Camp Tamarack

(Photo courtesy of ypfriends! thanks! :)
Unfortunately I did not take ANY pictures at camp!
:( :( :(
very unusual for me.... what a shame, especially since my memories are mainly built on photos!!! (I hate to think what would happen if I lost all my photos, or worse yet, if I lost my eyesight! )

Camp Tamarack is over! Once again, it was a great week! Throughout the week, we heard seven messages from Pastor Anjema, Pastor Vogel, and Pastor Stringer on the theme of "the glory of God", along with workshops on various topics from which each camper chose two.

Each message that was brought brought different points of conviction. I pray that God will continue His work in me and in the others who were at camp, and that our lives may display God's glory for all the world to see! It's far too easy to get on that 'high' at camp, and then you come home and find that things are just as you left... I pray that each one would purpose in his/her heart to live out what they've learned, that they would be changed and renewed after this week of spiritual refreshment.

This year was somewhat different for me than other years - mostly because it was my 7th year helping out at camp. There's a lot of young people coming up who are beginning to replace the older ones. It felt strange to not have as many of those older people there this year, and though it was still fun, it certainly felt strange to be one of the older ones (I was the 4th oldest female camper!).

Now I'm one of the role models for these young people - yikes, what a thought! ;) I've always struggled with feelings of inadequacy in fulfilling this role, especially at camp, and this year was no exception. I see so much in me that needs to change, so much sin that needs to be expelled; I need the Lord's work in me so much, every day! I know that God hasn't yet finished working on me. He will continue to purify me, cleanse me from my sin, and make me more into the image of His Son Jesus Christ.
I long for the day when I may be perfectly whole!

August 16

It's been seven years now since Dad passed away.... time passes so quickly. We still miss him a lot, but God's grace is sufficient for our every need. I look forward to the day that we'll meet each other again in heaven!

[The Lord] knows our frame;
He remembers that we are dust.
As for man, his days are like grass;
As a flower of the field, so he flourishes.
For the wind passes over it, and it is gone,
And its place remembers it no more.

But the mercy of the LORD
is from everlasting to everlasting
On those who fear Him,
And His righteousness to children’s children,
To such as keep His covenant,
And to those who remember His commandments
to do them.

Psalm 103:14-18

"Daffodils"
-- William Wordsworth (1770-1850)

I wandered lonely as a cloud,
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the Milky Way,
They stretch'd in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced;
But they out-did the sparkling waves in glee:

A poet could not but be gay,
In such a jocund company:

I gazed -- and gazed -- but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.

Arrival in Bulgaria, Veliko Tarnovo

I'm sorry to those of you who have been wanting to see pictures from Ruth and my trip in Europe! Pictures take absolutely FOREVER to upload to the blog - so I thought I'd make slideshows instead...

The following slideshow is of our arrival in Bulgaria, and of our tour through Veliko Tarnovo, an mideival city which also used to be one of the old capital cities in Bulgaria. I mentioned it also in one of my email updates.

The slideshow's actually only 3 minutes... but the song goes for nearly 5 minutes! I don't know how to fade it out!

House Cleaning!

Last week a bunch of people from my church were getting the house ready for our missionaries (Rich & Ange) who are back on furlough from Mexico. It's awesome for us, because they're living right across the road from us! sweet little helper
I was cleaning the windows, not taking pictures of myself :)
ugh... yet so beautifully made, at the same time!

it was weaving its web outside one of the windows I was cleaning

Rich & Ange, we're looking forward to fun times ahead with you guys and your kids!

Visit at Tim & Charlene's

After cleaning at Dan & Joyce's new house last week while they were on their honeymoon, I had dinner at Tim & Charlene's - our first dinner in their new condo! there were a lot of firsts that day: I was the first to use their shower, to have dinner there, to use the new dishes, cutlery & glasses, and to use their beautiful new dining room table! pretty exciting! :)

Thanks for the fun times, guys!! looking forward to many more to come! :)

Splash Pad!

Charlene and I got to take the kids to the splash pad last week! the water was absolutely freezing cold, but it was tons of fun! Ash & I dared each other to go through all the different water spray things, but Charlene & Jaden both found it too cold for their liking.

as we approached the splash pad, Jaden got a little nervous ;) he doesn't seem to love water as Ashleigh does! but perhaps that's good thing, at his age.

But he sure doesn't mind getting OTHER people wet! he started a waterfight - him against all us girls! :)

but he soon ended the fight by dumping the rest of the water out...

It was a beautiful day in a beautiful park! it was fun being a kid again ;)

Charlene also posted on the day...

Dan & Joyce's Wedding!!!

the beautiful bride...

I didn't take very many pictures of the day... but Carole took some good ones.

Later at the reception...

our MCs for the evening:
Tim & Charlene

hehe I'm sorry Tim... the following picture makes up for it :)

they sure got practice with those swooping kisses! :)

Beppe with her three beautiful daughters handsome & beautiful, aren't they? ;)
"Great is Thy Faithfulness"
by TorontoYP

My mom and Joyce's mom are like two peas in a pod - they even bought the same dress (by accident!) :)

The Shoe Game

"who's going to wash the dishes?"

but they disagree on some things...

was this question "who's the better driver?"

Congratulations, Dan & Joyce! It was such a blessed day! I pray that your life together will truly be blessed by the Lord!

IT'S FINISHED!!! :)

I can finally say that I'm done my degree at York University! it took me a while longer than I had hoped, but that's okay :) During my last year at York, I completed my Bachelor of Arts in Linguistics, with a TESOL certificate (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages), which will now enable me to be able to teach pretty much anywhere in the world. However, I am yet unqualified to teach children, or to teach in the public school system in Canada. It's somewhat ironic: I'm not qualified to teach ESL to children, but I am qualified to teach adults (immigrant adults, that is). I've been considering a few options, one of which could possibly mean going overseas to teach English... otherwise I could stick around in Toronto and teach here.... we'll see where the Lord leads.

This final year at York was the best year I had there - we had the best teacher EVER (the first picture that you'll see in the slideshow), who really has a gift for teaching and for bringing the class together as a unit. Thanks Joanne! and thank you, all my classmates! I hope to be as good a teacher as her one day :)

At our final class we had a class party for which I put together the following slideshow. But be warned - it's 15 minutes long!!! :)

York University TESOL Class 2008!

I wish you all the best!!!

Bulgaria - Week 5!

Hasovitsa, BulgariaHasovitsa Conference --Ruth

On May something we set out for Hasovitsa. The curving, twisting road followed a meandering river, and Lou’s ever-responsive stomach reacted accordingly. Of course, car-sickness is bad of itself, but when you have two car-sick little girls draped across you, one gets a double-dose. Thus we greeted Hasovitsa with varying sighs of relief, the loudest coming from the turmoiled depths of poor Louise. We stepped into the “Rodopian Region”.

Our host, Zladka and her son, Bobby

The villa we slept in was as picture-perfect as Hasovitsa itself. It was heated only with fireplaces, built of concrete, block and tile, and could sleep 20 people in BEDS! (Have you ever heard of such a place?) We were heartily welcomed by our two hostesses, Zlatka and Tinka. The two ladies are sisters who live with their extended family in a huge house in the nearby city of Smollyen. Zlatka is a computer programmer and Tinka is a home-maker. They were so incredibly unique! Both had a hilarious sense of humor, a warm heart and vast knowledge of mountain herbs. There was hardly a day when they weren’t collecting something from the mountain-side, whether it was pine sprigs for pine honey (mmmm…) flowers for juice (!!!), or the like. LOL, they even pointed out the source of Viagra :) Zlatka has a sweet imp of a boy named Bobby (6 years). Bobby wore a wily, smily look about him and always had “a trick!” or knew “this trick!” We’re pretty sure he’s going to be a magician when he grows up :) Ninka (8) is his sister and the daughter of Tinka. When a girl is as sweet and kind as Ninka is, it’s a bit hard to describe her. She was a bit quiet, and obviously treasured every moment spent with friends. When Louise and I remember Ninka, we are also most encouraged by what God has enabled us to do for our Bulgarian friends. At one point in the week, an English friend of hers (Cindy) spoke to her mother. Hearing the English conversation, Ninka exclaimed, “Mom, Cindy speaks Bulgarian!” The truth is that Ninka wasn’t used to understanding English! That was SO exciting to hear :)

Tinka and her daughter, Ninka

Elian & Radoslava --Ruth
I haven’t mentioned one of the main organizers of our trip yet: Radoslava. Before traveling to Hasovitsa, we stayed a few days at Elian & Slava’s house. They have two wonderful and lively daughters, Teddy (8) and Vicky (5). Teddy likes surpass the boys (she’s a confirmed tomboy), and yet she likes to dress up and dance. We’ve established her future career to be a lion tamer :) Vicky is constantly singing –in fact, due to her 5-year-old English skills, this was one of the main ways we got to know her. She loves to hold hands or hug. She’s also got an eye for fashion, and we’ve set her out as a future fashion designer, in the classic style of frilly flouncy dresses. Their father Elian works with computers as well and works admirably hard at his and Slava’s small business. By the end of the trip, Slava felt like a very close aunt for me. She’s a historian, and has a unique story or saying for every little custom or site one comes across. It was so sad to leave her, her girls, her wisdom and stories behind.

Elian & Radoslava and Nikki

Teddy (Theodora)

Vicky (Victoria) and Nikki (Nikolas)

Jivko and Iliana – Louise
Jivko and Iliana have three children: Stephan (5), Gabbie (3) and Sammy (1). Jivko is a computer programmer and has his own business. We didn’t get to know him very well, because the only time that we had to talk to him was when we went out for dinner one night with his family and Elian and Radoslava’s family. The majority of the evening, their heads were huddled close as they debated and discussed the latest technology. During their deep conversations however, Ruth and I were able to talk with Iliana and Radoslava and get to know them. Iliana studied a total of five years to become a speech therapist, after which she promptly became a secretary for her pastor. Sometimes it’s strange how little we use our degrees and diplomas in our professions! Eventually she met and married Jivko (their love story is sweet and quite funny as well). Each of their three children are the sweetest, bubbliest, most giggling children you ever could meet. Their ability to speak English was low, yet they understood a lot more than I thought they would. They went absolutely berserk when we’d tickle them; it was hilarious to watch their antics when we played the ‘tickle game’ with them.

Jifko and Gabbie

Eliana and Sammy

Gabby and Stephan

More Hasovitsa Happenings (because we know this is WAY too long already!) --Ruth

• Enjoying coffee with cow-fresh milk (after fishing out all the floaties, of course!)


• Delicious Rodopian cooking: potato banitsa, croissants Bulgarian-style, flower tea, etc. etc.


• Feeding the multitude with pizza and quesadillas, thanks to the integral part of the ladies…, also made Terra Tor (a cold soup of cucumber and yoghurt) and Banitsa R-rr-rrruttt! (“Ruth” Bulgarianized –be sure to roll the “r”)


• The late nights continued… lots of planning, knocking our heads together to gather “lesson” plans or, in reality, game plans for the next day (there’s a pun in there for you, Dad ;)


• Lots of late night talks over tea: telling ridiculous stories, jokes, past experiences… We learned the “Ruchenitsa”, a traditional Bulgarian wedding dance (no worries Mom, we don’t expect to put that to use ;)… Practising the chicken dance (some fun pictures from that :P)


• The crafty Tinka teaching us how to say “I want to be a Bulgarian bride!” :)


• The never ending songs of the children… every time the first words of “My God is so Big” were shouted, we would groan internally, grit our teeth and exuberantly (aka dutifully) join in :)


• Seeing lines of children holding hands, walking along a mountain path and singing “My God is So Big” because they wanted to…


• Walking along mountain paths... hmmm, beautiful


• Meeting Elena, the daughter of Tinka. At 14, she discusses the Scriptural references of CS. Lewis and Tolkien with her strongly atheist teachers! She was sweet, intelligent, always questioning the reasons behind concepts, always looking deeper. In two short days she became a good friend.


• Walking 3 km to the nearby village of Pisanitsa (or “Pizzanitza” as the kids called it) to buy ice cream. When the shopkeeper was nowhere to be found, we walked to his nearby home/ hotel, and from there received a ride back to the shop in a very old, sputtering Mercedes Benz that looked as if it would like to shoot off the mountain side

The week in Hasovitsa is definitely precious among our memories of Bulgaria!

THE END... for now
So that’s a small snippet of our experiences in Bulgaria. We hope to update you on the continuing adventures of Lou and Ru :P upon our return (internet access has been difficult!) complete with PICTURES.... I PROMISE!! :) God is blessing us and keeping us safe. We thank those of you who have been praying - we’ve really felt the Lord’s protection and guiding hand throughout the entire trip.