Joshua is hundreds of miles away!

Well, today marks the first time that we have allowed Joshua to travel all by himself. We woke up this morning at 5:15 AM and Kami fixed one of Joshua's favorite breakfasts....chocolate chip waffles! (She even threw in a cup of coffee for me!) Then we put his luggage into the van and dropped him off at the airport for his 1-stop flight to Halifax, Nova Scotia.

This story began back last November when we were at a mission's conference at Sackville Independent Baptist Church in Nova Scotia (just outside of Halifax). What a tremendous meeting we had there and what tremendous fellowship. The night before we were to return home, I noticed Joshua was struggling emotionally. At close to midnight, he asked to talk to me and confessed that he didn't really want to return to Quebec for language school (not that he wasn't going to come back with us, but that emotionally and spiritually he was struggling). You see, for the previous several months, he had not been able to understand any preaching, singing, nor be involved in any conferences or revivals that he loves so much. In reality, we were all struggling with culture shock as well and getting discouraged at not being able to understand anything during a regular church service.

If you don't think that this is a difficult thing, I want you to attend a church service in a foreign country and in a totally different language. Not just one service, but Sunday morning, Sunday night, and Wednesday night, week after weeks. You sit there not knowing what you are singing (nor how to pronounce it) and not understanding anything being preached. Just sitting there for over an hour with your mouth hanging open and a blank stare! Not just one service, but service after service for 6 months and approaching one year!

Joshua missed the fellowship of young people that he could play with and fellowship with. Most of all, he missed the preaching, conferences, revivals, and special singing that we were so used to week after week on deputation. We spoke to Pastor Dodd (of Sackville Ind. Baptist Church) before we left to come back to Quebec about our culture shock and mixed feelings. He and his wife were of great encouragement. Pastor Dodd did more than just give us counsel and pray for us, he brought our family for prayer before their church and asked for prayer especially for Joshua.

Then a couple of months ago, I received an invitation to be the guest speaker for the Teen Conference at Sackville. However, due to our new baby being due too close to the conference date, I had to decline the invitation. However, the invitation was still open for Joshua to attend the conference. Our brothers and sisters in Christ at Sackville saw a need that Joshua had, a spiritual need to be part of a conference with preaching aimed directly to his age and needs. The members of Sackville bought Joshua a roundtrip airline ticket to attend the conference which starts tonight (Friday)!

After much prayer, (and a momma shedding tears and saying, "My baby! I'm not letting him get on an airplane by himself!) we knew that God was providing a way for Joshua to be a part of what he loves most.....preaching and singing! I don't know if I have ever met a young man who loves to be at any place where preachers are gathered, more than Joshua. So this morning, with carry-on luggage in hand and passport in pocket, we watched him "slip" through the security checkpoint at the airport and disappear behind the "wall" of parental control and protection. Yes, our son for the first time was on his own to land at a totally different airport, find his new gate, board another plane and then locate the youth director of a totally different church in a totally different and far-away city. (Not to worry, we gave him a calling card and he called his dad at Montreal and then at Halifax to tell me that he was fine!)

For a 13 year old, he can act goofy, loves to bother his sisters, play tricks on his mother, and yet truly wants to please our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. And this evening, as I write this update, I am praying that God would touch the heart of a young man, the heart of my son. That God would encourage his heart and bring back a stronger, even more dedicated Christian young man whose heart has been touched and whose "soul panteth after thee , O God."

Some things is the Spring!!!

Well, it's been a while since our last post. The last post that I wrote about was the snow we were receiving as we moved out of the church building two Saturdays ago. Well, yesterday, it began to snow throughout the day. It didn't stick and today is sunny and great temperatures! We are really enjoying the beginning of Springtime!!!

This past Sunday was mission's emphasis Sunday at Eglise Baptiste de St. Augustin. I taught the Sunday school hour in French but used Pastor Roy to translate the AM message. The picture below is from the room in which the church rented at the local thrift store. It was a great set-up and our first Sunday there went great. I taught on the spread of the Gospel in the book of Acts from Jerusalem to Quebec.
We have been enjoying the outdoors as much as we can. There has been some chilly days and also some wet ones lately. We have been playing baseball and football and we are really enjoying the sun and warmer temperatures. The flowers are in bloom around our house. Here is a picture of the tulips that are in bloom under our kitchen window!

Silas thinks that they are pretty enough to eat!

Of course, the one good thing about having flowers in bloom:.........at no cost I can look like a wonderful husband! A pocket knife is all that is needed to bring the flowers home to momma!

Along with flowers in bloom is the pollen that is filling the air! For the past two days I have been suffering from my seasonal allergies. This means tired, groggy, sneezing, and even sometimes grumpy symptoms. Hopefully my allergies will only last a couple of weeks and then I will
be back to normal.

Kami's mid-wife appointment went great yesterday. We made our last payment yesterday as well. Our $5,000 bill to the birth center is paid in full!!! I told Kami that since I delivered our two girls, she could have just paid me 1/2 the price but she didn't seem to warm up to that idea.

Our french is continuing well and we are realizing that people are talking slower and we are starting to enjoy more and more that they say. (Actually, people aren't talking slower, we are just understanding more!) I will be working on more messages in french over the next few weeks as I will be preaching all the services in July in place of Pastor Cote here in Quebec City.

Thank you to all of you who keep us in your prayers!!!.....until next time.......

We spent the day moving......

We woke up this morning to snow/sleet. Where did this come from? What happened to our Spring?!!!

After breakfast, Bible reading, and a short prayer time, Josh and I headed out in the snow to pick up a trailer. We then headed to the church building in St. Augustin and spent entire day helping the church move out of the building that the church had rented. We were asked by the landlord to move out of the building 5 months before the contract ended. Pastor Roy did a great job working on behalf of the church getting back their rent money they had already paid for the final months and some additional money for the inconvienences that the landlord put the church in. The only problem is that the landlord wanted the church moved out by this coming Wednesday. So today we moved everything out and because the landlord is demolishing the building, we were able to take all of the fixtures, doors, wood flooring, etc. It was a long day but great to put in a hard days work when our normal day has been sitting in class or at a desk at home!

The future of the church is as follows:
Sundays: We will meet at a room in the Friperie (Thrift Store) for now.
Wednesdays: We will meet at Pastor Roy's House.

The hopefully near future: The church is working on buying a piece of property right on the main road of St. Augustin and then trying to build a small building. The church has done a great job at putting their efforts together and giving to the "building fund". We are praying that the Lord would provide the rest of the money needed in a timely manner. We are excited to see what the Lord will do on behalf of Eglise Baptiste de St-Augustin!

Sick Momma's and Soul-Winning !!!

O.K....I know the title is weird but it does catch your attention!

This past Sunday, I had the opportunity to preach twice. I preached all in French for Sunday school and in English (with a translator) for the AM Service. I would love to make more eye contact with the people as I preach but for now I am stuck to my paper on which I have every "jot and tittle" translated.

Once again the bug was at our house. I was sick with the stomach flu last Wednesday and Thursday. I was very kind to share my "bug" with Kami who was sick Saturday and Sunday. But please do not worry, I instructed the kids to save all of the housework for Momma when she gets better,.....we don't want her to feel like she isn't missed or that she isn't needed!

I am currently working on another two messages in French that I will be preaching in two weeks. I am understanding more and more each day (plus en plus chaque jour!). Pastor Roy and I went on "porte à porte" (door to door soulwinning) this evening and he was able to give the full plan of salvation to a middle-aged man and a young lady this evening. If you haven't figured it out, I am the "silent" partner in soul-winning! In the apartment complexes that we have been visiting in, the doors are right next to each other. My fear is that we will have two doors open at the same time and I may have to talk to some one in French!

The Jehovah's "False"-Witnesses have bombarded all of these apartments every week. Pastor Roy has developed a great introduction to put people at ease and let them know we are not Jehovah's Witnesses....He says, "Hello my name is Guillaume and this is Patrick. I am a Christian not a Jehovah's Witness....." Then he continues with the Gospel. He has a very direct and kind approach to speaking with people. I have noticed that this immediately puts most people at ease and many will even chuckle and sigh with relief to know we aren't Jehovah's Witnesses. (For those of you who know about mine and Kami's first attempt at soul-winning on our own some 14 years ago......no, Pastor Roy and I have not had any elderly women throw us down the stairs!!!)

It has been a great week and I look forward to what the Lord has in store for us the rest of this week!

Honey, I broke the toilet handle......

Have you ever had one of those days where things just kept going wrong?..........I thought so....

This morning I woke up feeling great. I had spent the last two days throwing up and other things I don't care to share. Yes I had the stomach flu but today was a new day and I felt great!

As I rolled out of bed, my wonderful wife came into the bedroom and said, "Honey, I broke the toilet handle." "No problem!" I said, because today was a new day! Sure enough, my bride had snapped the handle right off! We got through the morning lifting up the chain from inside the tank.

I think that my kiddos took advantage of my two days being sick in bed and at breakfast I had to "get onto them" a bit for some things left undone. Then we scrambled to get ready for school and scrambled out of the house with 10 minutes to drive 15 minutes to school. No problem, it was a new day.

(As I am typing this, Silas just opened the fridge and stuck his hands into the jello dessert...)

After school I dropped the family at the house and went to the hardware store and picked up a new handle. I thought the store was just up the street but ended up driving across town. When I got home, I got the tank lid off of the toilet and placed it without thinking on the edge of the bathtub. As I installed the new handle, I knocked the toilet lid off the edge of the tub and it broke. Well, I picked up the pieces and got the ceramic glue that I had in my wonderful tool supply. I read the instuctions and this stuff bonds ceramics in 60 seconds!....yoohooo!.......15 minutes later, I finally gave up holding the two parts of the lid together. I then ran to the store again to get some epoxy glue, caulk, sheet rock mud, and silicone. I figured I might as well be ready for everything!

I glued the toilet lid back together with the epoxy while people brought me their offerings of broken ceramic horses to broken teacups to repair. No problem...it was a new day! I re-caulked our bathtub and then had to glue back the broken plastic thingy that is mounted in the tub to hold the shampoos and soap (I broke that taking it down to caulk the tub). I was doing great gluing stuff at the kitchen table until my wonderful wife decided to make some fresh sweet tea. She was pouring the boiling water into the pitcher....she missed the pitcher and poured the boiling water on our cell phone. We quickly tried to take out the cell phone battery to keep it from shorting out the cell phone when my wonderful wife dropped the phone on the hard wood floor. No problem, it's a new day!

I figured that since I was on a roll, I would go ahead and re-caulk the kitchen and plaster a hole in the wall in the girl's room. As I was fixing some thing on the work bench in the basement, the light went out and I had to replace the little silver thing that kicks on the flourescent bulb. Kami reminded me that the salt shaker had fallen behind the oven, so I pulled out the oven and rescued our salt shaker and then cleaned under and behind the oven (yuck!). Needless to say, I am about to head to bed to get ready because tomorrow is a new day!

Finally An Update!!!

Well, okay....It has been awhile since my last post but "better late than never!".....

Here is some news from the past, present, and future!

The Past:
-We received the results from Brenna's thyroid test and it came back negative. All of her tests came back with absolutely no problems. We praise the Lord for this! I still do believe that part of her past problems were a result of low iron. She is doing better now but still has a few "down" times every once in a while.

-Kami's last mid-wife appointment went great and Kami is right on schedule to deliver in mid-May. Her mom purchased her ticket to fly here to Quebec on May 14th and we are excited to have her come.

The Present:
-We finished the Subjunctive tense in French a week ago and started the Passive Tense last week. I am getting confused with all of the tenses, how to conjugate each verb and when to use each tense. There are so many different ways to spell the same verb according to what tense the verb is in and what the subject of the verb is. Not to mention that the verb can be reflexive!
Today seemed difficult as we learned about using Terms that express time (ie: when to use the words: during, since, in, on, after, before, following, etc.) It may seem easy at first but the french mind doesn't work like the english mind. There are certain rules of when to use which and today we had to figure out which word to use according to "whose time" was being referred to. Was it my time or the person's I was talking about. If you are confused just reading this, you should have been in class.....very confusing!

-I am currently working on preparing French sermons (yes, all in french). I turned in one today to have Madame Claire correct my grammar. It is great practice for me to use my french having to translate and use verb tenses, etc.

-The kids have been doing the yardwork around the yard. Raking up leaves from the Fall, trimming branches and pulling weeds. They are excited to be outside because the temperature is wonderful!!! We even went to class today without any jackets! The kids are working at setting up an area under one of the apple trees to set up some chairs, a small outdoor table, and flowers to have a spot to eat, read, etc. outside. They are doing a great job and are having fun while working.....not to mention getting muddy from the melted snow and rain we received!

The Future:
-I will be preaching this Sunday. I will be teaching the Sunday school in French and the main service in english.

-I will also be preaching at the end of April for both Sunday school and the Main Service. I will be preaching both messages all in French and yes I am nervous. I am not nervous about the material nor the people being present but more because I am an "ad-lib" preacher. I like to say things and illustrations that are spontaneous. I can't do that in French because it still takes too long for me to think of the words needed, figure out what tense, conjugate them, arrange the pronouns and adjectives in the right order (whether they go in front, behind, or even inbetween verbs) and then put everything in order. So for now, I preach sticking to and reading directly from my paper!

-During the month of July, Pastor Cote' will be on vacation. He has asked me to fill in for him for all of the services for the month of July! This will be a great practice for me because it will be like I am on the mission field having to prepare the messages for all of the services. I am excited about the upcoming opportunity!

Until next time!.....