So this is home?

We finally got an internet connection at our house this week, and now I have a couple of minutes to put some thoughts down.  So let’s see what happens!

I’m awfully glad that we moved back into our house.  I don’t think we fathomed how difficult it would have been to come back to Airdrie, start back at work, get the kids in school AND move into a new house.  Here we know where stuff goes; which is actually a big deal when moving in.  So praise the Lord for our house NOT selling!

Culture shock?  Hard to say.  I’m sure there was more to deal with coming back to Canada than I can remember, but overall it feels like it has been pretty easy.  I think having the same job and same house has helped a lot.  I’m still not sure how I’m doing getting back into the “church scene” here after doing it quite a lot differently in Mexico.  I leaned over to Michelle today after the worship time and said “if it is always 3 or 4 songs, then this is gonna be a difficult transition.”  I’m not complaining, I’ll just need to ensure I am spending plenty of outside church building time worshiping.  Which is actually a good idea and perhaps another blessing from God.  Must stop seeing the building as the only source of time and the only place to worship.  And there are some other thoughts I’m working through in regards to church, but those are staying private!

Some cool stuff happening though.  On our first day back to church (last week) we had a couple of minutes to do an informal (well, we wrote up the questions before hand, so it was a informally scripted affair) Q&A time with one of the members of our Missions Team.  And I really felt like the Holy Spirit took over and said what He wanted to have said in that short time.  So that was cool.  Also, another missionary who is with Wycliffe in Oaxaca was there that day and we got to chat for a few minutes.  AND also it turns out there are a few Spanish speakers at our church from Mexico and El Salvador.  And we’ll be able to get together and chat in Spanish (for us to learn) and English (for them to learn).  One of them is getting baptized next week and then we’re all going out to eat somewhere (or possibly at our house, Michelle and I got confused during that conversation so we’re not sure what’s actually going to occur.  Oops.)  God, you’re so cool how you set things up for us.

One culture shock item.  The pop machines at work take credit cards now.  CREDIT CARDS.  And even worse, a bottle of Coke costs $1.75!!!!!  !@#$$#%$%#%$%#$%  That’s a lot of money for a 600 mL bottle considering we paid 12 pesos for a 2.5 L back in Mexico.  I also find myself referring to Tlaxiaco as “back home” a lot.  I’m not actually sure what that means.

The speaker at church this week was from the denominational district.  He spoke on how the district is wanting to plant churches in all the new people groups throughout Canada.  Oh wait, one step back.  He started off the message by saying that our denomination now considers Canada a least-reached area of the world.  Cool.  Because Michelle and I have really been feeling like that.  So now the denomination is focusing more time and effort on planting churches all over Canada, within all the immigrant communities.  Wow, that sounds familiar (check out the GFM USA area over at http://www.globalfrontiermissions.org to see what I mean)  Again, it appears that God has this really cool plan going on around here and Him sending us to Mexico was just one small part of some supersonic mega stuff.

And this is the part where Michelle and I realize that we need to pray even more.  Because if we’re getting prepped to be thrown into active battle, then there is a good (100%) chance that the other side will fight back.  But, I know we’ll be just fine and we can’t wait to keep talking about the churches full of new believers getting planted around here.

Moving on, but keep praying for Airdrie and Calgary and Canada.  Let’s fight back and allow God to do what it is He wants to do with HIS country, HIS cities and HIS people.

I know there was a lot more we worked through the past week or so.  But I honestly can’t remember much.  I won poker in my first game back last week, then finished second this week.  The moral is: practice less.  Chelsey and Jared started school and are enjoying it.  Our house is about 60% setup.  The important things (computer desk and entertainment centre) are all done.  Oh, and Michelle and I had a bed lent to us from friends so we weren’t sleeping on the floor any longer. We went to Red Deer for my new sister-in-law’s bridal shower yesterday and we will be back in the Deer in two weeks for the wedding.

I hope to give another financial update from our trip in about a week or so, just waiting for final numbers to get in.  But I can tell you that the final numbers are going to be cool.  Like way over the top cool!

~RD