Some more pictures!

Group from Acton Baptist Church in Granbury, TX. In our living room in Fairview 5/17/09

Hope walking on the trail around Figure Eight Lake on Mother's Day 2009

Fairview Golf Course in May (the tires are on top of plastic covering the #1 Tee box) and the white stuff is SNOW.

Finishing Winter - Having Spring? Which will it be?

What can I tell you - it has been a strange winter/spring! Just about the time I want to look at a pair of crop pants - it snows! So, jeans are good all the time. The picture at left was taken on the way out to church on May 17th! The picture above is at Figure Eight Lake and that is Ray acting like he does not have a care in the world on May 7th.

We have heard never to plant a garden prior to Canada's May long weekend (which is different from Memorial Day in the US). Monday the 18th of May was Victoria Day (like in Queen Victoria of old) and it is a big deal. Anyway - the last two years I have planted my garden the first weekend in May and gotten away with it...no frozen veggies. This year I decided to wait and do it RIGHT. I did not hardly wait UNTIL May long weekend - I planted the Thursday before and we have had three snows since then. I think the little seeds are safe just so thankful I did not plant the tomato plants! Ray has been so good to bring in 10 pots/planters of flowers OR cover them up when it got below 0. Of course that same sweet man put boxes over my tulips as they came up to keep the deer away but alas at least 2-3 dozen were dinner for the deer. Made me just sick - but such is life. I have several inside our fence that are just about to bloom - finally we are having a day of sunshine.

We had the opportunity of having a 7th grader stay with us for almost a week when his mom & dad had to be in Edmonton for his uncle's surgery. He had a WII and almost every game that goes with it. Now, I had learned to COW RACE with one of our NAIT students who had lived here (Ryan) and so I love that game. I actually got to play on Guitar Hero (Terrance said I was even better than Ray - but believe me - that is not saying much). We were able to take him fishing one day and that was fun even though we did not catch any fish - the guy next to us was pulling them all out!

Ray and I have been back to Figure Eight Lake and done some fishing and hiking. It was Mother's Day and that is what I wanted to do. Matt called while we were out hiking and I had no idea we could even get cell service where we were...technology is amazing. We picked up trash on Ray's birthday - so why not fish on Mother's Day???

Last week we had two new babies born into our church family - Kaleb & Jasper...what precious boys and both red heads! The week prior to that on May 7th Zachary got here half grown (10 pounds 9 oz). Chelsie was born the end of April (our only girl but we were in NEED of boys in our nursery). Luan started the whole baby parade and made his big brother and sister proud. We have been busy with meals and showers lately....but that is a very good busy.

Sunday the 17th we had a group from Acton Baptist Church in Granbury, TX lead our Sunday School and worship. Ray had planned a Recognition service for Mission Service Corps Volunteers. We had folks from the Convention in Cochrane attend and also Ken & Darla Ponath from Cochrane who run the Disaster Relief and Baptist Builders here in Canada. We had a "potluck" after service and then they all crashed at our place for a while. Thirteen of them were able to make the trip North from Granbury. They were up here to put new siding on the Ivy Lake BC in Grande Prairie. They are working all this week. The ladies of the church sent me a huge box of goodies and I am just amazed at their generosity and praying hearts. THANK YOU ACTON BC....

Ray has gone to a Ministerial Meeting right now (the ministers of our town/area meet together once a month to plan. He then has a marriage counseling session and a hospital chaplaincy meeting and then praise team practice (I don't think I will see him until late!) Then Ray will leave early in the morning to drive to Edmonton (6 hours) for the Executive Board Meeting. He will drive home (6 hours)after the meeting so that will be a long day on the road. He will be traveling with Dick Hale, the pastor from Worsley. They will get in very late Friday night. Saturday we will have a "workday" at church and hopefully accomplish many tasks. Do you remember doing that?

Sunday night is the last of our College/20 Something meetings until Fall. We are having a hamburger cookout here at the house. Lawrence & Florence Smithson are so big hearted and have supplied most of our BEEF since we have lived here. The package of meat must have weighed 6 pounds that I made the patties from for our cookout. I hope the PARTY does not go too late as the next morning the 25th we drive to Grande Prairie very early for Ray to catch a flight to Calgary where the National Leadership Board will be meeting in Cochrane through Wednesday. So, I will make a trip back to GP on Wednesday to pick up the boy. It will be super quiet with him gone.

Our national convention is the end of June and first few days of July (I did tell you that Ray volunteered for me to speak to the pastor's wives - what a sweet man) It will be in Edmonton this year - we missed it the first two years we were here due to being on holiday. It was in Prince Edward Island last year and we were sorry to miss that lovely part of our Country.

Vacation Bible School is coming quicker than I would like. It is July 20-24 and I would like to ask you to be praying for us, our workers and students. We have the privilege of having Pleasant Ridge BC from Carrollton, GA coming back this year to help us out.....God is so good to send this wonderful team again this year. Several of the same folks are coming and we can't wait to catch up with them. They totally completed our school last year and filled in the gaps. They have such a gentle SPIRIT and were such a BLESSING to us.

We will not be leaving Canada this summer. It is the most wonderful time of the year here in summer. Perfect weather! We might make a trip over into British Columbia to see the sights and do some fishing but we will not fly SOUTH until maybe the US Thanksgiving. I have so enjoyed October Thanksgivings up here.

I am reading an old devotional book by Lloyd John Ogilvie "God's Best for My Life" and I wanted to share a little about the command to PERSEVERE. "Because you have kept My command to persevere, I also will keep you from the hour of trial which shall come upon all the world, to test those who dwell on the earth".

I know when we read the paper we might ask - " will evil always be on the throne? How long must we wait for the vindication of God's people and purposes in human history? Jesus tells the Philadelphian Christians in Rev. 3:9-10 that He is still in control of history. There will be the constant rise and fall of evil empires and the ebb and flow of the tides of godless people. The very nature of the Christian faith is that it will always be in conflict with powers and causes that are against God.

The Lord praises their patient endurance. That's what we need, isn't it? Christ intercedes for us in the interfaces of transition when the world groans for peace, social justice, honesty, and love. Patience is seeing things from God's point of view and by His timing. Endurance results as the strength of our lives. We can live faithfully at any point of history, knowing that evil cannot prevail forever. The sense that God is still at work gives us courage to get to work wherever He would deploy us in His battle with evil. PATIENT ENDURANCE IS GOD'S GIFT FOR LIVING IN A SICK AND EVIL WORLD."

Just wanted to leave you with some encouragement to keep THE FAITH knowing that it is the Lord that enables you. H O P E

New Things!

I have experienced a lot of "first" things while living in Canada. First place I ever lived where it got so cold and had so much snow, first vegetable garden, first time a deer has eaten tulips out of my yard, first time I had to "plug my car in", first time I helped cook for 330 people, first time I walked 5 km picking up trash, first time I signed up for Facebook....anyway you get the idea. Now, I want to tell you about a couple of these.

Our ladies ministry had turned in a tender (bid) on catering the Hines Creek Ag Show (Agriculture) and we got the bid. We decided to try this to earn some monies for women's ministry projects. On Friday April 17th several of us met at church at 10:00 and began cooking and preparing for the meal we would serve on the 18th. Six of the biggest turkeys I have ever seen were cooked along with I don't how many pork tenderloins. I know my part was mixing and baking 30 sheet cakes (some white, some chocolate and some marble). Poor Florence peeled about 100 pounds of potatoes! We were on our feet for many hours and then went home to rest for the next day. The 4 vehicles that would transport the food to the arena were loaded on Saturday morning at 10:00 and then we began the process of putting the following menu on the table for 6:00pm.

Turkey, dressing, gravy, mashed potatoes, pulled pork on rice with sweet and sour sauce, strawberry-mandarin orange-spinich salad, caesar salad, cranberry salad, rolls and FIVE kinds of triffle. Thank heavens for all the ladies who helped and dropped in to add another hand or two when needed and for Lisa's husband Mel and Ray. We got it all on the table on time and the raves started coming in (I was just so worried that our church would get a bad rap if we did not pull this off). What a blessing to get to WORK with these ladies and see how they used their gifts to enable us to do a lot of ministry this year. We made around $3000.

NOW, the 2nd adventure was the highway clean-up that is always done on the first Saturday in May. Our youth group is going to Edmonton for YC in May and they needed to raise some money. The Province was paying $100 a kilometer to any group that would pick up the trash. They provide the bags, gloves and orange vests. We had to watch a video on safety and then on this past Saturday (Ray's 64th birthday) we headed out from church at a little after 8:00am. We had a section of highway from the top of Dunvegan to the town of Rycroft...roughly 15 km. Ray had made us a couple of dandy jive sticks so we would not have to BEND OVER and mess up two old backs! Our first assignment was a 1 km section and then and 1.5 up and back and then another 1.5 km walk. We were a couple of dirty old people when we were finished but we as a group raised $2000 for our youth. Ron and Pauline Friesen who own Dunvegan Gardens fixed us grilled hot dogs, chips and sodas. What a treat - then they let us have a free trip to their ice cream store!! We were all so hungry that it was definitely an act of mercy for them to provide our food.

I know today was a full day. Ray got a call early to fill in teaching a Sunday School class. It was my day to keep my Sunday School class during worship time. We had afternoon service at the Harvest Lodge (retirement home). Then we had to get home to cook for the College Bible study group. We had a great time with the "gang" and then we welcomed Robert & Lou Chadwell from Texas.

I am noticing it is almost midnight and my brain cells are almost gone....so I will try to attach some pictures and call it a night.

Our Jacob called and told Papa that he caught a 10 pound large mouth bass....boy was he excited - and so were we!! Way to go Jake.

Just a few pictures from our Texas trip

Paul & Laura outside Mac's

Fisherman PEYTON at Lake Lewisville

Caleb eating sushi Heather & Cole (9) at Lake Lewisville

Ray eating worms!!

We got to go to one of Jake's baseball games

Nanny Luke (11) Caleb (13)

Matt Ray Paul

The girls after a wonderful breakfast

I think I got all the family in a picture... Laura must have been hiding - I think I got her in two pictures... and one was of the whole family.

When we got home we had to drive back to Fairview but the weather held for us. Our first Sunday back (the 29th of March) we had a baptism service and baptized a young man who plays in a band. We also had our college Bible study on that Sunday night and there were 19 here at our home. We ate corn chowder, biscuits and had rhubard or blueberry cobbler... The boys liked the biscuits! I finished up the Tuesday night and Wednesday morning Ladies Bible Studies with a supper and a luncheon.

On Palm Sunday we had a joint service at the United Church that evening and one of our ladies had us prepared to sing two songs at the service - it lasted for two hours with all the churches doing a couple of songs with scripture readings interspursed. We will also have a joint Good Friday service at the Westside Community Church.

If one of our ladies does not have her baby today they will induce her tomorrow (Good Friday) and we will travel to Grande Prairie to see her and get pictures of the baby to have in the service on Sunday.

Our Annie Armstrong goal is $3500.00 and the theme is Live with Urgency. Therefore Ray is preaching a series of sermons on Living with Urgency. I am sure it will be good to hear what he has to say (he is speaking at the Good Friday service too).

He is waiting on me at this very moment to come and cut his hair...so I will close for now and check in with you later. Lovingly, Hope

Our Texas Holiday/Vacation

This is Hope Shannon and I am going to detail our recent trip to Texas for you.

Just before leaving Fairview, Alberta we had an exciting time of worship at Cornerstone Baptist Church on March 8th. There were two baptized in our morning service. One was a young man who would have his 16th birthday the very next day and the other was a dad of a 5 year old little girl. God is so good to provide such a salvation for all who will call on Him. We had a potluck dinner after the service and had around 135 in attendance.

On March 9th Ray and I along with Darla Ponath drove to Cochrane, Alberta where Darla and her husband Ken live. He is over the Baptist Builders and she is over the Disaster Relief. She has been overseeing the Missions House at the Convention and we were able to stay there on Monday night. We also were able to have dinner with DK & Brenda Hale along with Ken & Darla. It is always good to catch up with friends and find out what is going on in their life.

Tuesday morning found Ray visiting with Aaron, one of the seminary students who would be staying in our home the next weekend and preaching at our church. Darla then drove us to the airport and we were on our way to visit our family and friends in Texas.

On arrival around 7:00pm Max and Janice Graber picked us up and we drove to El Rancho Grande in Ft Worth for some of the best Tex-Mex food ever made. We were met there by Frank & Patty Ford and Linda & Larry Carter. What a relaxing time - except for when we looked around and everyone else was gone and the chairs were up on top of the tables...oops we needed to leave. We stopped by our son Paul's home and hugged grandsons Jacob (15), Caleb (13) and Luke (11). Our daughter-in-law, Laura, had our house looking so nice. They are currently living in our home. We slept at Janice and Max's home which was close by in Arlington.

Tuesday morning found Ray picking up a car from Ron & Carol Hey for us to use during our visit. They were most gracious to provide our transportation. I did some major shopping for jeans and baby clothes at Kohl's. I sure miss that store! Janice and I ate at the Corner Bakery and I enjoyed a club panini and black current tea (COLD). That afternoon I picked up Jake from his house and he rode with me to get Luke and Caleb from their schools. Paul and Laura's three sons attend a high school, middle school and elementary school. A lot of fun for morning delivery and afternoon pickup! Max and Ray got some visiting time in while Janice and I attended her monthly Pokeno group. It used to be my group too and they are actually holding my spot...what a group of great ladies. Ann Hale and Patty Ford provided a wonderful tasting dinner with pecan crusted baked chicken and a delicious peach pie.

Our first few days there it was rainy and cool which was a big disappointment to Ray and I as we were seeking warmth after leaving a -36C in Canada. On Thursday we took Luke & Caleb to school and visited the Christian book store to pick up some VBS teacher material. We decided to drive to Corinth to see the two younger grandsons which is a little over an hour drive. We arrived a few minutes before Heather pulled up and she let us take the boys to Sonic for a cold drink. Peyton wanted a vanilla shake with hot fudge in it and we just sat and did some catching up on what was going on with them. We took a little side trip to Walmart and looked at toys. When we got back to their house Heather had a wonderful dinner of chicken and dumplins. Cole is 9 and Peyton is 6 but will be 7 in July. After the boys went to bed we drove back to Arlington.

On the 13th of March Janice had planned a great "couples" dinner for some of our friends. It was so good to see them. We had not been in Arlington since June of 2007. We ate and played a game and then they asked us what our highest high and lowest low had been over the last two years. It was a reflective time and then they prayed for us. We are so blessed with Godly friends. Then we got to have chocolate cake and homemade vanilla ice cream... YUM!

Carol Hey turned "60" on the 14th and she and Ron TOOK US out for breakfast at Mimi's. It was our first time to visit this restaurant and what a nice treat. I had the cinnamon raisin french toast and Ray had the Belgium waffles...they almost floated out of the room.

We were able to have all our family under our roof on Saturday afternoon. The grandboys are not able to get together that often so it is a nice "gift" when they can. I fixed Carmen Enns' sweet and sour meatballs, mashed potatoes, caesar salad and biscuits along with blackberry cobbler. Ok, have you picked up on the trend that we ATE the entire time we were in Texas and brought back several extra pounds?

Sunday morning found us at Lake Arlington Baptist Church and in the Adult I Sunday School Department at 8:30am. Eunice Menefee had invited us to share the entire time and show pictures of our church in Canada. It was fun to see the folks we had loved and served for so many years....but also sad that some were gone on to glory since we had left. We sat in worship with Paul, Laura and boys and experienced a powerful praise time with a good message following. Laura was giving a baby shower afterwards so Ray and I went to Mac's with Janice and Max...they have the best Sunday brunch (cinnamon rolls to die for). Ray and Max HAD to go play golf to walk off some of their lunch and Janice and I had to shop. We went to see the movie "New In Town" since it was about a lady who went from Miami to Minnesota (like the Shannons leaving Texas and going to Canada). It was a cute movie and I really could relate to it.

Can you believe that someone would go on holiday/vacation and have their teeth cleaned? Well Ray and I did and we sure do thank Dr. Mark Moore for letting his girls take such good care of us. We then headed to Cedar Creek Lake where Paul and Laura and Jacob, Caleb & Luke were staying for spring break at Laura's parents (Mike & Mary Fickle) and Laura's grandma (Memaw Husketh). The weather was beautiful for spring break and we got to do a lot of visiting and fishing. Those boys were out in the boat or on the dock fishing the entire time. Pop Fickle has a great fishing boat that knows the way to the great bass holes.

On Tuesday Ray and I drove Jake into Arlington for a Martin High School Baseball game. It was a great win and we enjoyed the one on one time with our oldest grandson.

More fishing, visiting, EATING and getting larger continued for the entire time at the lake. Thank you Laura for all the good meals you planned. Mary had a broken arm and was still able to be a wonderful hostess.

Paul and Caleb left for a father-son fishing outing to Lake Sam Rayburn Wednesday evening and on Thursday morning we headed to Corinth to stay at Matt & Heather's for a few days.

Cole and Peyton took Nanny Hope on a picnic to their local park and then we went on a hike. We did not stay long after we saw a large swarm of bees. Cole is like his daddy and does not like buzzing anythings! We did go see "Race to Witch Mountain" and ate popcorn and cotton candy.

Matt & Heather live close to Lake Lewisville so we took a picnic and fishing poles and headed there for the afternoon. It was a beautiful day and full of fun and relaxation. We toured an open house that listed for 1.2 million and was situated on 3 acres overlooking Lake Lewisville. You could get lost in there.

THE DAY we were waiting for....we attended Southmont Baptist Church. Matt & Heather's Sunday school class was in the middle of a marriage series and we enjoyed the time laughing and learning. Paul and Laura and sons along with Heather's parents (David & Debbie Bennett) and her grandmother (T Momma) were able to be with us in church to see Ray baptize Peyton. I will attach a picture. This made our family complete in the Lord. Praise God from whom all blessings flow. After the worship time we ALL went to Johnny Corina's for some Italian food (had not had this yet...) We went back to Matt & Heather's and visited and then went to baseball practice with Cole. It was a very windy and cool evening.

The next morning we were able to take Cole and Peyton to school before we headed back into Arlington. Several of the GIRLFRIENDS met at Friday's for a birthday lunch for Linda Carter (yes, she really is a Wonder Woman). I was able to get in to see my former hair stylist and get my mop cut which was a much needed stop. I picked up Luke and Caleb from school and headed to Max and Janice's to meet up with David & Phyllis Jenkins (Ray served on staff with David for over 20 years). We NEEDED to go eat at Red, Hot & Blue for a pulled pork sandwich with slaw on top with a baked sweet potato on the side. The cinnamon butter for the potato is a bonus.

Now after all this food the next morning Patty Ford, Nina Burgett, Janice and I met for breakfast! The four of us used to get together to pray for our families and it seemed like old times to be able to have this particular group together. I had to leave them to go to lunch with Paul, Laura and Matt at Mac's (Matt used to work here while in high school). The good news is we skipped supper but did sneak in a banana split before going to Luke's baseball game. What a real blessing to be able to attend some of the boys sporting events. Luke had also won entrepreneur of the year for 5th grade at Cory Elementary. He makes MENS JEWELRY and sells it. The whole program was a very big deal and he received a $100 savings bond. He was quite proud as he should be.

The sad day has arrived and we headed to the airport (thank you Max) to fly back to Calgary where Darla was waiting. It seems like we are so very far from Texas but it is just a short flight and a long drive home. Darla got out at the new Bass Pro Shop in Airdrie where Ken and her two brothers, Manny and Stan were checking out the new place. After telling them goodby we started the drive home - which Ray did solo. God treated us to a magnificent display of Northern Lights just outside of Fairview. Ray stopped so I could TRY to take some pictures but there is hardly a way to capture God's creative genius. I needed Matt who is a photographer to be here. We arrived home around 10:30pm and were greeted by Ryan and Shaun our two NAIT students who live with us. It seems like it is always BOYS.....but we sure do love all our boys.

We feel so blessed to be able to take a holiday/vacation and have folks to lead in ministry in a very capable way while we are absent. Thank you to each of you who prayed for our safety and relaxing time away. We are refreshed and anxious to "live with urgency" which is Ray's current sermon series. We are hopeful that anyone who reads this blog will seek to live a life worthy of the Lord Jesus. We know we are not worthy of the grace He has shown to us by sending us to serve this wonderful group of folks. Now let's all work till Jesus comes.

Lovingly, Hope

Happy Valentine's Day

Moose at Visitor's Center

Hoarfrost 2/13/2009

So, did you do "something" in the name of LOVE today? Don't you love the way that the greeting card companies make up things for us to celebrate. Of course Valentine's Day has been around for a long time and we can choose to have fun with it or make ourselves miserable when we do not get something we wanted...especially from our significant other. If you have done any reading from Gary Chapman's book "The Five Love Languages" then you know that GIFTS is one of the languages than can determine if a person feels lovedl loved. Boy, am I glad Ray and I neither one have that as a heart language!! We just enjoy being together...makes it quite easy and cheap.

We are having a Family Game Night at church with spaghetti supper tonight. I am looking forward to spending time with friends and just being silly. I even "bought" a cheesecake to take but WILL make a salad. Ray will tell you that I always feel compelled to bake something whenever we are having a get together at church or in our home... maybe I am outgrowing that trait.

We drove to Grande Prairie yesterday and picked up our glasses (hopefully Ray will hold on to his good and tight this time since his last pair are on Maui somewhere). We are both adjusting to progressive lens and the distance away we need to be from our book to read something....this may take a few days.

On Thursday morning we got a call about a member's house fire...thankfully it only damaged the family room and garage. It is a scary time of year to think of being displaced from your home. When driving home from GP we stopped in to see the damage to the house. They own Dunvegan Gardens and as we pulled into the Visitors Center there was a moose standing at the door - it looked like he wanted in...then he walked over to the pay phone and it looked like he wanted to make a call. Ray and I pulled the car as close as we could get and watched him for a while. They are quite interesting creatures. As it turns out the folks were most blessed as a passing motorist saw the fire in the chimney and called them to alert them. God is good!

It snowed some yesterday and today but the most spectacular sight was the "hoarfrost" that we received yesterday - which is still hanging around today. I will try to attach a picture showing some of the effects. The fog moves in and just freezes to everything...a picture cannot begin to show the magnitude of the scene.

I pray that this will find each of you living each moment of your life in a state of God consciousness or God awareness. My brother mailed me a book "A Testament of Devotion" by Thomas R. Kelly (Quaker missionary, educator, speaker, writer, and scholar 1893-1941). The premise is to be AWARE of God's presence every moment of your life. I am working my way through it with the knowlege that I know that is the kind of relationship that God desires from each of us that call Him Father. Think about that and we will talk about it soon.

Loving each of you and thankful for your input into our lives and work here in Canada. Hope

I'm thankful that Ray is hardheaded!!

What a beautiful day we had in Fairview today. It is Saturday the 7th of February (Happy Birthday Ed Peterson) and it was +5C today. We had a few snow flurries but no more accumulation. Our week has been a little bit different though... Last Sunday as Ray was walking out of church to go drive the car closer to the door to pick me up - his feet went out from under him on the "glare ice" and the first thing that hit was the back of his head. He was knocked out for a couple of seconds and then attempted to get up and he could not get his legs to move - now that was a scary time for him. On his second attempt he was staggering up with dizziness and blurred vision. One of our members who is a fire and rescue volunteer, Josh Zylstra, came along side Ray and got him to our car - yeah that's right put the man behind the wheel of a car in his condition..... Ray drove to the door and when I got in someone had told me that he was hurt and I noticed the large abrasion on the back of his head - "one way to cover up that bald spot". We had two families over to our house for lunch so we just continued like nothing was wrong... I tried to get Ray (in front of witnesses) to go get himself checked out at the hospital....but I AM FINE was the reply - now all of you ladies know how the men are about doctors... He still had some blurred vision and a bad headache. We had more company that came over to watch the super bowl and so we had company all day and I did not get to really question Ray like I would have liked to. His headache continued (and he still has one) into the next day with him doing all the regular activities - except NO WORKING OUT. The ladies started their spring Bible studies this week on Tuesday night and Wednesday morning. We got a call on Tuesday morning that one of our member's dad had passed away and Ray went immediately to the home. Then he went to pastors prayer time that several of the Fairview Ministerial pastors are involved in. He did some discipleship on Tuesday evening.... all the while with his headache. Finally Wednesday AM he went to the hospital here in Fairview to get it checked. They did several X-Rays and determined from the symptoms that Ray had a concussion. He was told to stay off the computer, to not read and not to watch television and to mostly SLEEP. OK - trying to keep that man off his computer was not something that was going to happen. He studies close to 8 hours a day!! I did manage to get him to agree to no more than 30 minutes at a time and then he had to take a rest/nap. That has helped to decrease his headaches to bearable. The doctor said he would have headaches for a few weeks and if he followed orders the time would shorten.

I managed to squeeze in a birthday this week - the big 62. I enjoyed many phone calls, emails and facebook wishes. We decided to celebrate when Ray was feeling better.

We spent most of Friday involved in the funeral which was in Worsley (about an hour away). I think Ray would have loved to preach the service but this task fell to the United Church's lady pastor. We love Mel & Lisa and were glad to be there to lift them up in the death of Mel's dad. When we were driving home from Worsley we did see two moose...they were our first this winter!!

We got to visit over lunch with Darla & Ken Ponath today. Ken is over our Canadian Baptist Builders and Darla is carekeeper of the Missions House in Cochrane and works closely with Ken in Disaster Relief. What a blessing for us to spend some time with them.

Tomorrow is a busy day with Ray having regular Sunday school with 20 Something, preaching and then service at the longterm care at 4:00PM and our College Bible Study tomorrow evening. I am fixing pancakes and all the trimmings for them.

Ray just came in from spending some time with one of our deacons and his headache is better....praise you Father God.

I would love to thank each of you who pray for us and continue to ask the Lord to bless our ministry here in Fairview. We are excited to have Bett Hale working on music for Palm Sunday and Easter. She is a joy to us.

We are excited to be going to Texas to see the grandboys for their spring breaks. We will be a little late for Luke's birthday (2/9), Caleb's birthday (2/28) and Jake's birthday (3/6)....but we will surely CELEBRATE while we are there. We love them and do miss them - of course we miss Paul & Laura AND Matt & Heather too... we will have the privilege of seeing RAY baptize Peyton on the 22nd of March - that will complete our heavenly family. We hope to visit friends at LABC especially on the 15th of March. We will hopefully catch some fish with the older grandboys at Cedar Creek Lake and then do some hiking and picnicking with the younger two... just so excited!!!

We want you to know that you are loved and that God is indeed blessing us here. He is our strength and source - hope He is that for you as well. H O P E & R A Y