168 Hours

Friday, June 12, 4:30 pm.

  We arrive in Lethbridge, the city. We had no cell phone as we lost Virgin Mobile signal half-way through South Dakota, so we thought we would surprise Rohan Crown and his family - but no one was home.

   So then we decided to drive to our new home - but we weren't sure of the location. We found it by process of elimination, and rang the door bell. But there was no answer. 

  We are in Alberta, Canada, no phone, no people....but then the door opened and we were welcomed by Jack and Margaret Phillips, our room-mates in our town house on Mayor McGrath Drive.

    The weather was drizzling rain, but a cool breeze was blowing - so much nicer than the 100 degrees two days earlier in St. Louis.  We were able to pick up the wireless internet in the apartment to let our family know we had arrived, and let Rohan know we were in town. Soon there was a house full of people welcoming us.

  Saturday, our first day, found us shopping at Walmart - a familiar place, but still different enough to make it interesting. Then back home to unpack boxes. We went exploring in the evening down to the coulee.

  On Sunday we enjoyed worship and communion with our new church family at Amazing Grace Community church in the morning and worshipping with the Westminster Chapel PCA in the evening.

  Jack and Margaret treated the whole Summer Lethbridge Team to a picnic lunch at Henderson park in town - the lunch started with drizzles and wind, and ended with the sun shining on the beautiful lake. We had a great time relaxing with Rohan and Rebecca, the church planter and his wife and their three kids, Isabel, Abigail, and Phinehas, and with Lauren and Emma, summer interns working with Amazing Kids for June and July.

 Monday morning we hit the ground running: We visited the local YMCA and found out how to join and while there we heard on the radio that this week is NATIONAL ABORIGINAL WEEK in Canada.  So our plans for the day changed.

  After a staff meeting (there was supposed to be a great photo of our team here, the photo that we talked about several times that morning, but never took) we took a prayer walk through the north Lethbridge community we will work in.

    Then we headed to the downtown area to enjoy some time learning about the local First Nations people. There was a free lunch and demonstrations of culture and crafts. We got a calendar of the events that are being held in the area this week and hoped to attend a few.

 In the afternoon we joined in the Amazing Kids team members for the year end party.  The Christian elementary school held the game time and dinner for the children and their parents and we were able to meet many of the families that we will work with for the next few years.

  Tuesday we went to the bank to figure out how we could open a checking account in Lethbridge. We will just leave you with this comment...Canada is a foreign country - not "Northern USA". But we met some very helpful people and by Friday we were the owners of a checking account (at a credit union!!) and a debit card!

  After the bank we went and picked up a hutch for the kitchen so we would have more storage for dishes and food - it's not Craigslist for deals here - it's Kijiji.

   

   In the evening we went back to the beautiful coulee and filmed some VBS video for our church in Chattanooga and explored a bit more of the area while learning the history of Lethbridge.

   Wednesday we met with Rohan and Rebecca to some of the logistics of our work here in Lethbridge for the next few months, and to plan for the time they will be gone in August. We had a great time getting excited about all the opportunities and also getting a bit overwhelmed by all there is to do.  But our God is Big!

  Thursday, Sandy joined Margaret in volunteering at the local Middle School with some end of the year school testing. They worked with some of the children who needed more one-on-one attention to keep them on task for completing the tests. I then joined the team that is planning the summer Bible clubs that are being held in July while we are gone - I was able to volunteer for a couple of things which can be done before we leave.
   Howard and Jack visited with members of Amazing Grace Community church that need some work on their home, and then Howard spent the afternoon checking out the lumber prices at Lowes and building some shelves for our apartment.
 And in the evening....I went SHOPPING at the local mall. Very nice, some familiar stores and many new ones. Still learning how to use Canadian cash.

  Friday we caught up on paperwork, tried out another store and visited two others.

Today is the ONE-WEEK anniversary of our arrival. We have had our ups and downs, exciting moments and overwhelming moments. Lots of prayer and lots of love from the people here and from all of you who support us from a distance.





  These last 7 days have allowed us get almost acclimated to life here in Canada.  Just in time for us to leave in 10 days for Belgium where we will do some final MTW field preparation for a month!

  We look forward to Sharing Jesus for the next three years while in Alberta - Wild Rose Country