Friday, August 12, 2011

Oh, by the way...


We were blessed yesterday by a visit from Rick and Deanna Bergen. We showed them around our place, chatted and took them to our church. They were very informative and very encouraging and by they time they headed off, the fire for Brazil had been rekindled.

During our conversation, Rick pointed out an excellent observation he had made. I haven't been blogging. Normally I would have just shrugged to myself and thought, "Nope, I haven't been blogging. Haven't really felt like it, truth be told." But then he provided me with another stunning revelation, something along these lines, "No one knows what is going on with you if you don't tell them." He didn't really put it that way, but during our conversation, the light bulb went on. I think the fact that my mother had called a couple days previously and asked, "Are you still alive down there?" and commented on the fact that when people ask her questions like, "So, do Koos and Aubrey still have all four kids?" she just has to shrug her shoulders and say, "I dunno. I never hear from them," should have been the first indication. Or maybe Bonnie's email entitled, "Long time no hear???" but no, it took one more nudge for me to get with the program.

I guess I am quite surprised to learn that people don't automatically know what is going on with us from my vague Facebook statuses. Come on people, can't you figure out from all the Lord of the Rings quotations what we are doing?

Well, apparently not. Or maybe you just think we are watching Lord of the Rings or something like that. So here, against my otherwise lazy nature and taking time from my Facebook Scrabble playing, is an update.

We are still in Duncan. And I think that is probably part of the problem. We really like it here. The town is great (except for the Trans Canada highway, I still have issues with that), the church is amazing and the people outstanding, we have family here who delight in spoiling our children, other family and friends come to visit. The kids are already asking to go back to school and Caitlind has pledged to make Duncan her home forever. We love Boys Road.

Danger, danger. We are getting comfy, maybe losing sight of why we came here in the first place. Time flies when you are having fun.

I guess it is time to refocus. Take an inventory. So here it is.

Since arriving in Duncan late in September 2010, the kids and I made a huge transition from homeschooling to DCS. It was emotional for all of us, but the kids pulled through with style and grace. DCS was very good to us.

Koos knocked down his Perspectives course in grand fashion, receiving 100% on his final assignment. I finished my TESOL and TEYL courses with distinction (although I still have to figure out how to get a practicum done).

Koos, Caitlind and I all attended Life's Healing Choices at the church. I attended the Voices of Change - Leadercast Conference and a seminar called "Daughter You're Amazing" at the church, we were part of small life group that met every second week for the winter season. Koos completed a training course called "Soul Journey".

Koos and Delaena are learning to play guitar. Delaena has written two songs. Brooke continued with her piano lessons and performed at her first recital. Koos, Brooke and Calahn performed "Trading My Sorrows" at the DCS talent show and Delaena performed a dance entitled "Dance Your Shoes Off" with some of her classmates.

We attended Family Camp weekend at Camp Qwanoes and that led to an opportunity to volunteer with the camp during the exact week a representative from a Christian Brazilian youth organization will be there. We are pretty excited about the timing of that, considering the crazy twists and turns the process of applying to the camp took. It was almost as if God stalled and maneuvered until we had no choice but to attend that week. If anything more comes of that, I will be sure to blog about it. Really.

Caitlind was baptized. Brooke was baptized.

New Life's work on Boys Road is going to be featured across Canada as part of the Global Leadership Summit at the end of September. The film crew was filming during Brooke's baptism also, there were 10 other people who were baptized in the river at the same time she was.

So there, that is a bit of what we've been up to. We also almost prematurely killed our cat, thinking she was going crazy, but then finding out she had fleas and we got a puppy. Who also had fleas. We learned that there are fleas on Vancouver Island.

Mostly though, what we think this first year has been about is meeting some more members of 'the team'. When this Brazil thing comes to pass, we are going to need a lot of support. When we stop and think about it, we have been blessed abundantly with supportive people through our entire walk. Edmonton, Fairview, Hay River and now here in Duncan. God truly is amazing in the way He can orchestrate such small details over such a large world.

We are sure each and every person we have met and are going to meet will have the opportunity to play a part in this story that appears to be unfolding. We look forward to it with much anticipation.

And I hereby promise to keep everyone in the loop. Really.






1 comment:

  1. Amazing....you are such a prolific writer Aubrey! keep it up!

    ReplyDelete

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