Nothing unusual has happened lately because basically we stay at home.  We have been a very deep, deep freeze around here.  At first most people did not venture out of their homes but now that it has carried on for a month, without break, everyone has the need to escape the home front regardless of the temperature. 

I went out to a meeting last night.  I always wonder what I would do if the van slid off the road or the van broke down.  I sometimes feel like I should dress as though I were going on a dog sled.  It was -40 last night but during the daylight yesterday their were some fantasically beautiful sun dogs that were burning like fire.  They were far from the sun on either side and an old Native lady up here told me that that means warm weather is on it's way.    We all hope she's right!!

Yesterday I kept busy with baking 6 batches of granola.  I also concocted two batches of homemade laundry soap (It works good).  I taught the boys their homeschool and then helped them build a fort out of blankets.  I burned some lentle stew and then when I picked it up it slipped and I dumped it all over the wall.  I then proceded to slice some baggles, after cleaning the last mess, and managed to slice my finger open so my youngest son struggled to open up a bandage for me while my little, tiny cut poured out blood in profusion.  Then he informed me that he needed a nap and for the rest of the day lay in bed, thowing up and running a fever.   I thought I would give him a little orange juice with some GSE in it but for some reason I bumped the pitcher and poured the juice outside of the glass.  aaagh!!!  I give up!  I did make a nice supper, though, of speggheti, salad, and espargus cooked with garlic and butter.   half way through enjoying my meal I realized I had a meeting to go to and I had better hurry up.  So much for relaxing!  Oh well, it was a good meeting.

Today,  my kids and I logged on to "Supercharged Science" and enjoyed the presentation on astronomy very much!  The kids loved it! 

Now I need to go clean the church and take down all the Christmas decorations.  Hopefully I'll not be as clutzy as yesterday!

Sorry this is just rambling but that's really all I had to share today. 

Hope You are all having a wonderful day!

You know, I believe we are entering upon an age where we need passionately Godly people for a world where there is no reason or purpose or passion.

People seem to find it easier to “Go with the flow”

                                                 “Drift with the tide”

                                          and “Swirl with the drain” if you will allow me to say that, 

Leaving behind no legacy,

                                    Fulfilling no real purpose,

                                                                 And sadly, they have no eternal future!

Where are the passionate people of today?

I want to make a difference!  I need to become passionate!

Jesus or God is our utmost example of passion so what is his passion like so we can pattern after him?

A man had written quite an article about “The Passion of God” that I really enjoyed.  His name is Victor Shepherd.   He gave me lots of mental bubble gum and so I’ve used some of his thoughts from his article in my writing of my own thoughts.

Take a look at how passionately God views each one of us. 

I would like you to read and think in terms of how this relates to you personally.

“God whose eternal nature is constant, consistent, persistent, undeflectable love.

Make plain that God’s love IS God’s self-giving without qualification.  To speak of self-giving without qualification is to say that God holds nothing of himself back; nothing is held back for self-preservation, nothing is held back for self-protection.  God’s entire self is poured out -- without reserve -- upon you and me” always without end.

Wow, “I glory in that love of God for me.  I know that God loves me not in the sense that he feels somewhat warm towards me and thinks about me now and then.” 

“God loves me inasmuch as he has poured out himself upon me without qualification; he has risked himself in a vulnerability so drastic as to leave him defenceless;

he has undergone a public humiliation without concern to save face or preserve dignity -- and all of this in order that my defiant, ungrateful, rebellious heart might be overwhelmed and I renounce my stupid, stand-off posturing and throw myself into his arms.”

       How I would love to give up my selfishness in order to be as passionate about God as he is about me! 

                   But, In as much that God is by nature love, I am by nature, unlovely!  This is why I need him in me to do the loving. 

This man goes on to say, that God is love but all other attributes of passion are reactions because of his great love.

For example:  Jealousy

     God is passionately jealous for our devotion!

Is this some sort of Tiranical passion?  Me, Me, and only Me!

                                                                                                 No

“God knows that if you and I don’t honour, love, obey and trust him, we only bring dissolution upon ourselves.  To say that God is jealous is to say that God wants passionately that we honour him, and wants this so passionately because he wants us to always live within the sphere of his blessing.  He wants passionately to prosper us!”

            You know I used to find it a little hard to wrap my brain around a loving God who could be soooo jealous.  It was hard to explain!  I found the idea, commanding – demanding somehow!  Now I find it comforting!

“The promise is: “In the future you won’t have to have other gods.  In the future I shall prove myself God-enough for you.  In the future you will find me, the Holy One of Israel, sufficient for your needs; you won’t have to run after any other deities or ‘isms’ or institutions.   In the future I shall be your satisfaction.  God’s promise is the meaning of the first commandment.”

Another attribute of passion I actually find myself liking is Anger!  From a personal point of view,  I sometimes feel powerful when I’m passionately angry for a good cause!  I think it comes from a carnal heart. 

There are numerous places in the Bible that talk about the wrath of God and I believe he does get passionately angry but how do you explain that when we know God is love. 

Remember, “His Very Nature is eternal nature is constant, consistent, persistent, undeflectable (Is that a word?)  love.”

Well, “God’s anger is never a childish loss of temper; his anger is never mean-spirited vindictiveness; his anger is never frustrated love now turned nasty.  God’s anger is simply his love burning hot! God’s anger is his love jarring us awake, his love shaking us up until we admit that something about us is dreadfully out of order.”

“On countless occasions Jesus is so angry he’s livid.  You see, if he weren’t livid, he wouldn’t be loving.  Elie Wiesel, the most articulate Jewish survivor of the Holocaust, repeats in virtually all his books that the contradiction of love is not hatred; the contradiction of love is indifference.  If our Lord were indifferent he couldn’t love.  The fact that he is angry proves that he cares.  And to say that he cares is to say that he loves.”

“For wrath is love burning hot as it reacts to our sin, while mercy is love bringing blessing as it forgives our sin.”

God is our example of what true passion is!

He is soooo incredibly passionate about us that if we knew him and his passion for what it really was we could not possibly be anything but passionate about him.

Unfortunately, The Devil will do all he can to distract us.  He throws the purposeless, meaningless world at us and we forget God’s love. 

                                                        Someone gets angry at us and we forget God’s love

                                           We run out of money and we forget God’s love

                                   The dog rips the couch and we forget God’s love

                         The weather get too cold and we forget His love.

My personal endeavour and resolve this year is to become passionate about God!  And at this moment I feel passionate enough about it to want you all to make the same resolution.  You may have done so already but I know that I will have to renew my resolution with God Daily!  And in being passionate about God we will automatically become passionate to serve him and to make a difference in the world around us

Just a picture of the Christmas quilt my friends and I did for the front of our church.

Yes, it is a new year!  I found myself contemplating this morning about the many people who are wasted and trying to recover from a major hangover on the first morning of the year.  It is soooo sad that so many see the new year as nothing more then a time to party rather then a serious time to reflect and resolve. 

I know my own serious weeknesses and the Lord knows them even better.  I found myself feeling rather serious this morning as I thought how much better I would love this year to be, how much better I personally would like to be. 

I have never made any New Years Resolutions berfore because I can't keep them and I know it.  However, I felt compelled to make a resolve this year.  I resolved to make my new resolves every Sabbath day.  I can with the Lord's help, I believe, at least see a week through.  I will get my Calendar out and resolve to follow Jesus will through everyday! 

I'm sure he will create some changes in me!

Just a picture of a quilt I made lately.

I don't have pictures for our ski trip yesterday!  I brought our old camera because it is small and I could fit it in my pocket.  Unfortunately the camera or batteries don't like cold whether and although the temperature was only  -22 degrees at the bottom of the mountain it was about  - 25 at the middle of the mountain with a wind chill of -30. 

 Another thing is that when the temperatures are at about -25 then they close down the chair lift to the top and we could only get half way up the mountain using a T-bar.  So with only a T-bar, our legs got very tired very fast and never had the break of sitting in a chair.  We did soooo enjoy the skiing down the mountain though.  It took me a run to get back into the groove and I actually fell twice.  After that,  I just enjoyed the speed, the wind, the snow, the scenery and the freedom.  What fun! 

Art (my husband) had to quit a little earlier then I did as his knee was not taking it all too very well.  I went up for one more run after he quit but by then it was getting quite cold and as I flew down the slopes my breath would freeze and blow into my eyes as little ice crystals and then my eyes would water and my eye lashes were freezing up so I couldn't see and I kept having to stop to thaw out my eyes so I didn't have to ski with them closed.  This is where a pair of goggles really comes in handy but I couldn't spend the money for a one time deal so we made due without them and did fine for most of the day. 

My husband and I then went out to eat in a comfy little resteraunt after searching all over town for one that was open.  People tend to shut down for holidays here in a lengthy kind of way so it is hard to find anything from privately owned businesses.

After lunch we joined our kids who were with Grandma at the swimming pool and then were invited out for supper.  There we had a surpise anniversary cake and some games.  When we finally did come home the kids had a card and some gifts waiting for us.  I was not very surprised at that, though, because little ziggy cannot keep a secret for nothing.  He just had to clue me in on everything before it had a chance to happen.  Still I acted like I was very very surprised and they were all well fooled and much pleased with themselves!!!

What a great day!

Christmas was so nice this year.  The boys had been given a lot of wonderful gifts from friends at our church and from their Grandma and from us.  I was blessed with a beautiful new Sabbath outfit from my husband and a pedomiter from church members.  I was very happy.  I gave my mother-in-law the small quilted African wall hangings that I had made.  She was so excited!  My husband got a digital piggy bank that calculates the money as you put it in or take it out.  It was cool! 

We enjoyed church today and my keys got stuck in my van again!  So it took 3 men about 1/2 and hour to get my van open.  Tonight we went swimming and hot tubbing.  My neck is out for some reason so the hot tub was very good for me. 

Tomorrow is our anniversary and my husband and I have been given a gift of paid down hill skiing at the ski slopes and leaving the kids with Grandma.  It is so nice to have a Grandma around for a few weeks.  I love it!

Ziggy, ready to open preasants on Christmas morning.  It was about 8:30 in the morning and still as dark as pitch outside.

Kay and Jay got these ball and stick things that you put together and build these huge structures so that you can drape sheets or blankets over and build your own forts.  Kay is making an interesting shaped structure and he only has it half built in this picture.

The boys got hockey sticks and so they played hockey in the house.  Tomorrow they will get to use them on the real ice as they are going skating and swimming again with their Grandma and the church people.

Christmas dinner was simple but yummy!

Here we have mashed potatoes and Gravy, Bread dressing and Cranberry sauce, peas, and candied sweet potatoes.

It is Christmas Eve and very lovely!  I love Christmas trees with all their lights.  I've  enjoyed the Christmas lights a little more here than in other places I have lived because it is dark so much longer.  The boys are really exciting about Christmas and have been counting down the days for a week now.  Tonight they will probably go to bed a little early and then when they are asleep, I'll finish wrapping up the presents.  They will be suprised in the morning to find for under the tree.  The will also be suprised in the morning to find the tree will be even more decorated then it is now.  I bought several boxes of match box cars, trucks, planes and all that and will open them tonight and hang them all over the tree.  We don't have any stockings and I think this will be more fun anyway.   I can't wait to hear their excaimations in the morning!  Here are some pictures of our tree taken at nearly 10 in the morning.  The sun has not come over the horizon yet and won't for at least another couple hours but it is getting light now at least. 

Everyone needs a mission  I don't know how people can live without one.   I was brought up with the ideal always upheld before me that everything we do in life should be to the benefit of gaining heaven and the effects of what we do should always lead other to the same place.

My dream since I was a little child was to live in Africa or India and to work with the poor.  I held my dream, near and dear all the way through college and beyond.  I shared my dreams with my boyfriend and he thought that, it was a possibility.  After we married however, things changed.  My husband became afraid of the idea and resistant towards it.  How I struggled for years to come to terms with that and still do.

Still, I needed to have a mission and to be helping people.  I struggled in the big city for years where people don't even want new friends.  Everybody has their own life and their own rat race and don't want new friends, new ways, or even new ideas.  It is too disruptive to them.

Finally after years of living there and some major trials inbetween, we live way in the North of Canada  in Yukon.  Although, my heart is still truly in Africa with my mother and brother and their missions, I must say that we have a big mission now beginning to be established here.  It is fun to have a friendly church and one that is dedicated to reaching  out.  It is fun to have friends.  It has been fun to discover that in this lonely, isolated little town, people are staunchly independant and resistant to "old ideas" like God.  But they are, for the most part, lonely and in need of friends who care.  We have as a group and church organized ourselves into a team  called "BRIDGES" to do friendship evangelism.  We are offering classes in every field that each one of us is talented in.   We are meeting new people through painting and sewing  and other art.  We are making good, solid friends and the people are melting in their prejudices.  I love this town where I can talk to peole, un-abashed.  It is my mission! 

I thank God!!  Someday, maybe, he will change my husband's heart and we can work in Africa too but until then.  God has finally given me a mission.

Please pray for our work here.

We had a wonderful Christmas Program where the Story of Jesus was presented so beautifully in story and song.   People really enjoyed it and we had a great time!

After that program,  everyone migrated downstairs to a wonderful Christmas dinner.  It was beautifully decorated with a fake fireplace, Christmas tree and all.  We then had a talent show and a big gift exchange.  People who had never been to our church before left, saying that they so enjoyed being able to go to such a touching and fun Christmas program and party where people did not drink and get all crazy.   Here they could feel comfortable, have fun, and still be there with their children.

Me singing with a friend, "The Prayer"

The boys being silly for the talent show.

Me demonstrating how to make a snowman out of a tube sock, rice, an ear plug (clean one) , some elasstic bands and some permanent markers for the talent show.

Yesterday my youngest son turned 6 years old.  We decided to go out to the Canada games Centre and participate in all the free kids games put on by Santa's Elves (Santa was there too but he was skating with Mrs. Clause so we didn't really see much of him).  We had birthday cupcakes with some friends and  Ziggy got some wonderful presents.  It was great to have a ready made party with all kinds of kids (even if we didn't know most of them) and all kinds of games already set up by the elves and I didn't have to plan anything really.

This is a game where you run and throw yourself on a bunch of foam noodles and as they roll under your momentum they propell you forward toward a great big ball which you have to touch.  It took C. Four time to reach the ball.  Jay took 5 times and Ziggy took 4 times.

This is one of the elves that was helping with the games.

In this game people were chosen to step out of their hoolie hoop and try to take the clothes pins off the person with the noodle without getting hit with it.  The person with the most clothes pins is the winner.

The Birthday boy!

Birthday presents.