Sorry for the delayed update. I just know you’ve all been on tenderhooks waiting for all the gory details about our trip back in February…..

So, back in February, Bas took me away for a weekend trip to Sidney, Vancouver Island.  We took the ferry across on Saturday morning and spent the day driving around the Island, visiting Victoria and all the space in between Victoria and Sidney.

I loved it. Victoria is such a cool little artsy town with so many places to explore. We tried coffee in an art gallery, looked in shops, talked to a local and generally enjoyed the atmosphere.
  

Our B&B was great. Lands End is on a little tip near the ferry with a beautiful view of the ocean and mountains. Our hosts were generous and made us feel really welcomed. My room was especially nice with a big comfy bed and a nice view out the window. Bas, a true gentleman, settled for the smaller room with a single bed. What a nice guy!!

Friday evening we decided to go for dinner at a Greek restaurant. I had a feeling something was different about all this, but I put it down to wishful thinking and looked forward to a quiet dinner. Our poor stomachs were a bit fragile after having a bug, but we decided to throw caution to the wind and enjoy a nice salad and bread with all kinds of greek delights. I must admit, I was surprised at how quiet the restaurant was, but I was forgetting that this was no longer metro Vancouver, rather a small costal town. Bas decided that we should take a walk along the pier to look at the ocean. It was rather dark, but surprisingly beautiful with the moonlight glowing off the still ocean. It seemed as though no one was around, so we enjoyed the quiet [and the cold] at the end of the pier.

And the story continues. I won’t divulge all the details, but lets just say he asked me a very important question, and I of course, said yes.

So this is the beginning of our new story. October 2nd, our wedding date, is fast approaching. All the details are coming together, courtesy of some fantastic friends [thanks Kelly, Gem and Lou!] and family [dank je wel Riek en Anne!]. We’re now just waiting around, finishing some smaller things up and looking forward to our new lives together.

More info soon…

…..sorry. There’s been a lot going on. But that’s another blog.

So see below…..

I want you to be wise about what is good, and innocent about what is evil

Romans 16v19

I’m a good girl. I do my dishes, say my “p’s and q’s”, wash my laundry on a Saturday, go to Church on a Sunday and I write to my Grandma. If I’m feeling extra good, I’ll phone my parents, clean the bathroom extra well, bake, scrub, say my prayers and maybe read something spiritually fulfilling. I know I’m a good girl, not just because my Daddy told me so, but because I want to do what is right.

But what is the difference between ‘good’ and ‘right’? Is there a difference at all? 

For a long while, one of my biggest worries was whether or not I was doing God’s ‘will’. “Am I in the right job?”, “Should I go to art school?”, “What if I want to leave Canada?”, “Should I….?”, “Can I…?”, were often the thoughts that filled my mind. For two weeks I spent evenings in tears asking God if the job I had been offered was right. Needless to say, this ‘job’ was one I had wanted for a while and it was one I lost sleep over. God, in His way, had even reassured me that this was the best way for my life, yet I had spent hours in tears seeking if this was ‘right’. And at times, despite being in a fantastic situation, I still wonder if I am in the correct place and doing the proper thing.

Lately, however, I have become increasingly convinced of a few things. The first is that I am human and ultimately broken –shuffling on this “mortal coil” and trying to make the best sense of what I’m doing . God’s thoughts are higher and wider and vaster and far purer than mine, and I can never attempt to persuade myself otherwise. The second is that God is the great ‘translator’. He, a thousand times over, has stooped as low as we to reveal Himself. Through ancient literature, through song and rhyme and speak, and ultimately through Christ Himself, we have seen Him come down to  pursue us, His long desired creation. He takes my attempts and like clay, tenderly moulds them to His purposes. 

I spend a lot of time thinking about what to teach and share with the teens that I work with. I desperately scroll popular Youth Ministry websites drooling over the newest and latest this or that and rummage through my mind to come up with something that might catch their attention.  I worry about if what I’m teaching is ‘right’, and if it isn’t, if I’m outside of God’s will.

But God is bigger than that and these thoughts make my work about me and not Him. My worries turn my chin to my chest to look at myself and my problems and my worries and my failures, instead of looking up to heaven and asking God to ‘translate’ what I say into something decent and fruitful. Who am I to know the mystery of how He works in other people’s lives. This is God we deal with, “he is not a tame lion“.

My friend Robin always says “we just have to be faithful”. He’s right. We should be “wise about what is good”, I should be wise about what is good, and if I live with the prayer “guide me Lord” on my breath, then by faith should I should trust that what works out, works out. 

Despite my fumbling and anxieties , the teens I work with are graciously and beautifully growing. They’re forming into young adults, the girls are blossoming and the boys are doing the same, only in a more masculine manner. God is moving in them, and I am humbled because He chose me to work through. He truly is working things together for the good.

I’m not really sure about how to finish this post, I might come back later and edit it, but then again, I might just leave it. My thought isn’t really finished, it’s more ongoing. As I stumble my way through my walk with God, maybe I’ll have more to say, maybe some divine revelation about goodness over being ‘right’, but maybe I won’t, maybe I’ll just keep on thinking.

Once apon a time, in a coreign fountry, there lived a very geautiful birl; her name was Rindercella. Now, Rindercella lived with her mugly other and her two sad bisters. And in that same coreign fountry, there lived a very prandsom hince.

One day, the prandsom hince decided to have a bancy fall. He invited people from riles amound, especially the pich reople. But Rindercella could not go because all she had to wear were some old rirty dags. So she just cat fsdown and scried. She was a kitten there a scrien, when all of a sudden her gairy fodmother appeared. And she waived her wagic mand…and all of a sudden there appeared before her, a cig boach and hix white sorces to take her to the bancy fall. But now she said to Rindercella, “Rindercella, you must be home before nidmight, or I’ll purn you into a tumpkin!”

So Rindercella went to the bancy fall, where she met the very prandsom hince, who she had been watchin through a widden hindow. She and the prandsom hince nanced all dight till nidmight…and they lell in fove. Suddenly, the mid clock struck night; Rindercella staced down the rairs, and just she beached the rottom, she slopped her dripper!

The next day, the prandsom hince went all over the coreign fountry looking for the geautiful birl who had slopped her dripper. He came to Rindercella’s house. He tried it on Rendercella’s mugly other…and it fidn’t dit. He tried it on her two sigly usters…and it fidn’t dit. He tried it on Rindercella…and it fid dit, it was exactly the sight rize!

The next day, Rindercella and the prandsom hince were married and they lived everly hafter happward.

Now, the moral of the story is this: If you ever loll in fove with a prandsom hince, be sure and slop your dripper!

Here in Canada we celebrated Thanksgiving this weekend. So I shall pay homage to tradition- a list of things I am really thankful for…

1. A lovely turkey dinner at the Page family house
2. Lovely turkey dinner leftovers for dinner tonight
3. A fantastic Church whom I love dearly
4. The best job in the world- Youth work
5. The best youth group in the world. Seriously. You should visit.
6. Being able to live in one of the most beautiful cities in the world
7. Having plenty
8. My lovely friends
9. A supportive family
10. My new family….
11. Constant new experiences

And lastly….

12. A loving God who knows me, provides, leads, guides and protects. 

What more could I ask for?

lately i discovered that i love words. so i went out and bought some fridge poetry, the ‘genius’ kind. here below are attempts from myself, my room mate and our friends. 

ask him for my space
and fill me with his curious and sedulous understanding
only my deft taut guile will reach he from
my Kafkaesque lair

 

society is wry and nefarious
full of crass torpid erstaz character
question upon its beauty
why give this platitude
pithy tinge of limpid language

 

as a domicile woman you always delight in every endeavor with zeal 

 

never secrete banal ideas or obsequious observation

 

so there you have it. our attempt at poetry, via our fridge.

Dan Ray recently set the challenge to post ten things that others may not know about you. so to follow the trend, here goes.

one. i’m a closet celine dion, cliff richard and elton john fan
two. when i was seventeen i ordained myself on the internet. now i can marry people in alabama.
three. i have a brown belt in wado-ryu karate
four. i also tap danced for four years and can dance to ‘42nd street’. 
five. i took theatre studies in college and one day hope to act on stage
six. one of my biggest ambitions in life is to own a coffee shop that connects people
seven. when i was a kid i was really into UFO’s
eight. i’m learning to speak dutch [obviously]
nine. i never actually thought of being in youth ministry. it just happened.
ten. on my first skiing trip i had to get rescued by a skidoo.

so there you have it. ten things you may or may not have known about me…..

Lately, I’ve started to say things my mum back home used to say to me. Maybe her words are in my genes…….or maybe I’m just ‘growed up’. Here’s a list of things my mum was right about, all along……..

‘brush your teeth, you only get one set!’

‘what will be will be’

‘every day’s a healing day’

‘don’t let that money burn a hole in your pocket’

‘there are plenty more fish in the sea’

It seems these pearls of wisdom from our mums are the proverbs for today. Someone really should write a book about them all……

Other ‘mum-isms’….

‘you’re like a fart in a colander’ [referring to my youthful inability to sit still for more than 5 minutes]

‘don’t chew with your mouth open’

‘don’t cross your legs, its bad for you’

’sit up, its bad for your back’

‘don’t eat too much sugar, you’ll get holes in your teeth’

‘remember your p’s and q’s’

‘always write a thank you letter’

Thanks mum:)

The long weekend saw myself, six other youth leaders and six youth take a small boat across from Vancouver to Howe Sound’s beautiful Anvil Island!  We spent three nights and four brilliant days playing games, eating together, having devotions, talking, walking, playing, singing, laughing and sunning ourselves in incredible surroundings.  We even had the opportunity to have a Church service with my good friends from St Johns Shaughnessy  and talked about prayer and the Kingdom of God.

Asides from all this, we were blessed with amazing sunshine, 27 degree weather, deers, hummingbirds and a total lack of city noise. 

Amazing.