Serenity

"Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him and He will make your paths straight"

(Proverbs 3:5,6).

Paul prayed at breakfast this morning for wisdom. We need to decide whether or not to go to Ethiopia on Tuesday. We still have no word where Deborah's Visa is. It is our prayer that God will give us peace, and wisdom and that we'll hear soon that Deborah's Visa is in Ethiopia.

Gleaners

"When you reap the harvest of your land, do not reap to the very edges of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest. Do not go over your vineyard a second time or pick up the grapes that have fallen. Leave them for the poor and alien. I am the LORD your God"

(Leviticus 19:9, 10).

Today we were very blessed to tour the Ontario Christian Gleaners. Shelley (the manager), toured us, introduced us to all the volunteers, and then graciously and humbly gave us 14 bags of dry soup mix to take to Ethiopia. Each bag gives 100 servings of soup. We can't wait to distribute the bags to the many needy children/families in Ethiopia.

Many are blessed and will be blessed by the humble work of the Gleaners.


About the Gleaners:
"Gleaning is a biblical concept in which God commanded farmers to allow the poor to gather food from fields already harvested. Today we can feed the hungry through gleaning from the surplus fruit and vegetables from farms, food processing and food distribution companies

Inspired by the Okanagan and Fraser Valley Gleaners and after much prayer, several committed believers were led by the Holy Spirit to start a similar operation in Ontario. As a result the Ontario Christian Gleaners (OCG) was established in 2004. In September 2008 production began at the new facility in Cambridge, Ontario.

The OCG exists to share God’s love and compassion by supplying out of our surplus to those in need around the world in Christ’s Name."

http://www.ontariogleaners.org/

-the process

-my father-in-law cutting the veggies



-Fred placing the veggies in the dicing machine



-veggies going into the ovens to dry

-veggies donated by local farmers


-Shelley- the manager- a person with a big heart!




-a map showing the many countries around the world where the Gleaners have distributed their dry food packages. We can't wait to put a red sticker on Ethiopia on the map behind us!

One Thousand Gifts (Continued)

Let everything that has breath praise the LORD" (Psalm 150:6)

My list of praise and thanks continues...
#1 046- 1 057

-amazing supportive church community
-a creative God -love those leaves!
-Deborah's Visa being issued and granted
-bazaar preparations

-surprise visit and Visa cake from awesome friends!

-studious children


-athletic children

-daughter and son running cross country (they seem to be doing things in pairs this year)

-daughter completing her first race! So proud of you, Nicole and Jesse!

-the best present you can get at a wedding (presentation of the wedding Bible)

-decorating my office space

-my new "office" space

Adoption Update- Light at the End of the Tunnel

"Be strong and take heart, all you who hope in the LORD" (Psalm 31:24).

Agh...what a confusing day. No Visa, yes Visa. Disappointment, excitement. Our Visa did not come in the pouch today (but congratulations to the five families that did get their Visa). However...
Good news, we have been issued a Visa! It still needs to be printed, and officially documented, but it has been approved and issued, we just didn't receive it because of some computer glitch in the process.

Since we still need to wait for it to be printed (not sure why, in this electronic age), we will probably need to wait until mid to late next week to travel, but at least we have an answer now!
Thanks for all your prayers.

Adoption Update

"For you have been my hope, O Sovereign LORD, my confidence since my youth" (Psalm 71:5).

Apparently the Embassy in Ethiopia was closed today.
Here's hoping for good news tomorrow that Deborah's Visa is ready!

One Thousand Gifts (Continued)

"Praise the LORD, O my soul; all my inmost being, praise His holy name" (Psalm 103:1).

Today's Thanksgiving Day. I am overflowing with things to be thankful for. Our pastor preached this morning about the importance of being intentional about giving thanks. He explained how being grateful is "a spiritual exercise that acknowledges our dependency on an unseen God and as we give thanks for His presence and provisions, those become more real to us" (and so does God). As he read from Psalm 103:1-5, our pastor that first and foremost, we ought to give thanks for who God is. Then, everything else becomes more profound.

My gratitude list is not only mine, but it includes my family's list as well.
#1 021- #1 045

-God knows what's best for us
-God's perfect will
-God and His salvation of us and my wife and all 4 of my children and that they love God (Paul's list)
-God and the Lord and my family (Curtis' list)
-Jesus, my Saviour and the Bible (Nicole's list)
-my friends and all the food we have (Jesse's list)

-God giving my husband the strength and confidence to pray in church this morning
-Paul's prayer:
"Lord, you are awesome and majestic, so it is with humble hearts that we come before your throne of grace in a prayer of thanksgiving for your gospel of reconciliation. Lord, we stand before your with hearts and lives that are burdened with the weight of our sinful nature. We thank you for opening our eyes to the way that we grieve you with each of our wrongdoings.

Thank-you for bringing people, circumstances, and events to our lives that reveal to us just how depraved we are. Through this revelation of depravity, you also bless us with the knowledge that we cannot do anything good on our own. Thank-you for our reliance on your grace as the only means to set us free from the captivity of our sin.

Thank-you also for the gift of your Son, Jesus Christ, who sets us eternally free from the guilt of our sin. Thank-you for our assurance of salvation through the cross of Christ.

Lord, please work in our hearts, minds, and hands each day, that we will be led by you to live lives of faith in Christ. We pray that you will open our eyes to ways that we can bring the gratitude of our hearts out in the actions of our hands.

Please reveal to us ways that we can glorify you through our lives, and give us the faith, confidence, and courage to act on those revelations. Amen"

-our niece's wedding this past weekend

-brother and sister together on the spelling bee team and winning first place!


-ability to run and participate in cross country

-extended family

-fall colours

-group hike

-amazing Mother and Father-in-law -their love of the outdoors and hiking

-51 years of marriage

-older cousins

-grasshoppers

-great host and hostess

-Thanksgiving decorations (not mine, but my very talented sister-in-law)

-eating outside

-leaves falling everywhere

-son listening to a suggestion from our pastor and leaning over, "Mom, we should do that!"

-siblings playing together

-charts and schedules

"But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD" (Joshua 24:15b).

This was the verse that the minister preached about yesterday at our niece's wedding. This was also the verse chosen by my in-laws 51 years ago. I think it's a verse that will stay in the family, because our other niece used the same verse at her wedding last year. I hope and pray that it does stay in the family, perhaps not as wedding texts (although that would be great too), but in all of our daily lives. The choice that Joshua is offering to the Israelites seems obvious, but how often we fail to make godly choices as we use our free will. We so easily choose other gods in our lives - money, fame, acceptance, leisure, sports, alcohol, possessions, etc. It is my prayer for Jen and Trevor (and all of us) that we with the help of the Lord, we will choose to serve Him everyday and that He will be the center of Jen and Trevor's married life and in all of our marriages.

-listening to beautiful music by Jen's aunt and cousin

-driving in style


-definitely a highlight of the wedding- the infamous father/daughter dance; Ken comes alive as he and Jen shock the pants off everyone with their amazingly choreographed dance that they had been practicing!






-the slow father/daughter dance before the "real" dancing began!

-guess the donut to get the married couple to kiss- a fun idea by the MC's (my nephew and niece)

I pray that God will richly bless Jen and Trevor as they begin their lives together as a married couple. I pray that they will follow Him and allow Him to be their guide.