Ministry Update :: March 11, 2008

Posted on March 11, 2008 by Troy

It’s amazing how good you feel when you’re miserable, when you were just recently really miserable.

I have had a rather miserable week, physically at least. Last Tuesday I started to have a slight cough, which overnight turned into a high fever and headache that lasted for another six days. Ellie came down with it too after a few days so we went to the walk-in clinic to see a doctor. She didn’t think it was anything serious, but 5:00AM Sunday morning Ellie’s temperature was 40C (105F) and she was diagnosed with strep throat at the emergency ward. I went in later and was diagnosed too. Adelaine came down with it later that day and we are all now on penicillin. Now I am just dealing with a cold that I picked up as a result of not getting much sleep for a week.. but that feels much better relative to how I was a few days ago. Very thankful to be feeling better and see the girls doing better too.

In other news, we have changed our housing plans in the last few days. We had made arrangements for an apartment here in town and were to take possession of it this week. It was going to be a small, middle apartment in a complex without a yard for the kids. However, the Lord has provided a much better solution for us. A local family has made us a generous offer to use an old house of theirs. This is still a temporary solution for up to two years that will give us more time to save up and look for our own house. This will also give the girls an opportunity to have a yard to play in outside and some horses to watch! So with this change we now plan to move in June. The Lord continues to provide for and watch over us.

Ellie’s third birthday is tomorrow, March 12. We had planned to have a big shared birthday with friends whose son is also turning three this week, but the sickness in our household forced us to cancel that. So instead we will just have a small family party. We are so thankful for our two wonderful daughters!

Northern Lights

Posted on March 1, 2008 by Troy

Since I arrived in Alberta I have been waiting for the opportunity to photograph the Aurora Borealis. I have been wanting to try and photograph them for years, but we are still a few years from solar max, so the night sky has been pretty quiet.

I had signed up for auroral activity email alerts to let me know when they may be visible and it paid off. Friday night at about 11:00 PM I checked my email and saw the possibility of aurora so I checked some space weather sites (Canadian Space Weather www.spaceweather.gc.ca/forecastmap_e.php and www.spaceweather.com) and saw that the sky show was on!

(the auroral activity ring that night)

I quickly packed up my tripod, camera, some warm clothes and headed off to a friends farm. I knew he was a poor shot so I would be safe walking around behind his house. I spent a couple hours out getting pictures from different locations. That time of night it is very quiet except for the distant howling of the coyotes.

Usually I was taking 30 second exposures and the camera would do a noise reduction for another 30 seconds. So I had a lot of very quiet minutes to just watch and contemplate God’s beautiful creation and thank him for the opportunity to witness it.

After awhile the auroral display started to calm down to just a dim green glow so I packed it in and was home around 2:30 AM. Late night, but definitely worth staying out.

If you would like to see more of my photography of the night sky and Northern Lights, go to my Astrophotography gallery

Busy Day

Posted on February 27, 2008 by Troy

Last Wednesday was a very busy day. First of all, it was my mother’s and my wife’s birthday. Yes, they both fall on the same day. That is either very good or bad for me. I could blow it pretty bad all on one day if I am stupid enough to forget.

Naomi and the girls came out for lunch at the office and we had a cake there and celebrated with the staff. Ellie blew out the candles for mom. She thinks that all birthdays are about her now.. Anyway, we had fun out at the office having a little birthday party there.

On the way home something happened that also made it a more busy day. The serpentine belt on the van was dislodged when I nailed a hidden block of ice that was in the middle of a large puddle. At the time I was trying to round a corner in a subdivision and the bump knocked out the power steering. Thankfully there wasn’t any traffic coming as I took the corner pretty wide while I wrestled with the steering wheel! Thankfully it happened when it did because we were supposed to drive the van to Edmonton on Friday morning for the MissionsFest where we would be setting up a display. Would have been very scary to have that happen while on the highway. Nevertheless, we did have to scramble the next morning to get the van in to try and have it fixed so that we could take it on the trip, but the part was not in stock and we had to borrow Naomi’s parent’s van for the weekend.

When I did get home after breaking the van I had a package waiting for me. It was the new MacBook Pro laptop that GoodSeed had ordered for me to use as my video editing workstation. So of course I spent some time setting it up and exploring the new computer. Guess that means I’m cool now.

We had a special family supper that night of BBQ shish kabobs and stuffed potatoes. Mmm.

Grandma made a so-called fruit pizza. Although technically not really a pizza, I let the misnomer slide on account of the special day.

Another thing that maybe kept me too busy that night was the Lunar Eclipse. After supper it had already started so we spent some time to look at it through the telescope and snap some photos.

Ellie was very excited about her mom’s birthday as she realized that there were presents to be opened.

My present to Naomi was a mixer. She had been wanting a KitchenAid not knowing that I had got her one during the Boxing Day sales a few months before. However, in her present was one of Ellie’s toy mixers with a KitchenAid logo glued on it.

I had to quickly produce the real thing..

So there you have it. A busy day, but a very good one.

Lunar Eclipse – February 20, 2008

Posted on February 21, 2008 by Troy

On the evening of February 20 we had a clear sky for the Lunar Eclipse. I haven’t seen one in years as the last two I had opportunity to watch were clouded out, so this was a real treat. I was able to set up the telescope and camera to watch the event.

from wikipedia

A lunar eclipse is what happens when the Moon passes into the Earth’s shadow. When that happens the Moon often turns red. If you were to stand on the surface of the moon during an eclipse and looked at the Earth, you would see a black disk (the Earth) surrounded by a ring of red. The red is the light from the sun passing through the atmosphere. The only light hitting the moon is the combined light of all the Earth’s sunrises and sunsets.

Here are some of my photos as the moon disappears, is at totality (completely in Earth’s shadow), and as it leaves the shadow.

www.troyjohnstone.com/astrophotography/

Whats for lunch?

Posted on February 16, 2008 by Troy

With your host, Chef ‘Roy.

Good Day and welcome to Chez ‘Roy. On today’s program, we will be exploring bachelor meals. Our master chef has gone A.W.O.L. (Absent With Our Loot – out shopping with Ellie) leaving me to prepare lunch for myself and Adelaine.

After a quick survey of available ingredients, I decided that today’s lunch will be one of my greatest recipes: Roy’s Eggs and Stuff.

First you must start of with some Grade A eggs, preferably from a chicken. I chose four this time as this is a meal for one and a half. Next, crack the eggs into a bowl. Be careful to take out all the little bits of shell that you may have also dropped in.

Add some milk, salt and pepper, and just beat it, just beat it. Oooh!

Now comes the ‘and Stuff’ part. Mix in some cheese, pre-cooked bacon and fried mushrooms.

Unfortunately we were out of fungus today, but as an intrepid chef, I pressed on. As a side dish, I fried some leftover mashed potatoes, another favorite!