July Happenings

On July 1st we headed out for Canada Central District Conference in Brockville, Ontario. We had a great drive and only had Gaëlle with us because Peter was being a CIT at camp. 

We spent 2 nights in Brockville and managed to act a bit like tourists one night after supper as we walked downtown. 

Photo opportunity in an old railroad tunnel.

Not quite sure the significance of the airplane but we managed to take another photo.

Gaëlle was more than willing to stand in front of the lighthouse and smile. 

It was a gorgeous night so we took advantage of strolling along the waterfront.

This was a high end ladies' fashion store that has a bit of an unfortunate name. Time for a change.

The church that was hosting the conference had a beautiful garden in front with lots of statues and places to rest and pray. 

Gaëlle loves the water and could spend all day in a pool even if she is the only one in the water. She was able to go swimming while the conference was on and Robin was manning our booth.

A missionary from Nicaragua, Ryan Schmitz, was at the conference and we all enjoyed talking with him and Gaëlle enjoyed the items he had on display. 

On July 4th we headed back to New Brunswick for the week of family camp. We missed Dick and Cindy but are thankful for the use of their cottage. Robin always makes good use of the griddle. 

Beth & Barry Gould, former directors of WISH, were with us for a few days passing along their knowledge and hats. 

A family from our church stayed with us for the week and at times it made for a full table. 

Gaëlle got in a few games of Mancala which provided lots of laughter.

Robin faithfully ran and even managed a few runs with his brother, Al.

The VBS kids were raising money for World Hope's project "Fish for Hope" in the Congo. Some girls came over and made signs and bookmarks to sell. 

One night in the Director of the Jesus Film for the Wesleyans spoke. The Jesus Film is powerful and effective and changing lives all over the world. At the end of the service they put out a guitar case and people walked forward and made a donation. They raised $7100. 

Gaëlle was able to participate in a few of the afternoon activities. She decorated a pillow case one day. 

One girl invited all of her friends from the week to trace their hands on her pillowcase. That would be a good memory. 

Several families from our church were able to be there during the week and several come up for the ordination of Sharon Guptill. We had an impromptu potluck. 

Plenty of food for everybody. 

Friday night Kaylin came up because there was a commissioning service for us. It was nice and I'm glad they offered it to us. 

Denn Guptill is the District Missions Director so he led the commissioning and HC Wilson also participated. Our pastors, Sharon and Jay Guptill joined us in prayer. 

It doesn't matter where Gaëlle is, she manages to make friends. But she was happy to see the Gilles' girls at Beulah and spent lots of time running around with them.

We had a chance to visit Catons Island and see the new washrooms. I know our kids would have loved nice washing machines when they were on staff. 

We know that an accessible shower is a great feature and hopefully this will be one of many features for children with special needs. 

Summer is here

The celebrations have not been all that big in our house lately. There is just too much going on and Father's Day was no exception. I couldn't seem to get my act together and make much happen. However,  for Father's Day Kaylin made her dad an amazing blueberry lemon cake with cream cheese icing. Yum.

My parents came for a few days last week. It was great to have them. Gaëlle especially enjoyed some extra attention and family game time. 

My mom is the queen of creativity and parties and she always has these amazing "theme" meals. So we decided to throw a "It's Summer" party. 

We made s'more ice cream cones. Just add chocolate & peanut butter chips, Rolos, and mini marshmallows to waffle cones. Wrap in tin foil and place in the oven for 10 minutes. If you are lucky enough to be around a campfire, they can be heated up at the edge of the fire. 

It melted leaving enough room for ice cream. Easy and good.

I found a game on Pinterest which involved making marshmallow shooters out of Dixie Cups. It was difficult to control the marshmallows, but it provided a few laughs. 

My mom often does some kind of gift exchange so I headed to the local Thrift store and came back with some inexpensive gifts. I also gave the kids only a bag of candy. After all, "It's SUMMER."

The reason my parents came last week was a memorial for a relative of my dad's. The service was nice and it was great to have some of my extended family over for supper. 

We took a few photos on the back deck in the sun.

Smiles all around. 

Our summer flowers have been really slow coming out. This past weekend the Lupines were putting on their show. I just love the purples and pinks and will definitely miss this sign of the end of spring and the beginning of summer when we are in Haiti. But for now, we will enjoy our Maritime summer. 

MTI June 2015

Missionary Training Institute was at Indiana Wesleyan University from June 7- 19. The kids were all there and had their own daily program and instruction. They learned about being missionary kids and living in different cultures and had a lot of fun at the same time. 

The kids' program was based in the lounge of the dorm we were all staying at. 

The kids were taught by two Missionary Kids.

The youth had their own program and were also taught by two missionary kids.

One day the youth traveled to Ohio to an amusement park. They had a full fun day. 

Our final night of the 2 weeks ended with a consecration service. It was a great service and full of encouragement and prayer.

I didn't take any photos so I grabbed these from somebody else. I don't know if I will get any others. 

The adults had training from 8:30 - 5:00 each day. We had 7 different tracks with current missionaries doing the teaching. There were lots of highlights and lots of information. It was so helpful to have the wisdom from those who have served in so many different capacities. 

There were 15 of us in 5 family units headed to Haiti so one family brought a flag for our floor. 

One of the tracks was on language. The trainer has a Masters Degree in linguistics so some of our handouts reminded me of Emily and all of the topics she is learning. 

Robin celebrated his 50th birthday while we were there. The kids sent videos to Kaylin and she put them together in a video for Robin. As you can tell, he enjoyed it very much. 

Our 2nd week of training there were 25 current missionaries back in the US for Partnership Development. They had devotions with us but then had their own sessions. They brought different foods and drinks for us all to try. Some was devoured. The "Qurt Balls" were not a favourite but definitely the talk of the week. 

Each week we went to a local ice cream place. Robin enjoyed a banana split which was huge. 

We all did a bit of hanging out at night in the dorm. The kids were in heaven with all of the socializing. 

This is the outside of our dorm.

Loading up the van and heading to the airport. 

There were lots of kids and lots of babies. It really added to the mix and was a lot of fun.