Shadow Land

A number of weeks ago my brother in law talked about a shadow mission. A lifestyle of darkness that shadows the path of light that Christ invites us to follow. As I go through each day I am very aware that I have a shadow mission. It desires to steel my joy by setting my focus on how dark our world is without Christ. It calls me to forget that Christ has a plan to save the world and that I must be the light that carries that plan to those around me.
How often I find myself in the midst of the darkness as a light that is all but snuffed out. May God grant me wisdom to become a light that is not snuffed out by darkness but one that cut through the darkness.
In Christ
Ray

Support discovery...and beyond.

Well, its been a while since we last posted. Pathetic, yes, but I thought we should stick another one up here in case somebody actually checks our blog. Currently we are doing "deputation/support discovery". It has been a huge blessing! We are meeting with people who want to know more about our ministry. It is so cool to have friends and family that actually excited about Russia too. I can't describe the blessing that it is.
In other news, I am now well over half done my first bible school class, very exciting, as it sometimes feels like we have no time to even eat. God has been good. And Ray bought some laminate to put in our condo so the renos continue.

Hope you all are having a great summer!

Lisa (for both of us)

Headed to Camp

Well here we go we are headed up to camp for a week. Please pray that God will work as we share his message with the kids. I think that I have already learnt so much from preparing that weather I speak or not is secondary. God has taken me on a megnificent journey of forgiveness that has set my heart free to sing again. Praise him. In Christ
Ray for both of us.

Lisa Gets Learn-ed and The Gift of Grout

Last week I received a very exciting package in the mail! Aside from the excitement of receiving a package in the mail, I was pumped about getting my first distance ed course in tne mail! I am now tecnically a Bible school student, something I swore I would never become :). But I am being humbled and I have already learned a pile. The Lord has His way with me, once again.

In other news, Raymond is prepping to speak at a Bible camp in two weeks, so we are pretty much shut-ins...studying and prepping and putting newsletters together and emailing...such is the stage of life we are in at this point. We also renovated our bathroom from Eighty's Freaky to Shiny Chic-y (I have more rhymes like that if anyone would like to borrow some). And guess who grouted? Oh yes, it was little Lisa. I feel I did a pretty good job, with Raymond going behind me and fixing it up...I mean, you can't teach talent like that.

Our Anniversary Weekend

We had big ideas, go to Candle lake tent for three nights spend time relaxing in quiet piece and nature. Ah what could be better. We arrived not having reserved a site hoping a least one site might be open. Well one site was open in fact all the sites were open. We were the only people in our whole area. Did I mention there was snow on the ground and that we just about froze during the night:). It was the most beautiful sight to see the evergreens covered in snow and all of the willows green for summer. Praise God for His amazing creation. Well the trip ended after our first night, we had breakfast, packed up and came home.
Life's plans seem to change regularly even anniversary weekend plans but even in the changing plans God is at work. We have had a marvelous quite weekend together, in the word and now doing prayer letters. Praise Him for changed plans!!!
Oh yes I did mention prayer letters, I realize they are slow in coming but just hang in there they will come:).
In Christ
Ray

ACREAGE Sitting

Well, at this very moment in time we are sitting at our friends' acreage. Basking in complete and utter silence. Complete silence, except for the wind. My husband is laying on the carpet, watching the dog. We are dripping in silence. This is the life. No cars whizzing by. No people talking in the hall. No guy next door trying to ride his mini motor bike through the kitchen. Silence.

We are still reflecting on COP, I have to admit we are dragging our feet a bit with some of the next steps but the rest is amazing. And we really needed it. We are however, going to be working on our newsletter on Saturday, with Kim's help, so we have to at least have a draft there.

Okay, so remarkable news. Kim and Barb (my brother and sister in law) are having their little girl next week (woo hoo!!) Please pray for Barb and the baby. And more remarkable news...Matt and Monica are expecting! Woo hoo! Please pray for Monica and the baby. Very exciting. All these babies, and yet it never gets old with me. I'm still super duper excited. Ray and I are so blessed with nephews and niece(s?).

To close, the picture above is from our adventures in Ontario. With maple syrup. All you can eat (drink?) maple syrup.... with the purchase of pancakes. Wow. God is good to make such a sweet liquid grow on trees. I better go, my husband fell asleep on the carpet.

OK We're Back

Okay, so no pictures or anything this time...but it will come, we promise! We just got back to our place, after being in Ontario for roughly a week. And we need a newsletter to keep everyone posted, I know, but first, we need to recover and rest. The week was so awesome, but very exhausting for us. We were in Ontario at Candidate Orientation Program with SEND to have a little bit of SEND training and also to meet with Council and be interviewed. We had a few moments of discouragement, no doubt fueled by our enemy, but we had a marvelous time and the Lord was gracious. We are now officially SEND people, appointed. We are now at support raising. Actually right now we are just focusing on resting for a week or so, and then we will pursue this as God leads.

Praise God:
-we had a wonderful experience with the AWESOME staff with SEND; marvelous
-God is good and He protected and guided
-Jesus is risen indeed!

Pray:
-that God would continue to show us the path we are to take, on the road to Far East Russia and everywhere else we go
-that God would bind up Satan from attacking and discouraging us
-that we could have some valuable couple time this week

Thanks guys for all your prayers and for peeking in on our blog every so often, I admit, we are very terrible bloggers... we will work on our blogging skills :)

Life is like that

This week as I was in the word I came across this verse Mark 11:22-25
"Have faith in God," Jesus answered. "I tell you the truth, if anyone says to this mountain, 'Go, throw yourself into the sea,' and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him. Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive him, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins." (NIV)

I was reminded of all that I held against others, so I asked God to forgive me for my grudges and I asked him to help me forgive those towards whom I held a grudge. As I did my soul was freed from a great burden for which I praise God. He truly is good. I noticed that it said, "if you hold anything", how often I have said I don't like what they said but they probably didn't mean it, or it wasn't their fault they said it and so I try to convince myself that I just need to ask God to forgive me for the thought and then try and let the thought go. The though rarely just goes. Jesus is saying it doesn't matter who is at fault if you hold anything against anyone forgive and then God can forgive you. I thought how cool is that even if I am in the wrong in what I hold against someone I should forgive. I guess it makes sense whether what you hold against someone is just or unjust until you forgive you wont really let it go.

In Christ.

Ray

The Peach Lake

Okay, so it was Lac La Peche, much prettier en francais. Last weekend, Ray took me to Lac La Peche for a little birthday weekend getaway. We ate delicious meals, including a boatload of bacon, Pringles Salt and Vinegar chips (wipes drool from keyboard), and salad..with bacon on top. The cabin had a fireplace, which we kept roaring hot, as the cabin itself was frozen. We read from God's Word together, I journalled, we prayed, it was so relaxing. We were thankful.

We also watched these cool DVDs about Russia, one of which was Jim Henson's The Storyteller. I know, a bit of stretch for researching Russia, but they had Russian fairy tales contained in the series. It was fun to watch. Very hilarious special effects, very hilarious puppets (I'm not sure I would recommend it for the little ones, though). From this video, I learned some fun words along the way, like "snoodle". "Snoodle" means to "cuddle" or "show affection", I think. For example, sometimes when I am in Extra Foods and I see a bag of MiniEggs I have the urge to snoodle them. Instead Ray purchases them, I devour them and then I snoodle my husband for purchasing them for me.

By the way, a guy at work just told me about a wonderful taco casserole recipe, he brought it for lunch and it smelled super. Its really easy...here it goes:
layer of big hashbrowns (tater tots)
layer of salsa
layer of seasoned beaf (taco seasoned of course)
layer of sour cream
layer of small hashbrowns
top with cheese if you like (and yeah, I like)
Bake for an hour at 400 degrees Fahrenheit
Uncover for the last ten minutes

Messy House

Oh, our messy, messy house. Usually I have it together, and the house is in order (as most of you know, I'm a little neurotic; much like Monica on Friends)... not so today. I'm dead tired from this crazy week; I have a thousand things to do that are relatively urgent; and I have a bit of tummy ache. But rather than tackle all of this, I think I'm going to read a little, and then I'm going to go to sleep, and I'm not really sure for how long, we'll see where the nap takes us...

Do you guys ever get like this? Morph into a polar opposite of your usual self? Maybe both sides, neurotic Lisa and sloth Lisa are the real picture of who I am, but regardless its so nice to play life by ear sometimes. Go where God takes you; to not be controlled by schedules and lists and agendas. Ray is a play it by ear guy. I've learned a lot in our marriage, thus far, and I'm loving his way of life. Its like a nice deep breath in. I have come to know that God brings us into rest times sometimes. Tonight is clearly a rest time...

DNA

Okay, now it is time I told you all about a fabulous book that I am reading that totally lights my soul on fire. It is not written by a believer (at least I think he is somewhat of a raving evolutionist), but God has managed to weave His wonderful love and mystery throughout the pages of this so - called secular book. The book: DNA. It is written by one of the co-founders of DNA, James Watson. Yeah, its full of jargon, but it tries to explain this wonderful molecule that is the building block of our bodies, the blueprint of life, and as one of my profs once put it, the language of God. It amazes me that so many people have studied, and worked with this fascinating double helix and not seen God's fingerprints all over it. Its wonderful, its magnificent! I guess to me it is one of the greatest lies that Satan has told people, that God did not create life, that God did not create DNA.

Our God is so worthy of praise! He is so marvelous and wonderful, and MIGHTY! I look at all of my friends and family, and watch their babies be born, and watch them grow and develop these unique personalities and tendencies that are not unlike their parents,but not totally like them either. God lovingly fashioned all of us, before we were even twinkles in the eyes of our mother.

God is so rad.