in pieces

It's been sunny and warm the last few days. It's amazing how the sun makes me feel. So full of hope, vibrance, and excitement - I'm ready for the future. Today? Well it was cloudy and cold and it even rained a little. I tried to remain upbeat, but all of a sudden my unseen headache turned into a real knocker - oh the agony of a gloomy day. I've realized there's nothing more depressing than not having hope - Maybe not having advil? I'm glad I have hope for the future so that mundane days can become stepping stones to brilliant days. But then it makes me wonder, "Do bright wonderful sunny days make gloomy days seem more depressing?" I suppose that's my pessimism. To a farmer, spring rain can be the beginning of a beautiful hope - a beautiful future to a great harvest. But rain in the wrong season brings death to the bounty, and an end to his year's work and future support. Turn Turn Turn. Sun is vital too, but not to the extent of a drou...

Way to go, Ralph! We are almost as excited for you as you are about finding your first chocolate Easter eggs. Look at that face!

We had a great Easter this year celebrating with the Pallisters family first and had Jo's parents stay with us for a few days. Here is Sophia enjoying yet some more "chocolate" from Auntie Angee...(there is no stopping me!) The day they left we were excited to have my brother and sister n law and their kids come and stay with us for a few days too. There was lots of Egg hunting, and food consumption. The Lord has been good to us, although I am still righting myself after a bout of illness. Leigh and I didn't forget each other this Easter either. In the middle of the night, Leigh set up an egg hunt for me to do when I awoke in the morning. Without knowing it, I bought Leigh the same chocolate eggs and Chocolate Easter egg that he got me...However he did add a rather lovely/soft stuffed bunny to the loot as well. What a great holiday!

Our Easter worship night was a SUCCESS! Everyone involved was such a blessing as I really felt that everyone strove for excellence. The music was great, the ambience was beautiful, and people's lives were touched. Thank you Lord! Hardly anyone showed up, but we still felt that we were to present the evening with excellence. We invited one of the guys who sleeps on our doorstep and later on in the evening, he gave a committment to Christ. Another woman from a local church, said she'd come and get him the next morning for church and Easter lunch. We are currently looking for housing for him. He was saying that every time the band sang, he had chills up and down his spine, and that he couldn't figure out why he was crying so much. We spent time talking together, and I was able to pray with him, and share with him about the Holy Spirit. Also, many of our staff lives were touched as we watched the movie the Passion of the Christ, meditated on the stations of the Cross, ...

Yesterday I was sick. Nowadays young teeny boppers use "sick" to mean cool. Cool isn't even "cool" anymore. Although I'm cool, I was honest to goodness, don't-bother-leaving-the-house-or-the-toilet sick. I'd like to find the truck driver that kept backing over me. I dunno what I would do to him. I might have enough energy to manage a weak cough on him. For now, I'll just sit here on the couch and whimper.

This week we had the privilege of a group of kids (52 plus adults) from Alberta come and bless our socks off!!! A travelling youth choir from Ellerslie Road Baptist Church, came to support us by helping to clean our entire base (including YWAM houses) and helped to clean up our community too. They have come through our Mission Adventures program in the past, and were travelling through Vancouver and wondered if there was any way that they could help us out. This was an exciting blessing for us, as we usually facilitate teams to volunteer at other ministry centres in the city. We felt so blessed and honoured that they would choose to come and serve us. As we are on the brink of another move (more on that later) we used their man power to help sort through our junk, get rid of what we didn't need, and organize and clean what was left. They even sorted through our worship binders/books and filed them for us. It was a great day of DETOX if you ask me. It was reported that 1,250 lbs...