Keeping Busy in Canada

 

Grace, mercy and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.  1 Timothy 1:2

 It has been a while since we have written.  Please do not mistake our silence for inactivity or not caring.  Just the opposite.   First, we tell you that we will tell you what has been occupying us since Easter. 

The first week of May we took a course on Church History, our dear friends and former Pastor Mike and D at Didsbury were kind enough to have us stay with them during this course.  Each day we traveled into Calgary together, as Pastor Mike was also taking a course for the same period of time. 

We returned to Lloydminster for one week, then departed to surprise Grace’s mom for Mother’s day.  When we were on our way, we received a call that Grace’s dad had experienced a medical incident, and our arrival to his bedside was now urgent.  Well we surprised my mom early, and we had the opportunity to be with family and dad until his passing on Monday May 12.   Dad was a faithful servant of the Lord, and we celebrated his life with family and friends on Friday May 16^th.  The fellowship was sweet and we certainly felt God’s presence and comfort during this time.  We are grateful that dad has been released from his suffering on earth, to now be in the presence of his Heavenly Father.  Mom is doing well, but please pray for her as she has now more changes in her life. 

From Winnipeg we flew to Phoenix to attend a week long life skills course designed for Christian workers called Sharpening your Interpersonal Skills.  Upon our return to Winnipeg we immediately travelled up to Meadow Lake Sk. for a speaking engagement.  That following week we attended a Kairos Course in Saskatoon for a week.  This is a cross culture workshop, essentially a reader’s digest version of the Perspectives course that we had hoped to take prior to our first departure, but never had the opportunity.  While in Saskatoon we visited with an aunt, whose husband passed away the same week as dad.  Right after Saskatoon we traveled to Calgary and met with a small group from a church we contacted.  We were blessed to have new partners in our ministry and we received delightful gifts to take back to Niger with us for our dear grandson.  This takes us to June 1st to the 13^th where we attended another course on global missions.  It is now June 25^th and we have several papers to write prior to a July 15^th deadline.