A Sunny November Afternoon

As I look out my office window, I see the snow reflecting the beautiful sunshine and the awesome blue sky. It is hard to be inside and after I finish my blog, I may just go for a walk.
As we adjust to Lacombe, one of the interesting adjustments is the weather. We have had a little snow, just covering the grass essentially, for a little over a week now. We missed that warmer weather that hit the Southern part of the province on the weekend, but we have had frost on the trees and it has been absolutely beautiful.
Lots to get caught up on. My induction service here at the church was October 29th. We had a great weekend as we had over twenty friends come from Moose Jaw and Spruce Grove, Alberta. It was so good to see our friends again. While we had fun visiting and getting caught up, it was hard to say good bye.
Don and Ruth, who we worked with when we were in Brantford and now live in Calgary came too and Don spoke - it was great. All in all, the weekend was a 12/10. The weather was not great on Sunday and our friends from Moose Jaw made it home at 4am and another car made it home at 4:30 am. That is what you call commitment.
What has been neat is to see the timing of God. One of our friends Gordon has been waiting for a kidney transplant and the week after he had been here in Lacombe with us the call came. His surgery has gone well and is recovering nicely in Saskatoon. That has been a real answer to prayer as Gordon has been waiting for over two years. God certainly is good.
The boys are doing great in school and making many new friends. Cameron finished football on October 28th with a 25-6 loss in Innisfail. They played well as a team and Cameron drew two holding penalities, almost had a sack, and made a couple of tackles as well as assiting in a few others. I was the head ref, so I watching the ball carrier and all of a sudden a defensive player would come flying in, and I would see that it was #92, and I thought, hey that is Cameron. Made the old man proud. The week before in Wainright, he rocked a kid and made him fumble the ball and the linebacker ran it back for about 40 yards and it was almost a touchdown. I was on the sidelines holding a hot chocolate and I almost scalded myself you know where!:) Good thing I missed.
Anyways, football is done and I am sad. I really missed the year end party with the guys in Moose Jaw this year. It was always a lot of fun going out for dinner and then going bowling or over to someone's house to watch some hockey. Hopefully, the party went well again this year. I have been "drafted" by the Red Deer Referees Association. I ended up doing six games for them and it was fun, it is just different working with different guys.
Andrew is keeping busy playing in the snow and looking forward to me getting the net set up so we can play road hockey in the driveway or on the road. He wants a new stick and everytime we go near a Home Hardware or Canadian Tire, he says, "Dad, that looks like a good spot to get a new stick." I will take him out next week and get one for him.
Colleen and I are taking the boys to Edmonton this weekend for some R&R. No West Ed Mall, that will wait for another trip. I get a Sunday off every quarter and this weekend I just want to relax, not fight people for space. We are staying at a hotel that has two water slides, so it should be a lot of fun.
Colleen's job is going great and she is enjoying it. Things at the church are going great too. Lots of new people - Sunday we had 25-30 people who had not been here since we arrived. Attendance is up about 50 people from a year ago as well, so we have found the right place to be. I feel that I can be who I am and use my gifts without ever worrying about tradition or some group of people that want me to hold their hands all the time. Anyways, enough of that stuff.
I should go and go for a walk on this gorgeous day. Blessings.