stephen.melanie.ethiopia

Autumn Newsletter!

2009-11-09T21:10:00.003+03:00

Hey Everybody,

Here is our Autumn Newsletter. Thank you for all your love, support, and prayers!

Pictures

2009-10-15T19:14:00.002+03:00

Click on this link to view our pictures from our holiday.

2009-10-14T19:46:00.002+03:00

We're enjoying a bit of R&R off the coast of Tanzania at the moment... Here's a little preview of the pics to come from our short safari in Kenya!

Also, our next newsletter will be out in a couple of weeks!

-Stephen and Melanie

Summer Newsletter!

2009-08-10T20:03:00.003+03:00

Hello Everyone,

It's been a long time since we've written anything but hope you are doing well and enjoying your summers. Please see the new Summer Newsletter for updates on how we are!!

Steve and Mel

2009-06-08T19:26:00.001+03:00

Hey everyone! Been a while since we have posted to the blog, so it's about time now!

A couple weeks ago we had the chance to head up to the Northern part of Ethiopia for one week. The north is where much of Ethiopia gets it's culture and history from, so it was great to see how the people of the highlands there live! We visited Lalibela, a town with 12 rock hewn (dug out of the rock) churches, where much of the legend surrounding the Ethiopian Orthodox Church originates. Then we bussed on to Gondar, which one dynasty called home around the 17th century. From there we visited Bahir Dar, the home of the Blue Nile River and Blue Nile Falls. Here's a link to the photos! Copy and paste.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=114540&id=528313572&l=799e8249d8

In other news, we have the great blessing of having an addition to our team here in Tikempt Ishet for the time being. Ben Skaggs, the first missionary to the Me'en (in 1992) and the only foreigner to really speak the Me'en language has joined us to assist in the work of discipling this young and struggling Church towards maturity in Christ. We're trying to learn as much of the Me'en language (which is actually kind of fun!) as we can while he's here as well as asking lots of questions of someone who has 30 years of history in Africa.

Please pray for our language learning, that God would open our ears and our brains to another new language so the we would be able to speak in the heart language of those we came to serve!

Tuma ga Shei! (God is Good, in Me'en)

A day in the life....

2009-04-09T20:10:00.001+03:00

Now that we're back in Tikempt Ishet, it's time for “A Day in the Life”!

Melanie's weekday is pretty uniform
-Get up at 7, eat breakfast, read, go to work.
-See any number of ridiculous/miraculous/mundane/crazy/routine patients in the clinic, showing the love of Christ through service.
-Come home at 5, and then there's a couple options
-Eat dinner and vegetate
-Go to someone's house for dinner
-Have a team meeting

Steve's weekday could involve (in almost any order) one or many of the following things-
-Get up at 7, eat breakfast, read.
-After Melanie goes to work, usually some language study and prayer.
-from here on the day is always different:
-a walk up to the ketema (village) to visit people/pray for the town
-a visit at the clinic with waiting patients
-compound maintenance or repair, which might mean working on a solar system, fixing plumbing, setting a few rat traps?
-Then in the evening, same as Melanie or the option of going out to the nearby Me'en church's choir practice, or a prayer meeting with his friend Taka.

We usually spend the weekend doing stuff like (every third week/weekend Melanie is on call at the clinic) :
Saturday morning clean up the house!
Head to someone's house for the afternoon.
Weekends are when youth programs are run, so Steve will go to those all day Saturday, or longer if needed
Sunday morning go to church and not understand a word (it's all in Me'en except the bible)!
Sunday afternoon; rest!

Spring 2009 Newsletter

2009-04-06T19:03:00.004+03:00

Greetings Family and Friends,

Attached is our Spring prayer letter. If you would like a printable size, please e-mail us!

Thanks for your love and support!
Melanie and Steve

2009-03-30T10:52:00.002+03:00

Hashamm Family and Friends,

We are back in TI now after 2 months in Addis (doing a language and dental course). Our time there was good but we are happy to be back here in TI getting involved in our ministries again.

Just wanted to write and post some more pictures of the compound, clinic, and our house.

Copy and Paste this link:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=85979&id=537717038&l=9be21f26f6

Also, we have a home phone that works now so we can be reached at:

011 251 471 100529

We hope to send out a newsletter soon with more about what's going on!!!

-Stephen and Melanie

New Feature!

2009-03-13T20:07:00.002+03:00

Just wanted to let everyone know that we've added a "list" to the right side of the page. We've had some people ask us what kinds of things we miss/can't get here, and if they could send us anything, so we thought that for fun, we would start an ongoing list for those of you who are searching for ideas!

-Stephen and Melanie

c/o SIM Ethiopia
Box 127
Addis Ababa
Ethiopia

A day in the life....

2009-02-23T21:20:00.005+03:00

So, a few people have asked us what a day in Ethiopia looks like for us. Well, we're in language school right now which means we're living in Addis and life looks a little different than it would if we were down in TI. So, we'll tell you about TI when we get back down there.

As for Language school, here's pretty much what it looks like:

Hooked on Fidelics worked for me!

Get up
Eat Breakfast
Go to School, which consists of:
-Learning some form of verb prefix or suffix, of which there are endless options in Amharic in order to conjugate gender subject, tense, and whether the verb is positive or negative. We still don't have ANY clue when it comes to all of this!
-Language helper time... They drill us with questions about our family, country, work, home, where we went yesterday (past tense is easiest!) and then they mess with us by asking where we'll go tomorrow!
-Devotion and Tea time
-Another class where we fake our way through understanding a telephone conversation, or buying stuff in the market.
-A cultural orientation from some knowledgeable people.

Then there's lunch, maybe at the migib bayt down the street for injera
Maybe a Nap
I'd like to say there's going to be studying, but that happens about 50% of the time!
Then the evenings have a wide variety! There could be a restaurant, a book to read, a meal with friends at home... who knows!?

So, we'll fill you in again on TI life when we head back down there which will be in about 3 ½ weeks.

Later!

-Stephen and Melanie

Some of our Pictures

2009-02-21T09:48:00.001+03:00

Hello Family and Friends:

For those of you who haven't seen any of our pictures yet, here are some webpages that you can copy and paste to view:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=69466&id=537717038&l=8cf16

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=73243&id=537717038&l=0af7e

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=77138&id=537717038&l=ba1eb

Addisification

2009-02-21T09:18:00.000+03:00

That's Amarenglish for renewal. Amerenglish is a mix of Amharic and English, in case you're wondering. I made it up. It's really helpful for those of us who can't actually communicate in Amharic. You just take one of the few words you know in Amharic (like Addis, which means new) and smush it together with part or all of an English word to get your point across. So, Addisification = Newification = Renewal.

Renewal is tough. It takes different forms at different times and it challenges us to think and act differently than the way we currently do. We've been exhorted to act in a lot of ways differently than how the world acts. When the world would complain, we might patiently rejoice. When the world would judge, we might show grace. When the world would get anxious, we might have peace. When the world would get greedy or fearful, we might be bold and generous. It's interesting to me to think that any time I have one of those “world oriented” feelings, I've been called by God to choose the better, life giving option. Not an easy thing to do; change how you feel just because you know you should feel the opposite of it? Now... if you look at it that way, it's kind of hard to logically make sense of the situation.

But He didn't ask us to slap a smile on when we're down, or do deep breathing exercises when we're having an anxiety attack. God is exhorting us to beat our “world oriented” feelings to the punch. I'm not peddling a gospel that says “if you have Jesus, you'll be happy”. Look at the list of “world oriented” feelings I gave above. Happiness is not the opposite of any of those.

I AM honestly starting to believe though, that we can have peace in all circumstances; that patient joyfulness ought to be our response when things don't go our way; that our job is to show grace and let God be the judge; that no matter what you think of the beggar asking you for money, or how badly the bills are piling up we can be bold and generous. But it doesn't happen by act of will. We can't walk through our day saying “I will be peaceful, I will be generous...”

Jesus said,

“Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me.

I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.”

2009-02-01T20:58:00.001+03:00

Ten Yisteling, Dehna Nachu (Greetings, How are you all, in Amharic)!!!!

Well, We have finished a week of language school. It has been great! We are thankful for the time we spent on the language in Canada and for the two months we have already had here. Everyone else feels like they are drowning and we feel ok, for now. We know that eventually we won't recognize as much information and we will have to study more but it's been great so far! We both can hear a lot more than we can speak so that is encouraging... we'll get there someday.

Each week in the course we go on a field trip. This week we did home visits with the HIV/AID program that SIM has here. It was amazing to talk with some people and hear their stories. We look forward to the other trips and will try to get some pictures and write more later.

Hope you are all coping in the cold weather. We love you and think of you often.

Some wise Ethiopian words that someone said to us the other day:

K'us Byk'us enculal buegger yehaydalich.

Little by little an egg will go by leg.
Basically that eventually we will learn.

Tetanus Guy

2009-01-18T12:28:00.003+03:00

I have an amazing story for you all.

Just over a month ago I was in the clinic seeing patients, quite busy, when a guy comes to the clinic on a stretcher. After a few minutes, I went out to see what his story was and without knowing what they were saying (because they were speaking Me'en) I knew right away that it was tetanus (the give away was they were all pointing to their jaw and saying it was 'locked').

Here is a little info on Tetanus (click here: ) if you want more details)... You get it from the soil (usually in North America it's because you stepped on a rusty nail or something) and here they walk around in bare feet all the time. But in North America everyone is vaccinated against it- here only the some of the pregnant women and some children get it. If you are vaccinated, you are unlikely to get the disease. If you aren't vaccinated the bacteria enters the wound, divides and gives off toxins that block your muscles from relaxing which causes your body to spasm. Over time, it doesn't allow your muscles to relax at all. In North America if you get stuck with a rusty nail, on top of your vaccinations, you would get the anti-toxin. This anti-toxin is no where to be found in Ethiopia.

Tetanus guy at that point had lock jaw and whole body spasms and chest pain. The disease basically moves though the body until it gets to your diaphragm and then it stops working as well. The disease may continue to progress for up to 10 days without this anti-toxin. Horrible, horrible disease.

I read in a book during the beginning stages of his treatment that recovery may take up to 4 weeks and that fatality rates can reach up to 60%- both of these things apply to patients who have received the anti-toxin. I was unable to find any information about the survival rates of those who don't get to receive the anti-toxin.

So we decided he needed diazepam (a muscle relaxant), some really strong antibiotics, prayer, and time. The antibiotics would break down the tetanus bacteria while the diazepam made his body relax somewhat during the spasms and over time, his body could hopefully, somehow, excrete the toxins. Prayer was really going to be our best hope because medically, we couldn't do enough for him.

We continued this for many weeks with many ups and downs. There were many nights his friend (who sat by him the whole time) didn't think he would make it through the night.

Four weeks later he left the clinic and was able to walk short distances.... I can't explain how much of a miracle this is unless you've seen tetanus yourself... God is good.

Meet Brahanu (after treatment). This is Tetanus Guy. When he got sick, his family was going to let him die but there was an Ethiopian evangelist in his town when all of this was going on so he said “no, you must take him to T.I.”. T.I. is a 2 day walk from where Brahanu lived and they would have passed many other clinics to get him to ours... Brahanu was a Christian when he came to the clinic but was thinking about turning away. Instead, God used this disease to get a hold of him and now he is planning on traveling to many churches to tell his story about how God saved him...

Amazing.

2009-01-05T12:14:00.001+03:00

So, sorry for not blogging much... we can't access the website from T.I for some reason, so, thanks to Melanie's brother, Christopher for posting on our behalf!

Two nights ago, I hung out with my new friend, Taka. He is a great evangelist, and visits prayer houses and churches almost every night of the week teaching. I went with him to a prayer house where he was to teach on tithing. I was expecting a small group of youth to be there, as that's kind of how I understood Taka's work. Turns out this was a full on worship service, with choir, prayer, sermon and about 100 people, all in a space smaller than most Starbucks! The evening was great even though I barely understood a word that was said. No one spoke English and my understanding of their language is pitiful. We spent the evening before and after the service trying to understand one another and teaching each other words from our own languages.

We slept on the floor of the prayer house (a circular mud hut with a grass roof), I in my down sleeping bag and on my Therma-Rest, Taka and a few other blokes on grass mats with small blankets.

In the morning we woke around 6am as the sun was starting to come up and Taka told me he was cold. Of course I had been sweating all night in my down sleeping bag. I threw my sleeping bag over him and he smiled. Then he asked me how much my sleeping bag cost. My ignorance suddenly dawned on me and I felt ashamed of my wealth. How could I tell my friend my “blanket” cost as much as he might make in six months? I told him, and his jaw dropped to the floor. Then he asked about my Therma-Rest; another two month's wages.

This is a brutal tension I've been fighting with for a couple of weeks. The tension lies in the separation created by my culture's materialism and his lack thereof. How do we create biblical community with people as long as there is a stigma attached to me that says I'm rich, therefore “they” are poor?

It's pretty clear that Jesus was homeless, that he cared for those who would normally be left on the fringes - like prostitutes, tax collectors, lepers and the blind. John the baptist said that “if someone has two pairs of long johns or boxer briefs (Greek “chiton,” meaning garment worn next to the skin), he should give one the the person who has none.” Interesting that he didn't actually say “winter jacket,” or “coat,” he said undergarment, which implies that the clothing worn over top should be a given! The early church “shared everything”. Literally everything. Paul and the other disciples didn't travel with much. They traveled to a city and “sought out the brothers” meaning, they went and found the Church (meaning the people who followed Jesus) and the brothers took care of them – gave them a place to sleep and fed them.

Read the story of Ananias and Sapphira. They sold a field and kept some of the proceeds to themselves instead of sharing with the Church. God struck them dead for it. This is the only time in the new testament (that I can think of) where God reaches into our reality to kill someone. So, I think it's a pretty serious warning not to hang on to our possessions.

Does this mean we ought to go out and give away our 42” Plasma, our Rollerblades, our down sleeping bags? I don't know if I know the answer to that... or maybe I'm just afraid of the answer.

Imagine this: Invite a street dwelling heroine addict, who is made in God's image, into your home to watch the football game on your plasma. How do you feel the whole time? Are you comfortable? What are you thinking as he sits on your couch scarfing potato chips? Is HE comfortable?

I submit that your discomfort at the mere thought of this scenario creates distance; distance between you and the heroine-addict-made-in-the-image-of-God. And this discomfort causes you to not even invite the heroine addict into your house. Your stuff is distancing your from the people who need you the most.

Let me ask a question. What differences do you see in the way Christians live their lives from that of not-yet-believers? I mean, besides attending church, having devotionals, reading lots of books or even the occasional night helping in a soup kitchen? What does a Christian go home to? When you stand in the driveway of a Christian's home, what sets it apart from their not-yet-believers house next door? Do the cars look different? How high is the fence? What kind of stuff is hanging from the rafters in the garage? Now... please don't feel like I'm getting after you. Remember, I'm the one with the down sleeping bag, laptop, access to a Land Cruiser, electricity, hot running water and a fence made of cactus that I can guarantee is more effective than yours (as Paul said, “I am chief among sinners”). That's like me living next to you; you in the house you live in now, and me, next door, in Trump Tower. There's distance between you and Donald Trump, isn't there? Why? Because he's rich. That same deep-down disdain you probably feel towards him for his wealth may be the same way the heroine-addict-made-in-the-image-of-God feels toward you.

Maybe, when Jesus was talking about being salt and light and being in the world but not of the world, he was talking about more than just what comes out of our mouthes (which he did talk about, so it's important too) or what movies we watch, or what political issues we stand up for (which he didn't talk about). Maybe His good news isn't just that you can go to heaven when you die. Maybe His good news is that “The Kingdom of God is at hand: it's coming when you feed the hungry, while you clothe the naked, as you visit the prisoner, during your nursing of the sick,” and as a sort of warning, “And I will know you as followers of me when you do these things, and I won't recognize you if you don't.”

Does that make you want to do anything about the “status quo,” “the way things are?”

I know it makes me want to, I just don't know if I have the courage to. But give me one GOOD reason we shouldn't? Being afraid isn't one, because if God feeds the birds of the air, then can't you trust Him to feed you? And “people will think we're crazy” can't be a reason either – Jesus was murdered because people thought He was crazy.

Our lives should look drastically different than our not-yet-believing neighbors, but not in a way that excludes them or distances us from them, as my big white land cruiser with a Jesus fish eating a Darwin fish stuck to the back blaring Micheal W. Smith from the stereo does. What should look different is how we treat a homeless person when we walk past, how willing we are to lend our lawn mower out, (even better, whether we share one between a bunch of families!) whether I'm willing to do without my sleeping bag when I sleep on the floor next to someone who doesn't have one, how I react to the drunk guy walking home in the evening: do I walk on the other side of the road, or do I help him up when he stumbles? These things are the very least of what the Gospel has called us to.

The Gospel just might be calling us to sell our possessions and give to those in need. It might be calling us to move out of Trump Tower and into a grass hut (easier to say than to do), to live in community with other believers and inviting not-yet-believers to join in so that no one has a need that goes unmet.

We just may be able to play a small part in the return of the King, bringing His kingdom a little closer to Earth every time we love “the least of these”.

Wouldn't that be better than locking our doors until the world ends?

Don't usually like John Mayer's lyrics that much, but this one sums it up.

“We see everything that's going wrong
with the world and those lead it.
we just feel like we don't have the means
to rise above and beat it.

So we keep waiting on the world to change.”

So, DO we just keep waiting on the world to change?

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!!

2009-01-05T11:52:00.001+03:00

Dear family and friends,
We hope you have all had wonderful holidays with your family and friends. We have missed being with you all but have had a nice Christmas here. If you haven't recieved our Christmas newsletter yet, there is one here on the blog now- if you would like to be added to our regular mailing list, please e-mail me at murdochmelanie@hotmail.com May your year to come be filled with joy.

Stephen and Melanie

PS if you would like to leave us a message, please e-mail it to us as we can't check our blog as easily as we thought we'd be able to, thanks.

NEWSLETTER

2008-11-22T12:35:00.003+03:00

Greetings family and friends!

We are happy to communicate with you! We feel as though we've been in a bit of a black hole for the last week; our first week in Addis Ababa (AA), but we have a dial-up internet account now and are able to slowly navigate the net! We've been told our net connection in Tikempt Ishet (TI) is faster and more reliable than here in the capital.

We are totally enjoying our time here in AA preparing for our first trip down to Tikempt Ishet. The weather is beautiful, the people are vibrant and friendly and we're getting to know our TI team (they came to AA to pick us up and help us get oriented, which has been a huge blessing!)

The jet lag adjustment has been relatively painless, but altitude sickness(8500 ft), a new phenomenon for us, has put our heads in a vice in the last week. Steve felt it more than Melanie- headache, dizziness, nausea. Great fun! There is a 10km run here tomorrow and Steve is thankful he didn't sign up to run in it- we get short of breath walking up a hill here!!! We are getting more used it though each day! TI is only at 6500 ft too, so that will help.

Otherwise, health wise, we have been great! No problems with the food or anything... YET :)

We got our drivers license- which took three different stops (Canadian embassy, foreign affairs, and then the department of transportation.) It was a big, long ordeal but now we can drive here in Ethiopia and use the SIM cars. We are quite thankful for the help we have gotten to do those kinds of errands here. We've had a fellow named Ephram help us by going around town with us for the day doing things. He is very kind, get's us many local prices (instead of "forenji prices") and has been helping us with our Amharic.

We learned more than we thought in Canada with our language so that has been really helpful! It may come more easily than with thought but will still be a long, slow process.

We are trying to stock up now for groceries for the next 8 weeks (until we come back to AA) so we have been doing a lot of shopping. Jenny and Dorinda (our TI teammates) have been wonderful in helping us know what we need etc. We have found many thing that we can get back home but Jenny says they come and go here (ie. brown sugar, Crisco, "laughing cow" cheese). So we have stock piled those things.

We went out of the city the other day to a village called Desta Mender. This is a compound built for women who have had an unsuccessful fistula repair (look it up, if you really want to). They are normally outcast from society so this place was great. It gives them a place to live as well as trains them in a vocation so that they can make money on their own.

There is also a midwifery school there that brings young women from the all over Ethiopia- from the countryside- in order to train them and send them back to their homes to practice midwifery. The fistula hospital has paid for all of the accommodations out there and it's quite nice. It was great place to see- Melanie would have loved to take some classes there, but that will have to wait. They actually wanted her to come and teach something on pediatrics.... that will wait too...

For those of you who know her- we are going to have dinner with Joline Olsen tonight! She has been here for 10 days on a well project and is now back in the capital city so we are looking forward to that!

We plan on leaving for TI with the team (there are 9 of us here, including the three kids) with two land cruisers early on Tuesday morning. The trip will take two days.

We are really looking forward to seeing TI. The pollution and noise here is hard to get used to so we are looking forward to the quiet, fresh countryside.

We are so thankful for all of your love, prayers and support and have listed some specific prayer requests at the end of this letter. We will be able to respond to personal e-mails now, so we'd love to hear from you. Please, no forwards though. We also have a phone now!! This phone is basically for when we are not in TI (we will get a different one for there), so when we are in the capital (AA), Jimma, or Mizan Tiferi, we can make and receive calls. Please call us if you want, we'd love to hear from you!!

Our number is 00-251-9101432766

Prayer Requests:
*Continued language learning
*Continued good health
*That our last piece of luggage would arrive safely in the next 2 days
*Close, honest connection with our team

Thanks so much for journeying with us.
With love from,

Stephen and Melanie

Off We Go!!!

2008-11-14T21:17:00.003+03:00

Well, today is the day.
We leave Calgary at 8pm tonight.
We arrive in London Saturday at 1230pm.
We'll be there for about 24 hours and visit with New Park Road Church and a friend from my Tropical Nursing course.
Then Sunday we are off to Ethiopia at 1pm and will arrive there at 230am!!!
We will try to write within that first week and let you know about our first impressions.
We aren't directly the one who is blogging- my brother is going to upload letters and pictures for us (the Ethiopian government is regulating blogging, I guess?) so if you are going to leave a message, please send it in an e-mail!!! Thanks!

We love you all.
Thank you for your prayers in this time.

A Farewell!!!

2008-10-28T20:58:00.001+03:00

Greetings Family and Friends,

We are excited to report that we are less than four weeks away from leaving for Ethiopia! With God's great provision through your generous help we have raised all of our needed support, have our flights booked (for November 14th!!!), our visa's are currently being processed, and each day we are thinking about all of the things we want/need to bring! That is going to be a challenge!

We are now in Washington in order to spend some time with Melanie's family and our friends here. We will be here for about two weeks and then will be going to Kelowna for our best friends wedding! After that we have a few short days with family in Alberta and we are on our way! We are flying through London so we are also excited to see and connect with many people from the church we spent time with when we were there!

Once in Ethiopia we will be spending a week in the capital city doing some orientation, getting drivers licenses (ahh!!), and picking up supplies etc. We will then head to Tikempt Ishet and get settled. In January we will be going back to the capital city for a month of language learning.

We will have e-mail in the village we are going to (amazing!) and we are going to keep the same e-mail addresses for now!
Our website will be updated regularly with pictures so you can keep up to date on our stories there.
We hope you will write us e-mails (please no forwards) and stay in touch as we are gone. There will be days where we miss you all and hearing from you will help in that.

May God Bless you all in your journeys, wherever that may be, thank you for your love and support.

Stephen and Melanie

Ethiopian Feast

2008-09-26T00:51:00.002+03:00

We had a fundraising dinner this past Monday at Langano Skies in Edmonton! It was amazing! The food was great and we had 70 guests!!!

The goal was to reach our needed support that night. We went into it at 76% and left at 100% of our support for two years in Ethiopia!!! We also had 12 more people join us on our prayer team!

What a blessing that is!

We are now booking our flights and it is looking like we will leave Alberta on November 14th!!!

Thank you for all of your prayers and support.

Mel and Steve

The End of the Summer

2008-09-02T19:16:00.003+03:00

So the summer is over... and we ended it this past weekend with a freezing camping trip! It actually snowed in the David Thompson Area this weekend! Eww!

The camping trip was just Steve and I and was very relaxing and fun although it was cold.

Camp ended really well and when we reflex on the summer we are thankful to have been here and see God working in the lives of people.

What now? Well, we are still living 'at the camp'... we are living in Jeff and Kristy's basement and will be until November. Steve is going to work a couple of days a week doing maintenance at the camp. I will be doing paperwork for preparation and booking the last minute doctor, travel clinic, eye appointments. We will also be focusing on our language learning!

We look forward to "A Taste of Ethiopia"; our fundraising dinner we are having at the end of the month in Edmonton. If you haven't heard about this yet and might want to attend, please contact me. It will be a great time to tell people our story and to have people who are a part of our team experience some of what we are going to be experiencing in about 10 weeks!!!

We are doing well with our support and hope to leave mid-November as long as it all comes in! We are at about 74% right now!!! God is so good in providing for us as He has promised.

Well, that's all for now. We hope that your coming year is full of blessing and joy.

Mel and Steve

5th Anniversary Celebration!

2008-08-08T18:31:00.007+03:00

We've been having a great summer at Gull Lake, but we decided to take this past week off and get away into the mountains for our 5th anniversary.
On our wedding day, our good friend Jeff Dyer spoke to us about how we should live our married lives out as eagles, soaring on thermals, allowing God to direct and lift us up, rather than acting like ducks who look as if they're struggling just to get off the water, flapping and making a fuss under our own strength.
As a symbol of our desire to allow God to direct and "keep us in the air" we went tandem paragliding! That's the one where you use a "wing" that's sort of like a parachute and run off the side of a cliff into mid-air, then, just like a hang-glider, you look for thermals to lift you higher.
Here's a slide show to show you what we got our selves into! It was amazing!

We're really thankful that we live in a place where we can have experiences like this creating memories and renewing our oneness.

That's all for now, but you should be getting a prayer and support update from us, via email, in the next day or two! Thanks for reading!

Getting into a routine!

2008-06-19T02:23:00.004+03:00

Campers come in two days!!! We are all very excited for it!!! Especially because the kids coming are 5-7 year olds which means we get to play and dress up all weekend!!

Staff training has been going well! I am happy to have my cabin leaders here and do some of the team building and spiritual growth things I have been planning! We have done a lot already in the first few days!

Prep for missions continues! Our support is coming in and we hope to get another letter out to everyone soon in regards to that!

Just wanted to write a short note to update everyone!
Love, Melanie

PS We have added our Support Letter into the blog so if you haven't seen it yet, now you can!

Back at Gull Lake... Again!

2008-05-21T22:46:00.004+03:00

It's so good to be here too!

With all of our travels recently it's been hard to feel planted anywhere, and we were starting to feel like nowhere was home, but being back here has been "right". Melanie has started her job as Cabin Leader Coordinator as I am finding multiple things to get dirty doing!

We just returned from two weeks in Langley BC, where we took a course called MissionPrep. It was a very good experience which taught us about living in different cultures, learning languages, and the Gospel within cultural context. We also spent time addressing different spiritual and emotional subjects and reflecting on how they affect us.

I was challenged to think about time in a new light.

"Time is Money."
"That was a Waste of time."
"A stitch in Time saves Nine."
"Time heals all wounds."

Our culture places a lot of emphasis on time. Time is a commodity in North America. People value it.

For what? Why is time so important to me? Are we more productive because I value time? What is the measure of a "productive" person anyways!?

In South America, people say "Come over anytime", and they mean it. Can you imagine if you were just about to head out the door to an important meeting and the doorbell rang? At the door is an old friend, and they say, "Can we hang out?"

What's your response?

I know that my response would probably be that I'm really busy and could we hang out later? I'd probably also be a bit angry that he would just show up at my door unannounced.

This discussion has made me realize that I need to learn to see my time as less important than relationships.

So, enough soapboxing! Hope you all enjoyed your long weekend (or will enjoy in the case of you Americans!) Thanks for reading, we love to hear your comments anytime!

-Stephen and Melanie

SIM Orientation

2008-04-22T21:49:00.002+03:00

We are currently enjoying the biggest snow storm Alberta has seen this late in April!!!

Two weekends ago we had our SIM orientation weekend. It was really great to talk with our regional director and learn more about SIM as an organization. There were two couples there that did long term missions with SIM (10 years) who ran the weekend for us.

We learned so much from them about the importance of prayer and how God is so faithful to meet every need, big and small. We also learned that SIMs moto is "By Prayer" so we decided we needed to put more emphasis on that in our lives. These are all things that we already knew to be true but it was so encouraging and exciting to hear real stories.

We are still aiming to be leaving in the fall and we could use your prayer about that. We will go to Ethiopia when our support is raised and when there is an AMHARIC course being offered in the capital. SIM wants us to be there for that before we go to the feild- it is a one month program and it would be very helpful in our learning the language. Please pray for the timing of all of these things!

To our Canadian family and friends-keep warm!!!
To everyone else, be thankful you aren't here :) !!!!

Getting Settled...

2008-04-03T22:07:00.003+03:00

We are back in Alberta and out at the camp getting settled in Jeff and Kristy's house (the director's house)!!! They have invited us to live with them! We love being a part of their family and community. It's also great to be able to unpack everything and get a little more organized.

This coming week we are going to Edmonton for a short visit to see some family and friends and then to Saskatoon for the weekend! We have an orientation weekend with SIM and are really looking forward to getting some more information about the organization and what's to come!

Preparations for Ethiopia are coming along! Our prayer and support letter is being sent out this week so if you don't receive it by next week (mid-week)and want to, e-mail me your address and I'll be sure to get it sent out to you!

God has blessed us with so many people who love and support us, we are so thankful for you all!

Provence and Tuscany!

2008-03-07T22:38:00.003+03:00

We are finally back in North America! We are at mom and dad's right now in Bellingham and are enjoying some of the luxuries of the US like Ranch dressing and nice toilets.

Our trip with Steve's parents was wonderful! We had beautiful weather (only rain for one day and most of the time 15C) and saw a lot of the south of France and Italy- 4000km worth of driving!

Provence was beautiful and we stayed in a great old farm house out in the country! It was very well equipped and the owner was great in directing us to good markets and things to see and do! We saw a lot of hill top towns overlooking vineyards and olive tree orchards. We did however miss the lavender, sunflower and poppy in bloom so we had to imagine the colors we would have seen in the spring/summer. We were quite thankful to have missed the 'busy' season because it was so much easier to be there without all of the tourists!

Tuscany was great too! We had some down time (took a break from all of the driving we did in France) and Steve and I got some work done for preparations for missions and learning the language. We ate really good the whole trip and did most of our own cooking which was nice. It was a challenge to go the the restaurants and order food in another language but the few times we did was very enjoyable.

The house in Italy was really nice as well but the road up to it made me sick every time we went out- it had over 80 turns in 10km up to the place!!!! AND Italian drivers are CRAZY!!! They pass all the time driving way too fast and NEVER stay in their lane! I am thankful for Steve (he did all of the driving) because he kept us from dying on the road!

We went to the east coast of Italy for a day and found the Ferrari museum so the boys enjoyed that. We did a day trip (on the train) to Rome for a day which I think was my favorite city in Italy! Then we spend two different days in Florence seeing more of Michelangelo's work and eating Gelato! We saw a lot of "Duomo's" (churches) and many paintings of Mary and Baby Jesus, which provoked a lot of discussion about the believes and values of the Catholic church.

We ended our trip in Pisa and flew back to London from there! The pictures will give you a good overview of what we saw!

We are looking forward to catching up with some friends and family and continue our preparation for Ethiopia over the next few months! Keep in touch and take care!

Mel and Steve

So... Ethiopia Anyone?

2008-02-04T16:41:00.000+03:00

Ok... so the title kind of gives it away.

After a lot of prayer and thought Melanie and I have decided to set our metaphorical compass towards Tikempt Ishet, southwestern Ethiopia! We both feel like God has put the opportunity square in front of us and that with the amount of guidance He has given us in that direction, we cannot imagine serving Him anywhere else!

We are completely excited about the idea of going there to help in any way we can, to improve health, and to advance God's kingdom!

To change gears a little, my parents are coming to London on Thursday! We are really excited to travel with them for the next three weeks, through the south of France, (where they met!) as well as into northern Italy! Should be a fun trip, and I'm excited to drive on the "right" (both physically and mentally) side of the road again!!! We will be sure to keep you updated on our trip whenever we have internet access.

Shalom!

-Stephen

Big News! (no, we're not pregnant!)

2008-01-17T18:57:00.000+03:00

This morning we received an email from Serving In Mission, Canada.

We have been accepted as Short Term Associates! That means we're "future" missionaries. All that stands between us and God knows where is a lot of prayer, a lot of learning, and support-raising!

That leaves us with the hard part... deciding where we will go!

Ethiopia is really high on the list... well, it's the only one on the list right now, as we can only communicate with one "field" at a time. But it looks like it could be the place for us. We are excited because the place, called Tikempt Ishet, is very remote and is serving the people medically in the way that Melanie has imagined being used. We've chatted with a previous "short-termer" who gave us a lot of insight into what the place would be like, who, while she was there, started working a bit with the youth of the area, playing sports and spending time with them, which Steve would love to continue!

We are waiting to hear a little bit more from the missionaries there in order to get a bit better sense of what they might see Steve's role being, but it looks very positive.

Here is a map of Ethiopia if you're interested.
(You won't find T.I. on any google map!)

We will go through an orientation week in April in Saskatchewan and from there will work towards raising our prayer and financial support. We have no idea how long it's going to take before we're in the "field" (maybe two months, maybe 7!)

Just wanted to let you know the exciting news! Please pray for us as we work out where God desires us to be.

Thanks for reading!

Steve and Melanie

Happy New Year!!!

2008-01-05T22:04:00.000+03:00

We arrived back "home" in London today after a night train from Venice and breakfast in Paris!

We had a nice time in Venice but what a weird city! We mostly just wandered around the city each day, exploring new areas!

New Years Eve in San Marco Square was really exciting/strange!! They had music and a countdown but the city didn't put on a real fireworks display, instead all of the drunks started lighting off explosives in the middle of the crowds! We didn't feel too safe at that point so we headed back to the apartment.

I had a very nice birthday including breakfast in bed and a nasty cold. I felt pretty miserable that day (must have finally got what Steve had in Paris) so instead of going out for birthday dinner, we had pizza and went out for a nice dinner the next night!

As you can see in the slide show we had a wonderful time with the pigeons! San Marco Square is covered in them in the day because there are vendors selling seeds (that supposedly have birth control in them!).

We went to a "Concerto" one evening that was REALLY good! Mostly Vivaldi (he's from Venice) with eight musicians. There was a Cellist that was very passionate about his music, it was quite humorous (we held in the laughter but some people couldn't). He was an amazing musician though!

Beautiful, amazing trip. We are so thankful that we have had this opportunity- it was a true blessing!

More to come soon, hopefully, about the next few months! We should know a few more details in the near future! Have a wonderful weekend and we hope your new year is bright!

2007-12-30T18:08:00.001+03:00

Gimmelwald is a quiet town way up in the Swiss Alps. You can only get here by cable car! We've had a great few days here playing in the snow, eating, skating, walking and enjoying the great weather and views. Oh... and trying to plug stuff into an electrical outlet.

Happy New Year to all of you, and thanks for checking in with us!

Deutschland!

2007-12-27T21:59:00.000+03:00

Merry Christmas!!

Germany was delightful (Melanie's word) We first visited Bacharach, in the Rhine Valley. We stayed in a castle that had been converted into a hostel. It was 500 steps above the town and took some effort with our big packs! The hostel had a restaurant that served great meals- good thing because the whole town was closed for Christmas!!

Beautiful surroundings, many castles along the river and quiet. Peace and quiet.

We took a train up the river to St. Goar for a day and enjoyed a very cool castle. It is in ruins and the great thing is that you can go anywhere you want in it and it's not gimmicky like many of them! We enjoyed exploring. There was one part that you go in with candles (hidden tunnels)... we got started and found out we were too tall to get anywhere.

On Christmas eve we traveled to Fussen (south Germany in Bavaria). It was a long day but when we arrived at the hotel it was time for their Christmas dinner. The hotel was our 'nice stop' on the trip so we got a Christmas Package deal while we were there. Our dinner was very fancy and a sweet old man played German Christmas carols for us on his "Zither" (see picture). As a part of our package we got every breakfast and supper paid for as well as some sweets from their amazing bakery.

Again, nothing was open here but really funny because there were a ton of tourists around staring in all of the windows of the shops for three whole days! So one day we went for a walk to some waterfalls and the other day we went to a gimmicky castle that was very cool from a distance with the great mountains behind it (see pictures). "Neuschwanstein Castle". We think the Disneyland Castle must have been modeled after this one.

We are now in Switzerland, 4000 ft in the mountains staying in a great little guest house. More to come about that soon. Thanks for reading.

Mel and Steve

The City of Lights

2007-12-25T16:16:00.000+03:00

After five days in Paris (actually, after five minutes) we all realized just how different Paris is from anything we have ever experienced up until now! Some of the challenges we faced were:

-Getting a passport photo from a photo booth (they look like ours in North America but sure don’t work the same!) for a train/bus pass (that we didn’t even need)… in French
-Learning the culture of “pay toilets”…. in French
-Going the wrong way when leaving the Metro (train) station, with all of our luggage, and not realizing it until walking 20 minutes….
-The humid cold; it felt like minus 20, although it was only zero (32F)…
-Finding out “The Louvre” is closed on Tuesdays after walking there from our rental apartment…
-Trying to find an image of Jesus in Notre Dame Cathedral (Baby Jesus was even missing from the Nativity!)…
-Reading labels in the grocery store to figure out what we were buying… in French
-Certain members of the family having difficulty with the word “Merci”… in French
-Steve and Mom getting nasty colds…
-Getting on the Metro going the wrong direction because Melanie wasn’t paying attention after she was distracted by someone trying to pick her pocket… in French!!!!

You would think that we would have learned French growing up, being Canadian, but we didn’t (not enough anyways)! Paris made us all feel like we belong on the “short bus”.

It was not all trials and tribulations though! We had a great time together! Many of these tough things just made us laugh uncontrollably afterwards. The apartment was cozy and in a great location. We ended up not needing our train/bus pass because we could walk to so many things! The sights were stunning as well as all of the lights. The “Patisseries” and “Boulengeries” were filled with many delightful goodies. For our family’s “Christmas Eve” we collected many French specialties (cheese, bread, sausage, sweets) and enjoyed them together at the apartment with Christmas lights, music and a movie.

It was so nice to have the family here for that week. Mom, Dad and Christopher went home on Friday night and Steve and I left for Germany the next day. Keep checking the blog and we’ll post Germany soon. Merry Christmas to you all and enjoy your families!!

Much love,
Melanie and Steve

London with the Waltners

2007-12-20T18:21:00.000+03:00

Hi everyone! We are in Paris right now (Brrr... it's cold here!) with the family and wanted to post a few pictures from our time in London with them. We are having a great time. More to come when we have an internet connection (we are in an internet cafe right now!)

Christmas time is here!

2007-12-13T21:41:00.000+03:00

Yay! Melanie's Christmas break has started, her parents and brother arrive in 2 days, and we're introducing gingerbread houses and the gift exchange to the youth at New Park Road on Friday!

We leave on a whirlwind tour of Europe starting Monday, we're both excited to experience Christmas in different cultures this year! We'll put updates as to our whereabouts when we have an internet connection. We hope YOUR Christmas is wonderful, relaxing and fun!

Your continued prayer about where we will end up doing missions work is appreciated. We trust that God will continue to direct us as we wait!

Merry Christmas!

-Steve and Melanie

A note about Missions...

2007-11-29T16:22:00.000+03:00

We've had a bit more contact with our representative from Serving in Mission over the past few days, so we thought we would tell you about it.

We are having a hard time in our communication with SIM. It's no ones fault, I think it's just a matter of the fact that we're here and unable to always talk over the phone, or meet in person. Email can been a blessing, but it seems like sometimes it can be a curse as well.

As some of you know, we don't feel particularly called to one country over the other, or one group of people over another; we just know that Jesus asked us to follow Him, which to us means that where there is confusion, deception and death, we should strive to bring the Way, the Truth, and the Light. (Shane Claiborne/Jesus) We feel like God has pushed us to move, to take action and to help in any way we can. And we feel like He has a place in mind for us where both of us can use our gifts. I think we're just getting antsy to find out where that is.

If you pray, please pray for us. Ask God to open our hearts and minds to what He has planned. Thank Him for the Good He does on this planet. Pray for changed hearts in order that there might be less bad.

Thanks for reading.

-Steve

A quiet couple of weeks!

2007-11-26T14:36:00.000+03:00

Man, has it ever been! Don't know what we're going to do when we get back into the real world of busyness. Melanie has been hard at work researching her paper on Cultural Relativism in medicine; which she has now finished, I've been honing my skills on a borrowed guitar (THANKS Ronnie!) and yesterday we treated our hosts to a Thanksgiving dinner. That kept Melanie busy (I helped!) most of Saturday, then Sunday she left church a little bit early to get home and get everything ready. It was great! Turkey (which I did a terrible job carving) mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing, green been casserole, squash puff (I made that!) and apple AND pumpkin pie for dessert!!! So good!

We've also met up with a couple of friends in the last couple weeks. We got to see Mike Carpenter, who was here with Boeing doing some wind tunnel tests. We enjoyed dinner and a stroll around central London with him; he is into photography like us so we ran around taking some pictures at night! (if you haven't seen them, theres a couple on our flickr page) Click Here For Pics

Last night we also got to see our friend Kellen who is taking a "Discipleship Training School" with Youth With a Mission (YWAM) in Belfast, Northern Ireland. She is here in England for a week and happened to come into London last night for a little while. It was great to see her!

Sorry for such a boring blog post... we just thought that it's been a while since we posted and we'd better put SOMETHING up to let people know we're still here! Thanks for reading!

-Steve

Church Weekend!

2007-11-11T21:29:00.000+03:00

We have just returned from a weekend over on the east coast of England with New Park Road Baptist Church, the church we've been attending. It was a weekend retreat aimed at building relationships and learning about God's Grace. We were asked to do some programming for the youth of the church which included a lot of fun and crazy games (WE think!) and some times of challenge, worship and learning.

We started the weekend off with some fear factor type challenges of which the highlight was "cricket spitting"!! It's exactly what it sounds like. You put a live cricket in your mouth then spit it as far as you can! The vegan in the group was quite unsure about this (she didn't have to do it!) but all ended well and every one of the crickets are now safe and sound in the wood pile behind the retreat center!

God blessed both of us with words to say to them about personal holiness (which is only attainable through submission and reliance on Christ; John 15:5) as well as challenge to step out in faith in building Christ-like relationships with the lovable and unlovable alike! Our times of discussion with them were really cool, because both of us really felt God's help and guidance.

We also played a great night-time outdoor game we call 'mission impossible'. They had tons of fun running around trying to hide from our flashlight beams!

We thank God for such a great weekend and everything He did in the lives of the youth of the church. It was Great!

Thanks for reading. If you want to pray for something, pray that God will provide this group of young people with someone more permanent than us to replace us when we leave that will take on the role of youth leader.

An Amazing Road Trip!

2007-10-30T17:21:00.000+03:00

We have had an amazing week! If you are interested- read on (it's long)...

Karyn and Brian (my old roommate and her hubby) came out here from Seattle and we went on the greatest trip! We rented a car and started driving... on the wrong side of the car and the wrong side of the road!!! Steve took on all of the driving- 1300 miles (in 5 days)- and I (ever so gently and kindly) navigated... not the easiest task for either of us! But in the end not a scratch on the car and a lot of good memories!

We first headed north in the English countryside (kind of the west side) and stopped many time for pictures along the road, the very narrow road. It was full of hills, old stone fences, and sheep. We ended up driving through an area called the "Cotswold Hills" which is full of very old stone homes (built in the 16th century) and very cool... (I already need more descriptive words...) We drove through "Stratford-upon-Avon" the town that Shakespeare was from and then off to the castle!

Our next stop was Warick Castle and was actually quite gimicky but in the end was worth it because they launched a huge fire ball from a "Trebuchet" (catapult) that was nine meters tall! We had a couple more hour drive and ended up in "The Lake District" for the night in a hostel.

The next morning we explored the Lake District (cute little towns with shops and great old buildings) and continued driving north. We were in Scotland well before we realized we would be and drove through the Highlands, winding hills, bright colors, and more sheep! We stayed that night in Glencoe, a tiny town near the west coast of Scotland where many parts of Harry Potter were filmed!! The local pub that night had some Scottish musician playing so we were all pretty excited about that!

The next day was more driving through the Highlands and the "Lochs" (lakes) and we just may have gotten a glimpse of Nessie. The countryside was beautiful, stunning, and graceful. We got our first taste of traditional Scottish food for lunch on the road that day! Haggis, Neeps, and Tatties... If you don't have a weak stomach, look up Haggis in the dictionary- gross to read but so good to eat! Neeps were Turnips and Tatties were Potatoes... it was all piled on top of each other with a sauce. So good.

We made it to Edinburgh by dark, settled into the Hostel and went for a walk up "The Royal Mile". The Royal Mile is a road in Edinburgh that starts at the Castle and extends to the Holyrood Palace and although now is a very interesting and enticing place (some of the buildings date back to the 1100s) it once had 70 000 people living in it (that's 300 people in one block!!!)!!! Eww!!!

Our walk up the Royal Mile included cobble stone roads, a full moon, shops, people, and a man standing on the side of the road playing the bagpipes, perfect ambience!

The next day we stayed in Edinburgh, saw the castle and shops. We found a traditional restaurant for dinner (great food) and then went on a "Ghost Walk", sounds cheesy but it was pretty funny. It was a tour around the Royal Mile that told us a lot about the history of it.

FINALLY... the last day we headed out mid morning and drove around the South-East coast of Scotland and through "A Tour of the Borders"- a drive through the countryside in between Scotland and England where there are ruined Abbey's and Castles that date back to the 11th century.

Well, check out the pictures and you will see some of the exciting things we did along this trip. It was so nice to have our friends here to visit (you are all welcome anytime) and to get out of the city!!! We can't quite understand why anyone would live in London after seeing so much beauty around it!

Quick pictures of our Friends Visit in London!

2007-10-29T19:10:00.000+03:00

Tower Bridge

2007-10-20T15:45:00.001+03:00

Steve edited this picture!!! Thought you might enjoy it.

An Answer To Prayer!

2007-10-16T12:23:00.000+03:00

You know how we "sold everything we had and moved"? ... well we've been trying to sell Steve's car since we moved (well, my dad has been doing the work for us). This last weekend Dad sold the car to someone in Portland so that is a huge answer to prayer. It's not very fun making a payment and paying insurance on a car you can't drive! Yeah!
Otherwise we have had a quite week. We are looking forward to next week... Karyn (my old roommate) and her husband are coming out here for a trip to Scotland! More to come!

Another Outting...

2007-10-06T16:06:00.000+03:00

Us at the Tower Bridge yesterday! It's a cool bridge! On the right (glass) is City Hall

The Tower of London- We went into this historical site a week or so ago.

Steve is staring down this egg- not too sure why...

The city line behind me- the big glass building is called "The Gerkin"... it's strange.

We had a great day out yesterday. We first went to an old Operating Theater. It was used in the late 1800s and then converted in a museum in the 50s. It was really gross and barbaric (even for me!). They had all of the instruments that they used to use and pictures and stories- it was really interesting!
Then we went to a big market and got a few fun things.
Afterwards we walked to the Tower Bridge and The Tower of London to get some pictures.
Finally we went to the Tate Modern museum which is a modern art museum. We decided we don't really like modern art and we really don't get it. We found that while looking at the paint/art if you tilted your head to the side then it all makes sense- ha ha!
Have a great weekend!

"Are you alright"?

2007-10-03T22:15:00.000+03:00

So, Melanie has been confounded quite a few times by the phrase above. Allegedly it's a term used in the same manner as we would say, "How's it goin'"? We asked Russell about it and he said that it depends on how you say it. To us, it always just sounds like they're asking us if we've recently fallen down a set of stairs!

Anyhow, we sent off our applications to SIM (serving in mission) yesterday. We have applied
to be 'associates', which means we would be eligible for a term of up to two years. We can decide later whether we would like to continue after that. Beyond that, we don't know yet what the time frame will be for finding anything out, including where we're going.

Other than that, Melanie continues to study, desires to shop (though she has shown a lot of restraint!) and sightsee with me. I do things like try to make this blog look cooler (work in progress) and read. We also took a trip to the National Gallery and a Photography Gallery yesterday. Saw Paintings by Da Vinci, Rembrandt, Monet, Manet and Van Gogh. My impression of the earlier paintings (15th-17th century) is that they sure did have a messed up view of Christianity. There were ten times as many paintings of Mary as there were of Jesus!

Anyhow, enough ranting here are some pictures from the National Gallery and Trafalgar Square (you can see "Big Ben" behind the lion). It's was quite a gray day! Thanks for checking in!

Whilst We Were Out...

2007-09-25T21:05:00.001+03:00

This park is a 5 minute walk from the house! It's a beautiful "formal garden" with flowers still in bloom!

This week we went to the Tower of London and unfortunately Steve convinced me not to take the camera so we don't have any pictures to show you from that trip...it was a good day though learning about British history.

We also went to the "best Fish n' Chips" in London (supposedly- the food was ok). The manager was really nice and found out we were new to the area and gave us free ice cream!

Otherwise, I have been studying, Steve has been reading a lot of C.S.Lewis, and we have been planning the few big trips we are taking- more on those in the near future!

London's urban jungle!

2007-09-15T17:10:00.000+03:00

A view of the Ashey-Smith Residence, where we are staying

So, day 5 of our adventure in London, Streatham (Stretem phonetically) to be exact, and things are going great! Melanie has had her first day of school, which she is enjoying a lot. She received a huge folder (what we call a binder) full of course materials on mothers and babies, ER care, war wound care, malaria, worms and a ton of other stuff I don't even want to think about!

So far we've experienced the shock of just how much it costs to live here, effectively rendering our money as half what it is in NA. We knew it coming here, and we've come up with a reasonable budget, but it's still a shock.

Going to the grocery store is another adjustment. Let's talk Ranch dressing, sour cream, flavored coffee creamer, seasoning salt (all our favorites!) ALL non-existent in our accustomed form!!!!! We're changing the way we make things accordingly, which is all part of fitting into another culture!

Yesterday we made the trek over to Greenwich to stand with a foot in both hemispheres, which the more I thought about it the less important it became, because as I understand it, it's just an arbitrary line... not like it was ordained by God or anything! We saw "The Queen's House", which ironically only one queen lived in, but has some good art in it, the Maritime Museum, and the National Observatory. Then we ate Mcdonalds to save money!!!

The weekend will likely consist of reading and studying, possibly watching a Rugby or Football match at the local Public House, and attending our gracious host's church on Sunday.

Thanks for checking in, look forward to hearing from you, and remember, look RIGHT when crossing!!!!!

Steve and Mel

New York City

2007-09-10T22:55:00.000+03:00

Our two days in the "Big Apple" were great- the weather was beautiful (but muggy)! We went to Central Park, the Museum of Natural History (see picture), out for a nice dinner, to a show- Les Miserables (great!), saw the Statue of Liberty, Ground Zero (see picture), and Times Square (see picture). We stayed in a hotel a block away from Time Square so that was a great location for the sights but we did have to haul all of our luggage quite a ways to get to and from the airport shuttle.

We are in London now after a long journey and are getting settled into our surroundings. We are heading to bed early tonight to catch up on some sleep so will write more soon about London! Take Care.

It's almost time.

2007-09-07T00:01:00.000+03:00

I finally received my passport today; talk about cutting it close. We leave for New York tomorrow morning, spend 2 nights and a day there, then off to London. The last few days were stressful not knowing whether my passport would show up on time, but today has been a relaxing day. In fact, Melanie is napping right now! We have a family get-together tonight then an early start tomorrow. You'll hear from us again when we arrive in London! Thanks for your prayers.

-Steve

Camp is Over...

2007-09-02T21:39:00.000+03:00

Camp is over now for us... and now we are heading off into another adventure!!! We leave on Friday for London for 5 months! We have been blessed that we have a place to live and are looking forward to meeting the family we are going to be living with! More to come soon!

A Picture!!

2007-08-13T21:32:00.001+03:00

I wanted to post a picture from Jr teens 2 when my cousins came- it was a blast!!!!

Excited again!!!

2007-08-13T21:24:00.000+03:00

Just to update everyone... we now have a place to stay in London and are for sure going!!
After the last post I got online and randomly e-mailed a bunch of Baptist churches in London and told them about us and asked if there was anyone in the church with a spare room that we could rent!

Turns out that a great family has taken us into their home and have already been such a blessing to us in giving all kind of help and information!

We are just working out the final details but will be heading to London on the 9th of Septmember after a short stop in New York!
Take Care everyone, more later.

Please Pray...

2007-08-07T01:36:00.000+03:00

We have just found out that our two leads we have of people who we could possibly live with in London are not going to work out. We are really only able to do this if we find reasonable housing arrangements. Your prayers would be greatly appreciated. God has provided so much for us that we know if this is what he wants, it will all work out. If you know anyone in London, that info would be helpful too!

EXCITING NEWS!!!!

2007-07-21T05:28:00.000+03:00

I (Melanie) got a letter from London yesterday stating that I GOT INTO THE PROGRAM!!!!!!! I am going to back up here though for a moment because some of you might not have a clue what I"m talking about.

I found this program online a few months back that would really equip me to do overseas missions. I know how to be a nurse here in North America but in 3rd world countries things are very different. This program is for nurses and covers things like malaria, parasites, birthing babies, wound care, community health and a many other things!

I applied, and we prayed, that if that was where God wanted us, everything would work out. I actually didn't get into the program right away- I was put on a wait-list (8th down) and so we waited. I got an e-mail yesterday and we are really excited.

The program starts Sept 12th and is one day a week (Wednesdays) for the whole day. We are hoping to do some sight seeing around Europe during the days that I have off!!! Steve may look into a Bible course or something but he may just be a hooligan!!!

We would make all of this possible by living with contacts that we have over there and possibly house sitting for some of it (christian-housesitters.com)! We have been saving for a Europe trip since we got married so that will help!

Anyways, more to come later- the week here at camp was good but we aren't quite energized yet for our second outtrip starting on Sunday!!!!

One LONG Week!

2007-07-14T19:37:00.000+03:00

We Just returned from our first hiking trip of the summer. 5 days in the Rocky's west of here with the Level 2 LTD's. A very challenging week, let's maybe just leave it at that!

We hiked the sugar bowl, an alpine meadow about 12 km back from Abraham Lake. The Scenery was awesome, weather was killer, about 30 Degrees every day, and our bodies actually held up fairly well!

We've been extremely busy with all the planning that went into LTD week a couple weeks ago, as well as organizing the out trips. Who would have thought there would have been so much WORK involved in being at camp! (It's a function of being the old responsible people I guess!)

Next up is Jr. Teens 2, the second jr. high camp of the summer. Melanie will be the nurse (and doing LTD stuff) and I'll be doing LTD stuff and leading worship through music.

Please pray for patience and an ability to be honest in love. Thanks for reading!

One down, eight to go!

2007-06-25T18:54:00.000+03:00

A Scamper Camper enjoying the slip'n'slide!

We have made it through our first camp of the summer, Scamper Camp! A weekend camp for kids age 6 and 7 years, this camp was a great tune up for the rest of our summer! As it turns out, Melanie is now the camp nurse since the person who had been hired as nurse was offered too many well paying jobs to turn down!

The weekend went off without a hitch, the campers had a blast making crafts, playing games, going to the beach and sliding down the slip and slide. Melanie had an early morning on Sunday morning when a camper got a bad ear infection: She was up at 2 am and then again at 5, and didn't get to go back to sleep! Steve hung out with a particularly rambunctious cabin group and played guitar during sessions.

Melanie asked a camper on the last afternoon, "What was your favorite part of the weekend?" and the camper said, "hanging out with all of you!"

Coming up is another week of staff training, and then its LTD camp (a training camp for our high school summer leadership program)

Thanks for reading!

Getting Settled In

2007-06-20T07:26:00.000+03:00

Hello to everyone from Gull Lake Camp! We have been out here for about a week now and have learned a few things already; how slow dial up is, how much slower the pace of life is here, and that it doesn't only rain in Seattle!!!

We started to realize the differences this time as soon as we crossed the border. At the border we had to go inside to claim all of our stuff and so we had pre-prepared a document that listed our things. The officer typed a few things into the computer and then said "Welcome back to Canada"! We weren't interogated crossing the border into Canada like we always were going into the States.

On the way we stopped at Rich's in Kelowna and went out to his favorite German restaurant. It was great to hang out with him before our busy summers started. The next morning we got up early and headed off to Red Deer. As soon as we crossed into Alberta we started seeing some funny things like a double wide mobile home driving down Highway 2- PASSING PEOPLE, big jacked-up trucks, and rust on the cars.

We stayed in Red Deer for a couple of days after unloading some of the Uhaul into the farm house and checking out Christy's GREAT new house! Then we went to Edmonton and had a fantastic BBQ with family and stayed there for a few days, catching up.

The word of the summer out here at camp is "FLEXIBILITY". This is the word for many reasons but the main reason is that the camp is building a HUGE new building to connect more campers to Christ. Because of the elements here (snow in May and lots of rain), the building is well behind schedule and could use a lot of prayer and volunteers. This summer there will be a lot of adjustments to make for example- there is only 1/6th the amount of grass that there used to be so each week is going to have a "Muddy Monday"!!

Our specific roles are going well out here. Right now we are working on planning for backpacking trips that the High School kids will be going on (we are going on two weeks of these!!!). Tomorrow, our roles may change- that's a part of this flexibility that I was talking about.

That kind of gets you all up to speed, we hope this letter finds you all well. We will try to keep this fairly updated but again, the internet will be quite slow here for a couple more weeks (they are getting a new connection)!!!

Thanks for reading our blog and feel free to post a comment!