One Month Ago Today

One moth ago today, I was super ecstatic to be back blogging again.  I think I have mentioned before how important it is to be recording your life in a journal, or something to be able to look back and remember the lessons God has taught you throughout your life.  For me, it is this blog.  It was difficult when SEND asked us to keep our electronic footprint extremely small as we were unsure of the government keeping tabs on us and if we would harm the ministry over there.  But now we are in Canada, the ban is lifted and I can get back to regular blogging; or so I thought as without everything going on in Ukraine it would be easy to keep up a blog.

Take our last Tuesday for instance.  We woke up, had breakfast, left the kids in Vegreville and went to Edmonton.  There, we went to Carters/OshKosh, the bank, a bookstore, we looked at vans, went out for lunch, went grocery shopping, got some coffee, drove back to Vegreville, made homemade pizza, went out to the playground (more on playgrounds later) put the kids to bed, watched a hockey game and finally went to bed only to wake up the next morning to have another "typical" day in Canada.

Now this may seem pretty normal, this is far from a day that we would have in Ukraine.  In Kiev, if you can get one thing accomplished in a day you have done well that day, if two things, you are talented and most likely very tired.  Now, if we count the many things we do in a day here in Canada, it usually adds up to 10 or so.  That is a huge difference that we were not prepared for or that we have not even adjusted to.  At the end of each day, we are very tired.  So, with all the busyness of life, I have not gotten a chance in the last moth to sit down and reflect and record my thoughts here on this blog.

God has really been teaching me alot out on the playgrounds lately.

 

 

One thing has been about Joy.  How God has created us to not only live life, but to enjoy it as well.  Although the playgrounds are no longer just outside our door, the smiles our kids have every time we visit one, is a nice reminder of how we work and work and work to provide for your family, but you go to a playground with your kids and it all is worth it to play with them on those joyous grounds.

 

Another humourous lesson for me was: you don't touch another person's kids.  In Ukraine, no one thought anything of picking up a kid that was not yours and moving them out of the way.  In Canada, a different story.  We were out at a playground and a small kid who was not walking went down the slide with her older sister and afterwards, the kid was sitting at the bottom of the slide.  Ellianna, seeing their fun climbed up to the top of the slide and was ready to go.  The kid was still at the bottom, so being the kind, caring and concerned person on the playground that Ellianna was going to go down the slide and run over this child, picked her up and moved her.  No sooner had I done this, the mother screamed "Don't touch my kid!"  I was caught off-guard.  We would rather our children come to harm than have a stranger move them out of the way.  It to me still seem s quite backwards thinking that we would like to know the harm that will come than the safety from the unknown.

 

Do we not do this in our Christian life too?  As a church body, we are content to stagnate and not grow (we may not say this, but our actions speak otherwise) than to welcome newcomers or even "god-forbid" invite someone to church.  We have become so scared to let others in because things might change?  Weird how God takes simple events in life to teach such great lessons.  The Frozen Disney movie song "Let it Go" is quite a good line and maybe the North American Church could take a few hints.

 

So, until next time (which hopefully is next week) keep stepping outside your box and getting uncomfortable in your faith, it may lead to healing instead of harm.

 

PS - a few more pictures of Easter