Seasons are here..........

Well, let's begin by saying that football season is here! Yes, that's right.......training camps for football opened up this week and I love football! I have high expectations for my Philly Eagles this year! Normally for the first game of the season, my family wears our Eagles shirts and my wife makes some sort of football snacks. Kami loves the Eagles and enjoys a great game as well.....What a wife!

Vacation season is here as well. The beginning of August is when most people take their vacations here Quebec and for 2 weeks our language professor is in Cuba. It seems weird to say that people take their vacations to Cuba but here in Canada, you see Cuba advertisements and billboards around the city. We have two weeks off from school which is a great break for us. There are times when you need to step away from learning a language before your mind falls apart and we needed this time off! Josh, Beth, Brenna and I enjoyed a great time camping last week with Bro. Hamby and his kids. We hiked, fished, swam, and roasted hotdogs, hamburgers, ears of corn, marshmallows, and a host of other things on our campfire. It was a great time outdoors! Except for the raccoon who decided to join us at our campfire the last night, there were no serious mishaps, scares, or injuries (if you don't count the burnt finger, cut finger, and the fish hook to the eyebrow and a finger. )

Allergy Season is in full swing for me! This has been a warmer Spring and Summer this year compared to last year when we were freezing in June! Thus the ragweed is in bloom and there is no rest for the weary as we must keep our windows open at all times. This seems to be an early start for my allergies which normally start up at the end of August. I only seem to have a "let-up" from my allergies when I can lock myself in an air-conditioned room for several hours. This isn't possible unless we are in our van with the windows rolled up and the A/C on......When my allergies are in full swing, I can't breathe because Asthma kicks in, my head and nose are congested beyond breathing capabilities, I sneeze non-stop, and I am so groggy that I can't keep my eyes open. My favorite time of year is the Fall season but it is my worst time of year as well.

Preaching Season....yes I said preaching season! I preached all in French last Sunday morning and evening, as well as this Tuesday, Wednesday, and next Sunday morning and evening as well. Then in September I am preaching all the services for two Sundays at Trois Rivieres and every Wednesday at St. Augustin. Then in October I am preaching every Wednesday and one Sunday as well. I am thankful to have a break in August so that I can try to write some more messages because after this week I will be out of new messages in French. Then it's back to the drawing boards as I battle allergies and prepare new messages in French which normally take me 3 days to write one message in French! But I am excited about the opportunity that the Lord has provided me! We still have a ways to go in fully understanding and speaking French and all these times of preaching/reading my messages has helped my tremendously!

Until next time..........................

Messages, Cakes, Camping, and Leading Music!!!

I have been encouraging our girls to learn how to decorate cakes and cookies. This is a great skill to learn and also a great way for them to earn some extra money in the futre when they get really good. They are so excited and we have bought them some cake decorating supplies to start with.Their first order!!!! Well, okay, I ordered the first two cakes for a contest that Kami and I have been having. Kami and I have been in a contest to lose 10lbs! (I won!!!....Yea for me!!!) The winner got this cake with a trophy and gold medal for first place!

The loser got this "Fat Cow" cake!!! The girls did a great job and their first cakes turned out great! (But how dumb was that.....having cake as a prize for a weight loss contest!)

This past week has been a little difficult in that 5 out of 7 members of our family have been sick all at the same time. This is actually a blessing in that it is best to get it over with all at once instead of passing on the colds from one person to another over a month or two! We have had runny noses, sore throats and fevers. True to form, Elisabeth is normally the one who gets the deep coughs that sound like her chest is going to explode. She has been coughing for the past two days but at least she is off of the couch this morning and helping out in daily chores.

I was able to preach Sunday and was very comfortable preaching. I am still reading my messages but with more voice inflexions, pauses, and animation. I can make more and more eye contact and have even been able to stop reading and add in details or ask impromptu questions from the top of my head. This is another big step for me!

Tonight (Tuesday), I will be preaching a message about the Gospel being spread from Jerusalem to the world. You can see the spread of the Gospel, chapter by chapter in the book of Acts and how it gets farther and farther from Jerusalem. It is amazing to see how God works to get the Gospel from one city to the next!

At the end of this week, I am taking Joshua, Elisabeth, and Brenna camping. Brother Jason Hamby is going to come along with his 3 boys as well. This was going to be the second annual father/son camping trip which would be a continuation from last year with Pastor Roy and his son. Pastor Roy had brought up the idea of allowing the girls to come along and the more I thought about it, the better it sounded. The more kids there means we can play baseball games and other sports and actually have enough people to make teams. Well, things didn't work out for Pastor Roy to be able to attend the camping trip to Jackman, Maine. But Bro. Hamby and his boys and our bunch are planning on having a great time there.

Joshua and I will be heading back in a couple of weeks, just me and him, to have a father/son fishing trip in Jackman. We are planning on spending the entire day fishing and covering the lake like they do in the Bass Master's tournaments! We are going to try different lures and techniques and hopefully catch a mess of fish!

My schedule is beginning to fill up for this Fall. I will be preaching the rest of this month at Vieille Capitale and also preaching 3 messages at St. Augustin to finish this month as well. Then, in September and October, I will be preaching two Sundays in Trois Rivieres, a Sunday in St. Augustin, and all of the Wednesday evenings in St. Augustin along with leading the music at St. Augustin as well. Pray for me because those who know me, know that I cannot sing, keep a tune, nor lead music with the hand motion thing! My wife just laughs and laughs at me when I try to sing and the kids plead with me to stop! Nothing like a family to encourage you!!!

Until next time.......

My second service.........

Yesterday marked another big step for me as I preached (for the second time) in French at l'Église Baptiste de la Vieille Capitale in place for pastor Coté.

The singing was wonderful and everyone loves to stay after the services to fellowship. We have enjoyed trying to speak to everyone in french and at times we have had to ask folks to talk a little slower so that our minds can understand and translate what was said to us.

We are learning more and more new vocabulary every day especially having to write a full months worth of sermons all in French. My goal is to be able to have my sermons come back without any grammar corrections.....I think I still have a long way to go! However, I was told that my pronunciation is excellent and that I don't sound "American" when I speak! This is solely thanks to our professor Madame Claire whose expertise is in "Phonetics" and is a stickler for correct pronunciation.

Yesterday was also a church picnic for l'Église Baptiste de St-Augustin. We had a wonderful afteroon playing, eating and enjoying everyone's fellowship. We love the outdoors and the weather was not too hot.

We praise the Lord for the advancements that we have made in our language studies and are so thankful that the Lord brought us here.

Yea! I did it!

Well, last night I preached at Église Baptiste de la Vieille Capitale in place of Pastor Coté as he started his vacation. I will be filling in for the entire month of July and I will be preaching all in French.....I have to admit that I was very nervous to preach in French. I do not get nervous before preaching but to preach in a different language is very difficult. This is also the church that our language professor attends and I think she may have been more nervous than I was! Nothing like having your student practice in front of all your friends at church!

Everyone was so kind and after a few minutes I settled in and calmed down. I was able to not only read my message but I was able to add some points just off the top of my head as well. I was relieved when we left the parking lot and felt more confidant that we are getting a good foundation in the French language.

As we drove away, Joshua looked at me and said, "Dad, that was the best message I ever heard on the book of Revelation!".........I preached from the book of Joshua!!!.....Nothing like a family that encourages you!

P.S.....It is getting hot here in Quebec. Yesterday it was 92 degrees in our house and today is supposed to get even warmer than yesterday!.......and no, we don't have air conditioning......but our van does!!!

Happy Anniversary, Happy Birthday, & Happy 4th of July!!!

It seems like when June and July roll around, the celebrations pick up at our place. By the first week of July, we will have celebrated 2 birthdays, an anniversary, and our country's birthday as well. (Not to mention Quebec Celebration day, June 25 and Canada Day, July 1st).First, I want to mention that July 2 was a wonderful day in my life. I married my "help-meet" and my best friend. Kami is my high school "sweet heart" and we have shared 16 exciting and adventurous years together. She is the one who invited me to church where I heard the Gospel and accepted Christ as my Saviour. She is a wonderful example of what a wife and mother should be. I love you Honey!!!! Thanks for making my life complete. Happy Birthday Brenna! (July 6th!!!)

Brenna (who used to be our baby girl!) will be turning 11 years old! I have to admit that she makes life adventurous, funny and we never know what she is going to do next. She has a servant's heart and loves to laugh and play practical jokes. She wants to stay home and live with us forever....I think I'll keep her to that promise when she grows up!!! We love you Brenna, have a wonderful day!Happy Fourth of July!!!! We had an old-fashioned Independence Day picnic at our place. We invited two other American missionary families to join us to celebrate. Elisabeth and Brenna worked hard to make these patriotic star cookies. They looked great and tasted even better!!!

This patriotic cake was amazing and even had all 50 stars. Thanks to Mrs. Amanda Hamby who spent the time to make this delicious dessert!

We love the Jason Hamby family. We enjoy the laughs and fellowship every time we are together! We also had a wonderful time with the Burdettes who are also missionaries on their way to Madagascar. Mrs. Burdette made the sides and a delicious American apple pie!

And of course our kids had a great time playing with the Hamby kids! They have become great friends and we will miss them when we leave Canada!