Life in McAdam on this day

Usually it's Dee that posts blog updates for us (except for on the trip, when the blog served as my personal and public journal), but here I am on a Monday night at the computer writing away.

We've made several new friends here in McAdam, including our newest friends, the minister of the Anglican church and his wife. We had a rousing start to a game of Dutchie (Dutch Blitz) last night, but I was too tired to be able to finish it, so we'll do it again later.

Things are going really well here, and VBS was a particular success. With over 40 kids around during the week, it seems like a great place to begin to rebuild our youth and children's outreach. Very exciting, and God seems to keep giving us help with everything he asks us to do. The funerals are difficult, but he helps with those too.

I thought I'd post a few pictures of our recent visit with Devin and Lenore (who came for a few days and very willingly and capably helped out tremendously with the first too days of VBS). Devin sent them to me today, so here they are.

Welcome to Our New Home!

Hi everybody! This is the grand tour....

Here's our bright and sunny dining room- the table and chairs are new to us thanks to the Wilsons(Jonathan and Martie- our friends and proff and wife from Acadia who are moving to BC)!















Here is my FAVORITE part (dee:)- the renovated kitchen with the requested island!! I've always wanted an island! They put a new dishwasher in 2 weeks ago which was awesome, and most of the house has been repainted white- fresh and new!
PS-these bar stools were too large so they're gone now and will soon be replaced by regular wooden bar stools.

















This is the stairway to the upstairs where the bedrooms, offices and bathroom are. To the left of this picture is a sunporch with lots of windows- it's been where most of our unpacked stuff has been residing, but we're definitely making progress! (I'm standing in the living room)
















One of the best things about having a house is the people you can fill it with!!! Last night we were able to have our friends from the valley, Devin and Lenore, come and stay with us! They stayed that one night and are coming to stay a bit longer next weekend. We played some dutch blitz (of which I also insisted that we film one round for the blog, but can't figure out how to put on here yet), we gave them the house and church tour, and just caught up with them! It was awesome! (We really hope to have lots more friends, (and their kids:), come and see us or stay with us soon!:):):):):)

Here we are playing Dutchie in the living room (that table's not usually there:)

















Part of our bond with Dev and Lenore is that we were all married the same day, which spawned our "Rings In!" ritual. Here are some exclusive photos.

Life in the Village of McAdam

Us outside of the church, and the sign says "Pastor Scott":)



This is our new house! We love it! As the sign says, it is the Baptist Parsonage.


McAdam has about 1500 people, a general store, an old and partially restored train station, a variety/video store, a little tanning/hairdressing place, a diner, a lounge/restaurant/ 4 room motel, a pizza place, a subway place, a little library/ tourism place, police station and firestation, and a post office. Oh and 2 schools, elementary and high school.

Well when I write it out like that it seems this town has a lot, doesn't it? It also has a lot of character, quietness, charm and nice people and weather, aside from the daily thunder and lightning showers. We've been really enjoying life here so far...everyday I feel more and more at home. Yesterday we visited Green Hill Lake Camp where our buddy from Acadia- Al-had been directing the camp, but was finished or on vacation ir something while we were there. They have a great facility- and they have these huge floating things out on the lake that campers (wearing PDFs, mind you) can play on- a huge iceburg shaped thing that you climb up and slide down, a huge teetertotter and a trampoline. We went these with Andrew Kelly and we all had so much fun! I was sore today from all the excercise!

This weekend we have our first non-family visitors- Maryanne Bailey and her mom are staying with us tonight, and tomorrow night we have the Devin and Lenore Team coming up to participate in the ongoing "Battle of the Sexes" Dutch Blitz Tornament with us. My guess? Girls are gonna kick some boy butt. hehehe....:) Anyways, mom and dad (Scott's) are now here for a week with us (staying with our friends for the weekend due to space shortage), so we're looking forward to that.

I've been picking lots of Raspberries in our backyard everyday and we're gonna make jam while mom and dad are here to help us;)! We had our friends Elizabeth and Tony over tonight to play dutch blitz and eat pizza, and then when everyone arrived we all chilled and talked it was great! Also, Liz took me swimming on the St Croix River today and we swam from the US to Canada and then back again. It was so funny, and fun....swimming is awesome! There are so many lakes around here! Time for bed, it's almost Sunday!

Pics of Poland

Wow, Poland! What a wild and wonderful time to try and describe in any kind of short form. But...pictures tell a story- so here are a few. Thank you for checking our blog and being patient while we moved to NB and got settled here. We're really enjoying little McAdam, and have made some friends already- a huge blessing! Scott preached today and he did great! It's nice to finally be able to reflect on our trip, now that the first hectic week (including Scott's first funeral) in McAdam as pastor and wifey, is over.

Our time in Poland was unforgettable. We saw and experienced so much:
many Polish eyes empty of hope; dismal about Poland's political and economical histroy and future, the horrific and important site of Auswich, teaching english to eager young people and encouraging them that they are the ones who can make a change for the better in their country, and sharing with them our reason for coming to teach english for a week: our love for God and desire to share His love with them.




This is the shower in the church (the church housed great facilities for people to stay there for either short or long term)- unlike North America there is no shower curtain and the shower is handheld- very commmon in Europe.















Here's me smilin' for the cam (and Scott). We all wore nametags with Polish and Canadian flags on them.
















This van was great, it fit about 8 people and only had seatbelts in the front. To have these 2 symbols together in Poland is a rare sight.






















Ania, a youth leader at the church in Katowice, is an awesome girl, totally committed to serving Christ with her life, and has loads of personality (and craziness!- maybe that's why we became friends so quickly- or maybe it was the hair...). Her 2 sisters Ola and Helena were also great girls who helped us out a lot while we were at the church- whether it was with meals, translating, hugs of encouragement, mini Polish lessons, whatever!





















Here is me with my class (Christina and I taught this class together-Advanced Level). They are all very intellegent women who are either in Uni., or looking for work (not an easy task in Poland).














L-R: Monica, Dominika, Magda, Yola, Me, Korolina, Anna's sister and Anna.