I recently had a birthday, and my kids made a scavenger hunt for me. They gave me a clue list so the old man could find stuff they hid in the back yard. They gave me some money ($3.25), marbles, drawings (including a panda with a target on it for me to shoot! Ellie knows I don’t like pandas.), a shiny rock, and an old bookmark. At the end of it I had to do a quiz about the items they gave me. Lots of fun!
Karate kids
The girls have now completed their first semester of karate, and Ethan has finished his second. A couple weeks ago was presentation night when students were presented with their new levels. Ethan is a white belt with two stripes (after his third he can try to earn his yellow belt), and the girls both got their first stripe. Ellie really seems to enjoy herself in class, Adelaine is taking to it like a duck to water, and Ethan has lots of fun too.
Our karate club recently had a fundraiser for the local food bank. It was a kick-a-thon, where we asked for sponsors for either a per kick donation or a overall dollar amount. We had three 5 minute segments to get in as many kicks as we could, with a break in between for our partner to do their kicks. Together our family did 2404 kicks that night. A big thank you to our sponsors who raised $140 for our family!
I couldn’t walk right for a week.
Ethan’s legs were getting tired and one of the teachers came by to encourage him. The girls are kicking at the far wall.
Easter
Faith, family and friends. Oh, and food.
We did our annual egg hunt with Resurrection Eggs that have small visual aids inside to review the Easter story. We cracked each one open and the kids related the story of what the item represents. A great weekend of reflection and time with others.
Rather than big birthday parties, our family has started a tradition of going on an adventure together. On these adventures, we give the kids clues that morning as to what we will be doing. So here is the synopsis of Ellie’s recent birthday
1) Something high, yet low.
An aerospace museum, obviously. Ellie had seen the Aerospace Museum of Calgary a few times as we have driven by, with it’s airplanes (up high) displayed on the ground (down low) and said she wanted to go there as she likes airplanes.
Unfortunately, Ellie started to not feel well right about the end of our time there. Little did we know that this would be the start of another round of bad colds for our family.
We stopped in a park for lunch and playground fun, then off to:
2) Something leisurely
The Southland Leisure Centre is a massive place with lots of sport and exercise facilities (even a rink), but all we were interested in were the pools.
Sorry, this is the only photo I took. We spent a few hours in here splashing around. Rope swing, wave pool, water slides, diving board, hot tubs, splash park – lots of fun and swimming is always a favourite with our kids.
3) Peanuts, but not what you think.
Ethan immediately hopes it is eating at Five Guys and Fries because they have free peanuts. But it was in fact the Peanuts movie at the cheap theatre. A nice, clean movie to see as a family.
4) Something British
Ellie likes fish-n-chips, so we found The British Chippy, a restaurant serving authentic fish-n-chips. However, by this time Ellie was not feeling good at all (she probably ingested a bit too much pool water too), but I sure enjoyed the food.
Every year our translation teams are able to finish many translation projects. Starting off 2016 is a particularly exciting translation project for us. We are overjoyed to announce that the Hebrew edition of By This Name is now in print in Israel. We received the following email from the Bible Society in Israel (BSI):
“Dear friends, It is a blessing and a joy to let you know that the Hebrew version is printed and not only has distribution started but also some studies with this book have started.”
Sample from the book
While it has taken a few years to complete this book, it has been well worth the wait to ensure it communicates the message of salvation very clearly in Hebrew.
As with all things, “the mind of man plans his ways but the Lord directs his steps” (Prov 16:9 NASB). We may set out goals and strategies, but there may also be things that surprise us along the way. They don’t take God by surprise, however. In the case of this project, after the translator had produced a complete draft of the Hebrew book, she was diagnosed with cancer and reluctantly could not continue the project.
We thank God that the director of BSI deemed By This Name to be so important that he volunteered to complete it himself.
BSI is convinced that By This Name is an excellent tool for addressing the worldview of the average Israeli. By clearly harmonizing the Old and New Testaments, specifically the Messianic prophecies, the reader will see how, from the beginning, God intended his wonderful plan of salvation to unfold throughout the generations.
Pray with us that this book will make an impact in the lives of God’s chosen people. Of the initial batch printed, 80% are earmarked for giving away so that churches can get studies going as quickly as possible. Pray with us too for more funds to do a second print run.
