I'm Leaving on a Jet plane...

Only five more hours until I wake up and leave the house! Perhaps I should be in bed as I write this seeing that that's not much sleep... but then again, maybe I am asleep as I write this! haha
So for those of you who don't know, tomorrow my mom and I are flying out early in the morning to Rome and then we're boarding a cruise liner for ten days where we'll go through Greece, Turkey and Croatia! Then we're off to Venice for a few days and back home again! So I'm excited.

Got home two days ago, so it's a bit weird to be leaving right away again. And I"m sick with bronchitis or something similar and it's quite frustrating. Hope that gets better early into my trip! Went to Ben and Kari Friesen's wedding today and it was beautiful! The reception was held at Minter Gardens and it was a joy to watch them get married and enjoy their day!

So now I'm off for two weeks. Not sure if I"ll have access to update this or not, but I'd love to have tons of comments when I get back!! :) Just to know I was missed or something! God bless!

Worship in the Park

Calamari

The College where we stayed

Female Staff

My fish tank

My Team

Newest McLean Member

Final Airport Goodbye

Waiting

I am now in the Montreal airport and have been here for about eight hours. I am definitely anxious to get home! But hanging out at the airport today has been fun. THis morning I was with two girls that I know and then the guys from the band from France came before their flight and we all hung out for a little. Below is a picture of Theresa eating poutine here in Quebec! Good ol' cultural dish here!

Crazy to think that my time in Montreal is over. It really was a good time even though I'm tired now! Really encouraging to see God's work and to know that what He's been doing is far greater than even the little glimpses that I saw. I have much more to write, but there is a lady from the Congo sitting next to me talking to me, so I think perhaps I shall chat with her before catching my plane. More pictures and exciting things to come later...

A lovely day in Montreal

Well it's Sunday and two more days until I head home! This weekend has been a lot cooler which I have been so grateful for! Friday night we had a rock, jazz and blues concert in one of the parks which was great. So good to talk to all the people who had come out as well. Yesterday was debrief day and it was really encouraging to hear sharing within my own team and in the larger group as to what God has been doing. Exciting to see how people minds and perspectives have been changed!

This morning I'm going to a church called Curious. What we're doing today is going to a cemetary and walking around alone for one to two hours and then we come together and discuss what our different thoughts were. I'm really excited for it, because it's totally different! I can't believe my time here is almost done. I'm excited to come home though! It's been really good to meet some different people here and I have really been encouarged by different friendships that I've been blessed with while here. Lots of different thoughts going through my head, but it's been really good to think through all of it. Oh and I found out that one of my fish died in my absence. Sniffle sniffle. Now there are three and the tank hasn't been cleaned in a month and from what I hear you can't quite see through it!

As I've been here, one of the biggest things I've been learning is that I needed to surrender my expectations to God first and foremost. I had expectation coming in and I wanted God to come join me in what I thought should happen, especially in our team. Then I realized once again that God's ways and plans are far bigger than my own and I need to surrender my expectations to Him and ask Him what He's doing and join Him in what He's doing. So it's been good as I've readjusted and the thing that God keeps affirming me in is that even if all I do is pray for the time I'm here for my time, that's enough. Hard because I want to see stuff, but good, because I can trust Him in what He's doing. So that's my story for the day... hope you're all doing well and especially those in abby enjoying the brutal heat!

Almost Home...For a little while

So in less than a week I'll be home!! Well, only for two days, but I'm excited nonetheless. Things here in Montreal have been interesting to say the least. If you want to know more, you'll have to ask me personally. I"m feeling like I'm at a place of being drained and empty, but it's my prayer that God would fill me up and that I would keep my focus on Him.

It's been brutally hot and humid here and you're sweating all the time-makes things pretty fun! We've been working in different parks and have met lots of different people. There's one couple that we keep running into which has been really neat. Okay, this is all I'm writing since my picture posted, but hope you are all well and miss you all!

The View Outside My Window

We are staying in College Notre Dame which is directly across the street from St. Joseph's Oratory, North America's largest Catholic pilgrimage. It's a crazy sight to see every time I look out the window! The building we're in is over one hundred years old and we're staying in the school across the street. The guy who built St. Joseph's used to be the doorkeeper at the place where we're staying and he's always look up at the hill and think about building a church there. Crazy!

All the facilities here are amazing! Especially compared to last year! Especially the kitchen! Last year we were cooking for 150 people out of what was pretty much like a home kitchen... this year we have a giant industrial kitchen! And Son, a Cambondian chef has been working iwth us the last few days. He was there last year and is absolutely great! So energetic and willing to serve and always with a smile!

I'm really tired and a bit sick, but I am learning lots. Realizing again and again how incredibly selfish I am and how I need the Lord to strip that way. Scary to pray though... but this is an adventure to be sure!

Was reminded today as I was reading through some genealogies in the bible that rather than simply living with God, I need to walk with Him. Interesting to think of the implications of that. Anyway, I have to return to mass sized kitchen to cook dinner for thirty people! My team arrives tomorrow night!! Yay!

SOAR Montreal

Yesterday I left the school where I was staying for a couple days and now I'm in Montreal where we are preparing for all the youth to come for the SOAR program this year. So far i'm already tired, but excited, because I know God is going to do great things!

There's lots of staff here to help in different areas from admin to cooking to ministry. We have a band from France that's going to be leading the worship and lots of other great people excited to help out and join us in serving the Lord! The youth arrive on Wednesday and I'm excited to meet the members of the team I'm leading! I think there's seven of them now!

Oh and up above is a picture of my four little angels: Joshua, Millie, Anna and Theo! We spent the day in Rawdon going to the family fun fair and it was great to play with them all day!

Anyway, hope you are all doing well and I will talk to you all soon!

Quebec!

All right, so since the last post, I flew from Calgary to Quebec where I have been since Tuesday night! Hung out in Montreal for a bit and went out for dinner, so that was fun. Now I've been visiting the bible school I went to and it's been so good to hang out with people here and chat. Had some really good conversations and times of sharing and encouragement, etc. Had some good times to hash some stuff out with God too which has been good. Playing with the kids has been so great too! Oh how they've grown!

THe bugs here keep biting me and are quite annoying! Sunday I head to Montreal to start SOAR where I will actually now be co leading a missions team! Surprise! It's a team from Quebec and I'm actually really excited! Totally unexpected and kind of scary in some ways for me, especially since it's all in French, but it will be good and I'm looking forward to what GOd's up to!

NOw it's past midnight and time for bed!! Hope you are all doing well! Oh! I tried uploading a picture and it didn't work so you will have to keep checking back! sorry!