A busy labor day weekend...

In wanting to strive for more frequent updates, I was hoping to make it sooner than three weeks, but at least it hasn’t been a whole month. There are so many stories I would love to share with you, it’s hard to know what is best to write about. Our family has had some awesome opportunities to spend time with a family from the reserve, one night we had a cookout together and spent time just sharing life and learning. I had a few rejuvenating evenings with my “girls night” girlfriends, one who is back for the school year, and the other who was in town for a few weeks. Relationships are often a lot of hard work, but there are times when the reward of connecting with someone is a sweet savor. Labour Day weekend we found ourselves heading in two opposite directions, literally. After much planning and packing, we headed north (friday afternoon) to attend a Pow-Wow (see pictures). We had made arrangements to stay the night in nearby Cochrane at the Southern Baptist mission house/conference center, so we went and got settled in first and then drove to the

event around seven in the evening. It was held in an indoor arena, and we sat in the bleacher area, the floor below was covered in a green turf and at one end of the arena two teepee’s framed the entrance. Around the outside of the turf in an oval shape were lots of chairs and various drums. The drums are leather stretched over frames. For a while the building was somewhat quiet, with an announcer calling for various people to come to the entrance area and at times making jokes. All around the arena, dancers were getting into beaded outfits, hair was being braided, and we even saw someone burn sweetgrass around their head-dress. The drum groups (around 18) were also preparing. Each drum has about 10 people sitting around it who drum and sing together, (some people just sing). Finally the grand entry began, the host drum group began to sing and drum (see video on bottom-"Drumming"), and the arena filled with the sound, it seemed at times the seats were vibrating. The procession started with poles full of feathers being carried in, then came various flags, and elders from the community were also honored. Next the various types of dancers came in according to their category, the whole arena floor was full of color and movement and in many ways it was beautiful, and mesmerizing (see video on bottom-"Pow-wow Dancing"). After the ceremony was complete, the floor cleared somewhat and individual groups began the competition. We are not sure how long things lasted that evening, at about 10:30 our girls were in much need of sleep so we went back to our room. The next morning we packed up our things and drove to a local historical sight. It is an old Methodist church that was once used

by the people of the area. We then went back to the pow wow, this day started out the same way as the night before with only minor differences. There were a few people we knew and made connections with, but there were also many from all over Canada and the states. One of the winners I remember was from South Dakota. We won’t pretend to understand what all was going on at this event, we have much to learn and understand.

Though the event would last till late Sunday evening, we left Saturday afternoon to head the other direction.

We drove back down to Longview, watered some friends horses, picked up some more things, and kept driving south. Our destination was Camp Gladstone, for the final event of the summer activities, family camp. The evening session was in progress when we arrived, and with night quickly approaching I got our family settled into our cabin, while Joel stepped into help with the horses since someone had been injured while trail-riding (another story). After all my family was tucked into bed, I enjoyed some late-night fellowship around the camp-fire with the other night owls. Sunday we had breakfast, fellowship, and then a very encouraging time of hearing from the Word, followed by a potluck meal, then clean-up. Some of us ladies had time for a game, Joel went riding, the girls played in the dirt, (of course-it’s camp). The evening was spent in a great time of sharing testimony

and song. Night time, found me back at the campfire trying to prove I was still a night owl, but bed time did come a bit sooner that night. Monday we packed up and headed to Longview, to finish Labour Day at home. This last week has been life as usual, with a focus on preparing for our upcoming language check. Please keep us in your prayers this week, that we could get further direction and clarity in our language study. Trusting this finds you doing well, we love to hear how you are doing even if we don’t always respond immediately. Oh,and happy fall! Though the temps have stayed warm and the sun is still shinning, the wind lately has been singing the song of autumn, which means winter is not far away!