Troy & Naomi Johnstone

For the May long weekend we visited our nation's capital, Ottawa. I had never been there before, so we were wanting to go there before we move from Ontario. We were pleased to have Naomi's brother Andrew and Missy (a friend who is a student here at WOLBI and also just happens to be dating Andrew) travel with us. This was the first touristy thing Naomi and I have done for a few years. We had lots of fun seeing the capital with Andrew, Missy and Adelaine (Ellie stayed with some friends). We toured the Parliament Buildings, the National War Museum (a must see!), National War Memorial, Canadian Museum of Civilization.

The War Museum was amazing! I need to go to Ottawa again to see everything in there. We were rushed going through and didn't have the time I wanted to look around.


This is the gun used for the world's longest range sniper kill (2,430 meters or 7,972 feet) by a Canadian sniper, Corporal Rob Furlong in Afghanistan in 2003.



A bunch of tanks in a large room crammed with vehicles at the end of the museum.


One of Hitler's parade cars, an armoured Mercedes Benz. Don't try to touch it.. an alarm goes off - trust me, I know...


A British cork helmet should protect your head.. from elastics maybe.. Good enough for the Homestarmy!

That weekend was also when the Ottawa Senators advanced to the Stanley Cup play-offs. We came out of the war museum shortly after the game ended and could hear horns honking in the distance.. The city had gone crazy! It took about an hour to get to our hotel, normally just several minutes away as several city blocks were shut down because of the crowds gathering to celebrate. Cars driving around with people and Sens flags hanging out the windows with their horns blaring, people screaming at each other. It was nuts.



That night Andrew and I walked to Parliament Hill to get some night shots and the party was still going. I had never seen that many happy drunk people before in my life.. In order to avoid possibly being attacked, I had to pretend to be a Sens fan.


While in Ottawa there was also a conjunction of the Moon and Venus. I got some photos of this event next to the Peace Tower on Parliament Hill.



If you want, you can check out the 40 pictures up on my photography page. Here is a small preview:

Labels: Photography

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If you happen to be in grade 5 and in Alberta you may get to see one of my photos in your social studies text book.

Several months ago I was approached by a company in Canada that wanted to use an image of mine for a school book, "Voices of Canada". I was a bit surprised.. I didn't even consider it a good photo.. it was a photo of my beloved Tantramar Marshes, but not one of my favorites. Anyway, they found it on my photography site and wanted to use it. So I scratched my head for a few hours to figure out what to charge. "If I charge too much she won't buy, too little and and I would be showing how little I know and selling myself short.." After much thought and discussion with a few friends I made an offer and they took it! We just received the cheque last week.

If you see one of the 42,000 copies of this book around, please rip out the page with my photo and send it to me.

So here it is, Early Morning Mist, my first sale.

Labels: Photography

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Ellie likes to knock on the wall or on a door and say:

Knock knock
Who's there?
Ellie
...




Bed Head
Originally uploaded by JohnstoneKids

Labels: Ellie

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A couple weeks ago I spoke for an evening service we had on campus. Afterwards we invited students over to our place for a fire and s'mores. It was lots of fun just hanging out and talking with the students.

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I found this entry on andrewcoyne.com (columnist for the National Post) about sunblock rather interesting:


Take off the sunscreen
Classic. Decades of scare stories about the sun's evil rays, years of alarmist warnings by politicians and others ("for God's sake keep your kids out of the sun"), and what do we find is the major cause of cancer in northern countries? Lack of sunshine...:

For decades, researchers have puzzled over why rich northern countries have cancer rates many times higher than those in developing countries — and many have laid the blame on dangerous pollutants spewed out by industry.

But research into vitamin D is suggesting both a plausible answer to this medical puzzle and a heretical notion: that cancers and other disorders in rich countries aren't caused mainly by pollutants but by a vitamin deficiency known to be less acute or even non-existent in poor nations...

For many reasons, Canadians are among the people most at risk of not having enough vitamin D. This is due to a quirk of geography, to modern lifestyles and to the country's health authorities, who have unwittingly, if with the best of intentions, played a role in creating the vitamin deficiency...

Only brief full-body exposures to bright summer sunshine — of 10 or 15 minutes a day — are needed to make high amounts of the vitamin. But most authorities, including Health Canada, have urged a total avoidance of strong sunlight or, alternatively, heavy use of sunscreen. Both recommendations will block almost all vitamin D synthesis.

Ok, so this is a blog entry about a blog entry about a news article, but I can't help wondering what else the scientific community and governments might be wrong about that are driving policy and public education...

Labels: Rants

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Quite possibly the ugliest Ronald McDonald statue ever. The disproportionate body parts.. the huge butt..

This used to be outside the McDonalds in Edmundston, New Brunswick, Canada, but I think it caused too many nightmares for the kids and they have since removed it.

Kathy-June and I discovered this monstrosity several years ago. If I ever wanted to creep her out I would remind her of this.. thing.. and her face would contort as if she had just had a shot of Buckley's Mixture. So Kathy-June, this one is for you!

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Tuesday night we had a couple intense thunderstorms sweep through our area. One passed over about 3:30 AM and woke both Naomi and I up, as the thunder was literally shaking the house. I might have been able to go back to sleep if it wasn't for something falling off the wall that made me realize how close the storm was.


The next day I realized it was very close indeed! It probably hit a couple places on campus, as we lost at least one campus phone and our tower which connects us to the internet. Apparently we are not alone as many others in the area suffered lightning strikes. We sometimes get about 2 minutes of connection to quickly get something done online. Since we don't have our TV hooked up to anything, the internet is this news junkie's main source of what is happening out there.

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The door to Ellie's room is directly across from the bathroom door. Yesterday I was was washing my hands in the washroom after changing yet another diaper when I looked and saw Ellie trying to climb up the handles of her dresser. I sternly told her not to do that or she might hurt herself. She was not in the least upset at this rebuke. Instead she cheerfully walked over to me. I thought maybe she was going to give me a hug for watching out for her best interests. Instead she said, "Close the door," and did just that.

Now with the bathroom door closed, I waited about ten seconds before opening it to catch her trying to climb up the dresser again.

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Super-ah-docious - the short Ellie version of Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious. The current favorite move of the week is Mary Poppins and Ellie will sometimes run around the house singing some of the songs. "Let's Go Fly a Kite," and "Spoonful of Sugar" are also heard around the house. Of course, the words aren't always right..



The other day I came home from work and Naomi was busy preparing supper. She popped in Mary Poppins to keep Ellie out of trouble and I found Ellie holding on to Adelaine's ears. I didn't think the language in that movie was that bad..

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The distance between 1 and 10 keeps getting shorter. A month ago Ellie would always count "1, 2, 6, 7 ..." Then she started skipping to eight (1, 2, 8, 9, 10) and has now dropped it. Now there are only the single digit numbers, 1, 2, and 9.

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Adelaine has taken her first steps towards her first steps. Last week Naomi laid her on the floor while visiting a friend and was surprised to discover her a minute later on her stomach! Her first time flipping over, and we didn't even see it.



Adelaine is growing very fast. Average growth for her age is roughly half an ounce a day. Adelaine has been growing at twice that rate.. Look out Ellie, she will be bigger than you soon.

We suspect that Adelaine will be more social than Ellie. She behaves like that puppy in the window at the pet store.. doesn't do much until someone walks by and then she is all coos and smiles in hopes of someone picking her up.

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Projected growth: The old saying is that you take a child's height at two years old and double it and that is how tall they will be as an adult. Ellie was 34 inches tall, making her 5'6"! Her mom is 4'11", me 5'9".

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Ok, Naomi says that this looks creepy, but here it is anyway. Our eyes.


Going clockwise: Troy, Naomi, Adelaine, Ellie

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Today we moved Ellie from her crib to a mattress on the floor. She was very excited about her "big girl bed" when we brought it in the house.. she made it difficult to make the bed as she wanted to lay on it and squirm.

We were wondering if we would be able to get her to nap on it this afternoon when we noticed that the house was quiet.. I investigated to make sure there wasn't any trouble brewing and discovered that Ellie had already drifted off to sleep on her new bed.

Awhile ago Naomi bought twin size sheets for a different purpose. When we dug them out to put on Ellie's bed we realized that they are the exact same colour as the walls! Just so you know that it wasn't done on purpose..


Daddy tucking her in for the first time on a real bed



Saying evening prayers

Labels: Adelaine, Ellie

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After several years of research, writing and re-writing, GoodSeed has recently published their latest book, By This Name. This is just one of many tools they produce to share the Gospel with friends, neighbors or strangers.

"The ideal book to help explain the message of the Bible to our post-modern, post-Christian, & secular society. Written for those in a culture influenced by Pantheism, Polytheism and Animism, "By This Name" peels the religion off the sacred book, the Bible, and lets the ancient story speak for itself. In the process, a message of hope snaps into focus. It is a must read."

Buy Online | Preview

Labels: GoodSeed

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It has been a good couple of weeks for Ubuntu Linux. Every six months Ubuntu comes out with a new version and in mid April, Ubuntu 7.04, the Feisty Fawn, was successfully released. It did take me awhile to actually download it the day it was released. There was so much more world-wide demand than anticipated that it kept knocking their servers out!

I was able to quickly and easily install it on the three machines I use (dual boot on my home and office computers [meaning I can run either Windoze or Linux], and the only OS on my 6 year old laptop) and have been loving the improvements that have been made. It has been receiving many good reviews since its launch and is regarded the best one yet.

The other good news for Linux in general and Ubuntu in particular was that Dell computers is going to offer Ubuntu preinstalled on some of their computers.



This is a major endorsement for open source software, Linux and the world's most popular Linux distro, Ubuntu.

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While I am posting about free open-source software, I thought I would throw in this commercial. The video isn't new, but is an interesting collection of both famous and obscure people sharing their knowledge..

Sylvia Nasar, author of "A Beautiful Mind" advises young Linux that "One little thing can solve an incredibly complex problem." Muhammad Ali instructs him to "Speak your mind. Don't back down." John Wooden, the greatest basketball coach of all time, tells him "A player who makes a team great is more valuable than a great player. Losing yourself in the group, for the good of the group, that's teamwork."
http://business.newsforge.com/article.pl?sid=03/09/08/1210233

For another video in this series, click here.

Labels: Linux

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Not afraid of the dark
Originally uploaded by JohnstoneKids.
Ellie likes to play in the dark of her closet sometimes. She will disappear and you can search the entire house for her only to hear a giggle from the closet on your third check of her room. She may be in there for 20 minutes quietly playing in complete darkness. This time she found a headlamp and was quite content to hang out in her closet.

We have uploaded a number of photos of the kids, so grandparents, start your download!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/johnstonekids/

Labels: Ellie, Photography

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For Christmas Naomi got me a set of Hoya close-up lenses for my camera. Basically, they are magnifying lenses that screw on the front of a camera lens. They allow a camera to focus much closer than you normally could. With Spring finally here I have been testing them out..

Pollen

Specks of yellow pollen are scattered throughout the flower.

Tiny Bee

This bee is on a small daisy. The center of the flower is about 1 cm (less than half an inch), making this a very small bee!

Blue


Ready to Open

A tulip that is ready to pop open.

Spring Pollenation

A European Bee doing his thing.

Style and Pistil


Thanks Noami for the great gift! And thanks God for your beautiful creation!!

Labels: Photography

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I love taking photos of many different things in nature. Sometimes I combine it with one of my other interests: astronomy!

The other night at astronomy club the presentation was about beginner astrophotography. You don't need that fancy telescope to get some pictures of the beautiful night sky. This 26 second exposure of part of the Orion constellation was done by taking the picture more out of focus every few seconds. Most people don't realize that stars come in many different colours. This picture really highlights the red colour of Betelgeuse, a red giant star that is up to 800 times the size of our own Sun! [This picture is best viewed large]

Another picture of the lower half of Orion with the even larger blue giant star, Rigel, in the lower right:



How large are these stars? Watch this video for a hint of their mind-boggling size


I went out the other night to get a picture of the sky just after sunset. Venus was quite bright in the twilight sky.

Venus in the Trees


Taurus and the Pleiades are visible in this night shot. So is the orange sky-glow from the city of Owen Sound..

[click the image to see more details]

God's creation above keeps me looking up.

Labels: astronomy, Photography

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[Download the PDF version]

As each one has received a gift, minister it to one another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God... If anyone ministers, let him do it as with the ability which God supplies, that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. 1 Peter 4:10-11

Dear Friends and Family
Several months ago, I was taking promotional photographs of some of our students. As we were setting up the camera equipment and positioning people for the shot, one of the students asked me, “Why aren’t you doing photography as a ministry?” I replied, “Because the Lord hasn’t called me to do that.” Little did I know that just a few days later, the Lord would indeed call me to do that very thing.

After five years of serving the Lord with Word of Life Fellowship Canada in the Bible Institute ministry, Naomi and I will be starting a new journey of service. This fall,we will be joining the missionary staff of GoodSeed International.

The Decision
Throughout most of my life I never considered myself a creative person (overactive imagination excluded). But over the last seven years I have learned that I enjoy writing and that I have a passion and an eye for photography. However, with my history of administrative work I was very surprised to have the opportunity to minister with GoodSeed in their creative department. It was something I hadn’t really considered, but the more I have thought about it, the more it fits. Others have recognized this too. When my supervisor here at WOL heard what I would be doing, he said, “Troy, this is you!”

That doesn’t mean that it was an easy decision. We have really enjoyed our ministry with WOL and the fellowship of our coworkers and students. We wish we could be in two places at once! There were many things to think about: moving to Alberta, attending a different church, having to buy or rent a place to live in a crazy housing market, a radically different role for me, but of first importance... Is this what God would like us to do? After several months of prayer and discussion with close friends, we decided that, yes, God is calling us to make this change of ministry. And now we are excited to see how God is going to use us in and through GoodSeed.

As part of the Creative Ministry Team, I will be helping the ministry of GoodSeed as a writer, photographer and videographer (shooting and editing video) as we create tools to share the Gospel through books, video and the internet.

What does our future hold?
Along with this change come some challenges. We plan to continue working with WOL preparing for the start of a new school year. Then in September we will pack up and, after Troy helps teach an evangelism seminar at WOLBI using GoodSeed materials, we will begin the process of moving to Alberta and finding a place to live.



Below are some challenges we face in the next six months:

• We are praying that the Lord will provide housing for us, as there is currently 100% occupancy in Olds, Alberta (the location of GoodSeed’s Canadian office) and even renting is now very expensive.
• Troy will need to undergo extensive training for the new type of ministry he will have even while we are getting our family settled in this new location.
• GoodSeed is a non-profit ministry and as missionaries, we will continue to be supported the same way any other missionary would be if they were working overseas. We rely upon churches and friends to make our participation possible. GoodSeed does not deduct administrative expenses—100% of what is designated for us will go to our support. We are currently at 75% of our support needed for working with GoodSeed. Pray that the Lord will raise up those who will partner with us to make the difference. If you are interested in supporting us in our ministry with GoodSeed, please look at the box below for more detail.
• If you have any questions about this change in our ministry, please feel free to email us at troy.johnstone@gmail.com.

Feedback from WOLBI students whom Troy helped teach using GoodSeed materials:

“It has taught me so much more about God. I never really connected things up before now. Now I actually understand how everything came together. I really appreciate being taught about [the Gospel]. I can now talk more about God’s Word to people, because I understand it so much better!”

“I learned a lot of how things tie together that I did not know before. Answers to questions that I was afraid I would not be able to answer if someone asked me to explain something...”

“This study has been beneficial because I have had some doubts to the truth of the Bible lately. I know that there is mountains of evidence that points to the truth of the Bible, but by taking this course, I know that God has his hand in everything and that this book cannot be anything but truth… It has helped to clarify certain things in the Bible that I was struggling with.”

“It’s all new to me, but it’s so helpful to think I can use it to help my non-Christian family.”

What is GoodSeed?

Along with Word of Life, GoodSeed International is passionately committed to sharing the Gospel of Christ clearly with this lost world. GoodSeed believes in the need to be crystal clear on the Bible’s primary message, the Gospel, and being able to pass it on in a way that makes sense. To that end GoodSeed is committed to:

1. creating tools
GoodSeed produces materials that present a Creation to Christ approach to sharing the Gospel, laying down a foundation about God and His holy character before presenting Jesus Christ. We provide materials that are sensitive to different ages, settings, cultural and religious backgrounds, the illiterate, and such groups as the seeing impaired. Our goal is to translate culturally contextualized materials into all major and many smaller language groups.

GoodSeed has materials for use here in Canada, including materials geared for those from Muslim and Polytheistic backgrounds. We are producing materials for children, teens, ESL (English as a Second Language), correspondence courses, DVDs, audio CDs, visual aides for teaching, and many other materials. There is a constant stream of products being translated in languages from all over the world.

2. teaching people how to use those tools
Seminars are conducted around the world to train pastors, missionaries and lay people in how to use these evangelism tools. For the last few years Troy has helped teach this seminar at WOLBI to our students.

If you wish to learn more about GoodSeed, visit us at http://www.goodseed.com/. You may also sign up for the GoodSeed newsletter, Gleanings.

Just a few of GoodSeed's Evangelism Tools...

Financial Information:
Our ministry with GoodSeed officially begins in October. Current supporters will need to make the switch by the end of September. All donations should be made payable to GoodSeed and be designated for Troy & Naomi Johnstone.

GoodSeed is able to process funds through EFT (Electronic Funds Transfer - online form for Canada for USA) if so desired (that is a fancy way of saying they can transfer directly from a donor’s bank to our GoodSeed account).
GoodSeed Contact information:
Address: PO Box 3704, Olds, AB T4H 1P5
Phone Number: 1-800-442-7333
Web: www.goodseed.com
Email: info.ca@goodseed.com

Labels: Ministry Update, Prayer Letter

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