I know I had promised to blog from Canada but that did not happen. Humblest Apologies!!!
We did manage to visit with many of our family and friends during our time in Canada. We travelled throughout BC, Alberta and Saskatchewan. For those of you whom we did not get to visit, for whatever reasons, we missed you.
The month was full of blessings and challenges. It began with a quick trip to Vancouver and the Island, where I completed an ethics module to finalize my peer review to maintain my statis as a specialist with CASC, we visited family in Surrey and then on to Vancouver Island to visit my brother Ron and our friends Stan and Penny Spence. While there we learned that we had a flood in our home at St. Andrews. This was caused by a water connection from our fridge coming apart. The water went through the ceiling, down the drywall walls and onto our just newly replaced flooring. Last winter, you might remember, we had a water pipe burst and had just finished having repairs completed from that, including having the entire lower level flooring replaced. So now once again, the need to replace not only flooring but drywalling and ceiling. The blessing in all this proved to be from our son Sternie, who had worked for many years in construction doing exactly the type of work we needed done. Sternie, on break from Bible college for the Christmas season, came and not only spent time visiting us but did much of our repairs and maintenance. Thank you Sternie. That was a real blessing for us. We have been blessed in so many ways by so many people. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
I had the privilege of being guest speaker at our home church in Penticton on December 14th and opportunity to share what God is doing in our lives and what is happening in Zimbabwe.
We flew to Edmonton, visited friends and family, stayed at my brother Dick's, spent a fabulous day at our daughter's home where she hosted not only us but all the grandkids and greatgrandkids as well. Then my sister Laurie had kindof an open house on the Sunday and we got to see many of our nieces and nephews and their families. We visited many friends in Edmonton, Leduc, Red Deer and Inisfail.
We rented a car at the airport and drove to Saskatoon via Hoosier. (If you don't know Hoosier, well it is just one of those small rural communities in Saskatchewan that you might miss if you blinked while driving by). My sister Wilma and her partner, Darrell, farm in that area and we spent one night at their place. Glen's brother Ray and his wife Barbara, from Manitoba travelled to Sakatoon to spend an evening and overnight with us. I had lunch and a catch-up with a dear friend and former colleague, Becky Vink. Connected with many others as well. Hectic but great.
Then as we were returning from Saskatoon to Edmonton, about 4 kms east of Lloydminster, a truck pulled across the highway and T-boned us. Praise God, neither of us were injured but the rental car was seriously damaged. My brother Dick, who is a long distance trucker, was just returning from Ft. Mak when we called him for help. The RCMP drove us into Lloyd and dropped us at a truck stop where we waited for Dick to come and pick us up. That kindof wrapped up our trip to Alberta and Saskatchewan and we flew out the next morning to return to BC.
We celebrated an early Christmas at our BC home with both our sons coming. It was great to have both Sternie and Geoffrey (and our daughter-in-law, Monique) able to spend some of the Christmas season with us. Bette and Brian joined us for turkey dinner as well.
The balance of that final week at home was spent trying to wrap up things and be prepared to be away for another year.
New Year's Day was spent in the air...as we left Canada on December 30th for the long haul back to Harare where we expect to be for the next year (at least). Bette (Glen's sister) and her husband Brian Moen drove us to Seattle and we spent one final day with them prior to catching our plan out. We arrived home to Harare, Zimbabwe on January 2nd; meaning we spent the entire New Year's Day and then some in the air or waiting in London for our connecting flight. The airlines were busier than we expected with lots of people returning home from Christmas holidays.
When we flew home to Canada, we flew into Seattle and Bette and Brian met us there. The drive home from Seattle was a real snow storm and 'welcome back to Canada'. I'm attaching some pictures of what was waiting to great us on our arrival back to the beautiful sunny Okanagan and just for a contrast, a picture of what awaited us as we arrived back in Zimbabwe. I'm sure you will know which is which!!
It is rainy season here and everything is beautifully green. The maize crops are everywhere and promising to be plentiful. That is, as I'm sure I've shared before, the staple food of the people here and they grow it on every inch of open ground, even along the roadsides. Already since our return we have had 4.5 inches of rain. The rains started on Christmas and there was about 6 inches before we arrived back. Rainy season lasts until March. Was rainy this morning but beautiful and a sunny degrees celcius right now. (1:28 pm)
Now as life gets back into some sense of normalacy here in Zimbabwe, I have a meeting at the college tomorrow to look at our schedule and what lies ahead for the coming year. We are hoping to visit friends in Bulawayo before the school year starts.
Well, after such a long time of not blogging, I trust this gives you some idea of what life has been like for us since I last blogged.
Wishing all good things and God's blessings to all in 2015.
