Canadian Lutheran Chick

Zepheniah 3:17

2009-12-10T15:54:00.000-08:00

I was at a meeting this morning that filled me with sadness and even a little bit of despair. We were discussing one of the hot button issues in the church and near the end of the discussion talked about how maybe we aren't even talking anymore because we have come to the realization that we can no longer continue to agree to disagree and there will come a time when the church will split.
Part of me really thinks, let's get the split over with and move on to do what God is calling us to do at this time and in this place but this morning I was struck by a deep sense of sadness. A grief washed over me as I looked around the room and realised that if (or maybe when) we split that some of those in that room with me this morning would be on the other side of the split.
As I left the meeting I struggled with how I was called to be a person of faith and hope in the midst of turmoil and sadness. How do I continue to serve a church that I know will look radically different in the years to come? Will there be a place for me in this new church? How do I bring good news to God's people in the midst of it all?
This afternoon I returned to my sermon for Sunday. The traditional theme for this the third Sunday in advent is joy. A theme that I struggled with after this morning's meeting. So I turned to the texts to continue the wrestling match that through the work of the Spirit turns out a sermon. One of the texts for this Sunday is the end of the book of Zepheniah which includes one of my favourite verses Zepheniah 3:17
The Lord, your God, is in your midst,
a warrior who gives victory;
he will rejoice over you with gladness,
he will renew you* in his love;
he will exult over you with loud singing
As I researched for Sunday's sermon I came across this passage in the introduction to Zephaniah in my Lutheran Study Bible:
"Zephaniah makes a call for trust in God as the sole guarantor of faithfulness and security."
And so I am renewed in God's love for another day. I continue the journey knowing that God rejoices over me with gladness and that I serve a God in whom I can put my trust. For God is the sole guarantor of faithfulness and security.
I continue to journey crying out O Come O Come Emmanuel.

Last batch of ordination pics!

2009-05-16T10:43:00.000-07:00

More Ordination Pics!

2009-05-16T10:38:00.000-07:00

Top pic - Three pastors from OSLC, left - Rev. Ken Harris, right of me - Rev. Bob Shantz and far right - Rev. Tim Le Drew. The person to the left of me is Bishop Gerhard Preibisch.
Pic 2 - One of the beautiful cakes
Pic 3 - Three of my youth from OSLC who all participated in the service. The two on the outside came back from Ontario to be a part of the service.
Pic 4 - The laying on of hands, a very powerful moment!

Ordination!

2009-05-16T10:31:00.000-07:00

Well it has been a while since I blogged, I apologize for that! It has been a wonderful whirlwind of events. I have moved, been ordained, been installed, graduated and begun a new job! Here are some pics from my ordination with more pics from the other events to come!

You're Invited!

2009-04-14T09:38:00.000-07:00

Please join me in this important moment in my life as I am ordained as Pastor in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada.
I will be serving as Associate Pastor at Shepherd of the Valley Lutheran Church in Langley, BC. Here is the info about my ordination!

You are cordially invited
to the ordination of
Kristen Steele
Saturday May 2, 2009
2:00 pm
Our Saviour Lutheran Church
6340 No. 4 Road,
Richmond, BC
Phone (604) 270-0085
Reception to follow.
Clergy are invited to vest.
The liturgical colour is red.

She's here!

2009-03-23T11:26:00.000-07:00

Keela (beautiful in Gaelic) has arrived! My parents picked her up on Saturday in Portland and she has now joined our family. She is very cute and cuddly and has settled in very well, sleeping through the night right from the first night! We're enjoying her a lot!

What the heck is going on in your life Kristen?

2009-02-11T23:53:00.000-08:00

What a good question! One I've heard just a few times recently so I thought I'd update y'all here on my blog. I finished my coursework for my MDiv in December and packed up and moved back to BC. At the end of December I completed the last step in being approved for ordination by the powers that be pending the receipt of a call to a congregation. This required a written exam and a panel oral exam which I completed at the end of December.
Since then I have been in the call process with a congregation. On my mom's 60th birthday I received news that I had been chosen as primary candidate (only candidate) for an associate pastor position in Langley at Shepherd of the Valley Lutheran Church. It is still quite a process ahead before I have a letter of call in my hands. The call committee with present my name to the church council in a couple of weeks and ask the church council to take my name forward to the congregation to approve a call being issued to me.
So I am staying at my parents' house until that all takes place. I have been enjoying having some time off and reconnecting with friends.
I am now going to look for part time temporary work to fill some time and provide some income until the call is completed.
So all going well I will be ordained in April in Richmond in my home congregation. I will then find a place to rent in Langley and begin my ministry there.
I'm very excited about the journey I am on and have learned much more about trusting God!

New Addition!

2009-02-08T15:50:00.000-08:00

Sorry I haven't blogged lately! Here is a pic of the new addition my parents will be bringing into our family in March. Her name is Keela:

from "The word cadhla means beautiful and implies "a beauty that only poetry can capture."

Notes for Pictures from A Year in My Life

2009-01-09T20:50:00.000-08:00

Someone mentioned that I should tell people what the pictures are of or from in my Year in My Life slideshow. Here goes from the first picture:

1. My first and so far only time on a snowmobile (or snow machine depending on what part of the country you live in!). I got a chance to ride on one during the snow machine rally held in Pass Lake as a fundraiser for the youth's trip to Whitehorse.

2. Me in an igloo. During the kids' March break I joined a few families from Pass Lake out at the Sleeping Giant provincial park. They had had a group from the college's outdoor rec program out the week before and they had left these very cool igloos on the lake.

3. Snow golfing. One of the families in Pass Lake holds a snow golfing tournament each year on the lake in their backyard.

4. Kakabeka Falls. I took a trip out to Kakabeka falls just as they were beginning to thaw. These "Niagara of the north" are pretty spectacular!

5. Confirmation Day 2008 at Salem Lutheran Church in Pass Lake.

6. One of my best friends Lorraine and I at my sister's wedding shower a couple of days before my sister's wedding.

7. Me and two of my best friends Asith & Lorraine and I at my sister's wedding reception.

8. My "little" sis and I on her wedding day.

9. My dad and sis at her wedding reception. I love the expressions on their faces.

10. Me doing a reading at sis' wedding at Minoru Chapel.

11. My parents visited me in Pass Lake and we went on a sailboat ride on Lake Superior.

12. In August I traveled with 13 others (youth and a couple of adults) from Pass Lake & Thunder Bay to the national youth gathering of the ELCIC in Whitehorse. We flew to Edmonton and joined 13 busloads of youth and leaders to travel to Whitehorse. This is part of our Thunder Bay group at the beginning of the Alaska highway.

13. Our banner at the youth gathering.

14. My good-bye luncheon in Pass Lake. Inge on my left made the cross stitch door hanger with scenes from Pass Lake on it for my good-bye gift. Katie, on my right, decided she wanted to be in every picture with me that day.

15. My "new to me" little car all packed up at my house in Pass Lake ready to head to Saskatoon.

16. First week back in Saskatoon we went on an orientation week retreat north of Saskatoon. This is a beautiful scene just outside the retreat centre.

17. Scene from the garden at the Berry Barn just outside of Saskatoon.

18. Picture of the view on a hike up on the sunshine coast of BC that I went on while visiting a friend who had just moved up there. I was home during reading week in October.

19 & 20. Another picture from reading week trip home in October. These are both pics of my friend's little one Charlotte Rose. We took her to the pumpkin patch.

21. Halloween day saw me driving to Calgary to attend my friend Betty's ordination on November 2.

22. Chapel at LTS, a place of meaningful worship services for me during all the crazy times I spent in Saskatoon.

23. Anglican friends also from BC at the LTS Christmas party.

4 & 4

2008-12-18T20:42:00.000-08:00

Saw this on someone's blog, thought it was a good idea and although I wasn't tagged I decided to do it anyways! You're supposed to open the fourth picture folder and post the fourth picture and then explain it. So this picture is from the LTS chapel, Barbara is setting for a service at the paschal retreat this fall.

Of course in the spirit of this game I'm supposed to tag 4 people, I tag Mick, Demara, Allyson and Nicole!

A Year in My Life Slideshow

2008-12-13T23:57:00.001-08:00

Christmas Letter 2008

2008-12-13T23:18:00.000-08:00

I’ve always meant to send a Christmas letter but never got around to it. Since so much has gone on in my life this past year and there is so much to come I thought it would be best to send one this year to catch everyone up at once. In the past twelve months I have lived in three provinces.

From January until August I completed the last two thirds of my twelve month internship at Salem Lutheran Church in Pass Lake, Ontario, 45 minutes north east of Thunder Bay (down the road from the Sleeping Giant!). I enjoyed my time there and had a variety of new experiences including living in the country, snowmobiling, living in a house completely alone, preaching on a regular basis and leading services at the church each week. One of the many things I learned was how to do genealogy. I continue to enjoy being a detective and piecing together parts of my family’s past.

I thoroughly enjoyed my time there and think about the wonderful people I met and adventures I had there on a regular basis. Pass Lake, and especially its people, will always hold a special place in my heart.

While on internship I had a number of opportunities to travel. In February I returned to Saskatoon for an opportunity for interns to gather together and share experiences. I stayed on a few days longer to visit with my former roommate Sarah and other friends. In May I travelled to Minneapolis, Minnesota with a few colleagues from Thunder Bay to attend a conference with an amazing array of speakers. But the best trip of all was a trip in late August that you’ll have to keep reading to hear about!

This summer was very busy for me. I was back home in Richmond for the first week of July helping my sister get ready to marry the love of her life on July 6. The wedding was gorgeous and I now have one more person in my family who is taller than me! Tim is a wonderful addition to the family. Jennifer and Tim took possession of their house in Pullman, Washington about a month before the wedding and have been busy renovating since then. They have recently welcomed a new addition to their family a labradoodle they have named Austin Aloysius. I look forward to all three of them coming up for a week over Christmas. Jennifer is an assistant professor at Washington State University and Tim works in the computer field in Pullman.

A couple of weeks after the wedding my parents made the long trek out to Pass Lake to come for a visit. We had a great visit while I showed them the beauty of Northwestern Ontario and we made a quick trip down to Duluth, Minnesota while they were visiting. They also helped me buy a new (to me) car and pack up my house in preparation for leaving in August. We had a great visit and I was sad to see them leave with their van packed with a lof of my stuff some of which they dropped off in Saskatoon and some they took back to BC with them.

While they were visiting we received news that my Nana Nikki (dad’s mom) was not doing well and not expected to live through the night. She made it through that night but didn’t survive the week. At the beginning of August she passed away after declining for many years. It is comforting to know she is finally at peace and reunited with my gramps.

In August before leaving Pass Lake I travelled with 4 youth from Pass Lake, 1 from Sault Sainte Marie and 3 leaders and 5 youth from Thunder Bay to the National Youth Gathering in Whitehorse. After months and months of fundraising (15,000 perogies!) we flew to Edmonton and joined up with almost 600 other youth and leaders from across the country and traveled on 13 buses through Alberta and BC to Whitehorse. We spent 4 days in Whitehorse with over 1200 other youth and leaders. It was a trip of a lifetime and the youth are excited about attending the next gathering in 2010.

Upon returning to Pass Lake I had five days to sell my car, pick up my new car, pack up my house and hit the road. The last week of August I drove over 3300km, stopping in Kenora, Saskatoon, Calgary, Golden and then back to Calgary to fly home for my grandmother’s memorial service and then flew back to Calgary and drove back to Saskatoon to start school!

This fall I completed my last semester of my Master of Divinity degree at Lutheran Theological Seminary, Saskatoon. It was a busy semester that included a trip home over reading week to visit friends and family, a weekend trip to Calgary to see a friend ordained and help another move and of course the many papers and assignments to prepare and a lot of wonderful times with friends.

This past week I yet again packed up my car and hit the road. This time for BC! I made it back to BC just in time as the snow hit the interior of BC and the very cold weather has hit Saskatchewan and Alberta!

I will be spending the next few weeks visiting with friends and family. I have my “colloquy” exam on the 29^th of December. This is the final process where I am approved for ordination. I prepared a written exam in November and have submitted this as well as my evaluations throughout my degree process to an examining committee. I will meet with them at the end of December to discuss all of this.

After my colloquy I will pursue a call to a congregation. Once I have a call to a congregation I will be ordained. I wil let all of you know when this is to happen, I would love to have all of you there!

Throughout this very busy year (these stories are just a small part of all I’ve been up to!) I have over and over again been so grateful for the love and support of my friends and family. I would never have been able to get to this point in my journey without all of you. Thank you for your support, love, hugs, caring emails, great chats online, in person or on the phone, prayers and all of the other wonderful ways you have supported me this year!

My parents are doing well. My dad is adjusting to retirement rather well photographing up a storm and doing some travelling. My mom is looking forward to retiring this June.

My brothers continue to make my parents life interesting. They are both living at home. David is working construction and finishing his apprenticeship hours. Ryan has been working a variety of jobs this year.

I invite you all to check out my blog www.canadianlutheranchick.blogspot.com to find out what I’m up to!

Many blessings to you and yours this Christmas season!

Kristen

What I've done

2008-11-24T05:23:00.000-08:00

I'm still working away on papers but this looked like fun. Though I think it's rather American, I'm still going to try it. You're supposed to bold the things you've done.

1. Started your own blog
2. Slept under the stars
3. Played in a band
4. Visited Hawaii
5. Watched a meteor shower
6. Given more than you can afford to charity
7. Been to Disneyland
8. Climbed a mountain
9. Held a praying mantis
10. Sang a solo
11. Bungee jumped
12. Visited Paris
13. Watched a lightning storm at sea
14. Taught yourself an art from scratch
15. Adopted a child (World Vision)
16. Had food poisoning
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty
18. Grown your own vegetables
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France
20. Slept on an overnight train
21. Had a pillow fight
22. Hitch hiked
23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill
24. Built a snow fort
25. Held a lamb
26. Gone skinny dipping
27. Run a Marathon
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice
29. Seen a total eclipse
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset
31. Hit a home run
32. Been on a cruise
33. Seen Niagara Falls in person
34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors
35. Seen an Amish community
36. Taught yourself a new language
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person
39. Gone rock climbing
40. Seen Michelangelo’s David
41. Sung karaoke
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt
43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant
44. Visited Africa
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight
46. Been transported in an ambulance
47. Had your portrait painted
48. Gone deep sea fishing
49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling
52. Kissed in the rain
53. Played in the mud
54. Gone to a drive-in theater
55. Been in a movie (a cheesy instructional one in the 90's that apparently is still out there)
56. Visited the Great Wall of China
57. Started a business
58. Taken a martial arts class
59. Visited Russia
60. Served at a soup kitchen
61. Sold Girl Scout (GUIDE) Cookies
62. Gone whale watching
63. Got flowers for no reason
64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma (I have the best of intentions, but I am on the bone marrow donor list)
65. Gone sky diving
66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp
67. Bounced a check
68. Flown in a helicopter
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial
71. Eaten Caviar
72. Pieced a quilt
73. Stood in Times Square
74. Toured the Everglades
75. Been fired from a job
76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London
77. Broken a bone
78. Been on a speeding motorcycle
79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person
80. Published a book
81. Visited the Vatican
82. Bought a brand new car
83. Walked in Jerusalem
84. Had your picture in the newspaper
85. Read the entire Bible
86. Visited the White House
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
88. Had chickenpox (twice)
89. Saved someone’s life
90. Sat on a jury
91. Met someone famous - or infamous?
92. Joined a book club
93. Lost a loved one
94. Had a baby
95. Seen the Alamo in person
96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake
97. Been involved in a law suit
98. Owned a cell phone
99. Been stung by a bee

Still Alive

2008-11-19T06:54:00.000-08:00

Yes I'm still alive. I apologize for the lack of posts. I am 2.5 weeks away from finishing classes for my MDiv! It's a little overwhelming at this point as I work to finish up papers, presentations and other assignments as well as put together all the documentation and paperwork for my colloquy. Colloquy will be the end of December. It is the official process the church approves me for ordination. It requires a lot of paperwork and a written response to three questions.
I will be finishing classes here on the 4th of December and will hopefully have only one last paper left and finish that and hit the road for BC!
Some days it feels like it has flown by but most of the time I can't wait to be done!

More pics!

2008-10-25T10:20:00.000-07:00

What a great week it was!

Reading Week Trip Pics

2008-10-25T10:19:00.000-07:00

Stories to come!

1 Month down 2 & a bit to go

2008-10-06T19:25:00.000-07:00

Well I made it through the first month. September was crazy busy. Not only was it moving back to Saskatoon and getting settled and getting back into the groove of being in school but I also had an intensive course on 3 weekends and 2 days during orientation week. We had class three out of the last four weekends on top of the regular classes I'm taking. It has been completely exhausting but last Saturday was the end of the intensive!
I am totally exhausted, fighting allergies/cold and had a cold just a few weeks ago so I'm glad the next two weeks are a bit quieter. Reading week begins in two weeks and I'll be back in Richmond for the week spending quality time with family and friends. I am looking forward to that immensely. The last three times I have been home in the last 13 months were for Christmas, sister's wedding and grandmother's memorial service so I'm glad to have some time to just be a home and with friends.
It was beautiful here in Saskatoon last week but unfortunately I didn't get a chance to take any pictures. We had temperatures up to 28 degrees on a couple of days but it is definitely fall here now, cold and windy!
I will post some pics soon.

Read this!

2008-09-11T20:02:00.001-07:00

Well, I'm back in Saskatoon and most of the time I am glad to be here. It is challenging at times to be back in school and away from parish ministry but I am enjoying the classes I'm taking and the learning I'm doing.
I only have one last semester here and then I'm in the real world in whatever form that may take. As I prepare to finish my seminary journey I have been reflecting on the whole experience from first thinking and praying about it, seeking out wise people in my life and confiding in them my call and then making the decision through to my two years at VST, year in Saskatoon, internship year in Pass Lake and now back here.
One of the first comments I heard when I was first discerning this call was that I was going to become a "feminist back bencher pastor" and I'm still not sure what exactly this particular person meant about this but I have realised that I have become feminist in a way.
I read a lot of blogs on a regular basis and tonight I read this one and it really resonated with me. It describes why I too won't turn down my "crazy feminism".

On the Road Again

2008-08-20T18:21:00.000-07:00

Well I have returned from yet another fantastic youth gathering. This one was a little different as it was in Whitehorse in the Yukon territory. We flew from Thunder Bay to Edmonton and then joined a few other people to make up 13 buses and 2 mini vans (about 600 people) on a road trip up to Whitehorse. We stayed in Fort St. John and Watson Lake along the way, doing the same thing on the way back. I got home this afternoon and am completely exhausted. I will post more about the youth gathering later.
I wanted to fill you in on my itinerary for the next week or so as it will be very wild and may be bringing me close to you! Here is my plan:

Sunday August 24
Last Sunday in Pass Lake, worship at 10 followed by good-bye luncheon
Drive to Kenora, ON
529 km

Monday August 25
Drive from Kenora to Saskatoon, SK
1,046 km

Tuesday August 26
Drive from Saskatoon, SK to Lake Louise, AB
794 km

Wednesday August 27
Drive from Lake Louise, AB - Golden BC
Have car inspected, registered & insured
Drive from Golden, BC - Calgary, AB
Fly from Calgary, AB - Vancouver BC in the evening.
360.5 km

Thursday August 28
Memorial service for Audrey (Nixon) Steele (Nana Nikki)

Friday August 29
In Vancouver
Attending wedding

Saturday August 30
Fly from Vancouver, BC - Calgary, AB
Drive from Calgary, AB - Saskatoon, SK
Settle in and get ready for school starting on Tuesday, September 2!
606 km

So on our bus trip to Whitehorse we traveled 4386km by bus. Next week I will drive more than 3300km. So in 3 weeks I will have travelled over 7700km and been through or in 5 provinces and one territory! What an adventure!

More Wedding Pics

2008-07-22T12:47:00.000-07:00

Here are a few more pics from my sister's wedding. These ones are from the professional photographer who did an amazing job I think.

The ceremony was at Minoru Chapel in Richmond. This first shot is when I was doing a reading during the ceremony.

Here am I and my super tall sister! I love this picture!

Here is the whole family complete with new addition brother-in-law Tim. My brothers no longer have to fight over who's the tallest because Tim clearly wins!

Time is flying here in Northwestern Ontario. Summer has finally arrived and the bugs have come along with it. The weather is beautiful and sunny and I am enjoying lake time, some road trips on my day off and the warm weather.
My car is in the process of dying and so I went out last week and found a great little car to buy. My parents arrive on Saturday and so we will hopefully be completing the purchase next week!
This is the week of BC visitors as I have a family from my home congregation in Richmond passing through on Thursday to stay overnight as they move to Southern Ontario. I am looking forward to visiting with them and showing them my piece of heaven.
I am very excited about my parents' visit and have lots planned for them while they're here.
After they leave it will be all about getting ready for Whitehorse! We head off in 3 weeks from yesterday, can't believe how soon that is!
Well that's it for me right now. Hope you're all enjoying summer wherever you are (well at least in the Northern hemisphere!)!

A few more pics

2008-07-09T15:18:00.000-07:00

The lovely toilet paper brides at the wedding shower!

Kat & the oh so cute Charlotte Rose, so nice to visit with them and get to know Charlotte better, she's a sweetheart!

Trip Home & Jennifer's wedding

2008-07-09T14:57:00.000-07:00

I had a fantastic week and a bit at home the highlight of which was my sister's wedding. She married the love of her life Mr. Timothy Westbrook on Sunday and the wedding was gorgeous. She decided to do a lot of the work herself and so the week before the wedding was very busy but we had lots of fun. Here are a few of the pictures taken by various people. When I get a good picture of my sister & brother-in-law (how weird to say that!) I will post that but you can see him in the white shirt directly behind my sister, the guy with the beard beside him is his best man.

Here is a shot of my two best friends and I, they were at the wedding and helped with the guest book.

And a shot of the father daughter dance.

This is day after dim sum with the bridal party, Tim's parents, my family and the bride and groom of course.

2008-06-20T14:35:00.000-07:00

Well I have been contemplating all day what to blog. I wanted to write something profound and reflective and I might do that in the next post but right now I'm just going to share some pictures of my garden. The woman whose house I live in (who now lives in a care home in Thunder Bay) was an avid gardener and so I am blessed to have a garden full of flowers. I have also continued the tradition and planted a vegetable garden which has just begun to sprout.
Spring here was a long time in coming so all the plants are late this year. It has also been rather wet. The last picture is of my beaver pond in my backyard. The grass line in the middle of the picture is where the water is supposed to end and if you look closely you can see the concrete lid to my well completely submerged. The beavers have once again been successful at blocking the culvert and so the water is at road level yet again.
It has been cold and rainy here and so days of sunshine like this one are most welcome. We're supposed to have thunderstorms with more rain tonight and possibly rain all weekend so I am enjoying the bright light in the sky this afternoon!

A Day in the Life

2008-06-14T19:15:00.000-07:00

Way back when I wrote a bit about a day in the life when I transported two chickens around the community after a few power outages. Well I thought I would blog about today, no power outages but a busy day!
I agreed to take someone from the community into town (Thunder Bay) today because she doesn't have a car and needed to pick up some cedar mulch for her garden among other things. So I picked her up at 10:30 this morning and we began our trek into town. We had a great lunch at a new Chinese buffet in town first and then began our errands, Home depot for mulch which we loaded into my car in the middle of a rain downpour, Dollarama for other items, Canadian tire for a few items, clothing store to get my dress for my sister's wedding, Superstore for groceries, Shell for gas, Value Village for books and then to a little store in a neighbourhood I'd never been in to pick up marzipan and other items. Are you tired yet?
We then headed back to Pass Lake and on our way to drop off cornstarch at someone else's house we passed a car in the ditch. We stopped checked in with two other Pass Lakers who had stopped and were helping the driver (she was ok). They were just waiting with her for the cops and tow truck to arrive. We dropped off the cornstarch and headed back to drop off my passenger, passing again the accident scene. We got to my passenger's house unloaded her 8 bags of cedar mulch, groceries and other purchases, then I picked some rhubarb because she had lots and doesn't eat it, got some chives and a basil plant. On my way home I stopped at the church and made some iced tea and got some water and stopped at the accident scene to give some beverages because by this point it was hot and sunny and I'm sure they had been there for at least an hour. When I got there the tow truck had just pulled up as well. I stayed with them until the car was hooked up and pulled out of the ditch and the driver was heading back to town with her now totaled car.
Got home about 6:30 to start my sermon for tomorrow (I usually write on Fridays but that's another story)! Finished my sermon about an hour ago (going to be a short one tomorrow) and started chopping rhubarb. I now have a big pot of rhubarb on the stove stewing and a large and small crisp baking in the oven.
I think I'll sleep well tonight!
Tomorrow it's supposed to rain all day which is too bad because the fire team is hosting a father's day golf tournament (with a 10AM tee time, arggh). Anyone who shows up for church will be invited to head across the parking lot for lunch at the post golf bbq at the fire hall instead of coffee in the church hall to show support for the fire hall and all their work.
Things are always interesting here in Pass Lake!

I've been tagged!

2008-06-05T08:27:00.000-07:00

6 Things.

I've been tagged by Murrayville Mom's Mom who used to be the church secretary at my home congregation but is now retired and living life to the full.

The idea is to share six unimportant things about myself and then to tag six other people to do the same thing.

Here are the rules:
1. Link back to the person who tagged you.
2. Post these rules on your blog.
3. Share six unimportant things about yourself.
4. Tag six random people at the end of your entry

So...Here are 6 things you probably did not need to know about me.

1) I am addicted to Facebook. I'm always checking what everyone is up to, joining new groups and most of all playing games on it.

2) I lived in two houses from when I was born until I was 29 since then (almost 2 years) I've lived in 3 houses in 24 months and the moving will continue. I hope in a year from now I'll be in somewhere a little more permanent but before then I have at least 2 more moves to make!

3) I have two goldfish, Spike & Buffy. I started this fall with 3 but one escaped on the way from my house to the church when I turned the corner and the bowl fell over. After that rather disastrous 3 km ride I will not be taking them with me across two provinces to Saskatoon in August.

4) I'm allergic to ridiculously silly things like raw carrots, celery, peaches, pears, apricots and almonds, all foods I enjoy a lot so I am always on the prowl for new ways to cook them so I can eat them.

5) In the joy of moving so often (see #2) I now have items stored in 3 different provinces. I have books and other miscellaneous stuff in BC at my parents' house, kitchen stuff and a bike in Saskatoon and most of my stuff here with me in Pass Lake. I look forward to the day I can have all my stuff in one province and hopefully one house!

6) I have an amazing group of friends from many different areas of my life high school, university, camp, work, VST, girl guides, LTS and others. I always have fun bringing them all together for BBQ's and gingerbread house making nights because they are all so different and yet so wonderful. I also very much enjoy spending time with each of them individually and hope that maybe soon I'll be living closer to many of them!

Here are my 6 people: Celia, Demara, Kristin, Nicole,
Mick, and Erik

Prayers for a Broken World

2008-06-01T12:19:00.000-07:00

Well this week has been a bit overwhelming. It seems like news, mostly bad has been pouring in in the last week or so. I did have a bit of good news (Congrats Jason & Erin) but it seems like there has been a lot of brokenness in the lives of people who are near and dear to me. I can't go into details but just ask that you keep them (and me) in your prayers. It's times like these that being 4 provinces away is very difficult even though I know there's not much I can do even if I were there.
To end on a high note we had a beautiful confirmation service this morning with 3 young men being confirmed. It was a beautiful service. I'm off to the confirmation celebration BBQ because spring has finally come to Pass Lake, at least for a day!

Some Pictures

2008-05-29T21:06:00.000-07:00

Spring in Pass Lake! This was taken April 7!

On the way to Duluth, pre-deer collision.

Goodness Gracious

2008-05-28T19:21:00.000-07:00

Well, I had no idea it had been so long since I had updated! I'm so sorry. Life has been very busy here in Pass Lake. At the end of April I attended the MNO (Manitoba, Northwestern Ontario Synod) Convention in Dauphin, Maintoba. We flew to Winnipeg, spent the night there and woke up to snow and ice. It was quite the bus trip from Winnipeg to Dauphin with ice and snow on the highway. It was a great convention but quite exhausting, lots to take in and many late nights. Sometime since my last post I travelled with some women from the congregation to Duluth, MN for a daytrip of shopping. Unfortunately the trip back included a collision with a deer, not a pretty sight. I now understand one of the reasons why it's good to have a big truck. If we had been in my car it would have been a much more serious situation. The deer are all over the roads in the spring in this area. I try not to drive after dark as they like to run out on the road unannounced.
Last week I was in Minneapolis for 5 days for the annual Festival of Homiletics (preaching). It was an incredible week packed with many worship services and speakers. Over 2100 ministers from all over North America and a few other continents attended. The speakers were the cream of the crop. Many of them I had read and it was pretty incredible to hear them speak about preaching and most of all to hear them preach. It was also nice to spend some time in a city. We stayed right in the centre of downtown Minneapolis and walked all over. I even had an opportunity to experience the Mall of America, just a really big mall, I didn't find it all that exciting. It was nice to catch up with friends and make new friends.
This week is catching up after a week away, getting ready for confirmation Sunday coming up this Sunday and continuing to plan for the youth trip to Whitehorse this summer and other summer events.
Spring is very slow in coming to this part of the world. It was beautiful and warm in Minneapolis last week but rained all weekend here. Monday at one point I looked out the window to see wet snow falling!
I haven't had my camera out much so I don't have any pictures to share right now. Hopefully I'll get some from friends in Minneapolis and share them soon.
I'm always curious who's reading so please comment!

More Pics of Kakabeka Falls

2008-04-06T05:14:00.000-07:00

So just after I found out where I was going for internship (I found out a year and 3 days ago) I was talking to my friend Brent on his birthday and talking about Thunder Bay and he recommended seeing Kakabeka Falls. So I finally took the time and went out there. They were spectacular. This was a great time of year to see them as half of them were still frozen while the other half were in full force. I will have to check them out later in the summer.
Thanks Brent, they were beautiful!

Spring is on its way

2008-04-04T17:07:00.000-07:00

Well I know I haven't posted in ages and I apologize for that. Apparently the first half of the internship is a walk in the park compared to the second half. Things have been really busy and at times not so pleasant. They seem, for the most part, to be on the upswing. The next few months of my time here will be very busy. I will be on a trip every month from now until August.
I took a day off today for the first time in a couple weeks and went to Kakabeka Falls (last picture & more to come) and Marina Park. The first few pictures are from there. The most well known landmark in the area is the Sleeping Giant. The Sleeping Giant is on the same peninsula as Pass Lake. In the first two pictures you can see the Sleeping Giant as visible from Marina Park.
Easter was wondeful, although busy of course. I assisted at a service in town for Maundy Thursday and then led Good Friday and Easter Sunday here in Pass Lake. We also had a community Easter breakfast that was well attended by many at the community hall.
The youth and their parents have been working very hard to raise enough money for their trip to Whitehorse this summer. We have made hundreds of dozens of perogies, had a snow machine rally, a shrove Tuesday pancake supper and a dinner and concert so far. They are past the halfway mark in their fundraising.
I would love to hear from you. Please leave a comment if you're still reading!

2008-04-01T08:30:00.000-07:00

One more!

Recent Adventures

2008-04-01T08:28:00.000-07:00

I'm in Thunder Bay for a few hours today but don't have time to post much so here are some pictures and when things settle down I will post text to go with them!

Pictures from Snowmobiling and Saskatoon visit

2008-02-19T08:43:00.001-08:00

Update!

2008-02-18T15:33:00.000-08:00

I'm sorry it's been so long since a post. I tried to update last night but I wanted to post pictures and it wouldn't let me. It has been a busy couple of weeks since I blogged last. We began the season of Lent with fantastic shrove Tuesday pancake supper put on by the youth and their parents as a fundraiser for the trip to Whitehorse. Ash Wednesday service was attended by a small group of parishioners. Then the first Sunday in Lent I led the liturgy and preached and then hopped in my car and drove like mad to the Thunder Bay airport to get on my flight to Saskatoon.
I was in Saskatoon for 5 days, 2 days of the seminary mid-year internship retreat and 3 days of visiting. While in Saskatoon I took in the Xavier Rudd concert which was amazing. He is an incredibly talented musician. I had a great visit with Sarah including some Costco shopping, mall visit, Sandra's Masters defense (which she rocked of course) and some car test driving. I also visited with a woman who I will rent a couple of rooms from when I return to Saskatoon in the fall. I'm so glad to have that taken care of as I was getting rather stressed about where I would live for the semester I'm back in 'toon town. It's a beautiful house a couple of blocks from the university campus and I will have a bedroom and sitting room/office to call my own.
I got back to Pass Lake late Friday night/early Saturday morning (about 2AM) and Saturday I attended my first snowmachine(snowmobile) rally. I even got a chance to drive one. I'm still feeling rather sore but it was worth it to have the experience! I will post pictures when I have access to high speed again.
My return to Pass Lake has also seen me bombarded with news about friends and family back home. I learned last night that my friend's home burnt down 10 days ago while he was vacationing in Mexico. I have visited his home a few times and it was a beautiful old home restored by him with a beautiful garden and full of treasures he had bought on his travels around the world. My thoughts and prayers are with him.
Today I talked to my sister and learned that her man popped the question on Valentine's Day! I'm very excited for them.
So that's a quick update from me. I'll post pics soon!

Some Winter Pictures

2008-01-25T16:38:00.000-08:00

Finally got outside for a walk since it was above -20 for the first time in days today. It has been bitterly cold for about a week. Last weekend it was down to -40 with the windchill each evening. It has been a good test for my little car and block heater which it has passed with flyin colours.

This is the highway into Pass Lake and further on to the Sleeping Giant and Silver Islet. This picture is taken with the Sleeping Giant behind me and looking back towards the main highway. The road to my house is just ahead on the left (you can see the signs).

This was one tree that had fallen and made a cross with another tree, just thought it was kind of cool.

These are the mailboxes, just thought it was a cool rustic picture. My mailbox is hidden in among the ones you can see.

This is my neighbour's garden shed. It was a beautiful day today. You can see the blue sky, sparkling snow and beautiful green trees.

Come Visit Me

2008-01-20T20:10:00.000-08:00

Tourism Thunder Bay is offering a contest to win a trip to Thunder Bay including staying at the Sleeping Giant Provincial park which is just down the highway from me! So enter and maybe you'll win a free trip to visit me!
Click here to enter.

More Pics of My Time at Home

2008-01-07T18:56:00.000-08:00

I was really grateful to be able to be home in time for the Christmas Eve service at my home congregation. The first two pictures are from that evening. This one is the beautiful Christmas decorations around the altar.

This December I had 5 women I know have babies between the middle of December and Christmas Eve. The little one in my arms was Sarah, daughter of friends in my home congregation. In this picture she is 62 hours give or take 15 minutes or so. It was a wonderful way to spend the first half of the Christmas Eve service. I had to pass her on to go up and read the Christmas story.

My sister and her boyfriend Tim drove up from Pullman, Washington where they now live. She finally found someone tall enough that she can wear heels without being taller than him!

This was the third baby I visited (sorry no pics of the second baby, too much going on during that visit for any pictures). This is Adlai, daughter of my friends Celia & Adam. She is 5 days old in this picture. She was the Christmas Eve baby.

Christmas at home

2008-01-05T17:31:00.000-08:00

Well I had a fantastic time at home. Spent lots of quality time with friends and family, did lots of shopping and ate way too much. Here are a few highlights from my trip. I will post more soon. One night I went with my parents, sister and her boyfriend to the Festival of Lights at Vandusen Gardens. The picture on the left is from our time there, my dad took lots of pictures there as usual.

On Christmas day we had a brief visit with my cousin Bob from Victoria and his wife Jodi and little girl Ellie. She is quite the personality. Here is one of the many pictures my dad took. It was nice to see them again and to see her growing up so fast!

I'll post more about my time at home and more pictures soon I promise!

Family Christmas Letter

2007-12-19T13:55:00.000-08:00

Since many of you readers know or know of my family I thought I'd post my family Christmas letter, this year written by my mom, enjoy!

December 15, 2007

Open your presents at Christmastime but be thankful year round for the gifts you receive.

~Lorinda Ruth Lowen

Another year disappears into the mists of time, and as I reflect on 2007, it is time that seems more precious and less available, given the demands of everyday life.

Ralph and I are beginning to explore roads we haven’t travelled for some time. We journeyed to Portland over spring break and meandered along the Oregon coast, watching the waves pound the coastline as the rain beat on the car windows. In the summer we spent several days in the Okanagan playing some golf on nine hole courses and discovering why tee times were amazingly easy to get in the afternoon (30+ degrees seems to keep some people inside). We also visited over two dozen wineries from Osoyoos to Vernon and stayed in 3 delightful bed and breakfast establishments. The van returned to the coast laden with several boxes of wine which we are enjoying over the winter months.

Ralph has entered the realm of the retired but is busy catching up on things that just didn’t get done when he was travelling for 70% of the time. He is continuing to expand his knowledge of photography which began over 44 years ago, thanks to Uncle Lee, and has joined the Vancouver Photo Club. He celebrated his 60^th birthday in July with family and friends and was genuinely surprised as his family managed to keep a secret.

While school still demands most of my time and makes balance between work and home life an elusive goal, the smiles and hugs of children do help to wash the worries away. Volunteer work at church, visits with friends, and the occasional golf game (still an evolving skill!) provide welcome outlets.

Kristen is now living in Pass Lake, ON, as an intern pastor in a Lutheran congregation. The community, Danish in origin, pop. 400, is about an hour and a half east of Thunder Bay and the congregation of Salem Lutheran Church is part of a 3 point parish of her supervisor who lives in Thunder Bay. You can view photos, follow her adventures and send her messages via her blog: http://canadianlutheranchick.blogspot.com/. She completes her year there in August and returns to seminary in Saskatoon to complete the last semester of her studies before seeking a parish to serve as a pastor. Writing sermons, working with children through Kids’ Club (an intrinsic part of community life), and exploring family genealogy are occupying her time. God and weather willing, she will be in

Richmond for Christmas this year since her little church in Pass Lake does not have a Christmas Day service as tradition and travel dictate that families are together on Christmas Day.

Jennifer (aka Dr. Steele) is now teaching economics and engaging in research as an assistant professor at Washington State University in Pullman, WA. She too is experiencing life in a smaller community, as Pullman is a university town in a farming community. Ralph and I drove down to help her set up her rented duplex and were fascinated to observe combines tracking along hillsides at a steep angle harvesting wheat and lentils. For those of us used to picturing seas of wheat waving on the prairie flats, it was a novel site to see wheat waving above the trees that grew along the roads below. Jennifer too will be here for Christmas, together with Tim who has returned from New Zealand. They spent American Thanksgiving in Montana with Tim’s parents and Jennifer has also travelled to Las Vegas for a bachelorette party for a rowing friend. She will be attending a conference in New Orleans in January so continues to find ways to combine travel with work commitments.

David is still working with a local construction firm building houses and has completed level 3 of the Red Seal program in carpentry at BCIT this year. He returns for the last six week component in February and then just has to complete his apprenticeship hours. His skills have been put to use installing hardwood flooring and moulding in bedrooms upstairs. He is looking forward to a snowboarding trip in January with friends and continues to spend time with Jessie who is completing her Bachelor’s degree.

Ryan is working for Aquiform, a pool and spa supply wholesale distributor. He is now faced with the prospect of driving to Langley to work since the company has just relocated there. He is always active, playing soccer and travelling with friends on weekends and in the summer and spending time with Jodi.

The grandmothers continue to live near us and we visit them as much as we are able. Evelyn enjoys all her friends and activities at Dogwood Lodge. Audrey continues to reside at Inglewood Lodge not far from her much loved apartment in West Vancouver.

We wish you time to treasure the most valuable gifts of Christmas-the presence of loved ones and the peace of the season.

Ralph, Marilyn, Kristen, Jennifer, David, and Ryan

More Pictures

2007-12-17T19:19:00.000-08:00

Yesterday afternoon the Volunteer Fire Team put on a Christmas party for the kids in the community. This is an annual event that kids and adults alike look forward to. This year it was held in the church hall. I took a bunch of pictures. You can see them here.

Winter & Printer

2007-12-16T09:40:00.000-08:00

Well, some have asked how I'm doing with the big storm that was heading to this part of Canada. Fortunately it's not hitting my part of Canada. It has hit Southern Ontario and is heading east. It's a beautiful day here (-11), the sun is shining and the snow is glistening. We had our big storm two weeks ago when we had to cancel the Sunday service. I'm glad the storm came through today as exactly one week from today I will be flying through Toronto to get home for the holidays.
This morning I had two more "rural ministry" experiences. I usually write my sermon at home and then come into the church early Sunday morning to print it off. This morning I came in and plugged in my computer and it printed the first two pages fine and the third page came out blank. I noticed that the second page had some sticky brownish stuff on it and I wasn't sure where that had come from. I checked the ink levels (fine) and tried again. This time another blank piece of paper came out along with a petrified fly! A few tries later (and doing some head cleaning on the printer) I got a semi-legible print out of the rest of my sermon. I guess I'll have to keep my printer covered from now on!

Advent

2007-12-15T18:15:00.000-08:00

It's been a long time since I blogged. So today I have revamped my entire blog as you can see. I lost the links I had on my previous blog so if your blog was up there and now isn't please don't take it personally just send me an email or leave me a comment and I'll add it.
I have been busy since I blogged last. Winter has definitely set in in Pass Lake. We had our first big snowstorm the night before the first Sunday in Advent and so we had no church that Sunday. Since then life has been busy with Christmas events and parties.
Advent is my favourite season. I love the idea of waiting and preparing. This year I have had lots of experience of waiting. I waited with a friend who awaited cancer test results. I also waited for baby news. A dear friend of mine gave birth yesterday morning at 3AM. Welcome to the world dear Charlotte Rose!
I learned how to embed photo slideshows in my blog so you'll be seeing more of those. The one below is pictures from the church turkey potluck that took place last Sunday. We had almost 70 people in the church hall eating together, laughing together and after supper singing together. It was a wonderful event. Last weekend was full of Christmas parties, Saturday was a rice pudding party in town, Sunday was the potluck supper and Monday was the Pass Lake Women's Institute Christmas party. Tomorrow is the third Sunday in Advent (already!) and we have a memorial service as part of the Sunday service as we say good-bye to a pioneer from the community. We also had a funeral about 10 days ago for another long time member of the community, they will be missed. Tomorrow I also have the Community Christmas party for the kids and a Christmas supper and carol service in town.
8 days from now I will be home (as long as the weather cooperates). I am looking forward to time at home. Time with friends and family, time with my home congregation and especially looking forward to meeting a little one who was still in her mom's womb the last time I was in BC.
Before that I will celebrate Christmas with this community on next Saturday night at the candlelight service. They do not have services on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day and so we gather next Saturday to celebrate Christmas as a community.
I hope that this time of preparation and waiting is a very blessed one.

Slideshow from Christmas Potluck

2007-12-15T17:59:00.000-08:00

Blog Changes

2007-11-19T12:21:00.000-08:00

I've made a few changes to my blog. I often find other friend's blogs by following links on other blogs and since I now read many, many blogs I thought I should post links to what I'm reading. I still have more blogs that I read but they have been moved to my second page of blogs because they're not being updated enough (IMHO). If you have a blog I would love to know about it! Please send me the link. If you don't want your blog listed please let me know.
I use igoogle.com to keep track of all the blogs I read. I have added all the blogs to my homepage and I can scroll and see the titles and links to all the blog postings. This is much easier (and less frustrating) than always going to people's blogs only to find out they haven't been updated!
Winter continues to threaten to arrive and then back off. It was below 0 most of last week but today is up to 7. I'm grateful for any days without snow! I'm sure winter will be long enough when it finally arrives for good.
Time is flying here. 4 weeks and 6 days from now I'll fly home for Christmas. I've almost been here for 3 months. I can't believe it. I'm really enjoying my time here. It's a beautiful place and a warm and friendly community.
I'm learning lots and having all kinds of wonderful experiences.

Winter is here!

2007-11-09T08:50:00.000-08:00

We had our first snowfall a couple of days ago. This is what I woke up to in the morning. It has warmed up a bit and and the snow is slowly melting away but I think winter is here to stay!

Pictures of Salem Lutheran Church

2007-11-04T10:55:00.000-08:00

I just realized how long it has been since I've blogged, my apologies! I'm enjoying my time here in Pass Lake. It's so beautiful here. I love looking out my window to the trees and the beaver pond. I have now preached three times the most recent being this morning. I always struggle with sermon writing and never end up very happy with what I preach but I have received a lot of positive feedback. This morning for all saints day I invited people to write the name of a loved one who died on an angel and hang their angel on a tree at the front of the church. I got lots of comments about how much they appreciated it. I'm amazed at how open this congregation is to trying something new! Last night was the turkey supper. It was lots of fun with about 70 people from the church and community.
I have posted some pictures of the church I'm doing my internship at you can check them out here.

Traveling Chickens - Life in a Rural Community

2007-10-19T12:42:00.000-07:00

So I thought that it would be a good idea to have my internship committee over for dinner for our second meeting. I planned the menu, went grocery shopping in town on the weekend and got all set. The day of the meal came and I came home from the office at noon to get ready. I had mashed the sweet potatoes the day before so they were all set. When I got home I cleaned up my house, moved chairs up from downstairs and started to prepare the rest of the food.

At about 3:45 I put the chickens in the oven. I finished vacuuming and as I was putting the vacuum back in the closet by the front door the power flickered and went out. The chickens had been cooking for about 15 minutes and so I needed to put them in another oven or throw them out. I called another committee member who had called earlier to let me know she couldn’t come because she was having to pump out her basement because of all the rain. I called her and she told me she still had power, so I packed up the chickens and drove the ten minutes to her house, put the chickens in, saw her basement (only half full of water now) and settled to make phone calls to the rest of the committee and watch some TV.

About 20 minutes after getting the chickens in the oven the power flickered and went out at her house. She had spoken to another friend, a couple that I also knew and knew that they still had power so I called them and asked if I could use their oven. So again I packed up the chickens and headed over to their home.

I hadn’t been able to get a hold of anyone else on the committee and wasn’t sure how many of them had power. At about 6PM (when the meeting was supposed to begin) I drove back to my house to get the rest of the food and to see if anyone was there. Sure enough two members of the committee were just leaving my house and turned around to meet me at my house. On the way to the house I saw that the beaver creek beside my house was so high that the water was now running over the road instead of under it.

When I got to my house I realized that I had left the vacuum blocking the front door and my front door key didn’t work on the side door lock. We had to push open the front door carefully so as not to damage the closet door between the front door and the vacuum.

One of the committee (the daughter of the couple who had my chickens in their oven) also had power (my power still wasn’t on) so we packed up all the food and headed to her house. I got all the other food (chipotle maple sweet potatoes, broccoli & cauliflower, salad and buns) all set up and cooking and drove back up the highway to pick up the chickens. Brought them back and we sat down for a lovely dinner and meeting.

After the meeting I packed up all the dishes and headed home with a borrowed pair of men’s size 12 rubber boots and a copper pole to test out the road by my house to make sure the road was still there under the water. I went to the home of the second oven my chickens had been in (the woman pumping out her basement) and gave her some dinner and then headed to my house where I could still see the road under the water and decided to try it out. It was fine and I got home in one piece. I still had no power so I put all the food away and went to bed to stay warm and called a friend to share my story! As I was talking to her about 10:45PM the power went back on and I went to sleep.

Quote

2007-10-05T13:41:00.000-07:00

A few of my friends have posted favourite quotes and poems on their blogs recently and so I thought I would follow their lead when I found this while preparing for a sermon:

“Even when we try to run away from our troubles…God will find us, and bless us, even when we feel most alone, unsure if we’ll survive the night. God will find a way to let us know that he is with us in this place, wherever we are, however far we think we’ve run. And maybe that’s one reason we worship – to respond to grace. We praise God not to celebrate our own faith but to give thanks for the faith God has in us. To let ourselves look at God, and let God look back at us. And to laugh, and sing, and be delighted because God has called us his own.”

Kathleen Norris

Amazing Grace: A Vocabulary of Faith

In her essay on grace.

Day off

2007-10-01T20:07:00.000-07:00

So I took most of today off as I hadn't had a day off since last Saturday. I am still getting used to the idea that this is my home for the year and to make it more my space I hauled out all my pictures and put up my photo wall. A little different than last year but most of the same pictures. Tomorrow when I'm in Thunder Bay I'll have a few recent ones printed and add them to the collection.
Posting the pictures brought mixed emotions as I was glad for the happy memories that they brought but also hard because everyone on the wall is so far away!

I also baked bread solo for the first time in my life. Following my friend Alison's recipe I made 7 loaves and 1 dozen buns of whole wheat bread. I loved doing it and look forward to doing it again sometime. If you have a bread recipe you love please send it on for me to try!

Tomorrow starts a busy week as I go into Thunder Bay for clergy cluster and supervision and then tomorrow evening I have kids' club and confirmation (first confirmation class!). Two of the youth want to meet with me before kids' club to pitch an idea they have so I am looking forward to hearing their big idea.

Thanksgiving is this weekend and I'm not sure what my plans are. I hope that I will be invited somewhere! This is the first Thanksgiving where I haven't had good friends or family around.

2007-09-30T17:18:00.000-07:00

I know I haven't blogged in a while and I promise a real blog soon but in the mean time here are a few paintings of my church in Pass Lake. They were both done before the addition so you have to make it a little longer off one side of the building but same colours. It's a wonderful building filled with lots of love! I promise to blog more soon!

More pics from my new home

2007-09-16T18:56:00.000-07:00

Here are a few more pictures of my home for the year. This one is my home from the road.

This is the view beside my house. This stream wraps around behind my house.

This is what you see looking down the side of my house. It's beautiful! I've been really enjoying the incredible beauty of this area. I'm getting used to living out in the country though really feel I'm a city girl at heart. I was officially installed today as intern at Salem Lutheran Church, Pass Lake. Tomorrow I head to Luther Village near Kenora for the church workers' study conference. Next week all the programs start and September comes to an end. It's pretty unbelievable how fast it's flying by!

Online again

2007-09-04T14:19:00.000-07:00

I am now back online at home and so I don't have to drive into Thunder Bay to blog. I am on dial up in Pass Lake at both the church and home. I met with other Thunder Bay ELCIC clergy this morning for their weekly ministerial and then picked up odds and ends in TB before beginning to set up the office at the church this afternoon. I also met with my supervisor and got some of the scoop on how this year will look. Things will definitely be busy, but great! I am slowly adjusting to a very different way of life here in Pass Lake but so far so good! I will post pictures of my area soon.

Made it!

2007-09-02T13:29:00.001-07:00

I have made it to Pass Lake. I arrived last night about 8:30 and have unpacked my car. Today I attended Salem Lutheran Church (my internship site) and headed into Thunder Bay to pick up groceries and various other household items. I've posted pictures of my drive and my new place here . I don't have my dial up working yet but will blog more when it's working. Right now I'm in a coffee shop in Thunder Bay but I'm getting very tired and I still need to finish grocery shopping so I will sign off now and blog again soon!

On the Road Again!

2007-08-31T07:20:00.000-07:00

Wow, I can't believe it's been over a month since I have blogged. I have had a wonderful month (pictures to come!) off and on Monday I packed up my little civic and hit the road for the big move to Pass Lake. I drove Monday and Tuesday and visited friends in Saskatoon Wednesday and yesterday. Today I hit the road again for the last two days of driving. I had a nice visit with a few friends here and just relaxed. Today I'll drive the 8-9 hours to Winnipeg stay at my friend Jen's house as she and her husband set her up in Saskatoon and then do the last leg tomorrow and move into my new home! I'm excited, nervous and just wanting the driving to be over. I'll be on dial up in my new place so pictures will have to wait until I go to Thunder Bay and can access high speed but I will try to post text on a more regular basis.
I can't believe internship is here and yet I'm ready to do it. Talking to other sem students here about classes they're taking and the like I'm really ready not to be in class and to be on the ground doing ministry. So Pass Lake here I come!

Done CPE

2007-07-28T08:49:00.000-07:00

Well I made it through CPE in one piece. After all the horror stories I have heard it wasn't as bad as I had feared. It was definitely challenging and exhausting but I would say over all it was a positive experience.
CPE is clinical pastoral education and I did the 11 week intensive. Three days a week I was on hospital wards at Mount Saint Joseph Hospital doing pastoral care and two days a week I was at St. Paul's Hospital for class time. One of the purposes of CPE is for students to become more aware of who they are and how the affect others. So we have group time where we discuss all of these things and our experiences on the wards. I have learned a lot but am ready for it to be over as I'm exhausted and need a break.
So I have about a month before I leave again. I want to spend time with friends and family and relax. I have plans to go camping with a friend and then to Victoria with other friends. I'm also hoping to do one or two more trips with other friends but we'll see what happens.
Now that I'm done CPE I can look ahead to the next adventure. In one month I will again pack up my little car and start driving. This time I'm driving twice as far. I'll be starting an internship in Pass Lake Ontario. I can't wait but I will be sad to leave Vancouver again.
I have been learning more and more about Pass Lake and the surrounding area and it's a beautiful place and it sounds like a wonderful community. I am looking forward to my time there. I will post lots of pictures. For now here is a picture of the church I'll be at.

Birthday Bash

2007-06-24T00:56:00.000-07:00

I know I haven't blogged much recently. I will blog more soon. I just wanted to post this picture from my birthday celebration dinner tonight at Shabusen. We had a wonderful dinner and then some of us went back to Kat's for some birthday s'mores. I'm blessed with wonderful friends!

back in BC

2007-05-08T12:35:00.000-07:00

Well I survived the drive. The first day was brutal. The drive from Saskatoon to Lake Louise is the most boring drive ever and it began pouring rain as I left Saskatoon and followed me all the way across the prairies. I got in in time on Saturday night to unpack my car, change my clothes and head out to see a friend's concert Musica Intima is the ensemble she sings with and they are amazing. Saturday night was incredible as usual. I went with a friend and we went for all you can eat Japanese afterwards - such a Vancouver thing to do! Sunday was church in the morning, baptism in the afternoon and back to church for a concert in the evening.
I went to VST convocation last night and saw all kinds of people. A group of us went to Sutton Place Hotel lounge afterwards and it was so nice to be back with my VST friends again.
This week is about relaxing and catching up with friends before I start an intense 13 week program on Monday. It has been strange to be back. So good and yet there are still the not so good parts of life here in BC that haven't disappeared just because I was gone for 8 months. Life is always so complicated! I'm looking forward to starting CPE next week and being back in a normal pattern with some purpose to my day!

Done, Packing, Internship, Moving

2007-05-02T08:47:00.000-07:00

Well the last two weeks have been a wild ride. I finished classes and most of my assignments about a week and a half ago and then took off to BC for a study conference for 4 days, came home and began packing and moving stuff around. Sunday I met my internship supervisor and we clicked so well, internship retreat went until last night. I'm really excited about my internship now. I got all kinds of information about Pass Lake, the congregation and where I'll be living (a house by a pond). I will move in September 1 and start work on September 4.
I am in Saskatoon for two more days before I will start the trek back to Vancouver. This will be the longest drive I've ever done solo. Two solid days of driving. I will stay over night in the hostel in Lake Louise which is about half way.
I can't believe my year here in Saskatoon is coming to an end. It's been hard to say good-bye to a few people and I know that moving out of this place permanently will be hard. Sarah, my housemate, and I have become close friends.
I'm excited about what the next part of my journey will bring me but will never forget my time here in Saskatoon.
Even though there are a lot of reasons why I'm glad it's over there were some good times and good friends in the midst of the chaos.

What a week!

2007-04-14T10:20:00.000-07:00

Well it's been over a week since I have posted about anything that has been going on in my life. What a week it has been! Easter weekend was full of church services, one on Thursday, Friday & Saturday and two on Sunday. I was a server at Easter vigil on Saturday night which meant I also had to be at a 2 hour rehearsal for it on Friday afternoon. We had two Easter dinners. Sarah and I had decided we weren't going to cook a big dinner but rather go out to a nice Japanese restaurant with another friend of hers so we made reservations for Friday night but then her brother came for a visit so we did a big Easter dinner anyways on Saturday night. It was lots of fun, a nice group of people enjoying a meal together before I had to head off to the seminary for the 3 hour Easter vigil and party following. Sunday night the tension that has been existing upstairs for months exploded and on Monday evening Sarah evicted the couple who was sharing the upstairs with her. So the tension level went even higher!
In the midst of all of this I am finishing up papers, presentations and other assignments and beginning to think about moving back to Vancouver and then to Ontario and how I will get all my stuff to all these places!
I head to BC for 4 days a week from tomorrow for a conference so I have to have all papers done before that. Then I'm back in Saskatoon for about a week before I pack up my little civic and hit the road. SO much to do, so little time!

Christ is risen, Alleluia

2007-04-08T17:34:00.000-07:00

For us, the faithful, Christ has begun a bright new day, eternal and extinguishable. God is the author of this wonder. From impossible beginnings God has produced wonderful results.
Anonymous hymn - Second Century

Holy Saturday

2007-04-07T14:55:00.000-07:00

For this is the time of Holy Saturday
Christ comes to inhabit our tombs
And when the hour has come
He will roll away the stone for us.
Taize Prayer

Good Friday

2007-04-06T09:27:00.000-07:00

The Church is the cross on which Christ was crucified. One could not separate Christ from his cross, and one must live in a permanent dissatisfaction with the church.
Romano Guardini

Reflecting

2007-04-04T20:21:00.000-07:00

Well I'm starting to reflect on my time here in Saskatoon. I can't say it's been a wonderful year but it has been a good experience. I have many pictures and special words on my wall. The one above my computer means a lot to me and is a daily reminder for me. So I decided (with permission) to share these words with you. They were written by my friend Jason the day after I left Vancouver in August.

this road

like dorthys

goes to emerald palaces

that lose their luster

that are ruled by little

men behind their collars.

do not pay attention to

the emerald palace

shun its false luster.

life is not in the journey,

that is a lie,

life is in the companions.

keep one eye on the road,

an ear open for God

and the rest of your sense

looking for your own

straw man and tin man.

why else travel?

~ Jason Derr

I'm going to.......Pass Lake Ontario!

2007-04-04T16:22:00.000-07:00

Well I can now finally tell people where I'm going on internship. I will be in Pass Lake Ontario for my internship this fall. I'm really excited about this site. I have heard many wonderful things about it and it's in part of a country I've never even been to never mind lived in!
Where is Pass Lake Kristen?
As you can see it's just outside of Thunder Bay, about 40 minutes in fact in Northwestern Ontario. It is about 8 hours east of Winnipeg.
Click here to see where it is in the province and in relation to other cities in the country.

I believe this will be a 12 month internship so I will be there until August 2008 when I will return to Saskatoon for one more semester to finish up my MDiv and God willing be ordained in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada.
I'm really excited about this site. I've heard amazing things about the landscape as well as the supervisor and the congregation.
It's hard to stay focused on the last two weeks of classes and the 8 assignments I have left but I will get there somehow!

Internship News

2007-03-29T23:28:00.000-07:00

Well I know where I'll be on internship next year. Unfortunatley you'll have to wait until Monday or Tuesday. The internship director wants us to wait until he has had a chance to let supervisors know who their intern will be so I can only tell my spouse, grrrr! Let's just say I'm very happy and excited and I can't wait to tell people.

Readng Week trip pics

2007-03-28T10:50:00.000-07:00

This is the view from the place we stayed at on the Sunshine Coast.

Kat & Jason checking out the view from the pier by Molly's Reach (think Beachcombers).

The three of us.

LTS Winter Retreat

2007-03-28T08:51:00.000-07:00

The centre of our worship circle

Out for a walk - or a snowball fight!

Christopher Lake

Gathered for communion and dinner

11 Days!

2007-03-28T08:43:00.000-07:00

I can't believe it's been 11 days since I blogged. Nothing much new has happened since I last blogged. I still don't know where I'm going on internship. I should find out today when I'll find out. Last weekend we had a school retreat that was great. We went up to north of Prince Albert, did you know that there are actually "forests" in Saskatchewan? We've hit the time of the year when spring is trying to poke through but winter keeps coming back for short bursts. The weekend was beautiful and a lot of the snow melted but then yesterday it snowed again and this mornign I woke up to snowfall again.
Preaching went well last week and I got lots of good feedback. Today I'm preaching again on the Palm Sunday text. School is flying by, so many papers, so little time! I will post some pictures from the retreat. Blessings to you all on your lenten journey!

March in Saskatoon

2007-03-17T23:21:00.000-07:00

Well I haven't posted a real post since I was in Vancouver and so I thought I should post something. I had a fantastic time in Vancouver. Visited with lots of friends and had a wonderful time on the Sunshine Coast with Jason and Kat. Headed back to Saskatoon late Friday night, arriving at about 1AM Saturday morning. One of my suitcases arrived while my other one followed about 10 hours later, grrr. Saturday morning I unpacked, did laundry and repacked and headed out Saturday afternoon for Moose Jaw. The weather had warmed up and was actually above 0 and sunny. I drove down to Moose Jaw for a couple of day's to see my friend Elaine's covenanting service at the church where she is doing her internship. We had a lovely visit and I drove back Monday. Came back with a cold I've been fighting all week.
Back to school, 5 more weeks of classes. I really keep trying to have a positive attitude about this place and every time I do something else crappy happens, oh well, 5 weeks and I'm done with this place for a while. SO tired of the complaining, the cliquishness and the attitude of people at school. I have a ton to do in the next 5 weeks so I know they'll fly by. I'm preaching on Wednesday at Sherbrooke Community Centre ( a residential facility like no other!). Next weekend is our school retreat and so we head up to northern Saskatchewan which I'm looking forward to I haven't been north of Saskatoon and apparently it's totally different (still flat but different).
Enjoying spending time with the few friends I do have here and getting to know them better and having fun with them. I should know about internship placement in the next two weeks, so excited! The adventure continues!

My Visual DNA

2007-03-15T08:08:00.000-07:00

Read my VisualDNA™ Get your own VisualDNA™

Good News!

2007-03-05T12:20:00.000-08:00

Well I'm back in Vancouver, enoying a very rainy reading week. It's been wonderful to be here and I'm enjoying visiting with family and friends. I head off in a few minutes for a overnight getaway to the Sunshine Coast with my friend Kat. Where we'll celebrate my getting into CPE in Vancouver for the summer, wahoo! I went to a meeting with the Vancouver supervisor this morning after having a phone interview last week. While waiting for the supervisor the secretary said "so you'll be joining us this summer" and I said "well I hope to" and she pulled my file and showed me a copy of the letter she had sent late last week offering me a place in the program. It must have arrived in Saskatoon the day I left or today. So I will be doing my CPE (clinical pastoral education) at St. Paul's hospital in Vancouver this summer. I'm so excited. So nice to know I'll be in Vancouver for one more summer, I love Vancouver in the summer. Also so nice to know that I where I'll be after May 1. I'll take some pictures while I'm away and post when I get back. Right now I'm sitting in downtown Vancouver at a Blenz (coffee shop) drinking a roiboos chai and using free wireless, watching the rain fall. I'm such a west coast girl!

What a day!

2007-02-26T16:54:00.000-08:00

Well it has been quite a day. I met this morning with my faculty advisor for our annual check in and he is also the internship director. He said that as long as I'm willing to go anywhere for CPE there is always a spot available somewhere in Western Canada if I don't get into Calgary or Vancouver. Then this afternoon I had my teleconference with Vancouver. I was told then that they had received 34 applications for the six, maybe seven spots they have available this summer. I had a really good interview and at the end the supervisor asked me to send him my availability for meeting with him next week and so we have arranged a meeting for Monday morning - good sign! Then just after finalizing that meeting by email I received an email from the CPE site in Calgary asking for a teleconference interview on Thursday. I'm really excited now! I am anxious to know where I'll be this summer but I am feeling more confident that I will get into CPE somewhere and that is a huge relief. It's been quite the roller coaster of a day!

The Waiting Game

2007-02-25T20:02:00.000-08:00

I'm in this point in my program where it's all about waiting. I have submitted my CPE applications to both Vancouver and Calgary, have contacted them to ensure they received all the pieces (they did) and now am waiting. I have an interview with Vancouver tomorrow over a teleconference. Calgary is still accepting applications apparently even though their deadline was February 15. That works well for me because I'll hopefully hear back from Vancouver before Calgary and Vancouver is my first choice. I have to get into a summer CPE program in order to be able to do internship next year. I have another internship meeting on Thursday to find out the final list of sites and submit my first, second and third choices which the internship director will look at, consult with the sites and the faculty and make the big match which will be announced the third week of March. So right now I have no idea what my life will look like after May 1 when I finish the internship retreat (if I get into CPE that is, here's hoping!). If for some reason I don't get into CPE in Calgary or Vancouver then my life has to take a completely different turn and I have to try to get into a year long CPE program somewhere, find a part time job and do internship the year after next. I really really really don't want that to happen!
School continues to motor along. This semester is flying by. I fly home for reading week on Friday for a week away from snow, yay! I'm looking forward to spending time with family and friends, sharing stories and pictures from my Peru trip and catching up on their lives. And of course I'm going on the traditional reading week trip. Monday and Tuesday of next week Kat and I will head up the sunshine coast for two days and one night of relaxation. I can't wait!
I'm starting to wonder if the snow will ever leave Saskatoon. I'm not sure I remember what it looks like without snow. We got about another 10-15 centimetres on Friday just to reassure everyone that winter was still around. Of course the 3 feet of snow we already had was doing a good enough job of that!
Oh well, two months from now I'll be packing up my suite and heading off to wherever I go next on this wild adventure!

Back in 'toon town

2007-02-11T20:06:00.000-08:00

Well life continues here in Saskatoon. It's so cold here! Friday I woke up to a windchill warning, -42 with the windchill, lovely! School continues to happen. I've submitted my CPE application to Calgary and Vancouver and have submitted my internship application to the director of internship. Now it's just a waiting game. CPE (clinical pastoral education) is a chaplaincy program that is full time May - July this summer. Internship will start sometime between August 1 and September 1 and go for 9-12 months. I'm hoping to get into CPE in Vancouver but I have to get in somewhere because I have to have it before I can go on internship. So right now it's a big waiting game, a bit stressful for a control freak like me! Time is starting to fly by. Three weeks from this weekend I'll be back in Vancouver for reading week, I can't wait to see green again. The winter is really starting to get to me here.
Last night I went to the Barenaked Ladies concert, it was awesome. They have so much fun on stage you can't help but to enjoy the concert. Their music is so awesome as well.
I'm really getting frustrated with the atmosphere at school. The first couple of weeks it seemed to have improved from the end of last semester but the dark cloud over the seminary has returned and everyone is sucked into being angry and nasty to each other. I'm just tired of dealing with those kind of attitudes. I also don't appreciate being the brunt of people's grumpiness because I happen to be there. Oh well, I have lots of fun with my friends and have found a few friends outside of the seminary community that help me keep my sanity.

More pictures - not Peru this time though

2007-02-05T16:24:00.000-08:00

Thought you might like to see a picture of me at the seminary. This is Sebastian and I at his first birthday party last weekend. We hang out every Wednesday morning while his parents are in class. It was taken by one of the other seminary kids at the party which would be why it's a little low! Happy Monday everyone!

More Peru Pics

2007-02-02T21:46:00.000-08:00

I've posted a few more Peru pics here. The first one is my all time favourite. Enjoy and leave comments here!

Peru Pictures 2

2007-02-02T15:58:00.000-08:00

This is a shot taken by another person on the trip of the group below looking at themselves in the screen of my camera.

Peru Pictures

2007-02-02T15:39:00.000-08:00

Ok this is the third try posting pictures. Here are three more pictures from my trip. The people of Peru are beautiful especially the children so you'll see that I have lots of pictures of children. The pictures here are the three female students on the trip on our girls night out, the little sister of the boys in the three below holding a ducking she had chased around the yard to catch and some friends Dawn made outside of a restaurant in a small town.

2007-01-30T16:43:00.000-08:00

These are those older brothers of the little girl holding the duckling. They are about 30 feet away from where we're standing and up about 10 feet in a tree.
This is our group. We are on the roof and soon to be 4th floor of the Teclides institute, an English institute run by our CLWR host in Lima; Cesar (the Peruvian in the picture).

I'm Still Here!

2007-01-29T07:36:00.000-08:00

I just looked at my blog and was shocked to find I haven't posted in two weeks, oops! I'm back from Peru and trying to get back into the swing of things here in Saskatoon. I returned last Saturday (Jan 20) in the afternoon and came home and slept most of the weekend. Sunday afternoon my friend Shalisha arrived for a visit from Vancouver. I picked her up from the airport and we came back to my house and had a nap, yay! We had a lovely dinner Sunday evening and then came back to my house where I quickly crashed. I don't make a great host when I've just returned from a 3 week trip, sorry! Monday classes started. Fortunately Mondays are pretty relaxed for me as I don't have class until 1:30. I had also wisely got my evening library shift covered, I wouldn't have made it through the shift, too tired! Shalisha rented a car Monday morning to drive out to Carrot River and visit family and the former family farm. Monday night as I was waiting for her to come home I got a phone call from her, she had rolled her car an hour outside of Saskatoon. Fortunately she was ok and was waiting for an ambulance because she had some back pain. I met her at the hospital ER and stayed with her until 3AM when they put her in a quiet corner so she could get some sleep. The next morning I returned to take her home. All X-rays and scans were clear, yay! The snow cushioned her roll according to the paramedics who brought her in. She flew home Tuesday evening. The rest of my week has been fairly uneventful, going to classes, buying books, sleeping, sleeping, sleeping. The trip was exhausting and I'm still trying to recover. I'm also frantically trying to get CPE applications in so I have a place to do CPE this summer. It never ends. This year I just go from one thing to another with very few breaks in between! Now I need to get back to the homework I've been avoiding.

Peruvian Adventures

2007-01-14T14:43:00.000-08:00

Well I´m in my last week of my time here in Peru. It has been quite the adventure. We´ve seen lots and done lots. We have been back in Lima for a few days and tonight we head out again for another overnight bus trip (my least favourite part of the trip) to Casma where we see the work of Diaconia in some of the river basins. We met with the director of Diaconia at the beginning of our trip on one of the first days in Lima (seems like a really long time ago!). Today we met with the president of ILEP (Iglesia Luterana Evangelica Peruana, Evangelical Lutheran church of Peru) and attended worship in a Lutheran congregation, followed by a lunch with the congregation. This afternoon we had some free time and so I napped, had ice cream and bought water. I have to head back soon and pack yet again. I´ll be glad to be home to unpack once and for all for at least a month or two!). Last night we went to a dinner theatre show where we saw examples of at least 6-7 different traditional Peruvian dances and had traditional Peruvian food. The food has be been great. We have been fed really well. They have 600 different kinds of potatoes here in Peru and so potatoes come with everything. I have fallen in love with the people of Peru, they are so gracious and warm and know how to do hospitality in the most amazing ways. Being together all the time as a group of 12 has begun to get trying as we get more tired and more comfortable with each other and our true colours begin to show. It´s nice to know we´re in the home stretch. Tomorrow we check into the hotel in the morning and visit a river basin, Tuesday is another river basin. Wednesday is day off (we haven´t had a whole day off the whole trip!). Wednesday night we travel back to Lima and then Thursday we have a visit to an institute in the evening, free time for shopping in the afternoon and possibly another meeting in the morning. Friday is our debriefing morning, farewell lunch and then free afternoon. The Peruvian handicrafts are beautiful, I look forward to visiting the markets this week and picking up some items. Friday night we are at the airport at 12 for our 2 35AM flight home, arriving in Saskatoon at 2 35PM on Saturday afternoon. And then I plan to sleep for a long time! Time to go pack!

Peru!

2007-01-08T18:52:00.000-08:00

Well we have been here for 6 days now, 1/3 or of our trip. Each day has been completely packed with stuff to do, see and learn. Last night was a major highlight for me. We stayed in a small village with local families. Jann (prof), the two other female students and I stayed together with one family. The guys left in the afternoon and we were toured around the crops by the campesino (farmer) who farmed it and was our host for the evening. Then we went to the second floor of the home which had half walls and a roof and watched the rain storm. We then chatted with the couple who owned the house over tea and bread and went to bed. Illness is starting to hit people here but seems to be passing in a few hours to a day. Tomorrow we travel out to some of the oldest ruins in South America Chavin de Huantar and then board a bus tomorrow night for an overnight bus ride back to Lima. We stay in Lima for a good chunk of time which will be nice as we get a chance to sleep in the same bed for more than one night. Well it´s time for me to get to bed. I´m exhausted. I can´t wait to get home to be able to post pictures and hopefully more coherent blots!

I´m in Peru

2007-01-04T19:22:00.000-08:00

I made it to Peru. We arrived at about 3AM this morning at our hotel after two flights and running through the Toronto airport. We had breakfast this morning, some time off and then off to a welcome lunch at a very fancy Peruvian restaurant. After lunch we met with people from a few different NGO´s and heard about their work that we will be visiting over the next few weeks. Tomorrow we have a tour of Lima before embarking on our first of four overnight bus trips. Tomorrow night we head to Huaraz for a few days and then back to Lima. While in Huaraz we travel out of the city to spend a night in a village in families homes which should be an adventure for sure. I´m shocked by how inexpensive things are here. Internet is about .66 canadian for an hour. A bottle of water is .30. I´ll try to blog again soon. Keep the prayers coming, the taxi drivers are crazy and rumour is the buses aren´t much better.

I'm off on an adventure!

2007-01-03T05:33:00.001-08:00

I'm off to Peru in about 4 hours our flight leaves Saskatoon and we do a bit of flying around the country (Saskatoon - Calgary - Toronto) before boarding a flight to Lima, Peru. I didn't get much sleep last night, too excited I guess so I'm hoping to sleep on the planes. I will post if I get a chance when I'm down there but will for sure post lots when I get back. Please hold my group and I in your prayers as I hold all of you in my prayers.

Happy New Year!

2007-01-01T18:57:00.000-08:00

I wish a very happy new year to all of you who read my blog. I had a great time at home and left Vancouver earlier today and arrived in Saskatoon this evening. Unfortunately my luggage didn't make it so I'm hoping it will arrive tomorrow morning so I can get unpacked and repacked again, yikes! I head to Peru on Wednesday morning so the next day and a bit will be busy getting ready for my trip. I can't wait to go, I think it will be great fun! Please remember our group in your prayers that we may be safe and healthy throughout the trip. I will post blogs and pictures either from Peru if I get time and internet access or right away when I get back on January 20th.
Have a very blessed New Year!

Home For Christmas

2006-12-25T22:44:00.000-08:00

Well I made it through the semester (barely). I finished my last papers on Thursday December 14 and flew home the morning of the 15th. It has been a busy but good trip home. I've enjoyed spending time at home with my family an dout visiting with friends. This year for Christmas my fmaily did something totally new for us and we packed up and went to Victoria on Christmas morning to spend Christmas dinner with my aunt, uncle, cousins and their kids. My aunt and uncle have just moved over to Sidney to be closer to my cousin and his wife and their little girl and my other cousin came in from Australia with her two kids so we came over here to be with them for Christmas dinner. We spend the next couple of days here visiting with them and other family before heading back to the mainland.
I hope you are all having a wonderful Christmas and enjoying time with dear ones.

More Kitty Cats!

2006-12-12T10:32:00.000-08:00

Who'd a thunk I'd become a cat person. I have definitely fallen in love with these two cats. I know I've already posted pictures but I got these today from my housemate Sarah and had to post them. In the top one you can see George has taken Billie under his wing and you can see his paw on Billie's shoulder. The second one is Sandra and I watching a movie and Billie has fallen asleep on my lap. The last one is later on in the evening and Billie has got nice and cozy and is totally out.

Things are going well here, classes are done and I'm just working on papers and have one exam tomorrow. I fly home in three days and can't wait! Tomorrow night I'm having a gingerbread house get together after my only exam. Today I have to finish a paper so I can go out to a movie tonight. Please continue to pray for the seminary community as we all head our separate ways for the holidays that we may find rest and rejuvenation and recover from a rather traumatic semester so that we can come back together again in January.

Grief

2006-12-08T22:43:00.001-08:00

This week has been really hard. It began on Monday when I received news that one of my friends at LTS's dad had died Sunday night. Such sadness for her and her family as they grieve his loss. Tuesday brought grief of another kind. Something happened at school on Tuesday that has caused me and many others a great deal of distress all week. Tonight I came to realise that in many ways it is a deep grief that I am feeling. I am saddened by the fact that one or more students may not return in January because of this situation. I am deeply saddened that some people's lives may never be the same. I worry about this community and I hope and pray this Christmas break will help us to find rest and rejuvenation that we so deeply need. It has been a very hard semester for most in the community, faculty and students alike. This week I also had to confront someone who I have a lot of respect and admiration for because I believed they shared information that was not appropriate with a group of people. Every day this week has brought more sorrow and I pray for an end to the struggles this community faces. Last night we had our seminary Christmas party and it was a wonderful evening a really positive time in the midst of dark times. And yet at one point in the evening I looked around and felt grief because I knew there were people missing who really should have been there. In this time of waiting, Advent, I wait and pray for reconciliation in this community.

Advent Vespers

2006-12-08T22:43:00.000-08:00

Just wanted to share this picture of me and a couple of friends at Advent Vespers tonight at the sem. It was a lovely service. I and my friend Barbara (on my left) were acolytes, fancy title for candle lighter. Erik (man on right of picture) led the service. It was a nice way to end a chaotic and difficult week. One week from tonight I fly home!

Prayers Please

2006-12-05T20:36:00.000-08:00

Well I've often mentioned issues in the seminary community this semester here at LTS but today it reached epic proportions and there seems to be no end in sight. Please pray for this community as we struggle with such brokenness and pain. It is affecting the entire community and some are not able to cope very well with the burden. It's a hard place to be right now, please pray for us.

Time for some Christmas spirit!

2006-12-03T21:07:00.000-08:00

I decided that since December started on Friday (where did it come from, I thought it was still September) that it was time to get into the Christmas mood. So Friday night I called home and got my favourite Christmas baking recipes, went grocery shopping. Saturday I went Christmas shopping and then did Christmas baking and today I decorated. In my grocery shopping on Friday night I found the table cloth ($2.77 at Stupidstore!), while perusing flyers today I saw that Michael's had all their fake trees on for 40% off and so I picked up this little on there for $5 and my housemate was getting into the spirit too and she pulled out all her lights and loaned me some that she wasn't using and voila! I have some more lights to do something on my other window but I'm not sure what yet. I also bought gold and red bead garlands and put them in a glass vase on my coffee table and a mulled cider candle to make it smell Christmassy. Today I also went to a mass choir concert at a local church that the seminary choir was participating in of Advent carols. I love Christmas and especially the season of advent. I don't have an advent calendar or wreath so I may have to do something about that tomorrow, we'll see!
It has been a hard week in the world of LTS, it's the end of the semester hysteria setting in and people are getting touchy, emotional and worn out (including me). It ended with a 4 hour community meeting on Friday to discuss some of the issues that are going on in the community. I think we all need a break! 12 days until I come home, I can't wait! I'm home for 17 days fly back to Saskatoon long enough to unpack and repack so two days later I can fly off to Peru for 17 days coming home two days before classes start again, yikes! It's going to be quite the holiday season. Somewhere in there I may also move upstairs and give up my cozy suite, but that is yet to be decided and I'm not going to stress about it until it happens.
Papers are coming fast and furious. I had a productive weekend last weekend and finished 5 assignments of varying lengths. I wish I could say this weekend has been as productive schoolwise that is, I got lots of Christmas baking, shopping and decorating done but I'm not sure my profs care about that! Six assignments and one exam left before I'm done for the semester on December 14. I have finished two of them so I have a ways to go, two aren't due until next week so the other two will be getting done in the next few days! I'm off to bed but thinking I should plug in my car before I head to bed. I forgot to mention that was down to -30 this weekend, -40 with the windchill on Saturday, fortunately it went up to -13 today. Definitely plugged in my car yesterday! I'm glad to see it's raining in Vancouver much more Vancouverish than the weather they had last week, I don't want to come home to snow! Well I shall bring an end to this ramble.

Snow & Christmas CD's

2006-11-26T15:06:00.000-08:00

Well as I've spoken to various people in Vancouver this weekend I have heard rumour that Vancouver may be getting just a bit of snow (a foot!). Well we got a bit of snow over night but not a lot. Of course the snow that we got weeks ago is still here and will be here until March probably! It was really cold here this weekend and of course that meant the perfect weekend for Saskatoon to host the Vanier Cup at their outdoor stadium! So yesterday afternoon thousands of people including my housemates bundled up and went to watch the U of S Huskies lose to the other team (Laval I think?). It was something like -21 and -36 with the windchill, yikes!
Today thanks to reading Celia's blog I found out that Sufjan Stevens had released a Christmas CD and so I called around and found a copy downtown at HMV so now I'm all set with Christmas music! I also went to Costco and bought timers so I can plug in my car tonight, it'll be the first time I ever plug in a car!
Two more weeks of classes and sooo many papers to write so I guess I better stop procrastinating and get back to it!

Windchill & Other Stuff!

2006-11-22T12:26:00.000-08:00

Well I'm slowly learning what "windchill" means. We had a couple of days where it was beautiful out and above 0. I even walked along the river last night for an hour and was able to take my toque off for most of the walk. Well today it changed dramatically. It was -8 when I left the house this morning and when i walked across the soccer field from the parking lot to the seminary I thought my nose was going to freeze! Later in the morning I went out to go across campus to go to STU (Saskatoon Theological Union, the three seminaries together) worship at the United church seminary I didn't wear my toque, oops! Right now it is -13 and -22 with the windchill. I've never experienced such cold winds.
We had a bit more snow last night and are supposed to get more over the next couple of days, yuck! I've been asked a few times now if I'd rather be boiling my water or dealing with this weather. I would rather boil water any day! This has definitely been an interesting part of my experience here. I'm hoping to go ice skating outside this year, I've never done it in my life. I got a pair of skates for free and so I hope to try them out sometime soon.
School is getting really busy. As I lay awake last night trying to fall asleep I realised that I had 11 papers to do in the next couple of weeks. This is probably not even all of them, yikes!
Two and a half weeks of class left and then one week of exams (only 1!) and final papers (only 1!) and then I fly home on December 15. I will be home until Jan. 1 and then I head back to Saskatoon for two days and on January 3 I head to Peru! I'm really excited about this trip. I get back on January 20 and then classes start January 22. It's going to be a busy semester.
One more thing I have to do in the next couple of weeks is get my applications for CPE programs in so I can do that next summer before heading out on internship next fall.
It's already been a busy year and it's just going to keep getting busier!

Update 3 Friday

2006-11-11T00:26:00.000-08:00

My brother seems to have recovered fully and was released from hospital today. He is at home and will be returning to work soon. They found a hole in his heart but it is apparently a pretty common condition. He will be taking aspirin daily and will follow up with a specialist in a few weeks. Thanks for all of your prayers!

Update 2 Thursday night/Friday morning

2006-11-10T07:27:00.000-08:00

There had been some hope that he would be released last night but the specialist hadn't had a chance to look at the test results from the doppler test and so he was kept overnight again. He is on the neurology ICU at VGH.

Cat Photos

2006-11-09T21:25:00.000-08:00

Well I promised pictures so I took some this morning before I left for school. Here are the two feline residents of my Saskatoon home.

This is George - he has been called "big boned", "the largest cat I've ever seen" and just plain "awesome". He's adapting fairly well to our newest addition to the home who arrived on our doorstep exactly one week ago tonight.

In the picture below you can see George & Blue "playing". This is Blue. In this picture it becomes obvious why his name is Blue. He's a cutie but certainly moves faster than George. Fortunately he doesn't have the strong desire to go outside like George does. He's done the outside in the cold thing and knows a good thing when he sees one!

Update

2006-11-09T20:50:00.000-08:00

I spoke to my mom a couple of hours ago and she was waiting for more test results. They found a hole in his heart that apparently 20% of the population have and can be treated with either surgery or aspirin. So far they think that aspirin will do the trick. There was still one more test to do but if it all came out ok they were going to discharge him tonight. He still has some weakness on his right side but it sounds like his speech is better. Now begins the long road of recovery.

Please Pray

2006-11-09T16:09:00.000-08:00

I received this news from my mom a few hours ago. I have talked to her and we are still awaiting test results. My brother had been gone for tests for about 3 hours when I talked to her. Here is her email:

Thought I should let you know that Dave is in VGH undergoing tests. He is doing much better today. He had a stroke last night that affected the right side of his body, making it difficult for him to move his arm or leg, and slurring his speech. Fortunately I was home and he called me. He was transported by ambulance to VGH and they admitted him and gave him a CT scan and other tests. His major arteries were clear and there was no bleeding in the brain. They were about to administer a strong anti-clotting medication (TPA, which causes massive bleeding in about 5% of patients, but was the treatment recommendation of the neurologists involved and was approved by Dave) when most of his ability to move and speak returned. The treatment was altered to 4 aspirin and at about 3 a.m. he was admitted to the neurology ICU, which is where he is now. They are doing a Doppler to check his legs (for clots, I’m assuming) and an ECG to check the heart.

Ryan and Jessie (Dave’s girlfriend) are there now, but Dave had gone for tests when they arrived. I am at home, but plan to go in this afternoon or whenever he is back in the ward.

God was watching over us, because I was supposed to be out at a dinner meeting and had decided not to go because I had Book Fair stuff to complete and I have a bad cold so I went home. Ryan and Pam had just left before Dave came home from working at SportMart. He and I spoke downstairs for about 10-15 mins., and then he headed upstairs to get some paperwork he needed to complete. That’s when he called me. He had planned to go to Jessie’s but then she decided she would come here. He could have been home alone or driving, so it could have been much worse. Right now we re in a holding pattern until the doctors complete the battery of tests. I’ll let you know when I know more. In the meantime, prayers would be welcomed.

I will post updates as I hear more.

First Week Back Highs & Lows

2006-11-05T07:50:00.000-08:00

Reading week seems so long ago and I was reflecting on my week last night and realised that a lot has happened this week so I thought I'd post a bit of a rundown.
Monday - can't even remember, worked in the library, wrote a paper
Tuesday
Lows - felt really lonely and isolated at school, I always struggle with Tuesdays and Thursdays because of the classes I have those days but today was a particularly rough one.
Highs - came home to find out my housemate had planned a Halloween get together and wanted me to be involved as well, yay! We had pizza, monster's blood drinks and c carved pumpkins. Went out for coffee with a sem friend and we talked about everything, it was great! Got an email from a VST friend letting me know she'll be in Moose Jaw for internship starting in January, so excited!
Wednesday
Lows - another day with a friend arriving on my doorstep in tears, talked about death and dying in pastoral care and counselling
Highs - ummmm not so many
Thursday
Lows - found out I had been left out of a social event (on purpose)
Highs - fantastic workshop on anxiety in a system/community, went out for dinner with 10 other sem students and wound up at the same restaurant as the principal of the Anglican seminary who paid for our entire meal, what a surprise!
- Came home to find out my roommate had found a kitten outside (see previous post, one cat two cat George cat blue cat)
Friday
Lows - ummmm??? immunizations - see highs, overwhelmed with the amount of work to do for next week
Highs - meeting about Peru trip to learn about what immunizations we needed, realised we leave for Peru in 2 months exactly, girls' night - Settlers of Catan wahoo!
Saturday
Lows - talked to a friend and learned that she had had a miscarriage the night before - praying for you my friend.
Highs - went to a workshop on the new hymnal, looks great! Got a paper done! The temperature outside got above 0 (0.8), it's even warmer today!
So that's my week, so full of highs and lows. I guess that's why it seems to have been such a long week!

One cat, two cat, George cat, blue cat

2006-11-03T16:54:00.000-08:00

Last night we had a bit of a surpirse at about 11:30. My housemate had just come home and heard a cat crying outside our front door. She opened the door and there was a little kitten crying away. So we now have two cats in the house. Some of you may not know that our resident cat is George a "big boned" black with some white cat, who has lots of personality. "Blue" is our new little kitten with mostly off white fur with light and dark brown patches and one blue eye. I'll take pictures soon and post them.