A day in the life...

7:30 - Wake up in Thunder Bay
8:30 - Get taken out for breakfast in Thunder Bay. Eat eggs, toast, hashbrowns, and ham. Yummmmm. Got to watch a three year old play with Thomas the Tank Engine in the Restaurant, then ride around the restaurant on a tricycle. Pretty stellar start to a day I'd say...
10:00 - On the road.
10:10 - Stop at Kakabekka Falls. B-e-a-utiful. (Continue Driving)
11:00 - Wake up and realize it's snowing. Don't even care because that obviously means we're getting closer to Winnipeg...
2:00 - Stop for Lunch... Tims. Good.
4:00 - Re-enter MB. Flat never looked so good.
5:00 - Realize we get an hour back because of the time difference in MB and ON.
5:01 - Realize we get ANOTHER hour back because of daylight savings :)
6:00 - Arrive in Winnipeg! Team finally goes loopy in the van. Natalie's (E) been talking in a crazy voice all day, Binder joins in, Katelyn starts hitting herself in the head with various items before bursting into hysterical laughter, windows get rolled down and various team members begin to yell. We were just happy to be home I guess?
6:30 - Go grocery shopping. Run into parents in the candy aisle. WHAT? Yeah it's true.
7:00 - Get to BUG HOUSE!
8:00 - Decide trick or treating is in order.
9:00 - Pull in outrageous loot from East St. Paul and surrounding areas.
Turning in early. Three days of driving takes something outta ya.

Sacrifice and Perspective

There are a lot of things I could write about at the moment, but I'll stick to one simple truth for now. I've been thinking a lot about the idea of sacrifice, and trusting God with ALL things, and acknowledging that perhaps I on my own am simply not enough to do the things he has asked me to do. And I realized that all of these things that I've been thinking about, and wrestling with, and to be compeltely honest, feeling a bit sorry for myself over, make a lot more sense when you look at them from a different perspective.

My life isn't mine. It's that simple.

"So here's what I want you to do, GOd helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life- your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life- and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you in the best thing you can do for him. Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you." (The Message Romans 12)

It's really that simple. In light of a perspective like that, my sacrifices aren't just managable, but they make perfect sense. And with a God like that, I can't help but be excited, expectant, and so filled with hope I don't know what to do with it all sometimes.

The Tale of Niagara Falls

Ever since I was a small girl, I have dreamed about seeing Canada's great Niagara Falls. And last week...that dream became a reality. I look back on the whole experience with mixed emotions. Because also, since I was a small girl, I have hated the feeling of being cold above all else. Well.. the only thing that I hate more than being cold, is being cold and wet.

It was a blistery Friday morning, and our team was ready to go bright and early. I was the only Niagara Falls newb of the group, and was trying to take it all in. The hoards of people in the tiny blue ponchos, being herded onto The Maid of the Mist, the roar of the boat engine, the beautiful falls that belong to the states passing slowly on the left, the even more beautiful sight of the not quite so far off Canadian falls approaching strait ahead... and this is where I stopped trying to take it all in.

Because at this point... all of the sudden all I could see was water. It turns out, that Maid of this Mist is actually code for Maid of the Sheets of Heavy Rain. And those blue ponchos they give you? Don't do much. I tried pinning it around my clothing every which way I could... to no avail. But then a funny thing happened. Once I realized that becoming wet and cold was inevitable... I just embraced it. And laughter has a way of warming you up...and trust me... our team did a lot of that. So even though I was feeling my boots fill to the brim with water, and my hair becoming drenched... I still enjoyed the falls... in a strange and very unlike me way. All in all... I don't think I'd trade in my first Niagara Falls experience for a dry one...but next time I'd definitely bring an umbrella...

Jessica