A New Year Begins...2025!!

 After a busy and fun-filled Christmas season, our family shifted into birthday celebration mode. My wife Lynne had a fun day with birthday breakfast at Cora's (with me, our son Matthew and his family, and her brother Dennis) followed by a fun trip to West Edmonton Mall to visit the pirate ship and the penguins there. We then headed out to decorate some pottery before saying goodbye to Matt and Bailey and their boys. Lynne, Dennis, and I enjoyed some tasty Chinese food for supper before heading home to relax. Here are some fun photos...we sure love our birthday girl!!!

I came down with a fairly bad cold as January continued and that made it necessary to spend a bit of time at home resting and trying to get better. At least I didn't have to be sick over Christmas!!

I had a chance to help with a panel for a class at Concordia Lutheran Seminary as we talked with some current diaconal students in the program about being church workers. It was good to meet the students and good to hear my fellow deacons talk about life as a church worker. 

A highlight for January was a quick trip to Calgary to meet with a LAMP team there. We wanted to meet and discuss how things went on their first trip last summer to Deschambault Lake in Saskatchewan. We were planning to meet at Sharon Danish Lutheran Church...I was able to tour the church and I snapped some photos of the beautiful woodwork in the interior of the church. According to Karen, the LAMP team leader for Deschambault Lake, there are three churches built in this style in Western Canada. Here's some pictures...

We needed to change the location of our meeting so we headed over to Tea Funny for some bubble tea (a first time for me...tasty!) I met with Karen, Kirsten, and Sonja and we had a great meeting. As we talked, we agreed that last summer's VBS had gone well and the team is already excited about making plans for next summer. Here's a few pictures...

My trip home that night was a little rough...there was bad weather and I spent about 2 hours stopped on the highway as they worked to clear a bad accident. By the time I got to Red Deer (about halfway home) the blowing snow and the road conditions were so bad that I had to stop and stay over. You can't see it from the photo but it was a windy, snowy, icy night. I'm so thankful for those people who keep praying for me and my safety as I travel...especially on northern winter roads.

January was also a time to say goodbye to some good friends. My former ABC District President (who was serving in that role when I first started working as a church worker over 30 years ago) recently passed away. It was good to gather with his family, his friends, and other church worker colleagues to say goodbye at his funeral service at Concordia Lutheran Church in Edmonton. Harry was a good pastor and a good leader in the church. I'm thankful for him!!

I was also able to attend the funeral for the husband of a good friend and former coworker. I've been praying for Kelly and his family for a couple of years now as he has been battling cancer. It was good to gather with Deloyce and their daughter Avi to mourn Kelly's passing. I think I'll continue to pray for Delocye and Avi as they adjust to a new life and a new reality. If you wanted to join me in those prayers, please do.

An important leader in one of our LAMP communities also passed away in late December. I would have liked to attend her funeral but was unable to do so due to timing. Sally Roberts had been a gifted and committed leader in her community of Grandmother's Bay, Saskatchewan for many, many years. Her connections to and her support of LAMP's work in her community have been very helpful for our work there. I understand that she had a picture of our current LAMP team beside her bed in her last days. This is both a great example of the wonderful people in LAMP communities that we try to support with our work and also a great example of the connections that can be built between LAMP team members and people in communities like Grandmother's Bay. Here's some pictures of Sally and also a tribute to her from the Lac LaRonge Indian Band. I am praying for Sally's family and friends at this time of loss.

As January has wrapped up, I've been working on plans to travel to Manitoba for part of February. I'll be in Winnipeg for the annual Missionsfest event hosting a display table for LAMP. After that, I hope to drive north to communities like The Pas, Thompson, South Indian Lake, and Easterville. My travels north will depend on weather and road conditions. Your prayers, as always, are appreciated.