Little Blessings

I am sitting here this afternoon reflecting on the last 5 years, this Saturday, January 26^th will mark 5 wonderful years of being married. It is incredible how fast the years seem to go by, I can still remember little details from our wedding day that make them  seem like they happened months ago not years.

 Then I begin to think of all the adventures we have had since that day, we bought our first house together and had the joy of renovating it together, taking something that needed some TLC taking it apart and making it into something beautiful. We have 2 beautiful children, I still remember the first time I held each of them, the surreal feeling that this perfect little person was ours to love and protect for the rest of our lives. What an incredible blessing and responsibility to raise both Joelle and Liam to be followers of God who love Him with all their heart. At times when I think about that I feel inadequate and I am thankful for God’s love and grace he has shown me throughout my life. I think being a mom is the biggest adventure I will ever have the privilege to be a part of, one with many tears, laughter, love and joy.  Three years ago we began to dream of adventures we would take our family on, things like the Olympics, camping, rock climbing, hiking the West Coast Trail, a big family trip overseas possibly South America. Now we have added serving God at a camp in the mountains. I am blessed beyond what I ever imagined by amazing family and friends. Thank you all for being such blessings in my life and for those of you who loved me in tough times, and good ones.

 

 This last little bit as we have been settling into camp life, and adjusting to having Troy back at work I have been trying to figure out where I fit in all this…I get the chance to be an amazing mom, having adventures that would not be possible if we still lived in Lacombe which is another blessing. I am praying that God uses me, my life and my heart to help serve Him here at camp. My heart for the camp world is still as big and as strong as it always has been, I have had many different roles and opportunities through the past years I have served at camp and I know that somehow even if I do not have a title here He can use me.  Troy has been working at his job for just over 2 weeks now and has a few big projects to work on already, the camp has been in need of staff and God is providing them as couples and families. For Troy this means needing to renovate an older house called Peskett to accommodate the single female staff that live here year round so a family can move into the house they are currently in. Turning the basement of Peskett into a place for the women that come to the Ascend program twice a year, Peskett needs alt of TLC and a few modifications to turn it into a nice place for the girls. On his list is also fixing up one of the older outdoor cabins to house the guys for the Ascend program, all to be done before the Ascend program starts the beginning of March. I think having these big projects is good for him, the previous site manager told Troy it took him 1 ½ years before he felt like he had a good handle on the job, this way at least Troy has something to keep the guys busy for a while.  If you think of us you can pray for Troy and his big projects and that I find my place to serve.

Pictures of Frontier Lodge

 Joelle and Liam love riding in the sled

 Belaying at the ice wall

 Climbers on the ice wall 

 The road into the camp

 We like to spend our Saturdays with the kids and Keeha down at the lake

 The office building

 The place Troy spends lots of his time...The maintenance garage/Troy's office

 The Lodge

One of the newer cabins

Inside the cabin

 Liam loves to walk around on the lake

 Joelle loves to be down at the lake

Super excited about going skating


The Outhouse

The last two Sundays we have gone to church in Nordegg at the historic church that was built in 1936. It is a cute little one room church that has a small addition on the side where they have the Sunday school class. It is a small church body, last week there was 11 adults and 7 kids, this week there was 14 adults and Joelle and Liam made up the Sunday school this week. In this beautiful little church there is no indoor plumbing but there is a little outhouse around the back of the church. Joelle decided while we were moving that she would start potty training, during the sermon Joelle comes busting out of the Sunday school room (which is right behind where the pastor stands) and announces loud enough for everyone to hear that she has to pee... I grab her coat and boots and try to get her out to the outhouse as fast as I can. At first she was really upset because she did not want to wear her jacket, so I quickly explained that the washroom was outside and we had to go find it. This got her into her jacket and boots and we were running out the door. It had snowed alot this week so I picked Joelle up and dashed through the yard to the little white outhouse in the back. To me it looked like any other outhouse, a toilet lid, a bucket that holds the toilet paper and some hand sanitizer. To Joelle this was a whole new fun adventure. Being a 3 year old comes with a lot of questions..."where is the toilet mommy?" "Right here Joelle, see the lid lifts up." Joelle giggled with delight at this new toilet. As I lifted the lid the whole under side of the lid was covered in 2 inch crystals, and the seat was frozen and frosty as well. After trying to scrape some of the frost off the seat I decided it was not worth my time and just held her over the hole. Once she was done she asked "Where is the flush?" I explained that we just put the lid back down and that is the flush...more giggling...."Mommy where is the sink and water soap?" I then had to point out the rather cold hand sanitizer that we used and started our venture back to the front doors of the church. When we reached the doors Joelle announces she had to pee again, I said no because we were just there so she said she had to poo...I picked her up again and made the trek back to the little outhouse that I will never go in in the summer because it will smell worse than any outhouse I have ever been in due to over use. Again more giggling when she sees the outhouse we begin the whole process again, same questions with lots of giggles and smiles. I finally convince her that we don't want to spend all day in the outhouse and we should go back to Sunday school. Once again we began the walk through the yard back to the church. Stories like this make me take pause and think about how amazing life is to children, and how they see things from a different point of view than we do. I don't think I will ever be as excited about the outhouse as Joelle was today. Yet it makes me think about things I see and do all the time without giving them a second thought and I try to imagine what it would be like for Joelle. One big amazing adventure.

 The Church in Nordegg

Joelle's Outhouse

Support Letter

 

We are starting a new exciting chapter in our lives. It all started in mid-September we attended the COLTS 25^th reunion at Crowsnest Lake Bible Camp, a place that holds great significance to me. The speaker that weekend was talking about David’s mighty men, and comparing them to the COLTS. At the end of the weekend the speaker challenged us, asking us what are we using the gifts and training we have? My answer was nothing, Troy and I both felt convicted of this. We had been talking about going into camp ministry since we got married, it just seems like we let life get in the way.

 A few weeks after we were home Troy’s cousin sent me a facebook message with a link to the Frontier Lodge job opportunities page saying he should check out the maintenance manager job they were hiring for. Troy applied, they called the next day to set up an interview date. That was not expected, usually things take a bit more time than just 12 hours! While we were waiting for the interview day we looked into the camp a bit more to see what they offered, we knew they had ice climbing courses and an adventure race for Wycliffe, and bike camps. We found out they offered a camp for the Native children in the area for free! We both think that is amazing, and not surprising it is the first camp to fill up every year. They offer marriage courses, and a mix of weekend courses and festivals geared towards the non-Christian crowd as a way of reaching out to the unsaved. The more we looked into the camp the more we felt like this is somewhere we could go and we hadn’t even been to the interview. Being out at the camp just confirmed that camp ministry is where we were heading next. One day after the interview Troy was driving with the kids and Joelle woke up form a nap and said, “Daddy God says were going to move to the camp.”  “God says I’m going to climb mountains when I’m bigger.”  ”God says He’s got big things for us.”  It gave me goose bumps when Troy told me about it and it was affirmation that we were going somewhere, and now God is opening a new chapter in our adventure book of life. We will be moving out to the camp late December, as Troy starts his job January 7^th.

Things we need prayer in are the adjustment to moving out there, for Joelle and Liam as they adapt to living in a new home and for new friends. For Troy as he starts his new job on January 7th, learning new things and learning the camp, for Troy as he is responsible for leading and mentoring 2 staff members in the maintenance area of camp. We also have need for financial support, the camp provides a small living allowance but would appreciate any support to meet the needs our family has on a monthly basis. Please find enclosed information on how you can support us financially.

Thank-you for being on our support team.

Sonja and family

Our avdenture begins!

We arrived just over a week ago to our new home at Frontier Lodge. I have decided that only crazy people move at Christmas! Chrsitmas day we had our birthday party for Jesus with the kids and then began packing the last of our things into boxes. Boxing day was taken a little more literal, no shopping for us! We packed boxes into a trailer that had been lent to us for the move, what a blessing :) and everything but the last minute things were packed. We woke up the next morning we hade breakfast, Troy and his dad packed the rest of our things into the trailer, Durango, Jeep...really anywhere it would fit and beagan our adventure. It was a chilly -25 that day which was better than a snow storm but not the most fun weather to move in. When we arrived at Frontier Lodge most of the staff had gone home for the holidays, thankfully there was one guy and his family there because the water lines froze and they were working hard at trying to get it going again. We had no water for 2 days, a bit of a challenge but we managed. The kids love it here. Any time the front door is not closed right Liam seems to know and makes a break for it, bear feet in the snow does not stop him, he made it almost to the parking lot which is about 100ft away! After a day of unpacking boxes, bringing in new ones from outside, chasing Liam to bring him back inside we made a trip to Rocky Mountian House in search of child safty knobs for the front door. We are settling into life here, Joelle loves the mountians and Liam loves to walk everywhere outside and find pinecones. Troy begins his new Job on Monday and most of the staff will be here so we can settle into what camp life is usually like here at Frontier.