. We arrived at 5:30pm and though I’m not allowed to say to the others yet, we may stranded here for up until Friday. Don’t tell anyone. Never know when God might do something crazy. This is all very exciting.
March 19
7:50am
Apparently last night Nathan Hill said to his Dad Tim, or vice versa, “I’d rather trust a blindfolded monkey with a straight razor.” We all slept ish. A few minutes here and there. People were stealing our cots last night, but on the plus side we were able to get some blankets from the airline to keep a little warmer. They make good capes. I forgot! At around 6ish this guy drove by saying “…’scuse the cart! ‘Scuse the cart please.” Joel mentioned such wonders to me, but now I have seen with my own eyes and heard with my own ears.
11:35am
Karina and I were going to be leaving to go to our gate 33 to go to Miami to get to Costa Rica with mostly everyone but our own team! Now I hear they’ve tried to reshuffle it into teams. If so, Karina and I probably won’t be going anywhere. And Karina needed some NyQuill so I’ve got less money now in American. *sigh* Tough I’m still optimistic, it’s getting harder and harder. My Debt card won’t work here by the way…
1:30pm
Off to eat a hamburger… I’ve been reading and visiting all morning. I’m not sure how long we’ll be here for. The other team is about to leave now.
1:35pm
Karina and I are just about to leave for Miami! You see how things change? Unfortunately our team is still stranded. On the upside, we’re in a Boeing 777! I’ve always wanted to fly in one. Anyways, I’m praying that God will get our team out safely and soon so that we can be with them.
1:39pm
Never mind…. My team all just walked on in! Weird! God Rocks! This is so weird. AJ’s team, Mission Heights might not all get on, but to have this many already is incredible!
7:45pm
Ok, so we got to Miami, and we had little time between flights. Mark didn’t know that our entire team didn’t have tickets for Costa Rica yet. As such, mass panic nearly ensued. Mark went off to do something and I suddenly became the leader. Crazy. This always seems to happen to me in airports… Oi…. So, we were trying to figure out why we had confirmed tickets for Costa for the guys on Mission Heights who hadn’t come yet… We really messed up the counter guy…well, technically the airline did. He was pretty stressed anyways. So Karina and I again are on the plane for a 3hr flight and we are hopefully going to Costa Rica. One day late, but it feels like many more.
10:25pm (Costa Rica time)
We arrived in Costa Rica safe and sound. Met a Canadian guy out of the airport who works here. His name is Jeremy.
March 20
At 7:45 this morning a Spanish lady came into the boys’ cabin and started greeting us in Spanish as she came and got some cutlery and then took off. That was surprising! We had some fruit and cereal for breakfast which the smell triggered memories from mornings in China for me.
We’re having our orientation right away and then this afternoon we’re going to pick up our luggage and other left behinders.
10:00pm
Ben, Pastor Tim and a few of the girls on our team got here around 7ish. It’s great to have the whole team together again. We had a time to sing and talk and pray tonight at 9:30. It felt interesting though. Like something is out of place. And though I’d like to think it’s in other people, I want to hope it’s me instead. I need God to give me the ability to work here. I cannot do it on my own. Guitar included.
March 21
In a nutshell, we did ‘team building games’ after breakfast this morning. It was pretty strenuous, but it was really fun! Then just before we played soccer I was hanging out with Tayler and Adam and then Tayler jumped off this stump and I heard a ‘pop’ sound and then he was in a lot of pain and couldn’t walk. Jeremy brought over the little tractor with trailer as a couple of the adults on our team were examining him. He had to sit around in the dining hall area for a few hours while we waited for someone to come with a vehicle to come pick him up to take him to the hospital. What’s funny is the day before they told us about this kid, last year or the year before, was fooling around on Good Friday and split his head open jumping in the river. Good Friday in a very Catholic nation means that there probably won’t be many doctors around. Anyways, everything worked out perfect for this kid in years past, and then we realized… it was good Friday today!!! I went with Tayler and his mom Leahn to the hospital sitting on the wheel well in the back of a jeep for the 2 hour ride there. Long story short, Tayler did in fact break his leg. The whole situation though was really funny. Tayler does crazy things and has never broke anything, until he jumped off a small stump in Costa Rica… lol… Oi.
March 22
3:40pm
Today was a work day. We got up early today to see off the Mission Heights Team. One girl got a piece of bread covered in jam, stuck to her face. Some of the leaders I tell you…. O.o
All morning I was chopping brush on a trail with a machete, and all afternoon (after a spaghetti lunch) we scraped rust off a rook and tried to get cleaned up before this evening. I’m not sure yet what to expect.
March 23
9:34pm
Last night was great. We went to a youth group and sang some and did an artsy activity. We had to make posters about Integrity, Strength, Faith, Courage and I think Obedience too. Anyways, it was fun. Unfortunately Karina’s ankle started acting up because of our 3-5 km walk (it was mostly uphill). So going back, Rhys and I stood on either side and helped her all the way back.
Today was interesting. It was Sunday and we were supposed to all wear nice clothes. I had my dress pants and a white dress shirt with long sleeves. We had breakfast at 7ish and then we packed up everything we needed and then got onto the bus. Karina had sent me back for her wallet, and while I was looking, I found our second IPod. I didn’t think we needed it for this particular program, so I left. I got to the bus and we started out, and that’s when I asked about if we needed the other iPod. Turns out we did need it. Only Karina and myself knew where it was, and because of her ankle, I went off running. About that moment Karina prayed that wouldn’t hurt myself. Joel at that same moment turned and simply said, “He fell…I mean uh… he stumbled… no…. no, he fell.” I had indeed. I was running downhill through dips and one jus didn’t go right for me and the ground started going faster than my legs. I hit hard, but I was pretty good for it. I missed the gravel, but when I returned my shirt was all dirty. I brought an extra shirt. All I had to choose from was my ‘You are what you eat’ China shirt and my ‘Skillet’ (they’re a band I like) shirt. I went for Skillet.
We got to the church and we rushed around getting set up for our first program. It went pretty good, though there were still a lot of bumps and quirks along the way. Crackling mikes and translating certain words and some intermediate stage presence, but otherwise it was all good. I enjoyed it…and I can be pretty critical… :)
Their music, before we went up, was led by a 17yr old guy named Kevin. He had fluffy curly hair that bounced when he danced and sang. The people down here don’t stand very still! They love to praise God with their whole being. Body and all!
At the end of the service, they gave an altar call. One of our guys went forward to rededicate his life to Christ and a girl from our team that we had been praying for went up to become a follower of Christ!!! On top of that a couple people from the church went forward. It was awesome! I made friends with the Associate Pastor Nelson. He gave up having his own clinic and a scholarship to Spain for the ministry. That was cool to hear a bit about his life. Plus, after the program, while they were bringing out some food, Kevin had seen my Skillet shirt and he had some of their music on the computer, so we listed to some together. As I was talking to him, he was all excited that I had a Skillet shirt. Turns out they’re one of his favorite bands too! He wished he be able to find one someday. I thought about for a second…. “Would you like it?” I asked him. “Serious?” He was plainly excited. “Yeah!” I replied and I started to take it off. (don’t worry… I had an undershirt on….) and then he said that we could just switch! Ergo, I have now a fancy dress shirt from Costa Rica, and he now has a genuine Skillet shirt! :D
We came back to the camp afterwards and relaxed. I chatted with Tayler for a while before we went to eat. After supper we all stared a bit about the day and things we discovered. It was all really great. Then Barney asked me to lead a time of singing. We must have sang about 15 songs. At least 10 anyways. There was crying and laughing and praying. It was good. And now, just about 15mins ago I found out that another girl on our team gave her life to Christ. (she’s still kind of nervous and shy about the whole thing though….) The ladies are going to be doing some discipling tomorrow. That should be great fun! It’s so exciting to see God working! And my hand hurts from writing all of this in one night. Good night. The girls are screaming because of the moths.
March 24
8:50pm
Early this morning at around 3 or 4 in the morning, Karina and I were awakened by a strange animal noise. WHOOEEOOO!!! A sort of high pitched whistle… but less airy… the same way a guinea pig can sound. Anyways, it kept us up for a while and we never found out what animal makes that sound in the first place….My guess is maybe an armadillo. There are the occasional ones around here, though I’ve not seen one yet. I don’t know what they sound like, so I think it’s possible….Another theory is that it’s some kind of nocturnal bird. But I don’t know of many birds that can make grunting ish noises. Oh well…
I woke up this morning completely wiped. I had so little energy. I would walk to wherever, sit down and almost pass out from exhaustion. It was as if someone threw some heavy blankets on top of my head and I just put my head down because I became so tired. I was exhausted like that all morning and after lunch I took some time off from our painting/scraping to rest. I fell a bit better this evening, though it’s like my body can’t retain water. Very weird. Turns out I’m not alone either. Leahn for example has very similar symptoms. This evening she’s been like how I was this morning. Well, we’re gonna paint more tomorrow and then maybe do some program stuff in the evening. We’ll see.
March 25

As promised, we spent most of today painting. I’ve been feeling a bit better. We did a program at a boy’s home a little ways into town. They were really shy of the girls. It impressed me how much they wanted to serve us. A boy with a Harley Bike shirt came up right after the program and gave me some pop. That was cool. Ben did a great job tonight helping me and doing his testimony. It was really great to see him stepping out of his comfort zone so willingly. I’ve been learning some phrases here:
Pura Vida = that’s life (very Costa Rican phrase)
Mucho Gusto = (Big) With Pleasure! (it’s like you’re VERY welcome!)
Mucho Gracias = Big Thanks!
On a side note, I’ve been experimenting with making redundant phrases… things like very much good thank you…. It’s fun. :P
March 27
11:00am
Yesterday we went to the slum area in San Jose known as Carpio. They tried to excessively scare us, therefore only two digital camera went. It was nowhere near that scary. (though 6 gangs operate there… one for each bus stop) Never the less, it was sad, smelly and hot.
I was in a group that was painting gazebos with burnt oil/diesel. That stuff is potent… smalls bad in the heat too. Karina was painting in the unventilated Boy’s washroom and Rhys was digging out a trench for the rainy season (6 months long). Then we had lunch there, came back and were able to relax a bit in the afternoon and evening.
Last night however was the funniest! Leahn was freaking out about moths. It was really windy and there were people somewhere outside trying to scare us on top of it. Therefore Leahn was very jumpy. Screaming and flailing was commonplace during our game of cards. I have never seen moths dive-bomb anyone, but these 2 moths that got in both had a go at it. She threw the cards she was shuffling the one time too. It was grand. Oh, and Kelsey thought it was a conspiracy…me and the guys trying to make sure they’d have trouble sleeping... Twi was having too much fun last night too and helped freak the girls out.
Today, we got up and started painting again, and an hour before we were to finish, two fully loaded city buses full of kids showed up. I recall Cheryl saying “No…no…no…noooo!”
Therefore we are now killing off an hour before lunch with Aces to Kings (it’s a card game). We’re doing a program shortly into this afternoon and Rhys’ team is doing one in the evening.
10:30pm
We enjoyed the program. It was a long service however. I remember the one thing I didn’t like so much is that the music was too shrill and too loud. Even some of the Costa Ricans were trying to get the sound man’s attention. Other than that though, it was a great evening. We’re all every tired now and I’m still a wee bit sick.
I saw my first Cockroach in Costa Rica today. It was in Jesse’s pants. So she went screaming to find someone to find it. We found it about when we figured she imagined the whole thing. So then when it fell out we all freaked out. It was crazy fun… Buenos Noches! (Good night)
March 28
10:18pm
It’s been a long day, so here are the highlights:
- People are getting tired/sick (even if they don’t know it)
- We went to the orphans up the hill. We made some new friends there, friends such as Paul.
- Painted some of a metal roof on a shed
- Hard day for Karina… lots of things went sour for her today… I did my best to help. She doesn’t like being injured…
March 29
11ish
Today I had a great time hanging out with Tayler. He taught me some card games and a bit on guitar and I taught him some in return. That was really great! I’ve been enjoying learning new stuff on guitar now… It’s like it’s suddenly become much easier and I can learn new things again!
We went to the church late this afternoon and we hadn’t had supper. We got supper around 10:30..oi…our team was tired. While we were there we had some time to hang with the youth and play soccer. They schooled us. Bad. Anyways, one thing that was really hard tonight was that the other teams came back. And now we’re not really the ‘leaders’ anymore… And some of those in charge have had differing views on some things. That has now built up some tension and it’s bringing about some unrest with our crew. I hope it all works out tomorrow… We’re supposed to do a church service with 70 of us up there on stage… EEEK!
March 30
Sunday 11:20pm
Our last day here in Costa Rica is tomorrow. We’re going to the beach! I hope it doesn’t remain. It was a long day today. Our team did the early morning service and then we were supposed to watch/participate with Rhys’ team. The service today had dancers in front of the stage. That was different. Karina just kicked a wooden ladder with her ankle by accident. I don’t know how she does it, but she’s had a hard time trying not to hurt herself. We had a stressful morning trying to get our drama up and running. Three people in it were either delayed or sick or both, so we had to improvise new people into the drama. It worked out. Then Rhys was supposed to be doing a kids program. Only problem was, Rhys never showed up. Apparently Rhys had gone to try to get something from Camp Roblealto. In the process, He accidently hitched a ride to the top of a mountain instead. Thus he missed his program. Tonight and this afternoon we had a lot of sharing and singing and prayer. It was good. Wow… I’m tired. Rhys is funny. So is Estevan… the guy who took Rhys up the mountain.
March 31
Beach day. That was nice. I loved the waves and the sun we did get. I lost Karina’s bandana when I got decked by one of the waves. Never the less it was really fun. In the evening we went to an overpriced souvenir shop. Then we packed until midnight. Good morning.
April 1st
9:05am
- got up this morn at 5:30 and went to the airport…. That was way too early…
- said goodbye to Estevan and Arthur… they were fun this last couple weeks.
- in the airport we got to listen to this guy who was playing some Spanish guitar and some familiar tunes… ones from fiddler on the roof and things like that…. ‘What a Wonderful World…’ hehe
- got onto the plane when an announcement came on about if our ticket read 2166 to Dallas we were on the wrong flight and we were headed for Toronto…. Everything went dead quiet. “April Fools! Haha ha ha ha…” Crazy people make me laugh sometimes… hehe
April 6, 2008
11:12pm
It’s been a few days since we made it back… Yes, we did make it through the airports… :P
Karina and I were able to have some fun with our team before we left to meet up with our Encore teammates. Since then we met up, cleaned and packed, and we’ve done a couple times of playing music at churches. Tonight we just finished up a week of a mission type conference they’ve had going on… It was fun. The team is all pretty tired… However, we’re trusting God to renew us and get us psyched up about being back and having the chance to communicate in our own language again.
It’s nice to back on the road… And wouldn’t you know it… We played a Spanish song tonight…. Ha ha… :P

¿How do you say faster in Spanish?

Last year on VTI it could be compared to a marathon, learning to pace yourself and it's really long. This last weekend, and the recent getting ready for Costa Rica has been what the staff have dubbed 'a sprint'. As such, it's been busy. This weekend we had over 70 people. That's about 60 more than I'm used to here at the Training Centre. But although it was really busy, it was a really good time. We learned until our minds wanted to leave on vacation, and made sure to eat enough to survive the day. It was good. I really enjoyed hanging out with the team that Karina and myself will be traveling with. They're fun. :D



Oh, and I shaved most of my hair off... Karina mourned the loss of my hair for a while...

And the skies have been beautiful around here.


So, most of the team is chillin out here at the Training Centre and we're going through 'empty nest syndrome' almost... 70+ to 4 is a bit a shock. O.o

We're getting in a bit of rest and relaxation today and then for the next week we'll be swinging by differing places in the Calgary/Three Hills areas. It'll be good. I hope you are all having a good one. Feel free to drop me a line!


Grace and Peace
J

**PS... you'll notice a black box you can click on just above this... It's a picture of the night sky out here I took. It looks pretty good when you open it up bigger. :P

only if...

Snap your closed eyes open
much more happens than you know
and the world is calling for a savior
They cry out for one you know

I’ve been challenged a lot lately as to the direction of my life. I suppose it’s not much of a change from the norm. We all struggle and fight to find our place. ‘The bane of our existence’ as some would put it, is trying to find our ‘voice’. I know I personally don’t just want to blend into the rat race of this world, but I would do so as to be the one who is in, but not of in order that some may be saved.
I’ve realized that one of the reasons I probably find it so hard to figure out what in the world I am doing, is simply because I spend more time thinking about it rather than praying. We all underestimate the power of prayer too much. As a simple tangible example, I wanted to tell you about my electric razor. Karina had borrowed it the other day when we were in Brandon MB. She remembered giving it back, and I was sure she hadn’t. Therefore we checked all our bags. We went through everything. I found the power cord, but the razor my dad had bought for me was gone. It was annoying and inconvenient but not the end of the world. We prayed about it, and we figured it might be in the van. Maybe it would show up. That kind of thing.
Then out of the blue one morning we woke up and we had been in Calgary a few days, Karina opened up her computer bag (which she frequently uses) and the razor was sitting on top. I have no idea how it ended up there. Neither of us do to this day. That is other than God put it there. My only guess is that as much as He is involved in the big things in our lives, he is also intimately involved in the small things of our life.
As I’m getting ready for the Costa Rica spring break teams and learning some Spanish songs, I’m realizing that I need to be concerned with the little things. The things that only God sees. The things I do when nobody is around… the things that I don’t get the credit for… the little things.
I only wish it were easier to put into practice; these ‘live life with meaning’ kinds of things.

on a side note, here are two really good quotes.

"play the silence." - Jacob @ Briercrest (I asked him for guitar advice)

"All that is required for evil to prevail is for good men to do nothing" - Edmund Burke 1729-1797

Previews tend to delete things...

The date is January 10, 2008. It’s been a month of change and travel, of stress and bliss, snow and sun. I write this as I wait for Karina to return from Starbucks. Lol, she has a grudge against Tim Hortons… lol, yeah our last place wasn’t that great. :S
Well, for those who have been wondering about what has been going on, I got married and had a honeymoon in Saskatchewan and Ontario. Karina’s beautiful by the way. Coffee’s back! :D
Well, I was in Calgary with my team trying to finish up our CD EP of VTI experiences around the second week of December, and right after that we headed back to Prince Albert to try and get our last minute planning all done up. Well, again, Karina and I had no idea how we’d get back home. Then again, a few days before, I was able to get a hold of the same James who gave us the ride out here at the start of the Encore year back in August. He was a dear. We were so grateful! :D So, we stayed a day at Rhys’ place again, and then James picked us up at 5 in the morning, and we were back home by 2 in the afternoon! Whee. Alright, so then the planning extras began. Flowergirls to honeymoon plans, we began to get stuff ready… well… we tried. Right when we got back we had to get ready for another wedding. Karina’s brother and his fiancée got married the day after we were back home!

It was very nice, but suprising! Lol. Anyways, although our brains were a little scattered, we did eventually get on track and thanks to our parents, things all worked out great! They even had some fun with it in the end. Everything went perfect for the wedding. The weather, the church, Karina’s hair, the getaway car, it all went great! It snowed in the morning, then it got sunny for the actual wedding and then when we left inbetween the ceremony and the reception for pictures, the sunshine became a bit hazy… which is beautiful for outdoor pictures! The wedding ceremony was great! Special thanks to Mike, Rick, Kyle, Bryce, Dielle, Mark, Cheryl, and Jeremy for helping everything sound great with your expertise and musical talents! Another huge thanks to Pastor Howard and Pastor Wilf for the encouragement before our wedding and then all the work you put into the actual ceremony! Thanks so much to Brent, Nathan, and my own dear brother Luke for all the video work! The DVD turned out great! Thanks! And lastly, but not leastly, thanks so much to all of you who came, didn’t come but wanted to, those who wrote, called, visited, and other wise sent other forms of congratulations via other forms of communication. (ie. Smiling, or not pranking me…) And on the pranking note, I know where you live, Jamie…Wade… and I will find you. And your conspirators! O.o
Well, we spent a few days in PA before we went anywhere. We spent our time at a secret location as well as visiting family, skating (which Karina enjoyed very much), and eating. Goodness, it’s like I’ve been eating forever. :) As I told my Aunt Debbie the other day, ‘the food paradox is when you are too full to eat without dying…but the food in front of you is so good. Whether to live to eat another day, or to die happy…’

So, we chilled out in PA, then we went to Saskatoon and went to visit my Dad’s family in southern Ontario, courtesy of my parents. They rock by the way! :D
So, we got down to Toronto around midnight. However, there was a few delays after we had landed and then we also had some trouble with the baggage. In the baggage pickup area, there were about a couple hundred people, but there was 4 or 6 times that amount of luggage there. We figure from other flights people got tired of waiting and so they left. Therefore huge piles of luggage were left. So, we eventually did have our stuff show up, and we had no problem finding my Aunt Debbie and Uncle Bruce. That was good. We got to Mount Forest about 2:45am where we were pulled over by the cops. Aunt Debbie was driving at the time, and she had hesitated at an intersection when she was uncertain what another driver was going to do. As such, we were pulled over. He came to the window and asked for her drivers and registration… she was already digging into her bag and promptly handed him her debt card… lol. We bugged her until we left about it. Hehehe. Sorry Auntie! It’s just so funny! :)


Mount Forest was great! We stayed with Uncle Bruce and Aunt Debbie and we visited Uncle Barry and Aunt Joanne, Uncle Ian and Aunt Phyllis as well as my cousin Troy and his band, Uncle Gary and Auntie Gwynne Smith, my Uncle Bob and Aunt Nan, Aunt Shirley, as well as my Grandparents Elmer & Yvonne. I suppose I also visited my cousin David there too… though it was over the phone. :P As we were visiting many people, we kept fairly busy. However, we had a lot of fun.

The first day there I was able to bring Grandpa and Grandma to Uncle Bruce’s place, after Karina got a tour there. She really enjoyed that, and it was a breath of fresh air to see Grandpa getting around being able to show off his new toy tractor colletion. It just keeps growing! I sang some songs for them at Bruce’s home, and we were able to share supper together. It was really great! The next day we went to Durham. When I got there I found out that Troy was out with his band practicing. (some of them had come from Hamilton which is a pretty long drive for that area) However, we were invited to and visit them there. So, with Uncle Ian leading the way, we went off to the edge of town to a workshop of sorts. So amongst powertools and sawdust, Troy, Stuart, Aaron, Jimmy, and Kyle were jamming away trying to figuring out new songs that Troy had written. I was actually quite shocked by how good they sounded. Their band is called the Land of Caanan. Give them a listen at www.landofcaanan.ca! Troy does the singing. Anyways, we had some hot chocolate there, courtesy of Aaron and we enjoyed listening to them and sharing some songs with them too. After that we went back to Ian’s and visited until supper. Troy and his girlfriend Stephanie joined us, and we enjoyed Chicken Fajitas! :D Yum. Right after that, Barry and Joanne came by and visited with us too. Haha, I was pretty well talked and listened out. Whew… but what a great day. Did I mention to check out land of caanan? :D


We had other times to visit and catch up with Gary and Gwynne, as well as Grandpa and Grandma. Gary was mourning the loss of his large train set, but now has a smaller one and is beginning to expand that one as well.
Lol, when we went to visit Uncle Bob and Aunt Nan, I had directions to get there, and I had directions to get to Aunt Shirley’s … lol, I got them mixed up… I knew I had it wrong, but it didn’t really clue in for me. So it was kind of a shock when I realized that I had showed up on time at the wrong Aunt’s place. Haha… It all worked out in the end. I found out that Uncle Bob and Aunt Nan do more travelling then I had thought, and I found out that He’s Welsh! From Swansee. Now I have to go tell Rhys, from my team. I thought he was like the only Welsh guy I had ever met, other than his family that is. Apparently not. I found out they’ve also been to China at least a couple times. It was great to be able compare pictures… while eating Christmas cookies of course.



Everywhere else, it was catching up and seeing faces that seemed only familiar as if I had dreamed of them once upon a time. That’s a weird feeling. Oh yeah, we went to Church twice on Sunday. The First Baptist in the morning and in the evening to the Faith Baptist. In the morning we met up with Gary and Gwynne. We met a couple there that have done mission work in Russia, so we had fun greeting each other as such. Lol. I’m a bit rusty I think. In the evening, I shared a bit about VTI and what I’ve been up to the last few years. Then Karina and I played a song. But not, I might add, before Karina played piano for a couple of the hymns that evening that she had never been able to practice. She did amazing. Lol, the only consolation about me not being able to play the piano very well is that she can. :P I felt kind of bad at the end of the service because we had a number of people express that they would have loved to hear more of our singing. That was nice. :P And it gave me incentive to start working on more music and songs. That’s something I’d like to do this year while I’m touring and getting ready for next year.

Karina and I had a great time in Mount Forest and we both got haircuts a few hours before we left. Uncle Bruce and Aunt Debbie drove us to the edge of Toronto. There we were able to meet up with Jeff & Paula. Paula (Bruce and Debbie’s daughter) got married a few years back and I had seen Jeff just once. As such it was great to be able to visit with them and get to know them better. I really was glad to have been able to meet them. Yesterday, Karina and I went to the CN tower, the Royal Ontario Museum and basically just walked around a lot too. It was really fun! However, I don’t think most travelers on the subway felt the same as we did. I think we were only ones smiling. I think people don’t like to smile in big cities. :P Weird. I was glad Jeff and Paula smile… but they’re from small towns originally, so that seems to make sense to me. In the evening, they took us to the best Asian food restaurant I have ever been to. It’s called Spring Rolls. Wow. What a place. It’s one of those places that you wish that you could have brought several stomachs along. So…soo ….sooooo…goooood…. I highly recommend it, that is if you enjoy Asian food. If you don’t, then I recommend Burger King or something. :)
Well, that was just last night. This morning Karina and I braved buses, subways and security checks to arrive to where I have been sitting typing for the last couple hours. This trip was great. I was glad to see relatives as well as things like the CN tower… and being able to help Karina to overcome her fear to be able to get off the glass floor after I had pressured her to try standing on it. It’s over a thousand feet up on a pane of glass. Crazy. It’s scary… (Karina says: Even for you James…) Meh, it’s true.


It has been amazing to see how God has been provided so much and blessed, not just us, but the people around us. I am really looking forward in this next little while to see how He is going to lead and open our eyes to see so much more. I want to see people without hope find it. And really hope that God will use Karina and myself as tools to bring that hope to those who need to find it.
Thanks for your prayers!
Grace and Peace
James