A big wonderful blur...

Thats about how summer has felt so far. In an attempt to update you on the happenings in our lives, I will try to include the highlights of the last two months.

On June second Abigail turned four years old. We had a party the night before with most of her favorite local people in attendance. On her actual birthday we did special things as a family. She now says four is her favorite number! This is the first time in her life Abigail hasn’t celebrated her birthday while we were on the road. I guess that just shows how much we have traveled the past few years!!

I (Amanda) got the awesome opportunity to attend a Native Ladies Retreat at the end of June. It was very refreshing and relaxing, though it took me the first night to settle down and enjoy myself. This time away deepen some friendship in a good way, and I came home with bright colored nails!

The other big event in June was a fun-filled, action packed visit from two families who live in Pinedale, WY. Each family had an camper parked in our driveway, total people eating most meals at our house was thirteen. Six adults and seven kids, five under four! Everything went very smooth, and we were blessed to share a little bit of what life is like for our family here in Alberta with them (there just might be more to this story in an upcoming newsletter).

We are also thankful for some really great opportunities we had to participate in community events at Eden Valley (this time it wasn’t funerals). One night we attended an birthday party for an elder till 1 in the morning, the girls did great, joining in on the fun. We soaked up the sun at a volleyball tournament/picnic put on by the life skills class, and the girls and I got to go along on a field trip to a local amusement park with the day care group. While these might not seem like any big deal to you, the reader, we are so grateful for these chances just to get to know people and

learn. I am especially thankful for things we can attend as a family since my “day to day” contact has been rather limited.

We were blessed to have some meetings via phone the first week in July that helped keep us on track in terms of what we are doing now, what we can be doing better, and what the next step looks like. We are so grateful for the people who are willing to share what they have learned from their ministries, and work to equip us for the job at hand.

The first full week of July found us near Pincher Creek, Alberta at Camp Gladstone. This is a camp run by various people from various organizations for Native young people mainly from southern Alberta. We had two young men from Eden Valley ride down with us, and it was a lot of fun. This first week of camp is for teenagers. Joel spent most of his time working with the horses; feeding, saddling, and teaching the kids. I spent my time in the kitchen, well it’s actually a pavilion with walls on one

end and part way down the sides. It is a great place to cook, and the kids can all play outside while the woman work in the kitchen. The girls spent their time in the dirt...they play hard for hours in the sand etc. with all the other “camp kids” (the kids whose parents run the camp). Every night they are tired and filthy, but they love it. It was a bit chilly this week and rained almost every day, but everyone had a great time anyway. We are thankful everyone was safe on the horses, and for the chance to connect with the two guys from Eden Valley. Camp continued on for week two and three without us, and we returned home for more business.

On July 12th, Doug and Sheryl Sewell arrived for a week long visit to the grandchildren (and their parents of course). We were able to take some time for family fun while they were here, and also participated fully in Longview’s own Stampede. It is a great even for children and the girls had a wonderful time. (Also through the rodeo and a young man riding steers, Joel was able

to spend some “connecting” time with a family from Eden Valley.) It is always such a treat to have family visit when you live far away and we are sure thankful when those occasions happen. So this past week was spent trying to recover from the previous three and regroup for the next, all while trying to have a normal routine. Sunday the 26th we head back to camp for the final week, this one requires a bit more preparation as we our co-leading a the work crew (which is kids from the team camp age, coming to “work” for the younger camp). The emphasis is more on discipleship than work, and we are partially in charge of the devotions etc. for them. Please keep all this as a matter of prayer! Monday the 27th, Ruth celebrates birthday number two, so the fun continues. Well, this has gotten long, though I feel like there is more to say, this has been the highlights, please feel free to ask us for more details on anything we share. Thanks for your interest and I will try to update you with all the latest news from camp when we return!