One Thousand Gifts (Continued)

Refrain:
All things bright and beautiful,
all creatures great and small,
all things wise and wonderful:
the Lord God made them all.

1. Each little flower that opens,
each little bird that sings,
God made their glowing colors,
and made their tiny wings.
(Refrain)

2. The purple-headed mountains,
the river running by,
the sunset and the morning
that brightens up the sky.
(Refrain)

3. The cold wind in the winter,
the pleasant summer sun,
the ripe fruits in the garden:
God made them every one.
(Refrain)

4. God gave us eyes to see them,
and lips that we might tell
how great is God Almighty,
who has made all things well.
(Refrain)

Today we had the privilege of spending a morning in Niagara Falls enjoying the amazing, powerful falls and viewing many beautiful, bright, colourful birds at a bird aviary. I am thankful for the time that we could spend together as family and for God's AWESOME, beautiful creation.

Continuing to give thanks...

#1962-#1977

-fun photo opts

-God's powerful, awesome creation- Niagara Falls

-God's beautiful, colourful creation

-enthralled by the many different birds

-a fun, successful fundraiser

-cousins doing homework together

-ladies breakfast

-fellowship with many wonderful ladies

-inspiring, lovely, godly speaker (Sheila Wray Gregoire)

-fantastic, hard working organizers

-swimming in September

-children exploring the outdoors and high trees

-Mom's trip and safe travels

-family time today

-meetings and new activities beginning

-Deborah's many new words (especially hearing, "Mommy")

One Thousand Gifts (Continued)

"Observe the Sabbath day bey keeping it holy, as the LORD your God has commanded you. Six days you shall labour and do all your wok, by the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God"

(Deuteronomy 5:12-14a).

Sundays...

I love our typical Sundays... worship, rest, family time, swimming, hiking or biking, and hamburgers!! I love routines and schedules (especially our Sunday ones).

Continuing to give thanks...
#1949-#1961

-our place of worship on Sundays

-fellowship after our Sunday service

-teaching Sunday School

-our pastor who is so gifted at preaching the Word

-our church musicians

-our guest pastors

-his challenge to become prayer warriors

-our Sunday routines
-Paul's Sunday routine of a little nap

-Jesse's Sunday routine of being outside and skate boarding

-Nicole's Sunday routine of finding something to do on her own (although not usually up in a tree)!

-Curtis' Sunday Lego play time

-Deborah's smiles

One more day

He is the Maker of heaven and earth, the sea, and everything in them— he remains faithful forever. He upholds the cause of the oppressed and gives food to the hungry. The Lord sets prisoners free. ~ Psalm 146:6-7

Many parts of East Africa are experiencing the worst drought conditions of the past 60 years.

More than twelve million people are severely affected, especially in Ethiopia, Somalia and Kenya.
Tomorrow is the last day that the Canadian dollar will be matched 4:1 to the food aid given to the East Africa Drought Relief Fund. www.crcna.org/pages/crwrc_idr_eadrought.cfm

This year at our Vacation Bible School, we collected donations for the drought in East Africa. I was so thrilled with the community's generosity. We collected over $5oo (before the 4:1 match). I was cutting water bottles (or I should say, my husband was cutting water bottles) to represent ever $2 that was collected. Well, we ran out of paper water bottles, but we had great, long display of water bottles to show the amazing amount of money that was collected!

The following Sunday in church, our offering was also for the drought in East Africa and our church collected over $21 500 (before the 4:1 match)!!!!!!!

I praise God for such incredible generosity, and I know that God will multiply that money even more and that many people will be blessed by it. Praise the LORD!

For more information: C.R.W.R.C. www.crcna.org/pages/crwrc_idr_eadrought.cfm

One Thousand Gifts (Continued)

"The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth...from one man He made all the nations..."

(Acts 17:24,26)

This weekend, we had the privilege of heading out to Toronto to join in the festivities of celebrating Ethiopia New Years. Here's a brief explanation of Ethiopia New Years:

"Ethiopian-Canadian Day Celebration, established in 1999, is an annual event held every September to celebrate Ethiopian New Year and the multicultural diversity of Toronto.

The Ethiopian calendar consists of 13 months: 12 months with 30 days and 1 month (Pagume) with of 5 or 6 days in leap years. Ethiopian calendar is seven years and eight months behind the Gregorian calendar. Enkutatash - the Ethiopian New Year is celebrated on September 11 or 12th according to the Western or Gregorian calendar or September 1st according to the Ethiopian calendar. Enkutatash is an important festival in lives of Ethiopians."

I was honoured and felt so blessed to be part of these festivities. God has blessed us so richly and I am so thankful that we are able to learn about and embrace our daughter's birth country.

(Xenophile: noun
a person who is attracted to foreign peoples, cultures, or customs).

continuing to give thanks....
#1932-#1948

-our xenophile children
-embracing Deborah's birth country and participating in the New Years festivities (although we didn't eat any of the food)

-coffee smells reminding us of Deborah's birth country and our amazing trip there last fall

-playing with the other children so easily and not getting injured on the crazy, twirlly thing at the park

-keeping entertained at home (while her siblings are off to school)

-getting ready for her picture being taken

-independence (although that's going way too fast)

-a good first week of school

-opening assembly and remembering God's faithfulness

-a van that starts every time

-reminder of the importance of prayer

-children practice running for cross country

-playing at the park

-biking

-beautiful weather

-starting new routines

-enjoying lots of Deborah time!

Great is His Faithfulness

"For the LORD is good and His love endures forever; His faithfulness continues through all generations" (Psalm 100:5).

This is the theme of our school year this year. It's very appropriate as our school celebrates 50 years this year of God's faithfulness and His everlasting love. The new principal reminded us of God's faithfulness as is evident throughout God's Word and also in our lives. He also shared with us Gods' faithfulness in his own life with generations after generations passing their faith on to the next generation! God's love and faithfulness is unending through all times. I have witnessed this in my own life and in the lives of those around me. I am so thankful to those who dedicated themselves to the cause of Christian Education 50 years ago and who continue to do so. Those who started our school 50 years ago had a passion to see God's name being integrated in all areas in an educational setting. They sacrificed so much and God has truly rewarded their efforts with 5o years of a Christ centered school. Great is His faithfulness!

-not too eager to start school (but the first one ready and out the door)!

-eager to see classmates

-ready and excited for a new year

"Stop taking pictures, Mom. This is embarrassing." (which only encouraged me to take more pictures)!!

-Deborah has rekindled her friendship with Percy now that her siblings are off to school!

One Thousand Gifts (con't)

"Choose life, so that you and your children may live....For the LORD is your life, and He will give you many years in the land He swore to give to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob (Deuteronomy 30:19-20).

Happy belated 40th! Paul and I were blessed with beautiful weather and an opportunity to spend a whole day together- just the two of us! We finally used his voucher that he received from his birthday last year and we had a wonderful time together!

Continuing to give thanks...
#1915-#1931

-an adventurous and fun husband

-spending a whole day together
-having loads of fun together

-celebrating 40 years of life (41 actually)
-capable and reliable babysitters lined up for the day (Mom, nephew, sister-in-law, and son)

-still enjoying summer, backyard camp fires



-annual Labour Day weekend camp out in the backyard!

-belated birthday gifts and fun, thoughtful aunts!

-Curtis' love for games -thanks Aunt Trish!

-back to early bed time routines
-preparing/packing back packs
-birthday parties
-biking with Nicole and Jesse
-swimming in the creek
-Jesse's excitement, "I'm swimming with the fishies"
-exploring rivers and creeks
-Deborah reaching out her hands when we say, "Let's pray"