Friday, November 20, 2009

October, Part One

Once again, it has been too long since we posted an update. But, thankfully, the whirlwind has lost a little bit of speed. October was a very full month. We packed a lot in - into the calendar, and the moving truck. In order to make our move to Malawi easier next year, we decided to get rid of as much furniture, books and other “stuff” as we could now, since we are not planning on storing all our belongings anyway. It made for a crazy October, but in between packing, sorting, running numerous garage sales and an ongoing furniture sale, wrapping up business, and giving stuff away, we also found a bit of time for goodbyes, and continued partnership building.

Early in October we were blessed by our friends in the Deep River Chinese Christian Fellowship. They held a wonderful goodbye party for us (complete with a fantastic Chinese meal), to which the whole local Chinese community was invited. Our hearts were deeply touched by the number of people who came. Many good friends expressed their appreciation for our support through the years of both the Chinese Bible Study and the larger Chinese community in Deep River. We shared a bit about our journey and why we feel God is calling us into missionary service in Malawi. And this very warm hearted group of people expressed their most sincere best wishes for the future, and gathered around us to pray for us. Thank you to our good friends in the Chinese Community in Deep River, for your generosity and ongoing friendship. We wish you all of God’s best in every way, and pray that God will use the Chinese Christian Fellowship to touch many more lives.

About a week later we enjoyed Canadian Thanksgiving with our friends, the Merrill family in their beautiful timber frame home. We were thankful for such good friends, and a great Thanksgiving meal. And, our children had a chance to play with their friends, Quynne and Larkynne for an evening.

 We must have been crazy, but we wanted Christopher and Jonathan to have a goodbye party with their friends, too. So, more than a month late, we had a party that doubled as a goodbye party, and Christopher’s birthday party. It had a Narnia theme, and we showed “The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe” on the big screen (thanks for the projector, Ken). The kids played a Narnia version of freeze tag, and Paulette Merrill made a Narnia cake. At the end, the children all received one of our prayer bookmarks as a reminder to pray for their friends. And instead of handing out party favours, Christopher decided that it would be more meaningful to purchase two goats for families in Malawi through International Child Care Ministries in their honour. The other children seemed to think that was pretty neat, too.

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