A New Year to All

We’ve made it through another year and not the worse for the wear. All in all I would class ours as pretty good. No serious illnesses, no fatal crashes, no money invested and none lost. God has been good to us and He always is, and we give Him our praise and honour. We spent a wonderful Christmas in Lander this year with Earl’s brother Elmer and his wife Marlene, just doing whatever we felt like doing. Besides the big family dinner on Christmas Day, we went for long walks, set two 1000 piece puzzles, and watched movies we’ve been meaning to see for a long time. We appreciated their invitation so much, I think it was the first time we haven’t been home cooking a turkey for the family close enough to enjoy it with us in as many years as I can remember.

Christmas at Earl's brother's house, in Ladner.

We drove to Seattle to spend New Year Day with Ruth & Royden (our grand daughter and her husband. Pat joined us on that part of the holiday. We did the Outlet Malls and managed to pick up gift for our Brazilian children and grandchildren whom we keep in touch with on regular bases. We raised a family of five, plus two other boys that live close enough we get to see them every time we go to Brazil. They are all married and have children, then there’s our director & his family, Luke’s mother etc. This means finding a suitable gift for 35 people. It’s something like running a marathon, but we enjoy blessing them.

Does it look like we like coffee or what?

A walk through the park in Seattle.

If you can't beat them, join them! :)

For the last few years Sam Ministries has put out a Unique Christmas Gift brochure and we are always so pleased to see how many people are waiting for an opportunity to share some of their Christmas money to help a poor person or family in Brazil or Mozambique. We are so thankful for these special gifts and we are so glad to pass them on. God’s people surely are the most generous in the world.

Now that we’re into the New Year Earl is busy getting tickets lined up for his trip to Brazil in March. We are hoping for enough air miles so we don’t have to use any mission funds. I likely won’t be accompanying him again this year, it’s become too costly for both of us to go. Plus, I don’t do as well with international travel anymore, so that’s my excuse, even though I miss seeing all our friends so much.

The family is all well, Pat is still recuperating from back surgery and feels so much better, she’s even talking about going back to work someday, though I’m not sure it will happen. Lynn & Dwight are busy doing all the things they always do in Mozambique, while their children are in Edmonton. Russ is waiting to hear from the navy, to see if he’s been accepted, and Amanda is back in university working on her teaching degree. She wants to teach high school math and science.

This promises to be a usual winter for us with lots of snow, which is nice because it covers up lots of ugly stuff, but makes walking and driving more difficult.