Ruth & Earl Trekofski

Life is bitter sweet

2011-02-16T16:02:00.000-08:00

A lot has happened since the last entry on our blog, so thought I should do another update. A lot has happened in the last few weeks. We had four Brazilian friends in for a typical Brazilian meal of beans & rice, roasted ribs, a green salad and a milk custard pudding for dessert. Our guests were Lucas Lara, right here from Salmon Arm, Solonge Detmering, also from Salmon Arm. She came to Canada 28 years ago to work for my sister Edith. Then there was Rotary exchange student by the name of Gabriel Di Bello from Sao Paulo, Brazil, and last but not least, Neusa da Silva, from Fairview Ab. that came to Canada 22 years ago to work as a nanny for my nephew and his wife. We just had a ball jabbering away in both languages. It was a fun evening and I vowed I would cook beans more often. I’ve forgotten how good they can be if one puts some imagination to work. Solonge or Sula, as we call her has to be the world’s best bean cook.

Gabriel, Neuza, Luke & Sula

Then we had some very sad news … First, that Eric’s brother Guy and a friend of his were instantly killed in a tragic automobile accident on their way from Saskatoon to Ft. McMurray where they both work. Eric is now bereft of both of his parents and one brother. It was such a shock to all of us. Ruthie and Luke flew to Saskatoon to be with him through this most difficult time. We hardly recovered from that when we got word that a very dear friend of ours that has been involved with the mission in Brazil drowned while on a fishing trip. He was a good swimmer so no one really knows just what happened. He leaves behind his grieving wife and three young daughters. He worked for the mission for many years as did his wife and her family. Recently he started his own business and was doing so well. It is still hard to believe we won’t see Miro in this life again … however, we have an eternal hope, and can look forward to seeing him in heaven. In the mean time we can weep with them and offer them what comfort we can, even if it seems insignificant to us.

Miro and his wife Joce

Our granddaughter Ruth and her husband Royden are in Salmon Arm right now. Royden’s father Ed Lepp was sick with cancer and has since passed away. He was only 64 and had so much to offer this world. Ed was a pilot and his plane crashed many years ago in northern Ontario. His passenger was killed but he survived against all odds, but did retain many scars to show for it. He lost one hand, and the fingers on his other hand. He limped badly as a result of his crushed ankles. He used a metal hook and was very dextrous with it, we were always amazed at the things he managed to do with it. The ‘Lepps’ are a large, closely knit, loving family, and when one suffers, we all suffer. Please remember them in your prayers.

Royden & Ed

Our friends Bob & Sharon Guzak from Edmonton come to spend time at their Mara Lake cottage, every winter and Bob loves to snowmobile. His other friends couldn’t join him last week so he took Earl out with him. That was a first for Earl and quite an experience by the way he tells it. He had no idea it involved so much special equipment and special clothing. I think he had stiff byceps for a few days … but would probably do it again if the opportunity arises again.

Earl & I and our friends Sharon & Bob

A New Year to All

2011-01-13T14:23:00.000-08:00

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.

2010-11-25T15:28:00.000-08:00

Our 2010 Journey … We’re back home again after seven weeks and four days of travel. The trip went well, but not without a few clinches. The temperatures dropped sooner than we expected and we woke up one morning to find the water pipes in the R.V. froze so we had to make some adjustments.

Since my last blog we visited more churches in the Edmonton area. Thanksgiving Sunday we drove to Camrose and had dinner with my sister Dorothy, her granddaughter Laura Joy, and great grandson Sevrin. We did our best to polish off the whole turkey, but didn’t quite make it, which was just fine with us because we got to take home enough leftovers for several meals along the way. We managed to work in a visit with the four girls (all sisters) that Bob & Sharon Guzak adopted from out orphanage in Brazil. What a treat it was to spend an evening with them.

Richard & Neide, Marize, Adriane and Val - The Guzak girls

From there we left for Spiritwood Sk. and spoke at the Belbute Church that was built and pastored by my late uncle Adolf. We enjoyed the warm welcome of Floyd and Dora Berg that took over from my uncle. My cousin Sal Orange hosted us and we were so happy to be in a house trailer, rather than in a holiday trailer when the cold weather hit. We expected it to be colder in Saskatchewan, but weren’t prepared for the snow storm we encountered on our way to Weldon. It was snowing and blowing when we awoke so we thought we’d better head for Regina as quickly as possible. The road was treacherous; we crept our way along on glare ice. There were a number of abandoned cars and trucks in the ditches, but thankfully we made it there safely and were warmly welcome by our relatives.

Our last stop was in Calgary where we enjoyed getting reacquainted with Ralph Sasse, that is pastor of the Calgary Community Church. We first met Ralph’s parents in Barrhead, AB. and later visited them in Novo Hamburg, Brazil where they did missionary work for many years. It was such fun to speak Portuguese with him and his wife Brazilian Claudia.

Allan Lagore, from Freedom Outreach, was one of the featured speakers and two of the men who have been through their recuperation program gave very encouraging and heart warming testimonies.

Our journey ended with a trip to Ft. McMurray for their annual mission’s conference. We were hosted by our good friends Dawson & Winona Winsor and were pampered and completely spoiled. We enjoy our time there so much and re-connect with so many longtime friends. There are 40 nations represented in the McMurray Gospel Assembly congregation and we got to meet many of them, got to speak Portuguese again and tried our hand at communicating with the Spanish speaking Columbians that were there. We were reminded that we are one big wonderful family in Christ.

We also enjoyed a couple of nice evenings with our grandchildren Amanda & Russell, and Earl met a cousin for the first time. He happened to be working in Edmonton and we met him at his hotel, so now we have personally met another of Earl's relatives, James Trekofski.

2010-10-12T17:40:00.000-07:00

Our Missionary Journeys … Before our ‘fans’ think we’ve fallen off the face of the planet, I’d better update this blog. Actually I meant to do it a month ago. So much for good intentions! The last few months have been very busy for us. We took on the finishing of a basement suite in a new house, and for two seniors I think we did pretty good, in spite of our age. Mind you Earl did most of the work, I mostly did the heavy looking one and lots of phone calls :) :)

We left Salmon Arm on Sept. 17th. on a trip to visit our supporting churches. We managed to borrow an R.V. from my sister and her husband since our old one isn’t very trustworthy anymore. It gave up on us three years ago in Manning and Earl had to go back to Salmon Arm and pick up our van so we could continue on our way. This R.V. is quite elderly as well, but so far it has served us very well. Our first stop was at La Glace, AB., where we had a good service and great fellowship with pastor Dave & Linda Duinker, as well as our good friends Bert & Lorraine Liland.

From there we stopped at Tim & Deb Stones in Silver Valley for a few days, we always enjoy our time with them way out in the country. From there we went to Manning AB. where a relative of mine ‘Cory Rosenfeldt’ and his wife Jennifer pastor the church. We got to renew our friendship, get better acquainted with their two beautiful daughters aged 7 & 4 years old. What gracious hosts they are.

Our next stop was Fairview AB. where we visited my nephew Dan Litke and his wife Karen. She prepared a delicious dinner for us and we had a nice long visit. Years ago they brought in a Brazilian lady (Neusa) to Canada as a nanny for their children and she still lives there. We stayed with her and managed to get a lot of small jobs done around the house that only a man can do. It was good to speak Portuguese again. She appreciates our visits so much, and we’re always happiest when we can be useful.

We then went on to Carrot Creek AB. Right next to Niton Junction, where Pastor George and Carolyn Stone are pastoring. They prepared a lovely dinner after the service and invited another couple over as well. She is Brazilian, and her Canadian husband married her while he was a missionary in Brazil. She is a doctor and hopes to go back to university and work toward being licensed in Canada. We wish her all the success; we know that’s not an easy road. Once again we got to practice our Portuguese and it keeps us from getting too rusty.

We are now stationed in Edmonton for about three weeks and visiting churches in this vicinity. Saw a lot of wildlife on the road but fortunately didn’t kill any! The sound of the geese honking their way across the sky is always music to the ears, hope that’s not a sign of early snow!

Patti (our Office Manager for SAMM's) and our niece Erin & her two children

Summer has arrived

2010-08-08T15:08:00.000-07:00

We waiting a long time, through a cold rainy spring and then it happened about two days after summer officially began. We are now enjoying lovely warm weather, Salmon Arm is awash with multi coloured flowers in huge cement flower containers on every street corner, hanging plants of almost every light post downtown, and that’s not even counting the lovely gardens almost everyone resident put in. Our city really is a delightful place to live, and by the amount of traffic and number of vacationers in town, a nice place to visit. We get our fair share of visitors as well. Most come from Alberta, but a few from places further away. Since May our home has been a whirlwind of activity, gardening, entertaining guests, frantically trying to finish some unfinished projects while the weather is nice and the sun stays in the sky till almost midnight, attending grad and various other banquets, taking in family events etc. While we lived in Brazil we often wondered on what our Canadians friends spent their time because they often complained about being so busy … now we know :) At the moment we have our grandson Russell here helping his grampa finished some projects. I suppose you might say it’s about time we baby-sat one of our grandchildren. He just turned 24 so that’s a good time to have him around, he pitches in and helps get things done, and isn’t much work to have around either. :) He just graduated from engineering and has sent in his application to enlist in the Canadian Navy. He’s busy gearing up for it. Gets up at 5 A.M., cooks himself a hearty breakfast, takes some rest time, and then goes for his 40 min. run. It doesn’t matter where you run in Salmon Arm, it’s either going up or coming down, so he’s found it quite challenging. He working on his ‘chin-ups and push-ups’ getting them up to Navy requirements, and besides, that he follows a strict eating regiment that would do us good to follow, but I’m not sure we have the same determination or will power to carry through with it. News from Mount Horeb in Brazil is encouraging, the outreach ministry in Cacador is coming along slow but sure, but like every big project we undertake we can only work as fast as funds come. So far God continues to supply the needs through our generous donors. I am enclosing a few pictures for your viewing. Once again the Jireh Foundation sent grants to enable our staff to attend university and get their hard sought after degrees. They are so grateful for this once in a life-time opportunity. Our first and oldest Brazilian granddaughter Patricia is just going into university to study business administration. Needless to say … we are so proud of her. :)

Commemorations & Celebrations

2010-06-12T11:53:00.000-07:00

Sorry it’s taken so long to update my blog, my excuse is the usual one … too busy. I will try not to repeat news you have already read in Lynn’s blog, she’s much better at keeping you in touch, she’s also more knowledgeable than I am on the computer, which helps!

We went to Edmonton for Sam Ministries AGM and annual banquet. More people than usual reserved a place at the table so we had to move into the main sanctuary of the Richfield church. We owe a debt of gratitude to the church and our Sam Ministries team who worked so hard to put it all together. It was a wonderful time of getting caught up on what is happening in both in Brazil and Mozambique. We spent the next few days in strategic planning meetings with our board of directors and it was certainly time well spent. Dwight just keeps us all on our toes, and moving ahead.

We are so proud of Russell and Amanda, they both graduated with distinction from their studies at the U of A. God has surely blessed us with highly intelligent, good looking and well-adjusted grandchildren. Had we known how much fun they would be we would have had them first. Both children and grandchildren truly are a gift from God.

It’s been too rainy to do much in our yard, but we won’t complain because the rain is so welcome after the mildest, snow-less winter we’ve ever seen in Salmon Arm.

We were saddened at the loss of our niece Nichole. Nichole was my brother Gerry & Trudy’s adopted child. They had her since she was 9 days old, and they discovered she was HIV Positive when she was just over a year old. They fostered her for the first 12 years and then adopted her. She’s been a very sick girl all of her life and had taken every imaginable medication that made her life absolutely terrible. Nichole lived the longest for any HIV Positive child in British Columbia, which was remarkable even to the doctors. We celebrated her life in a memorial service yesterday in Penticton, and the church was packed. Surely, Gerry & Trudy’s reward will come from God. They loved her unconditionally through all of her moods, depressions, and painful times.

We plan to travel to some of our supporting churches this fall and look forward to seeing pastors and friends and sharing with them about the opportunities God is giving us, and the advances being made at the mission in Brazil. A young pastor and his wife (Doug & Trudy Gordon from Morinville) are paying a visit to Brazil in July and will be spending a few days at the mission. We are excited for them, and ourselves … one never knows what God is putting together, but we do know His plans are for us are for good and not for evil. Serving God is so rewarding.

Sometimes Life is a Whirlwind

2010-05-15T12:03:00.000-07:00

Earl got home safely on March 16th. after a five week visit to Brazil. I managed quite well on my own, but found it too quiet so I had the radio or T.V. on most of the time. Lynn & Dwight went through Brazil on their way to Canada and spent a week at the mission with Earl. They came back this year to celebrate their Amanda & Russell’s graduation. It’s hard to believe they have finished four & five years (respectively) of studies at the U of A. Russ got his degree in electrical engineering, and Amanda in Biochemistry. They just got the results of their final exams and passed with the flying colours. What we wouldn’t give for young bright minds again. :) :) We met Lynn & Dwight the very next week in Red Deer for the FCA International convention. It’s always so great to see our many friends in the ministry, and we always make a few new friends as well. It was a very busy and there was no sleeping in. Activities got underway at 7:30 am and didn’t wind-up till after 10 pm, but all the same, we managed to get in some family visiting with Lynn & Dwight.

We met with Doug & Trudy Gordon, a young couple from Morinville AB. that are planning to visit Mount Horeb this July. We are happy and excited for them and hope they will feel so welcome with our gang at Mount Horeb that they will be inspired to go back for long term missionary work. Presently Doug is associate pastor at the Morinville Christian Fellowship.

After convention we took Lynn & Dwight back to Edmonton where Lynn had an exam to write, she has decided to go for a degree in nursing. The next day we left for Salmon Arm and Russ and Amanda flew down a few days later to join them. We’re having some family time and enjoying it so much. Our next trip was to Ladner to visit Earl’s brother Elmer and his family. Ruth & Royden (our other grand daughter and her hubby from Seattle) met us there, so we took advantage of the occasion and had some family photos taken. It’s been a long time since we’ve all been together. We are now back to Salmon Arm and house hunting and that’s quite a daunting task, considering the price of homes in this area. We leave for Edmonton on May 19th. to participate at the Sam Ministries banquet, the AGM and some planning meetings, and of course we will be there for Russ & Amanda’s grad as well, but don’t stand a chance of actually getting to witness the ceremonies … each grad is allowed only two quests … but we’ll just go out and have our own private party and the grand parents will be welcome! Both Earl & I have cataract surgery recently and came through with somewhat better eyesight, other wise we are both reasonably well.

One More Week...

2010-04-08T15:20:00.000-07:00

I've been working like mad getting some projects finished that I never get around to doing when my husband is here, such as putting my hundreds of pictures into photo albums etc. I've only got one week left before Earl gets back from Brazil, and my dinning room table is still covered with piles of pictures. Maybe I am going to have to put them all back into my trunk for a while. Certainly has been quiet around here and I wrote and told Earl that I discovered he makes at least half the work and half the noise in this house, to which he replied, "yeah and you must make the other half!" I didn't go to Brazil this year, because I usually get the flu shortly after I get there. Now, 10 days before my husband comes home he tells me he came down with a bad flu! Normally we never get the flu when we are home. Earl, Luke and I all had a birthday over the last few weeks. Since Earl wasn't here, Pat & I celebrated with Luke … Luke & Pat took me out for dinner, and Pat & I took Luke for dinner too. Wow Luke turned 21. He can now consider himself old, I guess. Haha :p When Earl comes home we'll all celebrate with him then! Lynn & Dwight are coming home for a few months as well, so when they get to Salmon Arm, we'll have one big party again! We've had a really cold Spring, so I couldn't get any work done in my flower garden. In fact today, April 8th, it's snowing outside! We had the warmest Winter in Salmon Arm that I can remember, and now we've got the coldest Spring that I can ever remember! It is just quite unbelievable. On Good Friday, we had a special service at Living Waters in conjunction with Five Corners Pentecostal Church, and the house was packed! There was special music, and a really neat video … It was a very edifying service. Then, on Easter Sunday, we went to the Lepp's house and had a good ham dinner with them and their family. I really appreciate the fact that people remember me, especially when I'm home alone. Unfortunately, Ruth & Royden couldn't come, but the rest of the family was there and we enjoyed their company very much. Little Vincent is growing up and starting to talk! It was also his first birthday so we sang Happy Birthday to him and he was owed by it all. Ed is feeling good and we're just so happy for him, his last scan showed no cancer spots on his lungs or kidneys - Praise the Lord! Let's hope our weather warms up and we can actually get some flowers planted for this Summer. Ruth

The new year begins with happy times and sad times …

2010-01-29T16:10:00.000-08:00

We survived the passing of the old and the beginning of the new without much fanfare. We seniors are like Cinderella, when the clock strikes twelve we escape to our beds J It’s been quite cold since about mid-November, but as the New Year came in, so did warmer weather. We love it, but the Olympic planners aren’t happy. Snow is gone, and slush is here, and there’s not much promise for colder weather or more snow on the horizon.

We finally had Earl’s sister Esther, her husband Glen, their son Ted and his wife Sandra over for dinner. Glen and Esther moved to Kelowna last summer and it took us that long to plan a dinner date. They have a lovely new apt. in a senior’s complex and have their main meals in the dining room every day. Gee, that must be nice JJ After that the decorations came down and things went back to normal. Earl also became a great uncle over Christmas. Dwaine Grynke and his wife Erin just had a baby girl and are elated … Leonard is finally a grandpa. We are so happy for them all.

Our daughter Pat that lives in our basement suite is going through a painfully bad time with her back. Looks like she is going to have more surgery much sooner than she expected. She has had back problems for years, but the last three years have been almost unbearable for her. These sorts of things worsen as the years pile on. She was able to get in a few hours of work a week in her cousins clothing shop, which, as she said, keeps her sane! Last night Ruth & Royden (her daughter and husband) came from Seattle to celebrate Ruth’s birthday so we all went out for a nice dinner. Pat came with her cane, which she finally relented and picked up at the Red Cross. Her remark as she walked up to the door of the restaurant was “I look dorkey”. J J We assured her she didn’t look all that bad, and besides, people will all feel sorry for her in case she felt neglected. And it may also help her get a handicapped sticker for her car, which will give her all kinds of privileges.

On Jan. 14^th. my oldest brother Henry passed away. He had been in long term care for several years suffering from Alzheimer’s. The very day he passed away, five of us siblings went to see him and tried to rouse him, but got no response. Then we decided to sing for him and picked some of his favourite songs … more than anything else Henry loved to sing and he had a nice deep voice. When we sang ‘Beautiful Star of Bethlehem’ his eyes shot open wide and we knew he heard us and recognized the song. After a few minutes we said our good-byes and committed him to the Lord. He died peacefully a few hours later, with his wife Marion by his side. His family, we remaining twelve siblings will miss him, but he is a far better place.

Christmas Dinner at the Trekofski’s

2009-12-27T15:00:00.000-08:00

Had roast turkey with dressing, mashed potatoes, yams, peas, candied carrots, and lots of gravy… Yummy! But I’m glad it’s just once a year. It’s quite cold out, so we all just sat around our artificial fireplace, that doesn’t give off a whole lot of heat – but hey, it’s better than the fireplace channel on TV. I spent time baking lots of goodies with the help of Luke & Earl, so we had lots of fun and ate too much of what we baked. Now we have to walk it off, run it off, or do whatever we can to get it off our hips. Enjoying Christmas Dinner My helpers Presents waiting to be opened. Once again it was our joy to have Ruth & Royden join us, from Seattle. They come as often as they can, especially now since Royden’s father is not at all well. Please, pray for him if you remember. He is taking aggressive chemo treatments, so he doesn’t feel good most of the time, which reminds me of my great-niece in Edmonton, Erin Vanderbrink, who is also undergoing treatments for Hodgkin’s disease. She is also having some complications, and we’re concerned for her, and ask your prayer in her behalf, as well. She has a three-year-old and one-year-old, so you can imagine how difficult for her to cope. Over Christmas, we also had John & Patti George and family, from Belize (missionaries from our church), and Jim & Beverly Flewwelling (Patti’s dad), over for a dinner and we just enjoyed our visit with them so much. We filled Christmas stockings for the girls and had such fun watching them opened them, but the only thing they really cared about were the dolls! John & Patti have a wonderful ministry in Belize and we’ve known Patti for many years. Evangeline & Naomi George Other family news, Lynn & Dwight just moved into their house in Mozambique. It’s unfinished, but already liveable, and somebody else was already waiting to move into the tiny guest cottage where they were living. Things are coming along well there. Murray, a cousin of Lynn’s, is there with them, as well as three other young people doing short term work, so life is certainly never down around there, as you can imagine. Their children, Amanda & Russell, stayed in Edmonton over Christmas and it was probably a good thing, because it was too cold and dangerous to be travelling that far. Amanda, as usual, aced all her exams in university, and her lowest grade was an A-. We are proud of her! She is going to take further course to get her teacher’s certificate. Russ works at the airport in Edmonton, for NAVCAN, and quite enjoys it. He is also planning to join the Navy and is quite excited about that. There he plans to continue his education, and that way the government will pay his tuition. So those two are working toward future goals. Our Grandkids. Aren't they handsome! Pat still has a lot of trouble with her back, and is on permanent disability now. She certainly can’t go back to work at Overwaitea, but she manages to keep herself busy. Earl & I have been reasonably well, but we both have to get cataracts removed as soon as we can get an appointment at the clinic. Luke keeps busy and comes over and helps us every Friday, so we stay caught up with our mission work. Earl plans to leave for Brazil on March 7th, and will be back on April 14th. He’s going alone this time, because we have plans to go to Mozambique in the late summer, and I don’t think I can handle two lengthily international trips in a year. Royden & one of our other family members: Gizmo! Until next time! We wish you all a Prosperous, Healthy, and Happy New Year!

Christmas is just around the corner …

2009-12-04T10:49:00.001-08:00

So like everyone else that hasn’t totally given up on Christmas we are putting up our lights, the Christmas carols CD’s are cranked up and I sing right along with them. I never get tired of them and people must think I’m stuck somewhere back in my childhood day and somehow missed the turn in the road of time. I go hear all the choirs I can, and join the church choir to get my fix for the year! It really is a wonderful time of the year, when we take the time to remember that Jesus came to this earth and lived among us, so that we can have eternal life and go live with him forever. A special time to give thanks and worship our king. Our life has been rather uneventful lately, and that suits us just fine. We did get to Nakusp for a few days in Nov. to soak up some of that fabulous hot mineral water … that’s suppose to rejuvenate one’s body and take away all the aches and pains. I wish … but it was very nice just the same. My sister Betty and her husband Henry joined us, and because business was slow, we got the use of the whole chalet instead of just half one, for only a few dollars more. It was quite chilly up in the mountains but that just makes the hot water all that much more desirable. Betty, Earl & I soaked twice a day, but Henry preferred casting his reel into the river in hopes of catching a fish. Well, we didn’t get our fish but that didn’t discourage him, he just loves fishing whether he catches anything or not. Betty & I Some snaps of beautiful Nakusp... This inside of our Chalet. Earl has been busy fixing up our van that had a run-in with a bull. It’s already up and running, but we have a red hood on a tan coloured van. I told him I should paint a wreath on it, add a few gold balls and a fancy ribbon and people would think it’s our special Christmas car! He didn’t think that was a good idea. All that’s left to do on it now is paint it all the same colour, and nobody will ever know we hit a bull! Our 'Christmas Van'! :) Earl has his fare for Brazil already in hand and plans to leave on March 07th. He is going alone this time; I couldn’t get up my courage to join him this time. The last two trips I ended up in bed for the fist ten days and felt just terrible. Maybe it’s the radical climate change, or the time difference or maybe the germs of over 300 passengers circulating through the vents on the plane. Whatever it was, I didn’t want to take the chance, especially since we plan a trip to Mozambique this summer, and two long tiresome trips a year would be just too much for me.

Time to hunker down for the winter

2009-11-06T10:21:00.000-08:00

Winter did come in fast, first it was so hot and then almost without warning we were rustling to get our tomatoes off the vines and our plants cut back for the winter. We had a FCA conference at the Richfield in Edmonton in mid Oct. so we decided to leave early and visit several places while we were in the area. But it was so cold we decided to do some winter preparations, all the summer clothes went out and the winter clothes came in … to the closets that is. The yard got a quick once over and we had to be sure our car was ready for the cold weather in Alberta. Once it starts snowing in our area it’s quite unforgiving. We spend the best part of winter shovelling our way out of the driveway! We visited Living Faith Bible College first and had a great time of sharing with the student body. Our good friend Paul Reich is back as president again and we had such a good time catching up on things. From there we drove to Camorse and spent the night with my sister Dorothy Litke, so we could make it to our next stop at Hardisty, where we spoke to the Messianic Congregation. Then we wound our way up to Westrose where we spoke in the morning service (one of our favourite places to visit.) We spent the next three days at the conference in Edmonton. What a good conference it was, with excellent speakers! We got home in time to receive a quest for two days, wash and iron our clothes, and re-pack to go up to Ft. McMurray. We just couldn’t face driving four days to attend a three-day mission conference, so we decided to fly to Edmonton and catch a ride to McMurray with our good friend Carole Argo. We had a great time and were treated like reality, of course just lapped it up! The McMurray Gospel Assembly has been a staunch supporter of our ministry in Brazil for years, and going there is somewhat like coming home. To our surprise we met some long time friends we didn’t even know had moved there. One was a childhood friend Les Gill, and his wife Staci, that are very involved in the church there. We also saw Steve & Wendy Schrappel, formerly of Salmon Arm, that used the attend Living Waters Church, where we attend. We love pastor Glen Forsberg and his wife Lois of the Ft. McMurray Church; our relationship goes back many years. They’re a couple that never seem to age, I think they just get better. We stayed with our good friends Winona & Dawson Windsor, whom we’ve known for a long time. In fact they visited us in Brazil way back when and came laden with goodies from the McMurray church family. Pastor Glen & Lois Foresberg

Steve & Wendy Schrappel

Les & Stacy Gill, Earl's friend from childhood days

Winona & Dawson Windsor, our hosts and long time friends It snowed in Ft. McMurray, while we were there, but fortunately the ground was still black when we got home. We are glad to get stuff put away and maybe we can really hunker down for winter now. Earl will be going to Brazil alone next spring. He is looking for someone to accompany him, he doesn’t exactly like to travel alone, but we plan to visit Lynn & Dwight in Mozambique in late summer, and I don’t feel like I can handle two overseas trips in one year. Things are going well in Brazil, our director and staff are launching a new ministry in the rural community of Cacador and plan to set up a smaller version of Mount Horeb out there. Everyone is so excited and there’s lots of activity already going on. Talking about Brazil, while we were in Ft. McMurray a few years back, we met a Brazilian girl, recently married to a Portuguese man, who had just moved up North. It was a delight to see them again, and another member has been added to their family! A lovely talented couple, whose friendship we enjoy.

Elisangela (Brazilian), her husband Rogerio (Portuguese), with their 10 month-old Canadian/Brazilian/Portuguese son :)

Winter came in like a Lion …

2009-10-28T17:38:00.000-07:00

We’ve been busy getting ourselves mobile again, as it was we were storing the kids vehicle while they are in Mozambique, so we were okay. Earl decided to ‘buy back’ the van from ICBC, fix it up, and hopefully make a bit of extra cash. He visits all the pick-a-part places he can and has already found a fender, a hood and a mirror. Then he’ll have to give it a new paint job, it’s a two tone right now. Winter came upon us so suddenly and caught us off guard. My plants are all wilted, and some of my homegrown tomatoes froze as well. I did manage to preserve most of them though, and I made lots of jam, overkill for sure, because we can never manage to eat it all before the next season rolls around. I will try to pawn some off on our grandchildren or whoever will take it! We went to Edmonton for our FCA conference, we decided to leave five days early and visit Living Faith Bible School in Caroline, and share with the student body there. From there we went to visit the Hardisty Messianic congregation, then on to Westrose church for Sunday morning and finally on to the conference at Richfield. We saw a lot of our friends at Conference and the speakers were wonderful, we always enjoy our conferences so much. We came home just long enough to wash clothes, do some winterizing of our yard, and repack to go to Ft. McMurray for their annual missions conference. We decided to fly to Edmonton and hitch a ride with a friend. It just doesn’t make sense to drive for four day and stay only three! We’re getting too old for that! This time I’m taking a heavier winter coat. It seems like winter has hit all the western provinces at the same time.

We also managed to have a quick visit with our grandkids, Russell & Amanda! :)

One always has to be prepared for the unexpected...

2009-09-25T15:29:00.000-07:00

Here we are into fall already! Our summer was so very hot and dry, and BC had over 1,900 forest fires this year, we broke all records. Some days it was so smoky, we couldn’t see the mountains or the trees. Our weather has actually turned cold, especially at night. So, we are having to harvest our tomatoes and anything else we don’t want to freeze. We’ve had a few emergencies in the family recently. Earl’s brother Elmer had a heart attack and landed in the hospital, where he had a stint put in. My brother-in-law Lorne, had to be flown to Victoria and also had a stint put it, but thankfully he didn’t have a heart attack. He is now back at work and doing great. It will take Elmer somewhat longer to recover. We made a trip to Vancouver to visit Elmer & Marlene. Took the ferry to the island and visited one of our supporting churches in Chamainus. After that, we drove down to Seattle for four days to visit Ruth & Royden. Earl did some wiring in their basement, which they are renovating. It was such fun to be there, and we so much enjoy our granddaughter and her husband. Managed to get in some shopping and then headed homeward. We had hoped to get home before dark, but stopped too long at Costco, in Kamloops, so by the time we hit the road, it was already dark. We were clipping along following another car when suddenly he swerved off into the oncoming lane, and for a split second we wondered if he was drunk. The next split second, we knew why he did what he did! About a fifty feet in front of us was huge pitch black Angus bull was standing right in the middle of our lane. Earl hit the breaks but just the same, we broad sided him and knocked him down before we could stop! Our car unfortunately got the worst end of the deal. We were unhurt and believe it or not, the bull got up, stood there for ten minutes in a daze, and after that his owner came and chases him home. But there was quite commotion on the highway, just the same. We’re going to make doubly sure that we don’t travel after dark again. It’s just too dangerous. So often the unexpected happens, as it did this week. We got a message on facebook from a young man in England that had been adopted by a British couple from the Mount Horeb orphanage when he was just under two years old. He said he had been riffling through his documents and found our name. He punched it in on the Internet and found our blog. We were so amazed to hear from him after so long, and like most adopted children, he was most anxious to learn something about his biological family, and was hoping we could help him make contact. We are in the process of writing letters and sending pictures, etc. etc. between him and his family. If we are happy and surprised, imagine how his mother and sister, uncles and aunts, etc. will be. It’s just another one of the wonderful surprises that come our way from time to time.

Elmer & Marlene

Pleasure Boats in Vancouver

Our Granddaughter Ruth & her hubby Royden

Jeremy & his girlfriend Carey

Summer is coming to an end.

2009-09-10T11:24:00.000-07:00

Wow what a summer we’ve had, at one point there were more than 800 forest fires burning, and some days it was so smoky we couldn’t even see the outline of the mountains around us. As each summer approaches we hope and pray the rain will fall at just the right time, in just the right amount, so we won’t have to deal with the frightening wildfires. The last three or four years have been pretty bad and the doomsayers tell us we can look forward to much of the same, but I think when it comes to predicting the weather or natural disasters that might occur, it’s anybody’s guess. We decided to do make some finishing touches on the back yard this summer, it’s nice to have a large lot, but it takes a lot of time and money to make it look good and keep it that way. Earl got material and recruited Luke’s help, and they really got into it. But it really does look better, even though it looked pretty good before we started. There have been a few upsets in our family recently. My brother-in-law Lorne Plett (Jenny’s husband) went for a stress test, and they wouldn’t even allow him come home, they flew him to Kelowna, did all the tests, and then flew him to Victoria where he had several stints put in. Apparently the quickest route to getting treatment is when the Dr. treats it as an emergency. Lorne was up and back to work in a few weeks. My grand niece Eric Vanderbrink has Hodgekin's disease and is undergoing chemotherapy treatments. She has two young active children so you can imagine how hard it is to be there for them right now. Then we got the news that Earl’s brother Elmer from Ladner also had a heart attack. Fortunately it happened at home and Marlene called emergency right away and got him into the hospital, hopefully not too much damage was done to the heart. He had a stint put in as well, and has to take it easy for a few months. Things in a family can change so quickly. We are going out for a visit this week. Will visit a church in Victoria on Sunday and then drive down to Seattle to visit Ruth & Royden. Grandpa will do some wiring, and grandma … well, she’ll do whatever her hands find to do. They were just here visiting Royden’s dad who is suffering from colon cancer. We would really appreciate your prayers on behalf of these suffering relatives. Royden’s sister from Seattle was here to see her dad as well. She brought little Vincent (the Lepp's first grandchild) much to grandpa and grandma Lepps delight, and they weren’t the only ones to enjoy him, so did the rest of us. What a sweet little fellow he is.

Schalm Family Reunion 2009

2009-07-25T17:31:00.000-07:00

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

Just enjoying a wonderful summer.

2009-07-16T21:32:00.000-07:00

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.

Enjoying our time with Lynn & Dwight

2009-05-14T10:28:00.000-07:00

We, like everybody else in B.C. are waiting for Spring, seems the weatherman has decided to teach us avid gardeners a bit of patience. We are still hoping to get our tomato plants in by the May 24th. and maybe even our hanging plants. There have been some new developments since my last entry. Luke got another work permit; needless to say he is very happy. He got a job in a auto glass shop, his boss so kindly applied to immigration for the permit. Our daughter Pat moved into our basement suite, it’s nice to have only family living here. Sure is neat when I run out of ingredients for a cake or anything else I’m preparing, and can just run downstairs and borrow it. We decided to give our house a new interior paint job, and it looks very nice. But I haven’t rushed out to buy new furniture yet though ... don’t think Earl would have been happy with that.

We went to Seattle to pick up Lynn & Dwight who had flown there from Edmonton to visit Ruth & Royden. We had just a short visit with them, but as usual it was so good to see them. Royden has a chameleon and we had such fun watching him feed him cockroaches that he raises for that purpose. And for those of you who may not know, there are oodles of people that raise all sorts of weird and wonderful creatures and have to provide them with as natural a diet as possible! He even sells cockroaches and makes good money at it too. After our visit, we returned to Vancouver to spend a few days with Earl’s brother Elmer and his wife Marlene. They had a houseful of guests, but treated us all so well and we had such a wonderful time of fellowship. We cooked, ate, and laughed the visit. We spend the last evening at their daughter, her husband and their two interesting daughters. We were all into their games and saw just how out of shape and unbalanced we all were.

We came back through Squamish, Whistler, Pemberton, Liloet, Cache Creek, Kamloops, and finally Salmon Arm. Our first stop was in Squamish where we looked up our long time friend Jenny Price. It was so good to see her, and she was her usual up-beat self. Our ties go way back to 1960, we were neighbours for a long time, and her children babysat ours. Now we are grand parents, and she’s already a great grandmother. It’s obvious she enjoys her kids, grandkids and great grandkids. What a wonderful example of a Godly woman she is. Before we left we drove down a few memory lanes to take pictures. Cruised by our old home, the hospital where Lynn was born, the school they both attended and a few other places they just had to see. We got lots of good pictures. Squamish has changed so much we hardly recognized it, and lost our way a time or two as we drove around trying to find some familiar landmarks.

The trip over that route (hiway 99) was beautiful, and if you ever get a chance to take it, you won’t be sorry. There are so many wonderful places to see in B.C.we probably won’t see them all in our lifetime. Lynn & Dwight were able to spend 3 days with us, too short but sweet! They are leaving for Edmonton tomorrow and we will be joining them again in Edmonton when we drive down for the SAMM AGM and their annual fund raising banquet to take place on May 23rd.

Back in Canada …

2009-03-25T11:42:00.000-07:00

We left for Brazil in February, and came back five weeks later, but it still seems like mid-winter. Just the same, my crocuses, brave little things, with only their heads above the snow, are already blooming their little hearts out. We stepped off the plane in Brazil in exceptionally hot and humid weather. At our age the body doesn’t seem to adjust quick enough to such drastic climate changes and it takes us a few days to get sorted out. There were days when we actually pined for a bit of the cold Canadian winter we left behind. A few minutes in that intense sun, and a bad sunburn, was a good reminder that we must remember to slather sun block on all our exposed skin! There are always the usual things that remind us we are back in Brazil. People, cars and animals of all sorts share the streets and sidewalks. Garbage is scattered everywhere and no one seems to notice it, except us. Mangy dogs roam the streets day and night and bark incessantly, which rouses the roasters, that join in the chorus with their crowing, which wakes the chickens and gets them all cackling! Most households keep chickens in their back yard for eggs and meat. It’s unbelievable how people sleep through it all, but somehow they do! We try to muffle the noise by wrapping our head in the pillow, and we even tried the new fang dangled earplugs, that are terribly uncomfortable, and just didn’t fit our ears properly! As always, everyone at Mount Horeb greeted us warmly, and it felt so good to be back among our many Brazilian friends. It was gratifying to see how the work has grown and progressed over the past year. There are just over 300 children registered in school and in order to accommodate them all our school runs a morning and an afternoon shift every day. New children come every year, so we actually recognize only a few of them these days, mostly our staff kids. Even they change so much in one year and we have to check and be sure the name matches the face. The kids often look at us and say, “Do you remember me?” To which we mumble some sort of reply, but they soon set us straight if we’ve erred. We made it a point of visit each classroom and spoke to the students. Many had heard about us and were anxious to know us personally. They also wanted to know how Mount Horeb got started, and how come we came to their city. We were only too happy to tell them how God guided our steps to Itaperucu, and led us to do what we did. We are still amazed at how God helped us with the tasks we undertook, and at how much the school ministry has impacted the community. As we stroll through town many people stop to talk and express their gratitude to us for providing a safe place for their children. A place where Christian principals are taught and building character in the lives of the children is a priority. A place free of violence, bad influences, and the constant presence of the drug pushers waiting just outside the school gates, all too prevalent in the public schools of our city. The first Saturday after we arrived we joined the outreach team and headed out for Cacador ,a poor community in the interior. We all piled into the army jeep, and the Volkswagen bus, both heavily laden with the Unique Christmas gifts we had purchased, and set out on our slow rough journey over dirt roads. The mission out reach goes out almost every Saturday to work on improving the living conditions of about 50 families living there. It hadn’t rained for a few days so it only took us two hours to get out there, but the road was still quite wet in the lower sections of the road, we almost made it without any incidents, but for the last half kilometre of road, The jeep was loaded a bit too top heavy with the grocery hampers and school kits for the children and it started tilting and sliding into the ditch. The guys quickly unload some of the heaviest stuff off the top of the jeep, and we managed to make it safely to our destination.

We then proceeded with our late, but very welcome Christmas party. We had announced our coming and the small building we gathered in quickly filled up as people in the community poured in. First we had a time of singing and praise. Earl & I were then asked to greet the people and share something of our lives with them, after which our director Paulo Roberto spoke to them and encouraged them not to despair, God aware of their needs and was sending help. Finally it was time to serve everyone the hotdogs and pop that we’d brought with us, and as a grand finale, we handed out the school kits and grocery hampers. Many hours later they all left for home happily bearing their heavy burdens with them. How grateful they were, it was a reminder of God’s love for them, and that He had not forgotten them in their need. School classes should already have started, but we have since learned that they still haven’t had a day of school yet this year. Someone told us the department of education had forgotten to send money to fuel the school buses! Lord willing Mount Horeb will set up a school for these children by next year. They are so anxious to learn.

We were so happy that our friends from Ireland joined us at Mount Horeb, we had such great fun and fellowship. They are such enthusiastic and willing workers for the Lord, always so ready to help and contribute wherever they can. This year they set up a community kitchen at the mission where mothers of our poorest students can come and learn to prepare more nutritious meals for their families. They can also use the kitchen to make the finger foods that many of them sell on the streets in order to survive. In exchange for this, they will prepare the daily school lunches for the school children, which will take a heavy load off the shoulders of our regular kitchen staff. We praise God for the commitment of our Irish friends that come to Brazil every year and contribute so willingly of their time and talents to the ministry at Mount Horeb.

We also re-connected with many of the children that were raised in the orphanage. Most of them are now married and have families of their own. They attribute their time at the orphanage to having made the important difference in their lives. How wonderful to hear them rise up and call us blessed, and how can we not feel blessed. It reminds us that God’s greatest blessings can’t be purchased with money.

Yes, and it has snowed…

2009-01-03T14:35:00.001-08:00

The last 6 weeks here in Salmon Arm, involving our family, have been happy and sad. Earl got a case of shingles a week before Christmas, so we were off to doctors trying to figure out what was wrong with him. After 3 days, we got him on the proper medication and he is doing much better. And typical of us, we decided to replace some of the floors in our house, so our furniture was all shoved around into various areas of the house. We now have a lovely stressed slab lino floor in the kitchen, hallway and bathrooms. In the office and laundry we put a vinyl plank floor. It all looks very nice and is better for us seniors, who have a tendency to have scatter rugs all over the place and tend to trip and fall over them. Then, our son-in-laws mother has cancer and has only a few months to live, so some of the family went and spent Christmas with her. We also found out that our Granddaughter’s father in law (Ed Lepp) has cancer of the colon, so we are all quite anxious to see what his treatment will be and what his prognosis will be. And on top of all that, some very dear Pastor friends of ours (Ed & Doreen Breitkruez) were in a horrific accident. The first one they suffered wasn’t so bad, but then the ambulance came and got them all strapped down safely and headed for the nearest hospital, when they ran head on into the back of semi-trailer loaded with pipe. Their injuries were multiplied about a 100%, if you can imagine, they were tightly held on the stretchers, so they both suffered very serious back injuries. Doreen has had her operation after 3 weeks in the hospital and is not home recuperating. She had 7 of her vertebrae fused with a titanium rod. Ed is still in the hospital and in more serious condition. We are praying for a miracle, so that he will not be left a quadra or paraplegic. So, those of you who are praying people can just join us and pray for a miracle on his behalf. Our Christmas meal was with a smaller crowd than usual. We had Pat, Ruth & Royden, two Brazilian friends that live in Salmon Arm, and of course yours truly and Earl. But we had much to be thankful for just the same, and praise the Lord that He came and lived among us and died for us so that we might be forgiven and can share Eternal Life with Him. Our plans are to live for Brazil on February 15th, and just about now we are wishing we were there right now, because it seems it’s all we can do to keep ourselves shovelled out of the snow. It seems to know exactly when to start snowing again, I think the weatherman is watching us! I am including a few pictures for your viewing. May all of you that read this blog have a blessed happy and healthy New Year filled with God’s peace.

Ruth.

And let it snow...

2008-11-28T11:55:00.000-08:00

Here we are facing another Winter... Which means lots of snow (for Luke's sake! :D ), ice, cold weather, heavy coats, warm boots, and of course Christmas. It's quite clutter free for us really. We don't do a lot of the Christmas stuff like we used to. No more spending on gifts for people who already have everything, no more sending of Christmas cards. I do like to decorate the house, put up lights and have a really special Christmas dinner with whatever family that happens to be here at the time!

Recently, we took a trip top Ladner, to spend a few days with Earl's brother Elmer and his wife Marlene. We always enjoy their company so much and have great fellowship talking about the things about the Lord and praying for each other and with each other. We caught a ride down and brought back a car that they have donated to Lynn & Dwight for when they home on furlough in March/2008. This was such a blessing because it's always a concern for missionaries when they come home, for how they are going to manage purchasing a vehicle to use while they are home.

This past weekend made a trip to Edmonton. We took the Jasper-Edson route and dropped our daughter Pat off in Edson, so she could spend some time with her mother-in-law Dolly who is not at all well. After that we headed for Morinville where we attended a mission's conference. We had a great time and stayed with Jason & Mayra Michaud and got to know their little daughter Luiza. Jason went to Brazil and spent some time at Mount Horeb and travel around to various places in the country. He met Mayra in Brasilia, they fell madly in love and by the time he was ready to leave they had already decided that she would come to Canada and they would be married here. We had actually never had a chance to get to know her, so this was a very special time for us. And now there's another member to their family: a sweet little girl they named Luiza.

We managed to see some wild life on the trip. The mountain sheep were in the middle of the high way and we had to maneuver around them and managed to take a picture of them to include in this blog, as well. :)

On the way home, just beyond the summit a car had flipped upside down in the middle of the road, fortunately though the two occupants badly shaken up but otherwise suffered no serious injuries. It was snowing, hazy, the roads were icy, and it was a typical thing that happens when people forget to slow down and take it easier.

We also spent some quality time in Edmonton, with Amanda & Russell and enjoyed a couple of meals out with them. They are both doing well in university, and getting along quite nicely. After Christmas we plan a weeks visit to Seattle, where Earl is going to do some renovation work on Ruth & Royden's house, and in February 15th we plan to leave for Brazil. My cousin Rosa from Germany is going to Argentina to visit some relatives on my mother's side of the family and she has invited my sister Alma & myself to catch a flight to Foz do Iguacu, then take a bus and meet her in Argentina. Alma will be in Curitiba visiting her son Stan & his wife Ruth, so hopefully we can work this little extra activity into our schedule.

That's the news the now. Don't hold your breath for my next entry though.

Ruth.

You will be thinking I have forgotten all about my blog…

2008-10-24T10:50:00.000-07:00

Not really though!!! It’s just that there isn’t always much news to write about. Anyway, I think I need to update and there is a considerable bit of new news.

Summer is about over in B.C. It’s turned cold rather early this year … and the weatherman doesn’t predict an Indian summer! Luke is anxious to see the snow and swears he will shovel our driveway for us … that will be two driveways, since he lives with Pat and Eric.

I am glad because I actually harvested a fair number of tomatoes off my ‘potted’ plants. First time I tried that, and it works really well.

We are still getting the last minute finishing touches done to our landscaping, so from now on, it will be free sailing … aside from the usual maintenance.

We’ve had a Federal election and both Earl & I worked at the polls and made ourselves a bit of extra cash. We were happy our Conservative candidate Colin Mayes won this riding hands down with 51 % of the votes. Now we can get on with life as usual till our municipal election for councilors and mayor, and after that, the provincial elections. Ho hum … we get really tired of all the hype!

Eric’ s mother Dolly had gone through two cancer operations and was doing really well, we thought. However in her last exam they found a cancerous spot on her liver, and the doctors have given her 3 to 6 months to live. She is a great lady and we are all very upset and sad. You can join us in prayer on her behalf. She lives in Edson, Ab.

We got some good news concerning the mission. When we lost our property we had a great lawyer and he tried to reverse the judges decision but was not able to do so. When it got all the way to the Supreme Court, they decided it wasn’t worth a hearing and annulled the case. The lawyer’s sister (also a lawyer) then took up our case to try and get reimbursement for the original price we paid for the property, plus the thousands of dollars we spent on improvements on the place over the 15 years we carried on our work from there. After 8 years, our first hearing is set for Nov. 14^th 2008. We are very excited and happy, however we know it may take another few years to hear our case and they will likely appeal so we aren’t exactly counting our chickens yet. But we are praying for justice to be done, and want to invite you to pray with us over this situation. Mount Horeb could sure use the money … OR the property back, if the owners can’t come up with the money. Either way, we expect to receive some recumbence for our troubles, traumas and tears over the whole affair.

Here is a picture of Mount Horeb's old building and below that you can see the new buildings:

.... Plans are to go to Brazil in Feb. of 2009 again. I now have a nephew living in Curitiba, real close to the mission and we will get to see him and his wife and spend sometime with them as well. That is very exciting … imagine another family member living in Brazil J. He is an executive for the Exxon oil company.

We have a trip to Edmonton coming up in Nov. We were invited to attend a mission’s conference in Morinville. Invitations like this are always greatly appreciate by missionaries.

Our friend Solange, who came to Canada from Brazil years ago, just had a visit from her niece, and on the video you will see a picture of us at the Kelowna airport… And if you haven’t already clicked on the video below, please do! There are a lot of other pictures of interest to those of you who know us better.

Till next time … Love to all those of you that read this blog.

Our home ‘on the road’ comes home!

2008-09-10T22:19:00.000-07:00

The last few weeks have been a whirlwind of activities. A number of friends from Edmonton stopped by to see us, and enjoyed some of our wonderful Okanagan fruit. We get so used to having so much of it around every year, we fail to appreciate it like we should. The first few years we lived here I went hog wild canning and freezing fruit … and we are still eating jam and fruit canned in 2005 … Horrors, I hope our grand daughter Ruth doesn’t read this blog! And talking about Ruth, we had the pleasure of having her and her hubby here for almost a week. They came from Seattle to take in a family wedding, and a grandfather’s funeral, two occasions that don’t really go very well back-to-back. We sure did enjoy them. Since Earl got back from Mozambique he has been wondering and worrying about how he was going to get our little RV back home. It broke down in Fairview last year on our trip visiting churches, and my nephew Dan Litke so kindly offered to winter it for us in his back yard. No one we know owns a heavy enough vehicle, and a long enough trailer to haul it through the mountains… so we prayed. Trust God, He always answers prayer, and meets our needs, no matter how difficult the situation looks. He also has his people scattered here and there, ready and willing to help a friend in need. We got a phone call from our friends Len & Eunice Schamehorn telling us they are on the way to Salmon Arm with our motor home in tow. Earl was one happy camper. Then the last weekend in Aug. my brother Henry and his wife Marion celebrated their 50th. wedding anniversary. Henry is in a home and suffers from dementia, but Marion was determined they should celebrate just the same, so she got busy and planned the event. She worked really hard at preparing him, and that is no easy task. Just getting him to put on different clothes is traumatic for him, and he hates bathing. He lives in Bastian Place, and they prepared a lovely buffet dinner on the patio. The weather was perfect, we had a sunny warm afternoon. Everything was as close to the ‘original’ wedding as possible, right down to the bridesmaid bouquets, the grooms tie and shoes. One of the best men couldn’t make it, but all the others were there. It was also a good excuse for us siblings to get together again, only Ed my youngest brother didn’t show up for the occasion. After that celebration, we had another one on Sunday afternoon. My sister Betty and her husband Henry’s youngest son recently married a girl from Australia and most of us had never met her. They invited us all to the lake and prepared some good food and we all had a wonderful time. All in all it was a great weekend, and we got some good pictures that will help us remember these occasions. Now Earl is up to his elbows in grease fixing the R.V. and even gave me sometime in the garden … we’re almost finished with our landscaping … finally. Now all we have to do is maintenance. We have a big yard and we are getting too old for all that bending, lifting rocks, hauling dirt and keeping the dandelion crop in check. Gotta run … till next time … -------------------------------------------------------------------- Here are some pictures for you to check out! ;) Earl having our RV placed back in our backyard! :) Randy and his Australian wife Heather! What a wonderful time we all had at lake... Us sisters had a chance to take a family picture while we were all together at Randy & Heather's reception at the lake! Here we are at Henry & Marion's 50th Anniversary Celebration! Henry & Marion's family...

Enjoying Summer

2008-08-19T14:44:00.000-07:00

Earl got home from Mozambique on June, 30^th just in time for some nice warm weather and lots of work in the yard waiting for him. We have never actually properly landscaped this place. It's been sort of piece meal till now, so we decided that this year we will finish it and then it will be just maintenance. And round here, if you don't have a nice yard and keep it up, the neighbors scowl at us and become quite unfriendly… We've been trying to ignore them as much as we can, but it hasn't been working out that well. Just kidding… :p

We've had a pretty good string of visitors from various places so far this Summer, and it's always and excuse to lighten the barbecue, prepare some yummy salads and enjoy the great outdoors… (at least until the mosquitoes spot us!!!). Our grandkids (Ruth & Royden) also came from Seattle a couple of time this Summer already, and they will be here again for a wedding next weekend, and they are always a delight to have around. Unfortunately, our other two grandchildren (Russell & Amanda) live in Edmonton and we rarely get to see them. They are both busy earning money during the Summer, so that they can pay their university dues.

My sister Betty, daughter Pat and I had a big garage sale this Summer that lasted for a day and a half. And it was quite successful, but we live right on a busy travel road and it was a winner, because nobody drives by a garage sales that's right in your face and doesn't take the time to stop and have a look. I also donated a week to help at the Vacation Bible School in our church, which I consider to be my reasonable service unto the Lord that involves children in my retirement years! lol

Luke is busy making tons of friends around… working hard, and fitting into the Canadian life style. He's loved by everyone and does not lack for attention (I hope…). He is also a great help to Earl & I with the more difficult tasks we have to do for the mission on the computer. What takes us hours and days, he can just do up in a matter of minutes.

It's been a wonderful Summer so far, even though it was late getting started. This is the first year we have the comfort of an air-conditioned house and are we ever enjoying it! It's cooled off quite bit the last week, but it promises to get hotter again this week, so we will wait and see what comes up!

Here are a few pictures for your uhs and your aws… ;)

Till next time, Ruth.

Earl - the new rock mason on our block!

A selvage lawn bench that looks pretty nice in our front yard! :)

Me and my granddaughter Ruthie!

Ruthie & Grandpa...

Royden, Ruthie & the latest member of the family, Luke.

I know we look drunk! But I have an excuse: We are all so tired!!! :D

A mother and daughter trip to Alberta.

2008-06-28T15:42:00.000-07:00

Let's just say I would never attempt going to Edmonton all by myself, no matter how important the occasion! But with Patti on long term disability leave, she had both the time and desire to accompany me, so off we went to take part in two important events. The Samms banquet, as well as a niece's wedding just a week later. This meant we would be staying for over a week and would have time to spend with granddaughter and niece, Amanda. We went on a few shopping trips, and even went to her work place to see just what they do there. They are one of few companies in Canada that make prosthetic eyes, and it was very enlightening. The eyes are actually hand painted and are attached to an existing eyeball, if there is one, and if not, they are attached to an eyeball implant. This means they move with the eye muscles, just like a natural eye. We told her she has a sweet job ... and she knows it too. Thanks to her friend Carey's dad. We only got to see Russ at the banquet, and had a short visit over lunch the following Sunday. He's a fine big boy ... and looks every bit the part of an engineer already, even though he still has a year to complete his university education. During the week we even ventured out as far as Camrose to visit my sister Dorothy and met another one of her great grandsons, while most of us Schalm siblings are still waiting for great grandchildren, there is no lack of them in her family! As usual, we were so graciously hosted by John & Ruth Martz, our long-time friends whose home is always made available to us when we're in Edmonton. The banquet turned out very well, thanks to the Sam board, Patti Green, Carole Argo and others that contributed to making it such a special event. it's always such a pleasure to reconnected with so many of our staunch supporters of the work both in Brazil & Mozambique. We also get to visit with pastor Lorne Fisher, and our home-church family at Richfield Christian Fellowship. We simply bask in the love and support we receive from everyone there. For those of you that were involved, and are reading this ... please accept our heartfelt thanks. Earl is doing just fine in Moz. with Lynn & Dwight, I think they treat him better than I do!! But hopefully he will still be glad when it's time to come home. We are expecting him here on June 30th. sometime in the afternoon. As every good housewife ... I already have a to do list waiting for him! Yes, good husbands are mighty fine to have around ... especially the really handy ones! Patti is feeling somewhat better but still has two back surgeries to look forward to. Fortunately she has a good job and all her benefits kick in. Luke is living with her and Eric now since we had someone in my house till two weeks ago. A painter in town was needing help so he applied for a work permit for him, and till that, arrives he's learning all about painting houses. It's not the kind of work he's used to doing, but says he enjoys it just the same. He still finds time to come over and help me with my work on the computer etc. and of course, I always cook him a good nutritious meal, and for a hungry young man, that's what matters the most!

Carol Argo, Pat & I enjoying Edmonton.

Pat, myself & Ruth Martz.

Amanda, Russell^& Carey at the Samm's banquet.

Me and my family.

Bernice, Rob, Leonard, Dwayne & Erin.

Bernice & her dad Leonard at her wedding.

Life is sort of back to normal...

2008-05-26T20:19:00.000-07:00

Almost a month has passed since we left Brazil, but with todays technology we manage to çommunicate either via msn, e-mail, or SKYPE almost everyday. Sure beats the olden days when we only managed to hear from one another every month or six weeks, especially when we were scattered between Brazil, Africa and Canada. Earl is busy helping out in Mozambique and won't be home the end of June, while I'm busy trying to get the yard spruced up for the summer.

Luke is living with Pat & Eric, and she is helping him get all his government required ducks in a row so he can work in Canada, he has already lined up a job, so things are falling into place. I'll be by my lonely self in our house when my sister and her husband who were house sitting, move out! Next week we leave for Edmonton to be there for the Samms banquet, and to attend Earl's niece (Bernice Grynke's) wedding. Pat and I will be driving down, a first for us. Pat is on long term sick leave, her health has improved somewhat, but she still suffers a lot of back pain and has two more surgeries to face. We would appreciate your prayers on her behalf.

Back Home Again!

2008-05-05T18:43:00.000-07:00

Our six-week visit to Brazil was interesting, adventurous and entertaining… We took a trip to the interior in our Volkswagen mini-bus, a two-hour drive over the roughest dirt roads I can remember. We felt like eggs that had just been scrambled.

We spent a very interesting time visiting in this rural community where Mount Horeb has been working toward helping poor families. They go out there every Saturday, and spend the entire day there helping in a number of ways. The government has closed all the local schools and the kids now have to bus to school about an hour and a half each way. The roads are so bad that when it rains they simply become impassable. The school year started the beginning of February and so far these kids have only managed to get to school for 20 days. We climbed hills, stepped over creeks, and visited a number a families and drank a lot of “chimarao”. A national drink that boasts to cure you of whatever ails you, and if nothing ails you it promises to keep you healthy.

On the lighter side our good friends, the Camargo’s offered us (Earl, I, Lynn & Dwight) the use of their lovely beach house that has a pool in the front yard where we lolled for three days, played games, got in lots of reading, and took some long walks in the beach as a plus we got sun-burned in a few bare spots.

We managed to visit with most of our friends and spent a lot of time at the mission with our directors Bebeto & Suely, and the rest of the staff. It was just so great to be there and know that we are loved and appreciated for so many… at least that’s what they tell us. Frankly, we think they highly exaggerate on it… We are thankful to the LORD for the marvellous privilege of serving Him in this beautiful country with its wonderful people. We all went to the airport on April, 28th where Earl, Dwight & Lynn left for Mozambique and four hours later Luke & I boarded our plane to Canada. We all arrived in our destinations safely and are glad to be back on solid ground. Earl doesn’t come home until the end of June but I have a lot of yard work and gardening to do before then. BC hasn’t had a nice Spring so far, but the last few days it’s been sunny and warm and I couldn’t resist getting out and getting my fingers in the dirt. You will be hearing from me more often from now…

Six weeks in Brazil…

2008-04-23T08:10:00.000-07:00

We arrived in Brazil on March, 16^th and we were happy to renew our acquaintances, friends and fellow workers in the ministry. We settled down into the guest apartment and slept off our jet-leg and then started to get into the groove of everyday life at Mount Horeb. The weather for the most part has been rainy with a few blessed hours of sunshine in between, but in spite of it I managed to get sunburned.

The biggest shock in our first week was the beating of someone on the street where he was left to die. A car came by, picked him up and took him to the hospital. It was late at night and hospital was solidly locked so the Good Samaritan went to the door, rang the bell and asked for a stretcher when he heard shots behind him. The crooks had followed him to the hospital and shot the wounded man in the head and fled. Needless to say there was no more need for medical attention. On the heels of that, a bus loaded with people ran into the back of a huge semi-trailer and many people were shook up, but the driver suffered the worst damage and his leg had to be amputated. Thankfully, there haven’t been any more tragedies so far.

Once again we have been delighted by a number of visits by young people thanking us for the help their families received from the mission over the years. These young people who at the time were needy children in the community have now grown up, married, and become contributing members in their society. For the most part we didn’t even recognize them after so many years, but it was very gratifying to see them again and receive their thanks.

The picture above is of one of the families we helped many years ago. They were very poor, and were helped by our sponsorship program. The mother also came to our sewing classes. As you can see, that's the house they used to live in Itaperucu. One of the children, Citia, came to see us a few weeks ago.

Luciane is another one of those young people who came to say thanks. Her mother was a widow and they lived in a clapboard shack with plastic and bits of tin for a roof, with a dirt floor and the beds were carved right out of the ground. For the most part the mother took the four children and went out begging everyday to survive. The first thing we did for them was to build a small board house with a decent roof that wouldn’t leak and a cement floor. Then we encouraged the mother to come to our sewing and literacy classes. Gradually things got better for the family, and today Luciane is a wonderful example of what can happen when a family receives a minimum amount of help to get on their feet.

Luciane is married, has two children, and holds down a good job that promises her a much brighter future. Stories like this our encouraging and make us realize that in the kingdom of God if we plant good seed, there will always be a good harvest.

After three weeks here Lynn & Dwight joined us and we have been having a wonderful time and they have been a great help to us. A friend of ours offered their beach house with a wonderful swimming pool, and we spent 3 and half days just resting, talking an eating and then resting more, and talking and eating again.

We are all leaving on April, 28^th and I will be coming back to Canada with Luke in tow. He managed to get a 3 year work permit to Canada and we are very happy for him. Earl is going to go back with Lynn & Dwight to Mozambique and is going to be away until the end of June.

That’s all for now and I will update you guys in what’s going on in our lives after we get back home.

Spring is in the air

2008-03-11T12:28:00.000-07:00

You can't imagine how wonderful it is to feel the sun on our back, see the snow melting, the

crocuses blooming and hear the robins singing their hearts out. It's the time to rejoice and be glad for the new season. We leave for Brazil on Sat. March 15th. so there won't be any new entries on this blog until May, but I'll make it up to you by giving you lots of news about our trip.Lynn and Dwight will be meeting us there too, they come to attend our Annual General Meeting and represent the interests of Sam Ministries.They are also keen on establishing a good working relationship with the Mount Horeb

mission in Brazil. All missionaries planning to go to Mozambique must first go to Brazil to learn the language. We also look forward to some special family time which we get little of. We plan to stay 6 weeks at which time I'll be coming home, hopefully with Luke in tow & Earl will be going back to Mozambique with Lynn & Dwight to help with the many projects he has going on down there, which he thinks only his father-in-law can do. Besides knowing how to do just about anything he can also fix just about anything & has the added advantage of being able to communicate with the locals. Dwight always tell him he's worth 10 men, how can you say no when you get those kinds of compliments & from a son-in-law nonetheless.

Luke just finished getting his medical exams & criminal reports off to the Canadian immigration and we're hoping to get a positive answer within a month. We can hardly wait for him to get here & do a whole lot of work for us which these days requires all this marvelous technology which we don't simply seem to be able to master. He will be coming on a work permit which will give him legal status & besides helping SAM Ministries he will be able to apply for a second work permit for another job as well. He really wants to be an asset to the ministry & not a liability, & more than anything else he wants desperately to come to Canada & make it his permanent home.

The grandchildren are doing just great. Russell is in his 3rd year of engineering & is working in Lloydminster through the co-op program at the U of A. He's liking his work & is getting some valuable hands on experience at engineering. Amanda is almost finished her 2nd year in their Bio Chem honors program & is pulling in wonderful grades which makes us all very proud of her. Ruth & Royden just got back from a much needed vacation in Costa Rica and are back at their jobs. Recently Ruth has been having trouble with her thyroid & she is being monitored by her doctor & seeing a specialist. She has the beginnings of Hashimoto's disease which can take from one month to 10 years to kick in completely. We hope & pray that she will recover & that her thyroid & autoimmune levels will normalize as they are wanting to begin their family.

Our Pat had a rather serious back operation in October & has been on disability leave from work ever since due to complications involving her right arm. She also picked up a nasty virus & it settled into her bronchial tubes & she coughs alot & has wheezing spells like an asthmatic, & has completely lost her voice so we haven't heard a peep from her for 3 weeks. We're also praying that the Lord will touch her & restore her health. Until next time, don't eat too much, sleep more, enjoy the Lord & your family & friends.

Life goes on, even in all this snow....

2008-02-08T11:41:00.000-08:00

You're right, snow is the subject matter again, we keep getting more and more and I think we have broken a record this year. We've enclosed more snow pictures, so you can judge for yourself! Neighbours were busy helping each other get out of their driveways, wallowing knee deep in snow. The snow plows can't possible keep up, but we sure are happy to see them come into our neighbourhood. Wonder how much more we will get before winter is over?

Earl's step father passed away on Fri. Jan 25th. We were amazed he live as long after the hip repair surgery he endured. He was a remarkable man and would have celebrated his 99th. birthday in April, had he not fallen. All his family members were just under, or just over, 100 when they passed away, including his parents. You will remember that Earl's mom died less then a year ago on March 1st. while we were in Brazil. Another generation has come and gone, and we're next in line. Mom and dad were both mentally alert and physically able to get around without help. Elmer and Marlene, Earl's brother and sister-in-law drove from Lander and picked up us and daughter Pat, and we drove to Alberta together. Considering the road conditions, we were fortunate to get there without any hold-ups, but did get to wait for an hour and a half on the way home. The crew was blasting to see if there were any avalanches waiting to happen. Almost all of Grandpas Meckelborg's surviving family was there, so we got to see most of the relatives on Earl's side of the family. We had a good time celebration dad's life, he was a vibrant Christian and live a good and long life. We are getting excited about our trip to Brazil when we get to see all our friends again. Like Lynn always said when she was a child, I love to go on holidays, it's just the long trip I hate. I can relate to that, seats in planes are getting less spacious all the time ... or are we getting bigger and bigger as the years go on! Lynn is our second daughter for those of you that don't know, she and her husband Dwight are missionaries in Mozambique, you can see her blog and read all about the at ... lynnlagore.blogspot.com Blessings to all ....

Winter with lots and lots of snow

2008-01-23T16:12:00.000-08:00

Here we are just waiting for Spring, seems to be a long spell between winter and Spring! We have had more than our share of snow, and Earl has really developed his shoveling skills. But if he doesn't do it I make him walk with me, and he prefers to shovel snow! So far it hasn't been too cold though. We have already purchased the tickets for our trip to Brazil, we use air miles for one and buy the other. One has to start real early though, if you don't, you run into some serious problems. Last time we did that, we couldn't get on the same flight till we got to Houston Tx. But we think we have it fixed better for this trip. We plan to be gone from March 15th to April 28th. From there Earl will be going to Mozambique with Lynn & Dwight, who will be in Brazil with us for two weeks. I will be coming home .... I hope not alone. If we can manage it, Luke may just get his work permit by then and he can come back with me, that would suit me better. We usually don't both go to Moz. it's too costly, too tiring and too long for both of us to be away from home.

Earl's step father fell and broke his hip, he is 98, and that's not a good time to fall and break a hip. They operated on him and are trying to keep him mobile, but that's not easy. Just today we heard he has come down with pneumonia so we're all apprehensive. You will remember his mother passed away almost a year ago in March when we were in Brazil.

Our grand children, Russ and Amanda spent Christmas with their parents in Mozambique. They only had 10 days with them, but that's all you need when you are really homesick! they got home safely, though not without a few hitches. Our other granddaughter Ruth and husband Ruth Royden spent Christmas in Salmon Arm so we got to see quite a bit of them, they are always such a joy to have around. We get into some serious doctrinal discussions, and she thinks her grandpa (especially) has all the answers ... don't tell her differently! Not any other newsworthy items to write about so till next time ...

Christmas is over and we survived ...

2008-01-08T21:37:00.000-08:00

We haven't updated for ages so we hope you haven't all given up on us! we had a wonderful Christmas, and probably about as stress free as it can get. Since half of our family lives in the far flung corners of the earth, we had a nice quiet day that ended up at the local theatre where our son-in-law runs the projectors. We all had a private showing of the Chipmunks. Lynn & Dwight's are in Mozambique and their two kids who are both in the U of A went there for Christmas. Mom and dad had accumulated enough air miles to bring them over! They had a good time even if it was only for 10 days. Coming back wasn't so great, they got bumped in N.Y. the by the time they caught another flight out, they missed their Calgary Edmonton connection. A friend picked them up OR they would have spent the night there. Amanda's luggage got lost in all the shuffle. Our other grand daughter and her husband came from Seattle and they are always such a joy to have around and usually have some weighty subject they want to discuss with grandma and grandpa. They made the rounds, just to keep things even, between her Royden's parents, Pat and Eric's and our house.

Our Brazilian Luke that spent 06 months here went back to Brazil on Nov. 1st. He had applied for an extention of his visitor's visa, but it takes immigration forever and a day to get back to their applicants, so in desperation he decided to go back in case they didn't grant him one and he would lose his return fare. His extention came just a few weeks ago, over 3 months after he applied! He is dying to come back, we tried to get someone to sponsor him so he could get a work permit, but weren't successful. Lots of people need employees, but they don't want to bother going through the government and doing all the paper work. So we are trying another route! He said a soon as he stepped off the plane in Brazil he knew he shouldn't have returned. He just loves Canada and says he wants to spend the rest of his life with ... is that a compliment? Anyway he was such fun to have around!

We are both well, and plan on going to Brazil again this Spring, and Earl will continue on to Moz. to give Dwight a hand with building and maintenance. I will come home, can't both stay away that long or our yard will turn into a hay field. Also there's the added expense we can't afford.

Pat & Eric are both fine, she has just undergone surgery and has to have more done. So she is recovering slowly ... they went in from the front of her throat, so she has a nice scar to show off! Not too much else to report, I'll try to keep up better with this blog and slowly but surely we are getting the hang of managing it .... Blessings to all

Pictures to view .. from last blog

2007-12-17T20:26:00.000-08:00

Still Landscaping, how much longer ...

2007-12-13T09:33:00.000-08:00

Well, this entry is a bit late I must admit, then I went to update two days ago, and it somehow goofed, and it didn't get posted, so here goes again. Yes, Earl just got the last bit of heavy duty landscaping done before the snow blew in! It's amazing how big our yard is ... like everybody else we though the bigger the yard, the better. What we didn't figure on, was the amount of work we would have to put into it. But, we're finished now and it looks wonderful! Except you will have to wait till Spring to see it now. Everyone in the family is well, except Earl's step father Leonard Meckelborg, he fell and broke his hip ... not good news for someone who is 98 years old. They did surgery to fix it and so far so good. You will remember Earl's mother passed away last year in March, she was 93, and mentally alert till the day she died. Whenever we would visited them and asked Leonard how he was, he'd always say 'I don't know I have no one to compare myself with! Remarkable people!! Christmas is upon us and this year it will be quite quiet, ours usually are. No more small kids or grand kids around to liven things up, maybe we will live long enough to have great grand kids, that should liven things up again. Ruth & Royden will be here this year and it's always such a pleasure to have them, they are such a 'have it all together' couple and always such a blessing to us, their commitment to the Lord is wonderful to see. Our other two grandchildren Russell and Amanda are both studying at the U of A and are going to Mozambique for Christmas. Lynn and Dwight had some air-miles burning a hole in their pocket, so they decided to put to better use. They leave Dec. 18th. They are both doing very well in their studies, both love the Lord, and we are extremely proud fo them both. Pat & Eric are well, Pat just had surgery on her back and is recuperating, she'll be off work for 3 to 6 months. The pain hasn't lessened, but the numbness in her arms and hands is gone, and so are her headaches, so she is very happy for that. Eric has been such a great helper and taken care of the house the dogs, and everything else Pat usually does. I will be going on here another day and adding some pictures ... when I get help from Pat! Till next time ....

2007-12-11T22:29:00.001-08:00

Where has Autumn gone?

2007-11-11T15:16:00.000-08:00

Since coming home from our trip we're busy trying to beat the snow and get our yard ready for the winter. All those nice flowers in big pots that graced the front of our house in the summer, are now frozen and wilted and have to be plucked up and chucked. Trees that weren't meant to be planted under the overhang of the roof where they never catch a drop of rain, have to get a real good watering before winter, shrubs need to be cut back, and the lawn has to be mowed one more time before it gets covered in snow. It's amazing how much work a yard takes to keep it looking decent. I can't believe that Adam and Eve didn't have t0 work by the sweat of their brow before they got kicked out of the garden of Eden, which incidentally, I hear was somewhere in present day Iraqi.

Everyone in our family is fine, Pat had a rather complicated back surgery on Oct. 29th , everything went well, and she is now recuperating and has to take it easy for a few months. Eric has picked up the slack and is taking good care of her by doing all of the usual household chores what a good, kind husband she has, and son-in-law we have.

Lynn & Dwight are in Mozambique and hassling the usual problems and challenges of the very third world country they live in where things rarely work the way they're suppose to! Their two children, Russell & Amanda, both in the U of A , got through their mid-term exams and did very well as usual. Russ already has a job waiting for him in Lloydminister AB/SK beginning the first of the new year I think! He's in the co-op program and has the advantage of working his way through university! He'll be moving to Lloyd, and that means Amanda will be alone in the apt. in Edmonton for eight months. She will sure miss him, they are such good friends.

Lucas Lara (Luke) is back in Brazil and we sure miss having him around. He was always cheerful, upbeat, and was most helpful around the house and yard. He also helped us so much with missions stuff, doing up videos etc. Our Portuguese correspondence to Mount Horeb in Brazil was not nearly so difficult as before! He would like to come back to Canada ... just loves our country and wants to make it his home. Hopefully he will be able to do that, and we will try to facilitate the process for him. We're almost into the flurry of year-end events and can hardly keep up going to all the different events we bought tickets for! Our church has grown in numbers and there's a lot more work involved in keeping things running smoothly. Besides our pastor, we now have an associate pastor, a youth pastor, a Children Ministry director, and believe it or not I have the title of Social Convener (not just sure what all this title entails) but I'm learning. At least I still feel reasonably useful. Earl is just going to town on the backyard and it's looking nicer and nicer all the time. He really does have a touch for design ... he's just never had much opportunity to express it before! ... so nice of you take the time to read our blog ... please leave a message anytime.

Gone and Back Again

2007-10-31T12:14:00.000-07:00

On Sept 21st. we left Salmon Arm headed to northern Alberta with our little Lasharo RV with hopes that it would take us to our desired destinations with quitting, it is twenty years old and doesn't owe us anything. We planned to visit churches in LaGlace, Manning, McLennan AB. Then head further south and east to Belbute, Weldon, Regine (for conference) and Porcupine Plain all in SK. All was well till we left Mannning, we got as far as Fairrview, and the Lasharo decided it had had enough and packed it in. So there we were between nowhere and nowhere. We had a good reliable van in the garage at home but that was now 1400 kms away. Fortunately for us my nephew Dan Litke and his wife & Karen live in Fairview as well as a very good Brazilian friend that we always stop to visit when we go through. Dan & Karen invited us out for dinner and as we walked into the driveway Earl commented on the car sitting in his driveway. It was a Chrysler Intrepid, "it's got just the motor I need to adapt to the imported Lasharo diesel. It didn't take Earl long to inquire where he got the car and how did he like it. Dan told him he just got it but he hit two bears with it a few days ago and the insurance company wrote it off. Earl perked right up and said he would be interested in paying Dan for the wrecked car if the insurance let him keep it. Dan would only find out the next day. Then we told them of our dilemma, somehow Earl had to get back to Salmon Arm and pick up the van. The next day Dan called and said Earl could have the car if he wanted it, the insurance company didn't want the thing. He also said he and Karen were planning to go to Sicamous that week end to see their friends, and if Earl wanted to drive the car home, they would follow him in case anything went wrong ... but they couldn't leave until Friday 5 pm. So that's what we did, Earl drove to S.A. and back, a 2800 km round trip. The car ran well but the trip was brutal, he only got in 4 hours of sleep between Fri. and Sun. where we had another service to go to in McLennan. Luke came back to help him keep away. There were two very groggy guys sitting in church that Sunday, but we managed to stay awake through it all. The RV is parked in Dan's yard, and the motor for it is in the little red car sitting in our driveway in S.A. What fun, but the Lord must have had thing already worked out before all this happened ... who else would have given us a free motor. And it also takes care of any extra hours of leisure Earl thought he might have this winter. The nice thing is he now has a nice heated garage in which to work. We are so grateful to Dan & Karen. And, we managed to stay and help our Brazilian friend finish some jobs on her newly moved house. Other than that we enjoyed visiting with friends and relatives all along the way. Earl even got to sit on the tractor and make a few rounds in out friends field. Daughter Pat just got out of the hospital after back surgery. We are all praying for a full recovery, and hopefully some relief from her constant pain. Lynn & Dwight are doing just fine in Mozambique, their kids are doing very well in University in Edmonton. Our Brazilian boy wasn't able to find a sponsor so he has gone back to Brazil. We will keep looking for a sponsor and hopefully he can come back some day soon. We will surely miss him, he was such a wonderful guy, so kind and considerate, and he lit up our lives. Now we are hunkering down for the long dreary winter. But we have a nice new furnace, warm blankets, lots of homemade jam in the pantry, and enough money to buy whatever else we need to get us through the next four months! That's it for this round ...

We went a-cruisan

2007-09-20T15:33:00.000-07:00

Well, summer is about over and we've had a busy time. We, the Schalm siblings rented a huge houseboat for seven (7) days and tried our hand at boating. First we all had to find a place to sleep, that was easy. But there were choice sleeping rooms, and we didn't get one, but ours was okay after all, and we actually slept fairly well. If you really want to know whether you get along with your siblings and their perspective husbands and wives, after very many years of living apart, try a houseboat trip! It is a fool proof test of tolerance and patience! There were 15 on us in all, all over sixty (6o) except for three young'uns! I think they got quite bored but they knew better than to complain! The fist night was a sort of trail for us, we docked the boat but didn't secure it very well. During the night a strong wind bless in and soon I could hear all sorts of commotion on deck. I thought, "how inconsiderate of people to be slamming doors and talking so loud while the rest of us were trying to sleep". I looked at my watch ... it was 3:00 am. Exasperated, I finally got up to give them a piece of my mind. Here was captain Eddy, first mate Gerry and second mate David, and a friend Bruno (he and his wife Margaret came along for the ride) all rushing around trying to save us from sure disaster. Our ropes had snapped from the strain during the wind storm and we were adrift and quickly approaching another houseboat. Fortunately our neighbour was already awake and aware of our plight, got out of his warm bed, went out into the howling wind, fired up his motorboat and towed us back to our mooring spot. Quickly the guys fastened our ropes again and this time took much more care. Wide awake but anxious to get more sleep we all went back to our sleeping quarters and were drifting off to sleep when the scenario was repeated, the ropes had come lose again! Again most of us were up and offering what good advice we could think of at that ungodly hour of the morning, and trying to help our crew get a handle on things. Again our next door houseboat neighbour came to our rescue and helped us get things sorted out, at one point he was suspended like a clothes line with his feet on one boat and his shoulders on the other keeping them from apart. Finally we got squared away, the ropes as tight as we could possibly get them. It was now 5:am and we were reeling from the loss of sleep we'd suffered and were heading back to bed when over the din we heard, "For Pete's sake, can you all just shut up and go to sleep and let others do the same". It was our youngest sister Wilma ... she'd slept through all the excitement and thought we were just out to rob her of her sleep! She honestly had no idea that we were in grave danger and about to collide with another houseboat, and Lord only knows what damaged we might have sustained. We teased her about that the next day. Luke really enjoyed the first four days, but from then on time sort of dragged for him and the other two young'uns we had aboard and they got quite bored. It's luck Wilma and Rinska, (Eddy's wife) came along, they kept him busy on the water slide, flying into the deep cold water at breakneck speed ... or learning English. Those two sure made a hit with him. We will have to think about bring over a few more just like him for them to enjoy! All in all we had a very good time, read an entire book out loud called 'Butter Down The Well' by Robert Collins (a boy's perspective of growing up in Saskatchewan in the hungry thirties).

We also sat around a camp fire every night and chewed the fat, and ate too much of the wonderful food everybody had a hand in making and preparing. All we lacked was enough sleep!! But then that's not the worst ... most of us seniors can sleep whenever we want to and always managed to make up for loss of sleep! Edith who orchestrated the whole event did a fabulous job and we commend her and owe her our thanks.

Well, I wanted to update my blog because we are leaving for a trip visiting churches in northern AB. and SK. and won't be back for many a day. I'm enclosing a few pictures for viewing. Tchau!!

Here, There, and Everywhere

2007-09-04T21:53:00.000-07:00

Guess it's time to update this blog. We have just been so busy. We spent a week visiting Ruth & Royden in Seattle and Amanda joined us and had a good time with her cousin. Seattle is a hip bustling city but I'm glad I don't have to drive to work there every day. Ruth is a nurse and works in a clinic ... Royden is an animator and has a neat job ... he will be famous some day. Already some of his free lance stuff is being printed and sold in Christian bookstores. And Ruth is the best little cook around! Luke ... our adopted son is here and hoping he can get an extension on his visa ... just loves Canada and says he wants to stay and make this his home, get married here and have lots of kids. I tell him just tell that to immigration ... they'll love it and let you stay! His English is almost perfect and he's popular with everybody. The Schalm siblings got together and rented the biggest houseboat on the Shuswap from Sept. 08 to the 16th. It's off season and so we pay much less. At high season they rent for over $ 1000 a day, there will be 17 of us aboard. That's the closest Earl & I will ever get to taking a cruise so we're really looking forward to it. The we leave for Sexsmith AB. on Sept the 21 ... the first stop on our itinerary trip. We will be visiting churches in Alta. and Sask.Will be home again on Nov. 01. God is so good to us and this summer we were able to get a central air conditioner put into our home.We though we would be putting up about $ 4000. but when the men came to install it they found the air exchange on our furnace was cracked and so we ended up putting in a new furnace! The old one just squeaked in under the guarantee so we will replace the part and try to sell it. The new one has a much longer guarantee and it much more efficient. These spec houses for sale usually have the cheapest appliances on the market put in, and one can sort of expect this sort of thing. But we are just glad it's done and God provided and we managed to pay for it ... that's what counts! Pat and Eric are well as are Lynn and Dwight in Mozambique. Amanda and Russ just starting university classes tomorrow ... Amanda in her second year of Biochemistry, and Russ goes into his third year of electrical engineering. Amanda turned 19 today ... what a clever and beautiful grand daughter she is. Russ is a strapping young man, but of few words. He never asks questions but at least he answers ours! Until another day .....

NEWS

2007-08-22T21:44:00.000-07:00

It's been ages since I've added something new, so here goes. August has been a pretty good month so far. It was so hot in July we called and asked the air-conditioner company to come out and give us an estimate of what we're looking at cost wise. Of course lots of other people had the same idea so we were booked for Aug. 16th. We signed the deal and they started the next day. and they When they went to install the condenser, they noticed the heat exchanger was cracked, which meant our 10 year old furnace had the bun. So now we had to think of installing a new furnace as well. In the end, what was suppose to be a $ 4300. job turned into an $ 9000. job! As it happened the old furnace was still under warranty so they ordered and are having a new air-exchanger shipped. Earl will install it and then we will try to sell the old furnace. It was about the cheapest model one could buy at the time. Spec houses get the cheapest of everything put in, and in a few years one has to begin replacing stuff. Our kitchen lino already needs replacing as well. Earl put two tube lights in recently, one in our main bathroom, and the other one in our laundry. Man does it ever make a difference, these two rooms were just dark holes and the darkness has been turned into light. My husband is so smart, he can do pretty much any and everything around the house.

We are busy trying to find a way that Luke can stay in Canada, he just loves it here and we think he would be a great blessing and asset to Canada ... and especially to the Trekofski/Schalm/Nelson household! We are just enjoying him so much. He will try to get a promise of a job at a reputable company, and then apply for a work permit. Pray with us for God to open a door for him. The fact that they granted him a visitor's visa was nothing short of a miracle! Immigration is very suspicious of all single young guys, and most applicants in that category get turned down.

We go to the immigration office in Kelowna this Friday to check out all our angles. Then on Sat. Amanda gets here from Edmonton and we will drive to Seattle to visit Ruth and Royden. Luke has to stay home, the Americans wouldn't grant him a visitors visa. He was disappointed, but has gotten over it just fine and will stay home with Eric and keep the dogs company. The Schalm siblings have rented a houseboat for a week and are going to cruise the Shuswap. We are so excited, and it's the closest thing we'll ever have to a cruise.

I'm adding a few pictures this time. Little by little I'm learning to do this blogging right!

Wow, what a summer!

2007-07-22T21:22:00.000-07:00

We go from very hot, to rain, muggy, cooler and then back to hot again. But at least we are getting more rain this year and forest fires aren't a constant threat! what with the mountain pine beetle, forest fires and what have you we may find oursleves in a dessert in a few years! How sad to travel around this beautiful province and see the forests turning brown. We have kept busy what with church events, landscaping, agrowing a small vegetable garden and lots of flowers ... well there's hardly time for the kids who expect quality time. Our newly adopted son 'Luke' went off to Alberta and we miss him terribly. He kept us all upbeat, and there was never a dull moment, but he is havng a lot of new experiences in this great country. He keeps commenting on how well everything works, and how smooth the roads are, how friendly the people are, and how there is no niose and everything is peaceful etc. etc. He may just decide to hang around here for a lot longer. But we tell him ... just wait for a few more months, you may decided things aren't always what they appear, and he may be very glad to get back to Brazil. Our concern is that he think seriously about furthering his education, it would be such a waste of a brilliant young mind to chose to work at MacDonalds or Wendy's, rather than go to school! We also remind him that God must enter into the equation, He surely has gret and wonderful plans for him. I will learn to post pictures as soon as Luke gets back, that should add interest. Daughters Pat & Lynn both have a blogspot ... Pat Nelson, Salmon Arm - nelsonsdogpatch.blogspot.com Lynn Lagore, Mozambique - lynnlagore.blogspot.com Till next time ... Ruth

Some like it hot ... Some like it cold.

2007-07-13T12:55:00.000-07:00

Haven't visited my blog for awhile, gees how time flies. It's hot, hotter and hottest in B.C. these days. People are rushing to stores getting fans, and portable air-conditioners. Not us tho, we want the real thing, a central unit, decided to spend some of our kids's inheritance money! Only thing is the company is so busy they can't come give an estimate until July 16th. and by then, knowing our luck, the worst of the heat may have got up and went! Earl is finishing his garage, and has done lots of lanscaping in the back yard. Once in awhile I go out and commend him for his hard work and tell him how nice it looks. I managed to put in a small vegtable garden, and my flower gardens keep me busy. The rest of my time is spend on the computer. I'm suppose to be writing a book! We plan a trip to Ab. for a cousins reunion 1st. of Aug. Then we go to Van. and Seattle to visit Elmer & Marlene, and Ruth & Royden. For Sept. the Schalm sibblings rented a huge houseboat and we are spending a week on the Shuswap Lake. that's about as close as we'll get to a cruise. Are sure looking forward to it. It's way too expensive to try it alone, one has to invite as much family as possibe to share the cost. Off season is more reasonable however. After that we plan a deputation trip to visit most of our supporting churches in Ab. & B.C. We will be away for 7 weeks and hope to get back before the snow flies. All is wwell with the family. God is good and we rejoice in Him.

Who's coming and who's going

2007-07-03T14:57:00.000-07:00

Here I am again for the latest news about what is happening at our house. thanks for all the compliments on my blog. I'm being modernized by Luke. What a riot, he's not used to working with such dense minds! But we're loosing him for a month while he hoots around the country visiting other people. Someone is taking him to the Calgary Stampede, then he goes to help out at a junior camp, keeping a bunch of rowdy boys out of mischief. From there he plans to visit Amanda and Russ for a while, and from there I don't know. He was able to get some work helping seniors landscape their yards, and earned a bit of money so he can be more independent while he is here.

We will miss him, but like I told him our grocery bill will be less! The joke around here is, he can eat as long as he helps around here! Pat & Eric keep him occupied going to movies in the evenings. We will be picking him up the first week-end in Aug. when we go to a cousins reunion near Olds Ab. Then we have plans for the end of Aug. a trip to Seattle, and then a week on a house boat with the Schalm clan! Here's a few pictures for viewing.

Here's a picture of our pastor's two sons and their newly aquired wives. One was married the 16 of June and the other this last Saturday. Neat eh?

About us!

2007-06-24T21:33:00.000-07:00

Hi! I decided to start a blog after much peer pressure from the younger members of my family who like to hang out with us... It's a wonderful way to keep in touch with our family and friends around the world! Just a little bit about ourselves... We were missionaries in Brazil for 30 years, and moved back to Canada in 2000. Our family is small... but influential!!! :)

First, there's Pat Nelson who insists on being my best friend, and I really like her a lot, but I don't like her dogs that much... They are too hyper for me! She lives just a few blocks from my house. She is very stylish, very intelligent, and loves to give orders (bossy!!! :p)... But she is married to the sweetest guy, his name is Eric Nelson, and anytime I really need help, he is always there for me! Partly, because he loves my home cooked meals!!!

Then, there's Lynn, our second daughter. She was born beautiful, talented, and definitely has a way with words, in fact I expect she will write a book some day! But until then, you can check out her blog: http://lynnlagore.blogspot.com/ (Just to make sure Pat doesn't get jealous, here's her blog, too: http://nelsonsdogpatch.blogspot.com/).

Lynn is married to Dwight Lagore, and they are missionaries in Mozambique... And like Eric, he is the greatest son-in-law anybody could have, and keeps his mother and father-in-law on track with their missionary carreer, and reminds us that there's no cut off date, or retirement age with God!!! :D

Then, there's the 3 grandchildren... And most certainly, the most intelligent, capable and talented of anyone in the world! Ruthie, the oldest is married to Royden Lepp. She is a nurse, and you will certainly want her around when you are sick!!! Cause she gives lots of loving hugs... Royden is an animator and also keeps little weird animals as pets on his desk! He's authored several books and he is becoming quite famous... (I think...) They live in Seattle, and their presence there is changing the history of that great city!!!:P

Russell and Amanda spent almost all of their lives in Africa and now are both in Canada and study at the U of A. Amanda just finished her 1st year of Bio-Chemistry, and Russ just finished his 2nd year in Electronic Engineering. And they are both pulling in wonderful grades and the teacher just can't stump them! (Especially Amanda... :P) Don't you agree, they are the most intelligent and talented of all grandchildren in the world?!

Oh... at the moment we have a third member in our family! His name is Luke and he hails from Brazil, in fact he attended our kindergarten many years ago, when he was just a tiny tot! He shares the same name as our son Luke, who went to be with the Lord at the age of 17, while we were in Brazil. He was also born in the same month, so... The Lord has sent another Luke along to bring us special joy and make up for the one He took home for Himself many years ago...

Now that you've met our family, I will update you on what we are doing at the moment!

We managed to get some landscaping done this summer, finally!!! It's looking real good, I can't take much credit for that. Earl has done most of it! I will post a picture of it next time... With Luke's help I finally got my spring cleaning done, and that's not easy when you're not a spring chicken anymore... :P We've planted some really nice flowers in our garden and I actually put in a vegetable garden. Thanks to my good neighbour Barbara, who has given me a spot in her garden plot! :) Sound's like we are going to have a busy summer and I will do my very best to keep you updated on what's going on...

That's all for now... until later...