Yesterday was the eMi Canada Dessert Evening . . . formerly know as the eMi Christmas Open House.  With renovations being what they are, we didn’t dare to have our regular “come & go” Open House at the office this year . . . we weren’t sure we’d have walls, let alone nicely painted ones .   And, while our renovations ARE almost complete now, it was nice not to have the pressure to have everything perfectly in its place by last night . . . there’s still some electrical work to be done, and with shifting desks and offices, we’re definitely not all moved in.

So, a couple months ago we started talking about what we were going to do instead of our annual open house . . . and decided that perhaps it was time for our “get to know you” time to become more of a formal event.  One of our board members offered us some space at Ambrose, and the planning began.

We’d eventually like to have a “Dessert Gala” . . . perhaps with silent auction items from around the globe . . . but this year we started with a “Dessert Evening” . . . a little bit less pressure .  We had four clients of eMi Canada come to present what our work meant to their organization, and our interns talked about their recent project trips and what they learned.

The evening went really well; we had lots of comments on how well put together it was . . . and even though the presentations went a bit longer than anticipated (like always!), people were still happy to stick around and chat a bit afterwards.

The only downside . . . we didn’t get home until well after 10 . . . which means the kids didn’t get to sleep until almost 11!  They were pretty tired this morning, and I’m expecting them to be a bit on the crabby side this afternoon . . .

If you’re in the Calgary area, we’d love it if you could join us at the Engineering Ministries International Dessert Evening tomorrow (that’s Thursday) night.   There will be displays about various projects eMi has done, as well as a few presentations – the interns will be talking about our recent El Salvador trip.  Click on the image below for more details . . .

For those of you who are too far away to come, please pray for a good turn out, and that we’d be able to share our excitement about what God is doing around the world.  Pray that people would be led to be involved in whatever way God is calling them.

It’s been almost a month since I’ve written about life rather than work or projects . . . usually that’s a pretty good indication that it’s been busy – though really, it hasn’t felt too crazy this past month.  And that’s a good thing . . . Here’s a few things we’ve been up to:

Earlier today we enjoyed a free swim at one of the local pools, and then we took part in a German tradition.  The German Club puts on a “lantern parade” every year for St. Martin’s Day . . . the kids all parade with their lanterns, and then it ends with a big bonfire.

A few days ago we celebrated Cindy’s birthday (she’s one of the eMi interns – and our homestay student).  She treated us all to “Hot Pot” – Mmmmm . . .

Talia’s been doing lots of baking lately.  Here she was making a birthday cake for Cindy (from scratch, all by herself – I just helped with the oven).  Thursdays tends to be baking day, since we don’t have any scheduled after school activities . . . though last week, we met with a family from church to play on the playground instead – it’s nice to have a few more days of fall before the winter sets in!

Last week Kaisa spent a few days home from school . . . she caught a nasty cold that was going around her classroom, and was coughing a lot in the mornings.  She obviously wasn’t too sick though, since she was still smiling and playing with her puppies

The girls had fun dressing up and we went to a church carnival for the end of October . . . though I have to admit, I liked Kaisa’s costume for school best.  She dressed in “Lederhosen” and became “Hansel” of “Hansel & Gretel”  (we couldn’t convince Talia to dress as Gretel though . . . )

The previous weekend Oma & Opa were up . . . the last time we’ll see them before Spring, since they’re heading to warmer climes for the winter

So, we’ve been doing lots of day to day stuff . . . enjoying a bit of a slower pace now that the project trip is completed . . . spending a bit of time catching up . . . enjoying life . . .

Wouldn’t you know it, a few days after I posted that last link, Kevin forwarded me another article about fistula – this time focussing on “our” clinic:

New Life for the Pariahs from the New York Times

We’ve also recently heard that the missionaries who hosted us there are on their way back to Niger . . . they had had some trouble raising the necessary support to return after some language training and “furlough” back in North America.  It’s exciting news, because he will be acting as construction manager for the Fistula Clinic . . . so things are coming together . . .

Some of you may remember that Kevin & I went to Niger a couple of years ago to help design a fistula centre.  The actual construction has had some bureaucratic hiccups, but permits have recently been acquired so that construction can move forward.

Today, Kevin forwarded an article to me about a different fistula centre, this one in Ethiopia.  I thought the article gave a good overview of what fistula is and how it affects women’s lives.  Here it is:

Fistula Article

Please continue to pray that the clinic eMi went to design will be constructed soon so that more women will be cured of this condition.

It’s been a busy weekend of talking and catching up . . . on Friday, I had a chance to get together with a Fort St. John friend who lives in Calgary now and the time ran out before the words did.  That evening, we went to a “house cooling” party of other friends who are moving out of town, and caught up with some mutual friends who we hadn’t seen for a while.  And on Saturday, we headed to Taber.

Kevin’s cousin had invited us to Taber to speak at his church.  It was a great weekend!  We stayed at their house, and their oldest is the same age as Kaisa, so the kids were well entertained.  Kevin’s Aunt & Uncle joined all of us for dinner on Saturday night, and then on Sunday we shared at the church.  The pastors were both away, so Kevin was “preaching” – that is, sharing a message beyond a simple report of what eMi does and where we’ve been.  We had a booth set up in the foyer after the service, and had a chance to talk one on one with more people (there’s even someone in the church whose nephew has been an intern with eMi in Colorado!  How’s that for a small world?).  After church, there was more visiting over lunch, and then we headed into Lethbridge to have dinner with several team members from Kevin’s Sudan team last spring.  By the time we were on our way home, we were all out of words!  Even the girls fell asleep on the drive home – and that rarely happens anymore . . .

The interns put together a video of our El Salvador project trip . . . enjoy . . .

A project is by no means over when the plane touches down back in Canada.  In fact, Kevin will likely be working on the El Salvador report right up until his next trip, in January.  Right now he’s coordinating the various pieces between the volunteers . . . it’s a fair bit harder to get feedback when we’re not all in the same room (or on the same outdoor patio ).  Please continue to pray for the team as they “tweek” the designs to provide the Father’s Heart Foundation with the best possible layouts for their buildings and their land.

But now that the El Salvador trip is over, Kevin is already starting to recruit for his next trip – to Kenya.  He’ll be working on a village development project, in partnership with Save a Village, along with the Nyangina Self Help Group.  It will be a small team – a surveyor, possibly another civil, an intern and an agricultural specialist.  Here’s the official eMi project listing, and we’ll keep you posted as details develop.

After just getting home last week, we weren’t up to planning much for Thanksgiving.  The intern who is staying with us left last week for her project trip (to SouthEast Asia), and the weather turned too cold for our annual trek to Callaway Park (they have Free Family Days every Thanksgiving Weekend).  In fact, if our friends hadn’t invited us for Thanksgiving Dinner late in the week, we might not even have had turkey!  I just wasn’t quite up to wrapping my mind around inviting people over and hosting something myself . . .

That said, it was a wonderful, lazy, relaxing weekend.  The girls had a FIVE day weekend (yes, they’re still home today) and all weekend, they really just wanted to play.  On Friday, Talia also made dinner for us – her lasagna was quite a hit.  On Saturday, we headed out to a “Pumpkin Festival” at a Calgary-area garden centre . . . complete with a straw maze, hay rides, and a grand finale of Pumpkin Smashing (they raised a HUGE pumpkin up on a HUGE crane and dropped in onto a small car activating fireworks on impact . . . it made quite an impression!)   Thankfully, most of the rest of the activities were inside, otherwise we wouldn’t have lasted long.  We’re not quite acclimatized back yet .  On Sunday, I shared about our trip with the kids at church, and in the evening we joined our friends for Thanksgiving Dinner.  We enjoyed the food, friends and conversation (and our kids especially enjoyed the hot tub!).  Yesterday we took one of the interns who was around this weekend to the Free Family Swim at our local pool, and today Talia has a friend over.  Kevin is at work today, of course, but tonight, the holidays will officially end for the rest of us as I’ve got a board meeting, Kevin has care group, and the girls have Pioneer Clubs . . . I’m thankful to go into the week well-rested!

After a final whirlwind day of Salvadorian site seeing (including some archeological sites, the museum of Anthropology, driving through the downtown core of San Salvador, and then eating dinner in a pupusaria overlooking the city), on Sunday morning we headed back to San Salvador . . . this time to the airport.

It’s hard to believe that we only met everyone 10 days ago.  And, as we said good-bye to Samuel & Charity (with special hugs for baby Benjamin) and to Joel (who was staying on to enjoy the Salvadorian surf before heading home to New Zealand), we knew that the trip was ending.  The rest of our good-byes happened in the Houston airport, as we all headed our separate ways to catch our various flights back to our “real lives.”

And here we are.  Calgary changed from summer to winter while we were gone (brr).  Grandma & Grandpa did just fine with the kids.  Kaisa woke up just before midnight last night and came out with a sleepy smile and big hugs for both of us.  Talia’s smile was just as big (and not quite as tired) this morning.  Grandma & Grandpa left early, and after we brought the kids to school, we started unpacking, did some laundry, took some time to relax.  We went out for a family dinner tonight and tried to hear all the exciting things that happened in our kids lives while we were gone.  Tomorrow, we’ll both be back at work and life will go on.

The challenge, now, I guess, is to take what we’ve seen and learned on this trip and not lose that in the busy-ness of being back home.  A friend of mine said it best in a facebook comment: “May your mind, body ,and soul all catch up to being back….but may you not loose the “God Prints” from your time away.”  Please pray with us that Kevin & I – and all the other team members – will continue to be open to those God Prints in our lives . . .