Two Projects...

Just a quick note on my work these last few weeks, culminating with an all-day meeting today. Since returning from Mexico, among many other things, I have been doing reports and evaluations for the boards that I work for at the Conference office. Along with that work, I initiated a new project that I presented today at our Board of Missions meeting (7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.). The project was a strategy paper that I wrote about our mission work in Mexico, looking back over the past 50 years of our time there, evaluating what our current status is, and presenting some proposals for the coming years. It was a great project and produced good feedback from board members today, and, together with my mission co-workers at the office, we have been given the green light to forge ahead on this strategy work. I am pretty pumped about what this will mean for the future of missions within the EMC.
The other project I reported on was the short-term mission/ministry program our Conference offers to students every summer. While it has normally been a mission-focused venture under the name "Project Macedonia," this year I was again given the green light to move forward with a new proposal. This new program is called SOLID and will focus on Leadership Development for our high school leaders. The running of this program will also accomplish another aspect of our Mission program, and that is that it will be the internship for two couples who are on their way to the Mission field, LeRoy & Faith Siemens and Dallas & Tara Wiebe.
Between these two projects and other work that continually piles up on my desk, my work has been busy but very exciting as well. I feel so blessed and privileged to be doing this work/ministry for the Conference - this June it will be 9 years since I started...together with the 4 years on the mission field in Mexico during the 90's, I will have worked 13 years for the same organization - pretty amazing I would say! And...while we don't know yet where the Lord is leading us in the future, we sure believe he has lots more amazing things he wants us to do for His Kingdom - what an incredible joy to have our lives in the hands of our loving Saviour! PTL!

We sure appreciate your prayers...
Gerald

Snow Forts

With the warmer weather the kids have enjoyed being outside. Caleb decided to build a fort in the pile of snow over the garden. Once he got going the other two joined in. They now have it big enough for all three of them to fit in.

Friday night was another of our homeschool gym nights. Olivia has really enjoyed playing with some girls her age. The boys have lots of fun too - the explaining of who did what and what move happened next takes almost the whole ride home afterwards. We are blessed to be involved with this group.

Saturday I canned a batch of salsa. Gerald had gone to the store to buy some since we were out. It simmered all day and the house smelled of salsa and pumpkin bars. Not the best of combinations. I decided it was time to clean out some of the bags in the freezer. I've made rhubarb cake and pumpkin bars. I still have another bag of rhubarb and some zucchini in there. I better wait a few days until some of this dessert is gone. Gerald helped me put the salsa in jars after he came home from a youth event. We went to sleep listening to the popping sound of the jars sealing. A sweet sound of success!

Tomorrow starts another week. The days go by so quickly and it seems there is always more to do. So, I better get to bed or the kids will be up before I am. Have a good Monday!

Sandy

Thanks Focus on the Family

I am enjoying a few minutes to myself while my dear children are doing my chores. I read something in the last Focus on the Family Magazine that I have decided to implement in our house. When I ask my children to do a chore they can choose to do it or they can choose not to do it. But if they choose not to do what I have asked I will do it myself, but then they have to do one of my chores. Right now, two of them are folding clothes and one of them is finishing the dishes. The reality is that if they had done what I orginially asked them to do they would have long been done with the chore and back to playing. We will see how well this works! Either way it is nice to have a little break :)

We are so ready for this bitter cold to end. The long range forcast does tell us that there is a end to the bitter cold. The cabin fever is getting to us and we long to be outside again. The kids have Awana tonight - it is doesn't get cancelled due to the cold.

Hope you are keeping warm,
Sandy

Family Report...

First of all I just wanted to say that our date on Friday night was a real blessing for Sandy and I...we did tons of talking and re-connected with each other which was way overdue given the nature of our busy week preparing for doing our mission report in our church this morning. I even bought Sandy a dozen roses and she told me today that they are the most beautiful ones she has ever had...go Ger!!!
Speaking of our report, the kids did a fantastic job of speaking clearly and sharing their stories and it was a delight for us to do this as a family because our trip to Mexico was about family as well. It was a wonderful worship service and we were so blessed to be a part of it, to hear others share their reports, and to be inspired by our beautiful Saviour to continue to be faithful to His calling on our lives!

(Might this be the first time soccer balls were kicked around during a worship service at Steinbach EFC? The boys showing off some of their skills at the beginning of our report...)

A special treat was to have one of our neighbour families show up...the kids and I went out on Saturday (while Sandy stayed home and prayed) and handed out about 15 invitations to the neighbours close to our home here in Steinbach. We let them know about our report and, more importantly, just encouraged them to give church a try and find out that there is so much more to life if it is in Christ! We, of course, hoped and prayed that more would come but we were so thrilled when the one family did show up! God is so awesome and He is in the business of transforming lives, even those on Hanover Street here in Steinbach!

We all enjoyed the warmer weather on Saturday and I have posted some pictures of the kids having some outdoor fun!

May you all experience God's power in your lives this week!

Blessings,

Gerald

Date Night

Oh the sweetness of a Friday! The last day of school - looking forward to Gerald being home for a few days - a lazy Saturday! All things that we at our house look forward to. Today we are also looking forward to a date! Gerald and I haven't been on a date for about six months or so. We are so ready and need some time to ourselves. The plus side is that the kids are excited for us to go too. They LOVE their babysitter Melissa. In fact, this morning the first thing Olivia said is, "Melissa is coming today!" I told Andrew this morning that I had some bad news for him. He quickly responds, "Melissa isn't coming." I told him no, the news was that he had to take the recycling to the street and it was very cold. His response - "Oh, that's all!" They look forward to us going so they can have a blast with Melissa.

It has been a very full week. Gerald has spent many of his hours at home working on our presentation for Sunday. We are sharing about our missions trip to Mexico in church this Sunday. It has been very difficult to put five months into a ten minute report. Do you think they will mind if we go over? Our whole family is participating - well, except Lobo. Even though he is Mexican we felt it was best that he stays at home :) We are looking forward to Sunday, but it is hard to convey all the feelings and emotions about our life there. I realize that this is really impossible, but we still want to share how we saw God move and how we grew in our love for Jesus during our time there.

For now we are trying to keep warm and looking forward to the promised warmer weather that is coming.

Sandy

Caleb's New Shoes

Our phone is still not working but there are promises that it will happen tomorrow. Apparently they did some work on our box outside last Friday and the phone hasn't worked since then. I have to admit that I didn't really mind that much - it was nice and quiet. But then we got the email saying that Gerald's parents were trying to call us from Texas - that wasn't so good!

We got a box on Monday of a few items that I had ordered for the kids. Caleb's stash included a new pair of skater shoes. He LOVES this type of shoe. I ordered the next size because he had some runners that work for now and told him he couldn't wear them until summer. Caleb, being Caleb, fenagled a deal that he could wear them in the house for awhile. He wore them the rest of the day yesterday. This morning he come up, still sleepy eyed, dressed in his "Cars" jammies and his new runners. He was quiet the sight. (Too bad we didn't take a picture) I wouldn't be surprised if he had slept in the shoes.

The kids are outside playing. They have worked very hard to make the snow pile in the front yard (the deposits from the snow plow) into a slide. Their sleds actually make it to the neighbor's driveway. They are quite proud of themselves. Of course that may be spurred on by Cameron telling them that was the best slide he has seen that was made by kids.

I am going to enjoy a few quiet moments before starting supper.

Sandy

Don't Call Us

It has been a somewhat quiet weekend at our house - our phone has not worked the whole weekend. It has been kind of nice! I guess we will have to call the phone company tomorrow and get it fixed. It has been really cold and we have been holed up in the house. Gerald took Olivia out for breakfast on Saturday morning. While they were out they picked up a few groceries.

Saturday afternoon Gerald and the kids worked on their cars for Awana. Gerald did most of the carving and the beginning of the sanding. Then the kids took over and sanded their little hearts out. They are now at the stage of thinking of what colors they want to paint them. The Grand Prix is March 28th so they have some time yet to "perfect" their cars.

Andrew is feeling much better - he still has a bit of a cough but is on the mend. I am getting there too. Tomorrow starts another week. Andrew has a math test to make up from Friday yet and then he will be caught up.

Have a great week!

Sandy

Olivia Stands Alone

After this mornings trip to the clinic Olivia remains the only member of our family who hasn't had a round of antibiotics since we came home to Canada. I took Andrew up this morning. With his asthma a cold and cough often seem to go straight to his chest. He fought it off for awhile but yesterday it seemed that he started feeling worse. He was up coughing lots during the night and started running a fever. Neither Andrew nor I got a flu shot this year since we were not here. Now we are both on antibiotics. I have a chest cough as well as a urinary tract infection. I struggled with several of those while we were in Mexico but never took antibiotics. Now it seems that I've been washing some of it out with lots of water but never really taking care of the infection.

I think a few days of rest will do us both good. I woke up this morning around 3:30 am and didn't really go back to sleep. It will most likely be a lazy day. Caleb and Olivia are working on puzzles and Andrew is laying on the couch. There are lots of left overs in the fridge.

Stay healthy,
Sandy

Pictures...

Apparently we haven't posted alot of pictures lately so here we go...

(Generous friends Kevin and Lynn Davis had us over to their home to do some sledding behind an old snowmobile he had borrowed...the kids had a blast...)

(Getting ready for a snowball fight...)

(Sandy and Lynn watching the action...)

(Olivia was quite sick last week...apparently a nap on the livingroom floor with Lobo was in order...)

(With our office staff we hosted a Mission Pizza Nite at Steinbach Bible College, our Conference school...a whole wack of pizza was consumed by hungry college students...)

(Students attentively listening to our presentations...)

Tonight Sandy is at church participating in a Ladies Bible Study using a Beth Moore video series...she was tired but excited to go. We had a great day yesterday as we all went out to Winnipeg to Missionfest to schmooze with people by the EMC Mission Display and then listen to Gracia Burnham share some of her story from being held hostage in the Phillipines several years ago. It was very inspiring to hear her humble story of being used by God in extreme situations...oh that the Lord would find us that willing to serve...

Later on we went to my brother Milt's home to celebrate his birthday along with his two teenage daughters' birthdays...ended up watching the second half of the Super Bowl, which was fun but kind of wierd as well as we haven't watched a lot of t.v. lately so everything seemed pretty shallow, especially the "fantastic commercials" that were shown throughout the game. We had a fun evening and a great day, that's for sure!

Time to get the kids to bed.

Blessings,

Gerald

Lobo

Another week coming to a close. My accomplishments this week include mailing in my application for Canadian citzenship as well as the paperwork for homeschooling our children.

Gerald left this afternoon for Mission Fest in Winnipeg. We won't see much of him for the next few days.

So my thoughts today are centering around our puppy Lobo. He is the cutest puppy! He is four and a half months old and potty trained - Finally!! He loves to cuddle and play. I took him outside today with me today as I did a little clean up in the backyard (he should be there because it was his messes that I was cleaning up :). He followed me everywhere - just a few steps behind me all the way. He does that in the house too. He even follows me to the bathroom and if he gets stuck outside the door he will scratch to come in. He will appears to be sleeping soundly on his pillow but if I go downstairs he will quickly scamper down after me. Today I tried to get down there as quietly as I could to see if I could "trick" him. I couldn't. He heard me and came after me. In the evenings he likes to sit next to me or even on my lap - just wants to be close to me all the time. To be honest, I like that! I like the attachment he has to me. I was pondering this while I was washing dishes this afternoon. Then I was quite profoundly reminded by my Jesus that this is what He longs for from me. He wants me to long to be near Him all day long. To follow His every step and to want to know where He is at all times. I can't trick Him with the sincereness of my Christian walk. He does want to be with me all day long in every step or move that I make. So now comes the evalution part. How much or how little of my day am I walking in step with Him?

Sandy