It's been a while since we updated and not much of great significance happened-- but here is a lowdown on some of the semi-interesting (to us) stuff that went on...
We went to Swan River, MB where we went to a fundraiser for the Families Mexico Mission. Leah Penner and some of her friends raised about $590 to go towards providing for the Vision B Orphanage in Tijuana this Christmas. Praise God!
We had lots of desserts, a music recital by the kids and I gave a short picture presentation of our ministry in Mexico. We had a good time!
Next we went to the Nipawin Bible College Alumni retreat for our final weekend in Canada. We enjoyed staying with Wes and diane Fehr and their kids while we were there. It was a little strange at first to stay with our old teacher (10-13 years ago) and not call him "sir" or "Mr. Fehr". After a few minutes of visiting it seemed more like dropping in on old friends and we had a great time.
Our kids got a chance to go snow-sliding as well on the little hill next to the Fehr's home. It's been more than 2 years since they were able to do that and boy were they happy!
Our final speaking engagement was in a small baptist church- Bagley Baptist- in Saskatchewan. We had supper at the parents of our friends in Tisdale, SK (home of Brent Butt!!) They thought they knew where the church was, but didn't really- so off we went with sketchy directions. We got to the grid road and went straight- for abouy 15 minutes, till we relaized we were lost. We asked for directions, which were wrong, and made our way to the Lutheran church!
We turned around, got to a cross roads and took a vote- left or right (kind of a modern Ummim and Thurim) and turned left. We were 10 minutes away from just keeping going on when we came upon the church! We were 15 minutes late so "snuck in" ( 5 people sneaking into the front-ish rows in a church of 20 people, isn't really sneaky). After some songs it was our turn. We couldn't get the video projector to work! So after 10 minutes of fussing with modern technology to no avail we were ready to give up and go with stories, when it started working!
Afterwards we had a lunch at one of the most elaboratly decorated houses (Christmas style) I've ever seen. It was incredible! The kids counted 30+ Christmas trees, dozens of angels and tons of other decorations! It was a good time to visit.
From there we left the snow jus tnorth east of Saskatoon and really didn't see it again! By the time we got to Swift current, we were peeling off our coats to bask in the +6 weather. By Great Falls, Montana, we were almost ready for shorts!
Traffic was good until Salt lake city- and Las vegas and Barstow, CA. The last day we drove was the day before Thanksgiving and traffic was a mess.
We arrived in Santa Clarita, CA to visit with the Sauers- very good friends of the family. They are RV'ing across the US and Canada for a year and are in California now. So we visited with them for US thanksgiving. Tina Sauers put on an increidble supper - unbelievable considering she did it in a camper trailer! We missed the Canadian Turkey day down here and we happy to be able to stuff ourselves to the gills on casseroles, turkey, cranberry sauce and desserts...
We alos went to Santa Monica Pier to see an interesting site- a small theme-park liek place on a pier. It was cool to see, thoigh Jacob was very sad that we were THAT close to a roller coaster, and he couldn't ride it!
We also swam lots in a heated outdoor pool! It likely would not have seemd warm enough to us to go swimming (66F 18C) had we not gone to Canada, but given our wide, climactic travels this month, it seemed very very nice to us!
We arrive back home last night after fighting LA traffic (1 1/2 hours for about 30 miles) and a flat tire! We blew a tire on the fast lane of the highway and had to pull over to the left- only to realize there was not enough room- so with a flat, smoking, tire we crossed 5 lanes of 75MPH traffic to the right shoulder, (Praise God for his protection!) where we found a safe place to change the tire...
We got home by 9pm and ur house was wonderful! one of the local missionary ladies had someone come in to clean it up nicely, so we had a pleasant arrival home. We're very thankful for Miguel, our housesitter, for caring for our animals and house! It is very nice to arrive home to a clean place with everythign still in it!!
Sunday, November 30, 2008
Thursday, November 13, 2008
The Trip continues
We all had a great time in LaRonge. Shar and I lived there for a cup of coffee about 12 years ago and it was amazing how we could reconnect with a few folks almost like we hadn't been gone that long! It's a beautiful place that we are very fond of- it was a good visit!
The boys had their first Saskatchewan snowfall in 2 years in LaRonge and enjoyed immensly the snowball fights, rolling around in the snow and finding fallen trees in the bush to bring back home!
We spoke at the Lutheran church after a Mexican supper and got to share our ministry with a few folks there. I relearned how to drive in snow again- not a big fan of it- I'd rather do mud bogs on hillsides anyday!!
The drive down to Turtleford was through snow and on icey / slushy roads. We're thankful for God's provision of safety for us! We were almost half way between laRonge and Prince Albert (230km trip- without much in between for the first 150km!) when I realized I had not filled up with gas before leaving LaRonge! We turned on the laptop GPS and found a gas station in Weyakwin- not far from where we were. We were able to buy overpriced emergency gas- enough to get us to the city, Praise God!!
Today I slept in! I almost never do that but I slept so late, the sun was up! (which is pretty late in N. Sask in winter!) the folks here (Steins) fixed us an incredible canadian breakfast with bacon, eggs, toast, pancakes with blueberry and saskatoon berry preserves!
We went for a walk to the grocery store- downhill about 4 blocks away and I almost froze my face off! It's only hovering arounf 0C (32F) and most folks here aren't even wearing hats or mitts. Here we were bundled up against the freezing weather- looking like southerners! It took 10 minutes in the grocery store to thaw my cheeks out so I could talk again
Today we're going to go to the local nursing home and share some slides an Shar is going to sing in Spanish. Tonight is a potluck supper and we'll share with the local church what God has been doing in Mexico through us!
Please continue to pray for us- esp. road safety- the roads are slippery and snowy and I haven't got my "snow-wheels" quite back yet!
God bless,
MM
The boys had their first Saskatchewan snowfall in 2 years in LaRonge and enjoyed immensly the snowball fights, rolling around in the snow and finding fallen trees in the bush to bring back home!
We spoke at the Lutheran church after a Mexican supper and got to share our ministry with a few folks there. I relearned how to drive in snow again- not a big fan of it- I'd rather do mud bogs on hillsides anyday!!
The drive down to Turtleford was through snow and on icey / slushy roads. We're thankful for God's provision of safety for us! We were almost half way between laRonge and Prince Albert (230km trip- without much in between for the first 150km!) when I realized I had not filled up with gas before leaving LaRonge! We turned on the laptop GPS and found a gas station in Weyakwin- not far from where we were. We were able to buy overpriced emergency gas- enough to get us to the city, Praise God!!
Today I slept in! I almost never do that but I slept so late, the sun was up! (which is pretty late in N. Sask in winter!) the folks here (Steins) fixed us an incredible canadian breakfast with bacon, eggs, toast, pancakes with blueberry and saskatoon berry preserves!
We went for a walk to the grocery store- downhill about 4 blocks away and I almost froze my face off! It's only hovering arounf 0C (32F) and most folks here aren't even wearing hats or mitts. Here we were bundled up against the freezing weather- looking like southerners! It took 10 minutes in the grocery store to thaw my cheeks out so I could talk again
Today we're going to go to the local nursing home and share some slides an Shar is going to sing in Spanish. Tonight is a potluck supper and we'll share with the local church what God has been doing in Mexico through us!
Please continue to pray for us- esp. road safety- the roads are slippery and snowy and I haven't got my "snow-wheels" quite back yet!
God bless,
MM
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
The Trip Continued
Day 4
We made it through the border (Praise God!!)! We decided to take another route through Saskatchewan instead. While the highways were only 2 lane, there was almost noone on them so we could cruise along them at about 75mph the whole way. We made great time and crossed the border easily and made our way to Martensville early enough in the evening. We had a great visit with the Macoohs. Interestingly enough, our boys connected really well with the 10 and 8 year old Macooh girls (Courtney and Alex) and played and played and played all weekend long!
Day 5
Shar and I went to Saskatoon Saturday morning to speak with the the missions committee of Diefenbaker Drive Community Church. We had a great breakfast and visit and a good time to Share what God is doing in Mexico with us and through us.
We visited in the afternoon with friends of ours from Langham while watching the Saskatchewan Roughriders lay an egg in the CFL West Semi-final. I recovered from the pain soon after and we enoyed the rest of our visit with the Macoohs in Martensville again!
Day 6
We spoke at the Martensville Baptist Church and reconnected with lots of folks there. It is a growing church! When we left they were averaging around 150 folks and after a building program, they had 236 in church on Sunday! Lots of new believers and new attenders! It was a blessing to reconnect with them!
Day 7 was spent running errands in S'toon and then going to Timber Bay, SK. We visited with friends of ours- the Langendoens- for a few hours in Timber Bay. They have 6 kids from 2 1/2 -13 years old so our kids had a blast playing there.
Day 8-
We are in LaRonge, SK- about 400km north of Saskatoon in da bush. There was a mini-blizzard on the way up and it has been snowing today. The boys have been playing with the Karstad kids in the snow. Shar and Wendy have been preparing supper for tonight's Mexican Supper at the Lutheran Church. We're expecting maybe 60 folks from different churches to come by and see what God is doing in Mexico. We are also hoping to raise enough money to build a casita for a family in Tijuana who lost theirs to fire.
God bless, thanks for praying!
We made it through the border (Praise God!!)! We decided to take another route through Saskatchewan instead. While the highways were only 2 lane, there was almost noone on them so we could cruise along them at about 75mph the whole way. We made great time and crossed the border easily and made our way to Martensville early enough in the evening. We had a great visit with the Macoohs. Interestingly enough, our boys connected really well with the 10 and 8 year old Macooh girls (Courtney and Alex) and played and played and played all weekend long!
Day 5
Shar and I went to Saskatoon Saturday morning to speak with the the missions committee of Diefenbaker Drive Community Church. We had a great breakfast and visit and a good time to Share what God is doing in Mexico with us and through us.
We visited in the afternoon with friends of ours from Langham while watching the Saskatchewan Roughriders lay an egg in the CFL West Semi-final. I recovered from the pain soon after and we enoyed the rest of our visit with the Macoohs in Martensville again!
Day 6
We spoke at the Martensville Baptist Church and reconnected with lots of folks there. It is a growing church! When we left they were averaging around 150 folks and after a building program, they had 236 in church on Sunday! Lots of new believers and new attenders! It was a blessing to reconnect with them!
Day 7 was spent running errands in S'toon and then going to Timber Bay, SK. We visited with friends of ours- the Langendoens- for a few hours in Timber Bay. They have 6 kids from 2 1/2 -13 years old so our kids had a blast playing there.
Day 8-
We are in LaRonge, SK- about 400km north of Saskatoon in da bush. There was a mini-blizzard on the way up and it has been snowing today. The boys have been playing with the Karstad kids in the snow. Shar and Wendy have been preparing supper for tonight's Mexican Supper at the Lutheran Church. We're expecting maybe 60 folks from different churches to come by and see what God is doing in Mexico. We are also hoping to raise enough money to build a casita for a family in Tijuana who lost theirs to fire.
God bless, thanks for praying!
Thursday, November 06, 2008
The Trip... so far...
DAY 1
We left at 7:40am from our home and had to run a couple errands on the Mexican side before heading out and made it into the regular line where we waited an average wait time of about an hour. In the US, we had a few errands to run as well and needed to go to the US office near Los Angeles.
We had made it there early enough and it seemed to be too chilly to swim- so we skipped the wigwam hotel and went to Primm Valley Nevada which would have put us ahead of the driving game. This is a casino "town" with several hotels- we got a room for $19.95!! Very cool- The bigger price though was that you had to walk through a smokey casino to go to the room and out of the hotel. The pool was closed at 6pm (for some crazy reason) so we went to the outlet mall to get some food. It was big but not busy at all. Because it was midweek- everything else was closed- the arcades, the pool, the roller coaster, the drop of doom-- everything! It was a neat looking place, when things are open!
DAY 2
So the next day we got off late and made it to Pocatello, Idaho. The motel there had an open, warm pool.
On the way there, we went through the mountains and at 6500 feet ASL we ran into about 2 inches of snow and a mini-blizzard! The boys were so excited we pulled over in a safe spot and had a snowball fight! It was a lot of fun until the cold set in! I was in my shorts and Jacob in his sandals! It was then we realized that we hadn't brought any shoes for Jacob! He apparently doesn't have any shoes that fit him! Which sounds crazy, but he uses sandals for 8 months of the year, so we don't usually buy shoes until November-December and I guess that chore got lost in the preps!
We had a good night sleep and got on the road at about 9am this morning.
DAY 3
We made it through Idaho and into Montana and at the border, we got turned around! I could hardly believe it as is was happening. We cross the US Mexican border at least once a week and have crossed in Us vehicles, Canadian ones and Mexican ones with no issue. I've flown into Buffalo and crossed into Canada with a New York plated Rental vehicle with no problem because I am a Mexican resident. But today was trouble. The border official disputed our residential status in Mexico and sent us back into the states. It was 1 3/4 hours back to Great Falls, MT. Now we are praying about what to do- whether to rent a vehicle ($1600US + $400 insurance- and no where near that amount of money to do it!) or whether to try again to cross at the same crossing or go further east into a MT-Saskatchewan crossing.
I'm going to call the Border services in Montreal tomorrow at 6am our time to see what they say.
Please pray that the Lord would give us favour at the border and we would get a border guard that lets us through!
Thanks and God bless!!
Mike
We left at 7:40am from our home and had to run a couple errands on the Mexican side before heading out and made it into the regular line where we waited an average wait time of about an hour. In the US, we had a few errands to run as well and needed to go to the US office near Los Angeles.
We had made it there early enough and it seemed to be too chilly to swim- so we skipped the wigwam hotel and went to Primm Valley Nevada which would have put us ahead of the driving game. This is a casino "town" with several hotels- we got a room for $19.95!! Very cool- The bigger price though was that you had to walk through a smokey casino to go to the room and out of the hotel. The pool was closed at 6pm (for some crazy reason) so we went to the outlet mall to get some food. It was big but not busy at all. Because it was midweek- everything else was closed- the arcades, the pool, the roller coaster, the drop of doom-- everything! It was a neat looking place, when things are open!
DAY 2
So the next day we got off late and made it to Pocatello, Idaho. The motel there had an open, warm pool.
On the way there, we went through the mountains and at 6500 feet ASL we ran into about 2 inches of snow and a mini-blizzard! The boys were so excited we pulled over in a safe spot and had a snowball fight! It was a lot of fun until the cold set in! I was in my shorts and Jacob in his sandals! It was then we realized that we hadn't brought any shoes for Jacob! He apparently doesn't have any shoes that fit him! Which sounds crazy, but he uses sandals for 8 months of the year, so we don't usually buy shoes until November-December and I guess that chore got lost in the preps!We had a good night sleep and got on the road at about 9am this morning.
DAY 3
We made it through Idaho and into Montana and at the border, we got turned around! I could hardly believe it as is was happening. We cross the US Mexican border at least once a week and have crossed in Us vehicles, Canadian ones and Mexican ones with no issue. I've flown into Buffalo and crossed into Canada with a New York plated Rental vehicle with no problem because I am a Mexican resident. But today was trouble. The border official disputed our residential status in Mexico and sent us back into the states. It was 1 3/4 hours back to Great Falls, MT. Now we are praying about what to do- whether to rent a vehicle ($1600US + $400 insurance- and no where near that amount of money to do it!) or whether to try again to cross at the same crossing or go further east into a MT-Saskatchewan crossing.
I'm going to call the Border services in Montreal tomorrow at 6am our time to see what they say.
Please pray that the Lord would give us favour at the border and we would get a border guard that lets us through!
Thanks and God bless!!
Mike
Monday, November 03, 2008
Nos Vemos!
We'll see you!!
We are on our way as of 8am Tuesday Nov 4 (Election Day in the US). We're going to get to San Bernardino CA tomorrow and stay at a WigWam Mote. You stay in concrete Teepees- kinda like the once motel on Cars. It's on the old Route 66 that runs through the area! Should be very cool, we're thinking!
Please pray as we put on the Kilometers in our new ot us Van. It's a huge blessing that we're able to use it and we are very thankful! Pray for safety for the almost 4 weeks of almost constant driving!! Please also pray fo rour relationships with each other- that we would have all of the pacience we need and that we would be looking out for the needs of each other.
Please pray also that our needs would be met as we travel and speak in churches and with individuals! The expenses often add up quickly on a trip like this one.
Please also pray that we would be a blessing and an encouragement to the churches and people we speak with and stay with- that God would be glorified!
Thanks for partnering with us! Looking forward to seeing many of you!
Mike
We are on our way as of 8am Tuesday Nov 4 (Election Day in the US). We're going to get to San Bernardino CA tomorrow and stay at a WigWam Mote. You stay in concrete Teepees- kinda like the once motel on Cars. It's on the old Route 66 that runs through the area! Should be very cool, we're thinking!
Please pray as we put on the Kilometers in our new ot us Van. It's a huge blessing that we're able to use it and we are very thankful! Pray for safety for the almost 4 weeks of almost constant driving!! Please also pray fo rour relationships with each other- that we would have all of the pacience we need and that we would be looking out for the needs of each other.
Please pray also that our needs would be met as we travel and speak in churches and with individuals! The expenses often add up quickly on a trip like this one.
Please also pray that we would be a blessing and an encouragement to the churches and people we speak with and stay with- that God would be glorified!
Thanks for partnering with us! Looking forward to seeing many of you!
Mike
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