White Flag

Ugh, blogger isn't letting me add pictures. I don't know how to fix it! Chris Tomlin's Song, "White Flag" has been ringing in my head for a while now and especially over the past two weeks. You see, at New Years when I was at the Re:Turn conference, the Spirit of God was there and together we worshipped in freedom. We joined together as a generation saying, "We raise our white flag, we surrender all to you Jesus!" And I stood there with my flag waving as a way to declare this is what I was doing. Even now, I am saying those words. I am anticipating the start of a new job in less than a week. I start teaching grade 5 on Monday January 21st at Abby Christian and this is a new endeavour for me. All I can say is "I surrender all to You." There has been much anticipation because I accepted the position back in November. That makes for 2 months of waiting for me. It has been a good couple of months, but honestly, I'm not a fan of having something that you look forward to being planned so far in advance. For me it just creates too much anticipation and I'm kind of a girl who would rather have shorter notice and just take things as they come!  I remember when I was traveling with the girls and they would always be planning our next destination. When they'd run their ideas by me, I'd say, "Sure, sounds great!" Then, I'd leave it at that. I wouldn't really research beforehand, I'd just take it all in when I got there! I think it's more fun that way. If I had researched beforehand, it would have taken away any sense of newness. So here I am in a similar situation, where I could be doing lots of research for what is to come, but that's not my style. My style is to embrace it when it comes. I admit though, that again, sometimes in this regard I compare myself to others and think, "oh no, I need to plan more. I need to do stuff now" but that freaks me out. That creates more stress inside of me. In order to minimize stress, I wait and figure it out as I need to. Now for some that is opposite to their approach. They would rather figure things out way in advance, to reduce stress. For whatever reason that just makes me restless, anxious, and more stressed out. Please pray for me as I begin teaching this awesome group of grade 5s. Pray that as a class we would transition well. Pray that I would embrace it. Pray that we would laugh together, learn together, celebrate milestones together, encourage one another and dream together. Pray that I would model for them integrity and that I would lift Jesus up.

~this freedom song is marching on. ~ your love has come. ~ your love has won. ~ all for You. ~

Snowshoeing Sunday!

Last Sunday I went showshoeing at Manning Park. It was the perfect day. The temperature was -9 and there was not a cloud in the sky. Blue sky and Beatuiful British Columbia= perfect. What a spectacular way to worship. We had a good group of people and thanks to Cheryl, I had a pair of snowshoes to use. It was fun to meet new people and enjoy the great outdoors. The entire day was worship. I speak on behalf of the group and say that we delighted in God's creation. I really enjoyed getting out there with a group of people that I didn't really know before either. We even got to share some of our lunch with the birds. We held out our hands, full of trail mix and the birdies swooped down to grab some munchies. That was cool! After coming home, we ate dinner and then were invited to Ryan's to go in the hot tub and then enjoy some cinnamon buns. Again, perfect! We had a great discussion about work, rest, delighting in God and being fully alive- some of my favourite topics! One thought was about how God spent day 7 resting. We talked about how he didn't have to do that, afterall he is God and could probably just keep going. We talked about how God always reflected on His creation when he said that it was good. This reinforced my stance on just how vital and enriching it is for us to pause and consider where we've been and to process and reflect on the journey. Reflection encourages growth. Reflection allows us to gain perspective and see things more accurately. It reminded me of why I blog!

 

We talked about how good it is to take the time to delight in beautiful things.

Home Christmas

Hi Friends,

I was so excited about spending time with my family this Christmas. After being away last Christmas, it was pretty special for me to gather with loved ones once again. We hosted a Christmas Eve dinner at our house. Unfortunately my mom had a terrible stomach flu on Christmas eve. She wasn't able to join us for the Christmas Eve service or dinner, but she did make her way downstairs in her pajamas to capture a few pictures of our dinner. Although it was rather small this year and didn't include any of our cousins, I was happy for those who could be there. Thanks to Grandma, Grandpa and Mekayla for putting a lot into the dinner and making it happen.

 

Here are a few pictures from Christmas Eve.

 

We had some pretty exciting news. My brother Brayden and his girlfriend Nichelle got engaged on Christmas Day! They are planning a summer 2014 wedding. Us kids had fun making Christmas Morning brunch. Here are some pictures from Christmas morning. Mekayla and I had to go to Rempel's Meat shop on Christmas eve, right when they opened to pick up some farmer sausage because they had sold out a couple days prior. Everyone got spoiled for Christmas, that's for sure!

 

 

 

 

 

I had a delightful Christmas!

Something sweet for Sinterklaas

A few weeks ago I was invited for "Sinterklaas"- Dutch Christmas. After thinking about what treat to bring to the event I finally settled on Caramel Popcorn! I must say that caramel corn is the

*perfect treat.* Why? It's just so easy to make. It's great to snack on. It satisfies my sweet tooth.

And I had the the perfect bowl to put it in. An easy hit for a group event.

 

peace, a decision and a little humour

At the beginning of November I was asked by the youth pastor at my church if I would be the female leader for the Spring Break Youth Missions trip to Thailand. It was a total suprise to be asked primarily because I have not been involved with youth at the church and also I did not foresee any oversees trips this year. I told Jon I would think about it. And think and pray is what I did. Everyday it was on my mind, yet I did not have peace about a decison for a month. It was a long time of wondering if I would ever have peace about making a decision. To add to the mix I accepted a full time teaching position at Abby Christian beginning in mid- January. I'll be teaching grade 5! With the new position I wondered if I would need a break or if the trip would be a life-giving way to spend my Spring Break. I wondered so many things. I know it will be a different pace of life once January hits because having your own classroom involves a lot more prep work and time. Currently with Teaching on Call I usually leave school at 3:30 and I have no further planning to do in the evenings. It's been easy! Getting back to the story. Finally two Wednesdays ago,  I woke up with this peace about saying no to it.  At the end of the day, the Spirit of God wasn't leading me to do it. That's an interesting thought. It says a couple of times in Galatians to let the Spirit guide our lives and that has been why I've "had to go" in the past and yet this time it's the same but different. Three big things I was wrestling with were:

a. what others may expect of me,
b. what I expect of myself,
c. the thought that my "Missions DNA" would be stripped of me if I said no.

But the amazing part is that once we give Him those things and he exchanges them for himself, His peace comes and those things fall to the side. It was definitely an honour to be asked to lead in this way. I was thrilled at the opportunity to bring my own experiences and love for people and the world to the team (if I were to go). I'm so supportive of the trip, but this wasn't what He was leading me into at this time. One of the big things I learned is that the Spirit of God holds the trump card. I made my pros and cons list using my human rationale; however, it when the Spirit of God prompts you either to do/ or not do soemthing His voice is what ought to hold the most weight. I remember when I went to China and my parents wanted a reason for "WHY" I had to go and the reason I gave is that the Spirit of God is leading me to go. At the end, that answer satisfied. That answer outweighed any other.

Now back up to point "C" above. I have to laugh because although I have been on the on-call list at the Dasmesh Punjabi School here in Abbotsford, I hadn't received a phone call until Thursday morning (the day after saying no to Thailand). To me this correlates because it was the Father giving me that little reminder that he knows my heart and that he knows my love for the nations. It was a reminder that he does not take that away from me because I said no to Thailand. I ended up teaching there four days these past 2 weeks. On Friday it was Guru Nanak's bday, so the whole day was a religious ceremony all in Punjabi. I had to take off my shoes and wear a head covering. I jus stood there beside my class and prayed to Jesus the whole time. What an honour to get to stand in that place. I've had the privilege of being invited into that school. I've had the privilege of standing as an embassador of the High King, Jesus, and praying that individuals at that school would encounter His grace, love and peace.


So perhaps the "Big 3" I take from this experience is:
1. God does give us peace when we seek Him.
2. The Spirit of God sometimes leads us to go and other times leads us otherwise. The Spirit of God holds the trump card.
3. God knows our hearts. He made us who were are and he does not forget how he has made us.



~ One of my favourites! ~

Significant Someone

Small guy? Significant Someone.

 

I started the day with a morning walk. Always a good choice to begin the day. I was just by myself this morning and had a lot of things on my mind so I spent the walk praying. I spent the walk sharing my thoughts with my Father. I spent the walk observing the things around me. The little things have been in focus to me lately, like those furry little caterpillars that are out and about crawling the pathways and trails. I ended up sharing the trail with this little snail. The little thing was so small, probably easily breakable, yet focused on his/ her task. Snail was crossing the road. That appeared to be a big task for such a little creature. I passed it as I was walking the one direction and then on the way back, I took note of how it's journey was coming along. Snail had made great progress. It had probably traveled half the metre it had to go, so it was still on its way toward the other side.

 

 My initial thought was this is a pretty small guy.

 Do you ever feel like a small guy? In a great big world, do you feel like a little snail?

 

 But then I got to thinking (hope I'm not too loonie), "that little snail is amazing! That little snail is determined. That little snail is capable of big things." It's easy to think, "Oh that insignificant little snail- but no that snail was crossing the street, as it was meant to do. And that is significant. We are not a small guy. Rather, we are people with great purpose and significance. We are meant to live here and now and no thing we encounter is overlooked by the Father. No thing we do it outside the knowledge of our Creator. No circumstance is a suprise. To me that is reassuraing.

To me that means I'm known and cherished.

 

Tonight we had a celebration for Miss Elgersma. She has been the music teacher at Abbotsford Christian Elementary School for over 20 years! WOW! I'm amazed. This was a celebration of who she is and a recognition that we support her through this cancer. It was amazing to see New Life Church full of people- former students, current students who attend ACS, past and present colleagues and staff, parents, family and friends. We shared music and stories together. There's something so beautiful about being together as a body. I had the privilege of teaching for Sandra 3 years ago (2009- 2010). Tonight we each had the opportunity to write Sandra a "note" and mine said something along the lines of, "Thank you for believing in me. May you sing the new song God puts in your heart each day." Truly, truly, I have been doing a lot of reflecting lately, especially on three years ago. I think about how Sandra gave me the prvilege of being in her classroom for the year. I was 22 years old and she entrusted 180 students to me 3 days/ week to teach music to. What a privilege to be "believed in" by someone like that. Thank you Sandra for believing in so many. Inclusivity is something I learned from you. Each person is no "small snail" to you; each one is a "significant someone." I want to express to you how much it means to me that you believed in me. Thank you.

 

Lyrics from The Lorica

Be above me, as high as the noonday sun

Be below me, the rock I set my feet upon

Be beside me, the wind on my left and right

Be behind me, oh circle me with Your truth and light

"Big Feast"

My friend Tamara first introduced me to a unique little restaurant in the heart of Maple Ridge called "Big Feast Bistro."

 

According to the website, Big Feast is, "a small town bistro with a trendy, urban feel.  Located in the heart of Maple Ridge, BC, we feel that feasting is something we do whenever we get together with friends and family, and food should be celebrated whether you're just having breakfast, or enjoying a special event! 

 

We built the bistro with family and community in mind. Our community table is the heart of our dining room, and is there to encourage guests to connect, interact, and get acquainted. Family is an integral part of who we are, and as such, we have created a space and a menu that welcomes and encourages families to enjoy each other's company, allows parents to enjoy a great meal, and allows kids to be just who they are - kids! 

 

We strongly stand behind shopping local, re-using and recycling. Almost all the items in our bistro have been previously loved. Our display came from a Montessori in Langley, our community table from a wonderful couple in Maple Ridge, our 100 year old bench from a farm in Northern Saskatchewan, and our chairs from a quaint bistro in Boundary Bay. We have created the menu with local merchants in mind, and select locally made (within 100 mile), organic ingredients whenever we can. Because of this, our menu changes regularly, just like the seasons. We are proud to serve fair trade, and organic sustainably grown Salt Spring Coffee. We look forward to seeing you!"

 

 

I just love this Bistro! My cousin and I visited Big Feast a couple weeks ago and I was reminded again of how much I love the atmomsphere there, as well as the whole idea behind the place. Everything from the community table, to supporting local businesses and using second hand furniture items appeals to me. According to their website, "feast" is defined as,

 

Feast n. - 1. a. A meal that is well prepared and abundantly enjoyed.             b. Something giving great pleasure or satisfaction.

 

In order to have a feast, you have to have people! I've been pondering the things that are life giving for me. I've been contemplating those things that I'm meant to do. One thing I've discovered is that I am meant to bring people together. I enjoy seeing different groups of people come together and I enjoy creating spaces where people are welcomed. I love partnerships and I recently had the great joy of creating a partnership between a local business and one of my dearly loved Christian friends.

 

I think of Ruth from the Bible. She is a woman I esteem to be like. She was someone who earned the trust of others, worked diligently at all she did, was loyal, compassionate, and united people.

~ www.bigfeast.ca/ 11920 227 Street Maple Ridge. ~

~ Invite a friend. Enjoy a feast! ~

~ Share ~ Give ~ Serve ~