Post-Christmas Nuggets........

Nugget #1......Today is Sunday (Dec 27th) and we have had snow starting at 11 pm last night. Then, it switched to hail/ice pellets at 5:30 this morning. Then sleet around 8 am mixed with the biggest snowflakes I have ever seen! It is now 2 pm and it is still snowing outside. I do not know how much the total snow fall has been but church services were canceled this morning and the weather report says that more ice/sleet is on its way at 3-4 pm.

Since we could not go to church, we had special singing this morning as a family. We sang about 15 old-fashioned hymns and had a great devotion from Proverbs 27. I love those old fashioned hymns and I enjoy singing the old hyms that I made so many spiritual decisions while singing!

Nugget #2......Christmas was wonderful. Our girls were surprised with a used dollhouse that we purchased off of ebay. Joshua received an MP3 player that we downloaded good conservative Christian music onto and he wants to download sermons from some of our favorite preachers. We spent Christmas eve reading Luke 2, praying, and then reading some Christmas stories. We opened a couple of gifts and enjoyed our family time. On Christmas day, we enjoyed a wonderful Turkey meal with some great sides that Kami made. We love the special seasons and especially one that is all about Christ!

Nugget #3......The Tuesday before Christmas, we went to a special church service held at the Home for the Aged in Port Neuf. There was special singing by our kids and other church families. Joshua preached a great salvation/Christmas message on "Jesus was born to allow us to have a second birth." It was a great salvation message. We gave the elderly ladies some gifts made by the children of the church and some flowers.

All in all, we have had a wonderful Christmas season!

What's Wrong With This Picture!!!

Can anyone tell me what is wrong with this picture below????Yes, that is right, a Florida license plate covered in snow!!!

We get a lot of "funny" looks as we drive our van with Florida tags through the winter snow here in Quebec City!!! I am very tempted to stop and ask people, "Excuse me, could you tell me where Florida is, I seem to be lost???"

It started snowing yesterday and it hasn't stopped yet. Joshua and I shoveled out our driveway twice yesterday and had our van all clean of snow as of last night. However, it snowed over a foot of snow last night and what a time Joshua and I had shoveling out.

When we shoveled over a foot of snow out of our driveway this morning, about another 3 inches fell by lunchtime.

This picture below is Joshua behind one of the piles of snow we shoveled-off of one side of our driveway.

This is the other pile of snow on the other side of the driveway!

It is amazing, I told Kami that I love huge snowflakes that fall to the ground very slowly. Sure enough, as I look out the window right now, huge snowflakes are falling slowly to the ground. I feel like pulling up two chairs to the big window in our bedroom and enjoying a cup of hot chocolate with my wife............what a wonderful "Winter Wonderland" two days before Christmas!

Cookies & Christmas!

This weekend was a big weekend for our family. Normally for the Christmas season, our family makes Christmas cookie platters for families that we know. Kami and the kids bought all of the necessary items and supplies that they needed. They spent almost all day Saturday baking, cutting, decorating and preparing the cookies and platters. We even included a small wrapped gift for families with children (....one of our favorites...a family game as a gift!) They each worked hard and had me sample the baked goods.....someone had to perform a quality taste test!!!

We passed out a cookie platter to our neighbor and landlord as well as families in the church on Sunday. After we got home, I realized I had made a mistake in handing out the cookie platters to the families at church. When I gave the cookie platter to each family, I meant to say, "Merry Christmas, this gift is for your family." However, I mixed up the possesive pronoun and as I handed each family their platter and I ended up saying, "Merry Christmas, this is for OUR family!" Oh well, this is just the start of many mistakes to come as I speak French! (Do you think that each family might think that they are supposed to give us back the cookie platters for Christmas!)

On Sunday, there was a special Christmas Sunday school time. Families signed up to sing Christmas specials and play instruments. Kami and the each one of our children had a part in the special service. (Yes, even Silas! In the video that we took, we could hear Silas "singing" out loud as his sisters and brother sang and played!)

We finished the evening (right before Sunday night football!) with everyone in their pajamas, around the Christmas tree, reading short Christmas stories as a family.

Christmas Craft by the Petits Vaillants

We want to thank Heritage Baptist Church of Dewitt Michigan for providing the craft supplies for our young people's group called the Petits Vaillants. Last Sunday evening, the young people were able to make "Christmas Mice" that had candy cane tails. These crafts were made of flannel material & Candy Canes.

This coming Tuesday, we are having a special Christmas service at the Home for the Aged in Port Neuf. The crafts that these children made will be giving out as presents to the residents of the home. The kids were also able to take one of the mice home for their families as well. At the special Christmas service, there will be special singing, instrument specials, and Joshua will be preaching a small devotional as well. Thank you Heritage Baptist Church for making this craft possible and we trust the it will be a blessing to those of the Home for the Aged. (Sorry, we forgot to get a picture of the finished product!)

No more homework....no more books.......

No more homework.....no more books.......etc.....etc......etc.....you know the rest of the song.

Our last class of language school (for the Christmas Break) was yesterday!!!!!! Yeah!!!! Kami and I feel like kids back in middle school who can't wait for Christmas Break! It won't totally be without homework, though. Have you ever had a teacher who gave you work to do on your vacation breaks? Well, Madame Plante gave us books to read and pages of work to be done...the only problem is that she said, "Do what you can do and get done what you can over the Christmas break." My spirit is willing but my flesh is weak...I can already feel myself coming up with reasons of why I couldn't get any of it done!!!!

Silas is going to miss French classes a lot. He is in love with Madame Plante and she thinks he can actually speak French. Upon our arrival to class, she takes Silas and begins to unbundle his winter gear. She laughs and giggles with him and he laughs and babbles back. She is convinced that he knows how to say "shoes" in French! She loves to give him cookies to eat. Normally towards the end of class, the kids bring in Silas after his nap so that Kami can feed him. However, he has learned that he can manipulate Madame Claire. He smiles at her and with big eyes and says, "MMMmmmmmm". This is her signal to get him a maple cookie. He'll take a bite and look at her and say, "MMMmmmmm." She says, "MMMmmmm and laughs." This conversation between them goes on for several minutes.

At some point, I try to get class going again. I will try to answer a question in French and I will look up at her to find her waving and smiling at Silas. I will answer a question and she will say that Silas is doing so good! In fact, Silas sat in her lap and ate his snack at her desk the other day while she taught us French!

Madame Plante is a fabulous teacher and very patient. Our french is coming along and she is such an encouragement. We are blessed to have her as our teacher. (She also bought each member of our family a Christmas gift!) We are looking forward to a great Christmas Break and yet, we are looking forward to the time when classes start back up......

(Not-so) Quiet Time with The Lord

This morning, Kami and I woke up just before 6 AM to read our Bibles together and pray together. Normally, we have our devotion time apart, but this morning we wanted to spend time together with the Lord.

It is amazing all of the distractions and battles that occur when you try to pray and read your Bible. These are not coincidences, but a "spiritual" warfare on your time with the Lord.

After I got ready, Kami rolled out of bed and started her morning routine. I was excited to have this quiet time alone with her. I tiptoed through the kitchen as all of the children were still asleep. Silas and Joshua are asleep in their room about 10 feet from the kitchen so I tried to be real quiet. I filled and turned on the coffee pot, got our mugs all ready (plenty of coffee creamer and two sugars!), and then I got our Bibles ready at the kitchen table.

All of a sudden, I looked into the boys room and sure enough, Silas was smiling at me. Okay, no problem, we can give him some milk and a snack in his highchair while we read and pray together. We read our Bibles and started to pray as Silas made noises and did his new trick....he takes a sip of milk and bubbles it out of his mouth. A little distraction but one we can overcome.

As Kami started to pray, Silas began to fill his diaper. It's not just a private, quiet deal with him. He grunts and lets everyone know what he is doing. Well, it definitely is distracting to pray while a baby fills his diaper.........but we kept on praying after we laughed about the matter.......not 1 minute later did the phone alarm start going off. I had to get up, find the phone and shut it off. It just seemed that one thing after another kept happening.

But after our prayer time, I realized why the Devil fought this prayer time. You see, I have a wife that knows how to pray. I sometimes have trouble praying for people. Let me explain....when there is a specific problem or prayer request, I pray for those needs and situations. However, when there is no specific prayer request or situation...how do pray for someone everyday and not seem like a vain repititious prayer. As Kami prayed for our son Joshua, I was taught how to pray for people. I had her pray for each of our children so that I could listen to her pray. What a prayer warrior, just listening to her taught me so much about praying for the spiritual, emotional, and personal needs of people.....the deep thoughts and intents of their hearts and the daily battles and struggles that they face deep within their hearts everyday.

The Lord taught me a lot this morning...during our (not-so) quiet time with the Lord......

BBBRRRRRRR..........

Cold day today, the high is 8 degrees today and the low for tonight (windchill added) is -25 degrees!!!.......

Our kids went outside yesterday evening to play in the snow that is about 1 1/2 feet deep. Josh starting to dig out an area in the snow that he going to fill up with water and let it freeze.....thus their very own skating rink! We'll see how it turns out.

Today was a good day at class until we got to the part about speaking of "time" such as quantities or durations of time. We learned when and how to use the words "Depuis/For", "Pendant/during", "en/in", "Depuis que/since that", and several others. It can be quite confusing putting it all together.

Instead of saying, "I worked at my job for 3 years." the French say it, "I worked my job during 3 years." When our professor said that she was going to teach us how to say a future duration in the past, I knew I was in for a long morning! She gave us an example of how the future idea is spoken of in the past in these two sentences below.

The two statements are as follows and apparently they have different meanings:
I was on stage for 3 days. (J'etait en stage pour trois jours.)
I was on stage during 3 days. (J'etait en stage pendant trois jours.)

I finally came to the conclusion that there are some things that I don't think that I will ever understand in French! To me, these statements say the same thing. In order to truly speak in a foreign language, one must "think" as a person of that language and culture think. Keep praying for our family! One of these days we will be fluently speaking french...(but until then, I do not think that I will be telling anybody that I was on stage!)

Amen For The Snow!

We have been wondering "Where is all the snow everyone says is coming?" Well, it's finally here and not soon enough! Our family loves snow! It began to snow on Wednesday just after lunchtime and what a great snow storm we had! The roads are a mess, shoveling has started and snow forts are being built! On Wednesday evening, Kami and I slept with our bedroom window open just to be able to watch the snow fall through the night.....

Yesterday afternoon after language school, I took the kids around the corner to a great sledding hill that leads down to the river. It was so much fun laughing and sledding. I guess I am just a big kid! Josh and the girls have been working on a snow fort in the side yard and it is turning out great. (I am looking foward to throwing a few snowballs myself!)

This is around the corner of our porch....I was supposed to throw away this old broken "rocker"...This is just one night's snowfall!

After a hard day at school and playing in the snow, these two boys fell asleep quickly.....

We are truly going to miss the snow when we get to the West Indies....but as for now.....we are going to make many, many winter memories to enjoy for a lifetime!!!

Just a reminder....

I know we haven't updated our "Family Tips For The Taking" nor our "Prayer Request/Praises" sections lately, but they have now been updated. Just look to the right of our blog and you will find our updated sections.

Have a great Day!!!........It's snowing outside and the wind is blowing upwards of 65 MPH!!!

Battle of the Bugs.....and Crime Solving!

Battle of the Bugs.....That's my new name for the colds and sicknesses that keep circulating throughout our family. I am thinking about buying those doctor masks for everyone for Christmas and a nice little bottle of germ-x.....but I can't....I don't know what they are called in French!

I think I am on the mend from this past week's cold, Silas is still sick, Joshua is on his second day with a cold, and Elisabeth is now on the couch with a slight fever. We have traveled a bunch in the past 1 1/2 months and each new place we go, we pick up a new "bug".

On another subject, Kami and I read a news article from St. Barthelemy (the island we are going to first) about a some recent robberies. Apparently there has been a rash of robberies on the island. One of the thieves used a stolen credit card at a store which was denied. When the local police were notified of the use from the credit card company, they went to the store to ask questions. Upon hearing of some descriptions of customers that day, the local police used the descriptions to think of someone they knew. They then went to that person's house and there was all of the stolen stuff. (That's how crime solving works on an island that is 8 1/2 square miles!) It was two locals, a man and woman who live on the island.....my question is.......just about everyone knows each other, what did they expect to do with the stuff?

Until next time.....Remember: Jesus is the reason for the season!

Bacon Burger Dawgs & Fromage au Fudge!!!

This past Friday evening for our Family Fun Night (this is the night that we cook special meals and play family games or do crafts), Kami made Bacon Burger Dawgs. Basically, you take a hotdog and wrap in it ground beef. Then you wrap the whole things in bacon. I really think these are supposed to be grilled. However, since it is winter time and we do not own a grill, Kami cooked them under the broiler in the oven. We did not know how long to cook them so we cooked them extra long to be sure they were done.

When we thought they were done, we put them on hotdog buns with all the fixin's. However, there were two problems: 1)We cooked they way too long and they were very dry..... 2)As we began to eat them, we noticed that the casings on the hotdogs were very tough and hard to chew. I mentioned to Kami that I thought there was plastic on the hotdogs. She immediately said that she bought "skin-on" hotdogs for it said so right on the box. After a lot of chewing, grinding, and 1/2 a hotdog later, Josh exclaimed, "There's writing on my hotdog!" Well, we all looked and all of our hotdogs had white writing on them. We could tell exactly what the ingredients were, the name of the hotdog brand, and it big white letters, "Remove plastic before eating!"

We now realize that "skin-on" hotdogs in French Canada is not the same "skin-on" hotdogs in America! If you look closely at the precooked Bacon Burger Dawgs in the picture below, you can see the plastic on the hotdogs and the white writing on the plastic!!! They were very big, and here Elisabeth is about to take her first bite of "Bacon Burger Dawg au Plastic!"

One of Kami's family traditions growing up is December 6th gifts. This comes from a German tradition where the children would place their shoes next to the door on Dec 5th and the next morning, miraculously a small present would be in or next to their shoes. Somehow, Kami and her sisters talked her parents into starting this tradition......extra presents.....they are pretty smart! Kami has brought this tradition into our family and she bought the kids each a little ($1) present to put in their shoes. I didn't want her to feel left out so I bought Kami (Hallelujah!!!...it was on sale!) Fromage au Fudge (Cheese Fudge)!!! Yes it really in chocolate cheese...and yes it does sound disgusting but it is actually very good.

In the picture below is the raspberry chocolate cheese...I think it was our favorite!

Until Next Time...............

Guess Who's Coming To Town???......

No....it's not Santa.....It's the Olympic Torch Bearer!

Kami read on a sign last night on our way to church that the Olympic Torch would be passing through Quebec and St. Augustin. So, today she bundled up the kids and went to see this once in a lifetime event. (I stayed home to work on my not-so-once-in-a-lifetime French homework.....)

They arrived in St. Augustin (where we meet for church....Eglise Bapiste de St-Augustin) 30 minutes early. They said that the crowds showed up about 5 minutes before the Torch arrived.

Here are some school kids holding signs of "Vancouver 2010". The Torch Bearer's son was holding a sign for his dad that said "Le porteur de flambeau c'est mon Papa....Go Papa!" (in case you cannot read french, it says: The carrier of the torch is my dad!) He then jumped right in and ran along side his dad.

Here is my wonderful kids enjoying some hot chocolate on a cold, rainy day. (The brown building behind them is where we meet for church)

I sure am glad to have a wife that loves to do great outings with our children!

Silas' first Thanksgiving...but definitely not his first Mission's Conference!

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving Holiday with Pastor Hamby and his family in Trois Rivieres. His wife, Amanda, cooked us a wonderful Thanksgiving meal and also fed us some great home cooking during the Mission's Conference. During our stay, our kids had so much fun playing with the Hamby kids (Joshua, Noah, and Luke). They would spend almost all day in the woods behind the church, building forts and clubhouses. They pillow "fought", played games and had so much fun laughing. We adults spent most of our time telling stories and laughing until we cried. What a wonderful family and what a wonderful few days we spent together!

Friday evening started their first annual Mission's Conference at The Faith Baptist Church in Trois Rivieres. Pastor Hamby told me that he found out the church members were very nervous about their Faith Promise Commitments. Apparently, when he first told them about Faith Promise and supporting missionaries, they thought they would be responsible to give us ALL of our monthly needed support!

I was the speaker for the conference and our family sang for all of the services. We showed our slides and gave testimonies. We also had an international banquet on Saturday evening. We tried foods from Russia, Indonesia, China, Italy, Philippines, and a host of other countries. The foods were all great! We truly love the Hamby family, they are a very special family. We hope you enjoy the next few pictures from our Trois Rivieres' Adventure!

Wonderful Thanksgiving Meal!!!Silas was enjoying his very first Thanksgiving!

Wonderful Friends....Wonderful Fellowship.....

Banquet Placemats with the Conference theme "Share the Light!" Setting up for the Banquet....There were more tables in the foyer of the church as well. I think the total for the banquet was 35 in attendance!Our kids and the Hamby's kids played the instruments before the services.....Bro. Hamby decided that it would be a good idea to play our instruments together after the banquet....we had fun, although I kept making a lot of mistakes!We drove back after the close of the conference last night (Sunday evening) and made it in about 10PM. When we woke up this morning (at 5:45 this morning...thank you Silas!!!) we woke up to the ground covered in snow! (Madame Estelle....don't you miss this white stuff???) Until Next time........

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Happy Thanksgiving to every one of you! God is great and greatly to be praised!!!....no matter what situation you are in, He knows, He cares, and He is in control.


We are off to Bro. Jason Hamby's house to spend Thansgiving with an old-fashioned American family! He is pastoring Faith Baptist Church in Trois Rivieres which is about 1 1/2 hours from our house. We will also be a part of their 1st Annual Mission's Conference which starts on Friday and goes through Sunday evening. I will be preaching each service and our family will present our ministry and sing. We are looking forward to a great time of fellowship!

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Memories!!!

Today after language school, we were talking during lunch about Elisabeth when she was younger. We pulled out a photo album and started looking at some pictures. In her album was a list of "one-liners" that we compiled to help us remember funny, sad, or exciting things that happened in our lives. We just laughed and had a great time remember silly things over our time on deputation. I thought it would be great to list a couple of the "one-liners" of different occasions that happened to us on deputation. You may or may not understand all of them but to us they are special memories.

On deputation, many churches have had us park our motorhome in their church parking lots which has brought many great experiences....Here are some "one-liners" from some of our church parking lot experiences (remember....not all churches are in the safest neighborhoods!)
We call these, "Our Parking Lot Experiences"

1. "Patrick, wake up! We are surrounded by police with their guns drawn!"
2. "Patrick, wake up! I just heard gun shots!"
3. "Kami, did you hear that shoot-out last night?"
4. (at 2AM) Answer the door, it's the police!
5. From a Pastor's wife, "If you hear gun shots at night, it's normal. If you hear people outside
your motorhome after midnight, do not get out of your motorhome!"
6. "Kids, get your shoes on! It's a tornado!!!"

As we have traveled to over 25 states in our motorhome, we have left things at various churches, motels, and laundry mats. We call this section, "Left Overs"

1. Kami has left her piano/songbook at two different churches.
2. Beth has left her Bible at two different churches.
3. I have left a stack of my sermon notes in Georgia.
4. We left our remote control for our DVD projector at a church in Illinois.
5. Kami left her quilt that her grandmother made for her at a Days Inn.
6. We actually left our love offering at a Wingate Hotel in Florida.
7. Kami locked the keys in the car in north Florida at Walmart and had to call a Locksmith.
8. Kami: "I think I need a new winter coat."
Patrick: "Why?"
Kami: "I left mine at the church we were at last."
9. And then there is the time as we were in Georgia driving down the road that Kami said,
"Patrick, don't get mad, but back in North Carolina I left a bunch of our clothes in the dryer
at the laundry mat!"

There are so many stories from deputation. We have had a great time and many memories made. We have learned that, "in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content." For us, serving the Lord is fun and fulfilling! Until next time......

Latest News & Updates from the Canadian Front!!!

Updating our family blog has not been a priority in the past few weeks. Illnesses, colds, and language school have all taken first place for a while. I believe that we are all once again healthy as a family. Last friday was the last day that I was nauscious with the dry heaves.....I do not know about you, but I would rather have something to throw-up than have the dry heaves!

Language school is going well and we had to miss one day of class last week due to illness. But with everyone doing well, we should be back in full force to tackle French and life in general!

Last week, Pastor Roy scheduled an appointment at a tire shop and the church here bought 4 used snow-tires for our van. Winter tires are required by law and it was truly a blessing for the church to provide for this need!!! Thank you Eglise Baptiste de St-Augustin!!!

This weekend was the 2nd annual Mission's Conference here at the church. Kami and I, along with the Petit Vaillants children, made decorations for the conference. Everything was in blue & white which are the Quebec colors. Pastor Hilmer from Sherbrooke preached the conference and we showed our DVD which Pastor Roy had to translate. This was the first time the church has been able to see our DVD presentation. Kami, Elisabeth, and Brenna sang a special and we had a conference lunch in which all Quebec Foods were made.....Here are a few pictures from the conference:

The Quebec Flag & Conference Theme:Everyone enjoying a good meal and fellowship:Quebec Pea Soup and Salad:

Ragu (pork meat, pork meatballs with cinnamon and other spices) & Potatoes:Kami made these Tartes au Sucre (Quebec Sugar Pies) for dessert:We were worried that us Americans were not going to make the Quebec sugar pies just right, but Kami got a big thumbs up! We were at first a little worried because one of the young college -girls pretended to throw-up after trying it, but she was just trying to play a joke on Kami!!!Kami and the girls singing "It's Through the Blood"It was a good conference (at least we believe it was.....it was all in French!) The fellowship was great and the Faith Promise committments increased from last year. We praise the Lord! Until next time.....