Saturday, July 25, 2009

Schalm Family Reunion 2009

Think of it ... You didn't even have time to get bored with my blog this time, and I am already updating it! A first for me. It usually takes me months. :p
We just finished our family reunion this past weekend, and we had a wonderful time. Unfortunately, there wasn't enough time to talk to everybody, which I would have loved to do. There were some new members added. Spouses of the grandchildren, and their children. The family keeps growing and growing. We had 111 in attendance, even though there were at least 40 that couldn't make it. We started on Friday night with the registration, and just hung around, had snack foods and lots of conversation. Saturday we all gathered about 2pm for more talking and snacking. :) Then at 6pm we had the banquet. Ate again! :p We were really happy that all three of our grandchildren were able to be there. Amanda & Russell came from Edmonton, and Ruth & Royden came from Seattle. We were just so proud to introduce them to the rest of the family that saw them very occasionally. My nephew Todd and his wife Laura and their two children came all the way from Borneo and my nephew Stan and his wife Ruth came all the from (would you believe it) BRAZIL! After spending 30 years in Brazil and never having a relative near by, wouldn't you know it that my nephew gets transferred right to Curitiba, just 30km from Mount Horeb - Itaperucu, where we used to work and live.
These are hot days, and fires are burning all around us. It's quite worrisome sometimes. So we are praying for rain and it's come, in gentle showers and down pours, but not quite enough to actually bring the fire hazard level down. The most horrific tragedy happened to a family holidaying in Eagle Bay, just about 30km from here. Their two children and their cousin were sleeping in the family cabin, near the house, and somehow the cabin caught fire and before anybody noticed it or could call help it was too late. The father tried to reach his children but got quite burned in the effort. What a terrible way for a holiday to end.
Nothing new has happened around here lately. I still want to pressure wash the house and clip the hedge way back, but those are big jobs and I think I will recruit Earl's help, but he is so busy putting a bathroom in our new coach flat above the garage! Once done, we will have extra room to put up visitors, and may even be able to rent it for short periods for people needing a few days, weeks or months accommodation.
Now, be sure to scroll down and check out my pictures. Till next time, Ruth.
Ruth, Amanda, Russell, Jannelle & Luke
Ruth & Amanda Luke & Amanda making faces. I wonder what they were thinking about ... Amanda trying out her cooking skills!

Some of our family members

Thursday, July 16, 2009

Just enjoying a wonderful summer.

Sorry that I let so much time go by before updating my blog. Time just zips by, and our lives don’t seem all that filled with excitement and interesting happenings that others would find appealing! But just the same, here are some of the high lights of the last two months. We travelled to Edmonton for the annual Sam Ministries banquet and met with so many of our faithful supporters and friends while there. Pat actually drove us there in her brand new copper coloured Honda Fit. It was a tight ‘Fit’, but the good gas mileage made up for any discomfort we endured. We got in a good last visit with Lynn & Dwight before they left for Africa on July 1st. They were only home for a short three months, so our time with them was quite limited. They spent most of their time in Edmonton doing mission business and seeing as much of their children as they could.

SAM Ministries Banquet

Pat's little Honda Fit

We undertook the task of painting the interior of our house this summer, and it looks really great. Luke and his friend Devin came over and gave us a hand. Luke has had some painting experience and works fast, so that really helped. We are trying to do an upgrade on our house every year. We don’t want to end up years from now with a big renovating job on our hands and not enough strength and energy to do it! Pat has moved into our basement suite and is nicely settled in. It’s so nice to have family living there for a change. It’s good to know things will be looked after when we go on our annual trip to Brazil every year, or on a church visiting trip etc. How does the feature wall in our living room look? :) I love to putz in the garden! We are having a Schalm family reunion in July and are really looking forward to that this weekend. To date, we expect at least 110 people to come and help us celebrate. As we get older, we wonder how many more reunions we will live to enjoy! We have one every five years, and so far only one sibling has passed on to eternity besides mother and father. The sunny Shuswap is a perfect spot for a summer vacation, so that’s a drawing card. We finally have some warmer weather too, but I’m afraid my feeble tomato plants will hardly bear any fruit this year, though the weeds are doing wonderfully well as usual. Schalm Family at our parent's 50th wedding anniversary. We do have some wonderful blessing to share with you though. Enough money came into the mission’s coffers recently to begin work on installing our own fire prevention system at Mount Horeb. The city of Itaperucu has 25,000 inhabitants and there is no fire brigade, fire fighting equipment, or fire hydrants, so it is no easy task to install system at our own expense, which is what the State government requires us to do if we intend to continue to operate a school etc. But fires do happen, strangely enough, even though most of our buildings are cement and brick. In fact, we had a fire at the old Mount Horeb, fortunately all the neighbours came to our rescue and we managed to put it out. Someone called the fire department in the capital city and a truck finally pulled up 3 hours later. Another blessing we received recently is that the Jireh Foundation once again came to the rescue and six members of our staff can continue their university education, in spite of the recession. God truly has answered our prayers and they are grateful and happy.