The Date

I guess I have one bit of news that I have not yet remembered to share with you. My mother is on my case to blog about it - even though she already knows... But I suppose I should blog it anyway:
I bought my tickets!
I now have my "departing the country" date. Ooh, and the word - date, works in two ways: I am leaving Vancouver on January 21 (1:30am - yuck), and one of my dear midwife friends is flying with me. I have a date!
What hasn't been finalized is when I will leave GP for Vancouver. I'm looking into going a day or two early to spend some time in a 24-7 Prayer room down there.
I suppose I haven't given 24-7 much time on this blog, when in fact it is very dear to my heart, and was a big part of my life for a few years. 24-7 Prayer is a movement of youth and young-at-heart who are praying as if it all depends on God - and living as if it all depends on us. Most often 24-7 is expressed in local churches/schools/etc setting up prayer rooms to run non-stop for a week or longer. These rooms are dedicated solely to prayer - but what that prayer looks like is limitless! Most rooms have lots of music, art supplies, quiet corners, room to dance, journals, newspapers and globes. And people take on hour long time-slots, round the clock, and take time out to be with God and whatever business He leads them to do.
There's a room running in Vancouver that has be running non-stop for 3 years!! (Correct me if I'm wrong on that variable) It's located right in the heart of the seedy and needy Vancouver and its a place dedicated solely to God. I've never had the chance to visit it, and in fact it's been some time since I've had a chance in any prayer room.
So I'm looking at taking a day or two to transition out of home and into this mission. To focus on God, to find His courage and comfort (leaving is always so very hard!). To remember that my calling in all of this is always to know Him, and to bring glory to Him.
That's the news.

All of the 100 Quotes

If anyone is interested in perusing through ALL 100 Quotes just follow this link to The Travelling Team website. You might wanna work through them in shifts, or set aside a good 15-20min to take on the whole lot!
Be moved, inspired, empassioned and then go ahead and MOVE! Much love.

100 Quotes

A friend of mine recently posted these 100 Quotes of missionary "greats", inspirational types and the Bible itself. It was a long list, and I must say a rather convicting one. The missionary voices are rarely easy on Christians - they demand a high standard of service, obedience, prayer and evangelism. They refuse to console our consciences. They are harsh.
But they also inspire, they awaken our hearts to the call of God, to our very small place in His very great work and to the glory of our Redeemer!

After reading that whole long list I thought I slim it down a fair bit and share with you my personal Top 10, here we are:

"What are we here for, to have a good time with Christians or to save sinners?" - Malla Moe

"God's part is to put forth power; our part is to put forth faith." - Andrew A. Bonar

"I am ready to burn out for God. I am ready to endure any hardship, if by any means I might save some. The longing of my heart is to make known my glorious Redeemer to those who have never heard." -William Burns

"His authority on earth allows us to dare to go to all the nations. His authority in heaven gives us our only hope of success. And His presence with us leaves us no other choice." - John Stott

"Tell the students to give up their small ambitions and come eastward to preach the gospel of Christ." - Francis Xavier

"Some wish to live within the sound of a chapel bell, I want to run a rescue shop within a yard of Hell." - C.T. Studd

"There is something wonderfully misleading, full of hallucination and delusion in this business of missionary calls. With many of us it is not a missionary call at all that we are looking for; it is a shove. There are a great many of us who would never hear a call if it came." - Robert Speer

"None but women can reach Muslim Women... So we have a solemn duty in this matter that we cannot shift. The blood of souls is on our skirts, and God will demand them at our hands." - Missionary wife from the Middle East

"We have a God who delights in impossibilities." - Andrew Murray

"You can do something other than working with God in His purpose, but it will always be something lesser, and you couldn't come up with something better." - Steve Hawthorne

Shoes of Snow

I went snowshoing this weekend. Is that how you spell that? Or is there an "e" at the end of shoe?? I think I'm probably supposed to know that, what with it being a part of my job and me having a grade 12 education and all...
But anywho, I went snowsho?ing! I haven't done that since elementary school days, back when we had the giant traditional-Aboriginal style shoes and we would waddle around in great effort on what was usually quite packed snow. A real hoot, right. So with no real positive prior experience I had no reason to ever consider picking it up again. And to be honest - whenever anyone at work would ask me about snowshoes I would look at them blankly and go find someone else. But now, now I am Pro-Star, or atleast not a complete fool.
We went out late Saturday night and tramped around through the trail system just outside of town. It was perfectly dark and peacefully quiet. And I suppose we ruined both of those things - what with headlamps, shoes on snow and conversation. Hmmm, I hadn't thought of that yet. But at least our only lasting footprints were our very footprints.
It was a peaceful getaway. And how often do you use Saturday night for a great workout with friends??

Career Day

Today was my first offical "appearance" as a midwife! It was fun. We have an outreach high school in town, some of the students are pregnant and parenting teens, and some are kids who can't go to school for other reasons. As far as I know it's a really good program.
So today I went as a midwife for a "career day" type presentation. My sis goes to the school because of the freedom she has there - and she's the one who got me this strange gig.
It felt really odd to sit in a chair in front of this gathering of girls and to be the centre of attention, and supposedly the one with all the answers! Not to mention that I was representing a career I am only entering and one that is as diverse as midwifery.
A difficulty with the whole thing is that at least half of these girls are pregnant and/or have kids. Which means that birth attendants and other birth choices are two things that are very real to them. But up here in the North, there are no midwives available to them. The only care available up here is a very busy hospital system, and for the lucky few the care of the one doula in town. I had to be careful because for these women - there will be no midwives, at least not now. Instead they will be attended by whatever doctor they can get into, or whichever one is on call - which isn't always what they would choose.
I hope that the future soon brings midwives to GP. And maybe even one or more of these girls will be moved to enter the profession. What I do see is that there is a very real need here at home.

Arrgggggghh, Uuughhh!

I just finished unloading and storing 54 canoes and kayaks! I'm ready to die! We filled our store basement - that's 1/3 of a city block long! All morning one of the guys and I hauled boats out of a truck, down some deadly stairs and into an almost black basement!
I don't need to go to the gym for a while. Which is good - cause I won't be able to move!

My Sister Brings Out My Bad Dancing and Bad Judgement

They say that one third of our whole winter's expected snowfall has already come. That's in the last week and a half! I can assure you that's a lot of snow, and driving has yet to become even remotely normal.
This past week has been crazy busy - I'm not used to such a schedule. This weekend we had a youth conference in town and so I was hanging out with our jr. high kids - mostly seemed like chauffering. But between all that crazy-snow driving, they brought in a fantastic speaker (a Mr. Sid Koop), and had a concert going on on Saturday night with Friday's Cry and TFK. Kayte and I had a blast just dancing away - and if you think we were really dancing, ahem, think again. When Kayte and I dance, other people try and get away, far away! I love that my long hair is perfect for head-banging!
Speaking of my sister - she had written a song sometime last week and planned to perform it at a Talent Show as part of the weekend. Well Saturday comes around and she kinda chicken's out - and demands that I perform this song with her. And in a fling of sisterly support and bad judgement I agreed! Kayte and I sang her song (a beautiful song), and did quite well, except for the one word on which we had totally different ideas about what note we should sing (yikes). That and the part where I just kinda made up stuff and followed along when I didn't know what was supposed to come next! Really - it was beautiful.
Today, I'm pretty exhausted. But I am dreaming of Wednesday when I don't have to work and can get back to my homework - which I've been neglecting lately.
Did I tell you, I found out when I'm taking off!! I can buy a ticket for around January 22! Yikes, I'm happy!