Some Pictures

Spring in Pass Lake! This was taken April 7!













On the way to Duluth, pre-deer collision.

Goodness Gracious

Well, I had no idea it had been so long since I had updated! I'm so sorry. Life has been very busy here in Pass Lake. At the end of April I attended the MNO (Manitoba, Northwestern Ontario Synod) Convention in Dauphin, Maintoba. We flew to Winnipeg, spent the night there and woke up to snow and ice. It was quite the bus trip from Winnipeg to Dauphin with ice and snow on the highway. It was a great convention but quite exhausting, lots to take in and many late nights. Sometime since my last post I travelled with some women from the congregation to Duluth, MN for a daytrip of shopping. Unfortunately the trip back included a collision with a deer, not a pretty sight. I now understand one of the reasons why it's good to have a big truck. If we had been in my car it would have been a much more serious situation. The deer are all over the roads in the spring in this area. I try not to drive after dark as they like to run out on the road unannounced.
Last week I was in Minneapolis for 5 days for the annual Festival of Homiletics (preaching). It was an incredible week packed with many worship services and speakers. Over 2100 ministers from all over North America and a few other continents attended. The speakers were the cream of the crop. Many of them I had read and it was pretty incredible to hear them speak about preaching and most of all to hear them preach. It was also nice to spend some time in a city. We stayed right in the centre of downtown Minneapolis and walked all over. I even had an opportunity to experience the Mall of America, just a really big mall, I didn't find it all that exciting. It was nice to catch up with friends and make new friends.
This week is catching up after a week away, getting ready for confirmation Sunday coming up this Sunday and continuing to plan for the youth trip to Whitehorse this summer and other summer events.
Spring is very slow in coming to this part of the world. It was beautiful and warm in Minneapolis last week but rained all weekend here. Monday at one point I looked out the window to see wet snow falling!
I haven't had my camera out much so I don't have any pictures to share right now. Hopefully I'll get some from friends in Minneapolis and share them soon.
I'm always curious who's reading so please comment!

More Pics of Kakabeka Falls

So just after I found out where I was going for internship (I found out a year and 3 days ago) I was talking to my friend Brent on his birthday and talking about Thunder Bay and he recommended seeing Kakabeka Falls. So I finally took the time and went out there. They were spectacular. This was a great time of year to see them as half of them were still frozen while the other half were in full force. I will have to check them out later in the summer.
Thanks Brent, they were beautiful!

Spring is on its way

Well I know I haven't posted in ages and I apologize for that. Apparently the first half of the internship is a walk in the park compared to the second half. Things have been really busy and at times not so pleasant. They seem, for the most part, to be on the upswing. The next few months of my time here will be very busy. I will be on a trip every month from now until August.
I took a day off today for the first time in a couple weeks and went to Kakabeka Falls (last picture & more to come) and Marina Park. The first few pictures are from there. The most well known landmark in the area is the Sleeping Giant. The Sleeping Giant is on the same peninsula as Pass Lake. In the first two pictures you can see the Sleeping Giant as visible from Marina Park.
Easter was wondeful, although busy of course. I assisted at a service in town for Maundy Thursday and then led Good Friday and Easter Sunday here in Pass Lake. We also had a community Easter breakfast that was well attended by many at the community hall.
The youth and their parents have been working very hard to raise enough money for their trip to Whitehorse this summer. We have made hundreds of dozens of perogies, had a snow machine rally, a shrove Tuesday pancake supper and a dinner and concert so far. They are past the halfway mark in their fundraising.
I would love to hear from you. Please leave a comment if you're still reading!

One more!

Recent Adventures

I'm in Thunder Bay for a few hours today but don't have time to post much so here are some pictures and when things settle down I will post text to go with them!

Pictures from Snowmobiling and Saskatoon visit

Update!

I'm sorry it's been so long since a post. I tried to update last night but I wanted to post pictures and it wouldn't let me. It has been a busy couple of weeks since I blogged last. We began the season of Lent with fantastic shrove Tuesday pancake supper put on by the youth and their parents as a fundraiser for the trip to Whitehorse. Ash Wednesday service was attended by a small group of parishioners. Then the first Sunday in Lent I led the liturgy and preached and then hopped in my car and drove like mad to the Thunder Bay airport to get on my flight to Saskatoon.
I was in Saskatoon for 5 days, 2 days of the seminary mid-year internship retreat and 3 days of visiting. While in Saskatoon I took in the Xavier Rudd concert which was amazing. He is an incredibly talented musician. I had a great visit with Sarah including some Costco shopping, mall visit, Sandra's Masters defense (which she rocked of course) and some car test driving. I also visited with a woman who I will rent a couple of rooms from when I return to Saskatoon in the fall. I'm so glad to have that taken care of as I was getting rather stressed about where I would live for the semester I'm back in 'toon town. It's a beautiful house a couple of blocks from the university campus and I will have a bedroom and sitting room/office to call my own.
I got back to Pass Lake late Friday night/early Saturday morning (about 2AM) and Saturday I attended my first snowmachine(snowmobile) rally. I even got a chance to drive one. I'm still feeling rather sore but it was worth it to have the experience! I will post pictures when I have access to high speed again.
My return to Pass Lake has also seen me bombarded with news about friends and family back home. I learned last night that my friend's home burnt down 10 days ago while he was vacationing in Mexico. I have visited his home a few times and it was a beautiful old home restored by him with a beautiful garden and full of treasures he had bought on his travels around the world. My thoughts and prayers are with him.
Today I talked to my sister and learned that her man popped the question on Valentine's Day! I'm very excited for them.
So that's a quick update from me. I'll post pics soon!

Some Winter Pictures

Finally got outside for a walk since it was above -20 for the first time in days today. It has been bitterly cold for about a week. Last weekend it was down to -40 with the windchill each evening. It has been a good test for my little car and block heater which it has passed with flyin colours.

This is the highway into Pass Lake and further on to the Sleeping Giant and Silver Islet. This picture is taken with the Sleeping Giant behind me and looking back towards the main highway. The road to my house is just ahead on the left (you can see the signs).













This was one tree that had fallen and made a cross with another tree, just thought it was kind of cool.

















These are the mailboxes, just thought it was a cool rustic picture. My mailbox is hidden in among the ones you can see.


















This is my neighbour's garden shed. It was a beautiful day today. You can see the blue sky, sparkling snow and beautiful green trees.

Come Visit Me

Tourism Thunder Bay is offering a contest to win a trip to Thunder Bay including staying at the Sleeping Giant Provincial park which is just down the highway from me! So enter and maybe you'll win a free trip to visit me!
Click here to enter.

More Pics of My Time at Home

I was really grateful to be able to be home in time for the Christmas Eve service at my home congregation. The first two pictures are from that evening. This one is the beautiful Christmas decorations around the altar.








This December I had 5 women I know have babies between the middle of December and Christmas Eve. The little one in my arms was Sarah, daughter of friends in my home congregation. In this picture she is 62 hours give or take 15 minutes or so. It was a wonderful way to spend the first half of the Christmas Eve service. I had to pass her on to go up and read the Christmas story.













My sister and her boyfriend Tim drove up from Pullman, Washington where they now live. She finally found someone tall enough that she can wear heels without being taller than him!
















This was the third baby I visited (sorry no pics of the second baby, too much going on during that visit for any pictures). This is Adlai, daughter of my friends Celia & Adam. She is 5 days old in this picture. She was the Christmas Eve baby.

Christmas at home

Well I had a fantastic time at home. Spent lots of quality time with friends and family, did lots of shopping and ate way too much. Here are a few highlights from my trip. I will post more soon. One night I went with my parents, sister and her boyfriend to the Festival of Lights at Vandusen Gardens. The picture on the left is from our time there, my dad took lots of pictures there as usual.








On Christmas day we had a brief visit with my cousin Bob from Victoria and his wife Jodi and little girl Ellie. She is quite the personality. Here is one of the many pictures my dad took. It was nice to see them again and to see her growing up so fast!















I'll post more about my time at home and more pictures soon I promise!

Family Christmas Letter

Since many of you readers know or know of my family I thought I'd post my family Christmas letter, this year written by my mom, enjoy!

December 15, 2007

Open your presents at Christmastime but be thankful year round for the gifts you receive.

~Lorinda Ruth Lowen

Another year disappears into the mists of time, and as I reflect on 2007, it is time that seems more precious and less available, given the demands of everyday life.

Ralph and I are beginning to explore roads we haven’t travelled for some time. We journeyed to Portland over spring break and meandered along the Oregon coast, watching the waves pound the coastline as the rain beat on the car windows. In the summer we spent several days in the Okanagan playing some golf on nine hole courses and discovering why tee times were amazingly easy to get in the afternoon (30+ degrees seems to keep some people inside). We also visited over two dozen wineries from Osoyoos to Vernon and stayed in 3 delightful bed and breakfast establishments. The van returned to the coast laden with several boxes of wine which we are enjoying over the winter months.

Ralph has entered the realm of the retired but is busy catching up on things that just didn’t get done when he was travelling for 70% of the time. He is continuing to expand his knowledge of photography which began over 44 years ago, thanks to Uncle Lee, and has joined the Vancouver Photo Club. He celebrated his 60^th birthday in July with family and friends and was genuinely surprised as his family managed to keep a secret.

While school still demands most of my time and makes balance between work and home life an elusive goal, the smiles and hugs of children do help to wash the worries away. Volunteer work at church, visits with friends, and the occasional golf game (still an evolving skill!) provide welcome outlets.

Kristen is now living in Pass Lake, ON, as an intern pastor in a Lutheran congregation. The community, Danish in origin, pop. 400, is about an hour and a half east of Thunder Bay and the congregation of Salem Lutheran Church is part of a 3 point parish of her supervisor who lives in Thunder Bay. You can view photos, follow her adventures and send her messages via her blog: http://canadianlutheranchick.blogspot.com/. She completes her year there in August and returns to seminary in Saskatoon to complete the last semester of her studies before seeking a parish to serve as a pastor. Writing sermons, working with children through Kids’ Club (an intrinsic part of community life), and exploring family genealogy are occupying her time. God and weather willing, she will be in

Richmond for Christmas this year since her little church in Pass Lake does not have a Christmas Day service as tradition and travel dictate that families are together on Christmas Day.

Jennifer (aka Dr. Steele) is now teaching economics and engaging in research as an assistant professor at Washington State University in Pullman, WA. She too is experiencing life in a smaller community, as Pullman is a university town in a farming community. Ralph and I drove down to help her set up her rented duplex and were fascinated to observe combines tracking along hillsides at a steep angle harvesting wheat and lentils. For those of us used to picturing seas of wheat waving on the prairie flats, it was a novel site to see wheat waving above the trees that grew along the roads below. Jennifer too will be here for Christmas, together with Tim who has returned from New Zealand. They spent American Thanksgiving in Montana with Tim’s parents and Jennifer has also travelled to Las Vegas for a bachelorette party for a rowing friend. She will be attending a conference in New Orleans in January so continues to find ways to combine travel with work commitments.

David is still working with a local construction firm building houses and has completed level 3 of the Red Seal program in carpentry at BCIT this year. He returns for the last six week component in February and then just has to complete his apprenticeship hours. His skills have been put to use installing hardwood flooring and moulding in bedrooms upstairs. He is looking forward to a snowboarding trip in January with friends and continues to spend time with Jessie who is completing her Bachelor’s degree.

Ryan is working for Aquiform, a pool and spa supply wholesale distributor. He is now faced with the prospect of driving to Langley to work since the company has just relocated there. He is always active, playing soccer and travelling with friends on weekends and in the summer and spending time with Jodi.

The grandmothers continue to live near us and we visit them as much as we are able. Evelyn enjoys all her friends and activities at Dogwood Lodge. Audrey continues to reside at Inglewood Lodge not far from her much loved apartment in West Vancouver.

We wish you time to treasure the most valuable gifts of Christmas-the presence of loved ones and the peace of the season.

Ralph, Marilyn, Kristen, Jennifer, David, and Ryan

More Pictures

Yesterday afternoon the Volunteer Fire Team put on a Christmas party for the kids in the community. This is an annual event that kids and adults alike look forward to. This year it was held in the church hall. I took a bunch of pictures. You can see them here.

Winter & Printer

Well, some have asked how I'm doing with the big storm that was heading to this part of Canada. Fortunately it's not hitting my part of Canada. It has hit Southern Ontario and is heading east. It's a beautiful day here (-11), the sun is shining and the snow is glistening. We had our big storm two weeks ago when we had to cancel the Sunday service. I'm glad the storm came through today as exactly one week from today I will be flying through Toronto to get home for the holidays.
This morning I had two more "rural ministry" experiences. I usually write my sermon at home and then come into the church early Sunday morning to print it off. This morning I came in and plugged in my computer and it printed the first two pages fine and the third page came out blank. I noticed that the second page had some sticky brownish stuff on it and I wasn't sure where that had come from. I checked the ink levels (fine) and tried again. This time another blank piece of paper came out along with a petrified fly! A few tries later (and doing some head cleaning on the printer) I got a semi-legible print out of the rest of my sermon. I guess I'll have to keep my printer covered from now on!

Advent

It's been a long time since I blogged. So today I have revamped my entire blog as you can see. I lost the links I had on my previous blog so if your blog was up there and now isn't please don't take it personally just send me an email or leave me a comment and I'll add it.
I have been busy since I blogged last. Winter has definitely set in in Pass Lake. We had our first big snowstorm the night before the first Sunday in Advent and so we had no church that Sunday. Since then life has been busy with Christmas events and parties.
Advent is my favourite season. I love the idea of waiting and preparing. This year I have had lots of experience of waiting. I waited with a friend who awaited cancer test results. I also waited for baby news. A dear friend of mine gave birth yesterday morning at 3AM. Welcome to the world dear Charlotte Rose!
I learned how to embed photo slideshows in my blog so you'll be seeing more of those. The one below is pictures from the church turkey potluck that took place last Sunday. We had almost 70 people in the church hall eating together, laughing together and after supper singing together. It was a wonderful event. Last weekend was full of Christmas parties, Saturday was a rice pudding party in town, Sunday was the potluck supper and Monday was the Pass Lake Women's Institute Christmas party. Tomorrow is the third Sunday in Advent (already!) and we have a memorial service as part of the Sunday service as we say good-bye to a pioneer from the community. We also had a funeral about 10 days ago for another long time member of the community, they will be missed. Tomorrow I also have the Community Christmas party for the kids and a Christmas supper and carol service in town.
8 days from now I will be home (as long as the weather cooperates). I am looking forward to time at home. Time with friends and family, time with my home congregation and especially looking forward to meeting a little one who was still in her mom's womb the last time I was in BC.
Before that I will celebrate Christmas with this community on next Saturday night at the candlelight service. They do not have services on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day and so we gather next Saturday to celebrate Christmas as a community.
I hope that this time of preparation and waiting is a very blessed one.

Slideshow from Christmas Potluck

Blog Changes

I've made a few changes to my blog. I often find other friend's blogs by following links on other blogs and since I now read many, many blogs I thought I should post links to what I'm reading. I still have more blogs that I read but they have been moved to my second page of blogs because they're not being updated enough (IMHO). If you have a blog I would love to know about it! Please send me the link. If you don't want your blog listed please let me know.
I use igoogle.com to keep track of all the blogs I read. I have added all the blogs to my homepage and I can scroll and see the titles and links to all the blog postings. This is much easier (and less frustrating) than always going to people's blogs only to find out they haven't been updated!
Winter continues to threaten to arrive and then back off. It was below 0 most of last week but today is up to 7. I'm grateful for any days without snow! I'm sure winter will be long enough when it finally arrives for good.
Time is flying here. 4 weeks and 6 days from now I'll fly home for Christmas. I've almost been here for 3 months. I can't believe it. I'm really enjoying my time here. It's a beautiful place and a warm and friendly community.
I'm learning lots and having all kinds of wonderful experiences.

Winter is here!

We had our first snowfall a couple of days ago. This is what I woke up to in the morning. It has warmed up a bit and and the snow is slowly melting away but I think winter is here to stay!

Pictures of Salem Lutheran Church

I just realized how long it has been since I've blogged, my apologies! I'm enjoying my time here in Pass Lake. It's so beautiful here. I love looking out my window to the trees and the beaver pond. I have now preached three times the most recent being this morning. I always struggle with sermon writing and never end up very happy with what I preach but I have received a lot of positive feedback. This morning for all saints day I invited people to write the name of a loved one who died on an angel and hang their angel on a tree at the front of the church. I got lots of comments about how much they appreciated it. I'm amazed at how open this congregation is to trying something new! Last night was the turkey supper. It was lots of fun with about 70 people from the church and community.
I have posted some pictures of the church I'm doing my internship at you can check them out here.