“How blessed are those who dwell in Your house! They are ever praising You.” Ps 84:4

Monday, September 30, 2013

Latest "Update" (since I have no email addresses anymore!)


Isn’t it amazing how months fly by, and then it is October again? October! Fall! And one of my favorite times of year because yes folks, it IS that time again - time to be Alberta bound! It’s been a year and I am excited to see everyone! 
Of course this also means that I need to be caught up on everything and be ready to leave for two weeks, which can be an intimidating thought, however it’s also a great push to get things finished! So let me tell you what we have been up to:

Well, for starters we have spent a lot of time over the summer and now since school has started over at the New Beginnings home for women. I have the great pleasure of helping the girls out with their continuing education, which I admit has it’s great pleasures and challenges, but we are moving forward which is always the right direction! So far two of the girls are studying through the adult education program, one in elementary the other junior high level, and we are working on getting the paperwork together for the remaining 3 ladies to continue their studies as well. (It is surprisingly bureaucratic, trying to get someone back into school) It was disappointing that my friend who I was teaching to read and write, who had never gone to school ended up leaving suddenly, but unfortunately this is part of working with hurt human beings. We also just started ‘Mom meetings’ every tuesday which I am excited to be a part of as well.

This summer Alex and I went camping for the first time in many years - we used to go camping on the beach, however this just proved to difficult and painful with his skin condition. This year we went for three days with our dear friends the Machados to a campground a few hours away with pools and LOTS of trees, and we had a great time! 

In August Alex turned 8 and started 3rd grade - he is growing up unto a wonderful young man and I am so blessed to be his mama. He has started the school year with even more organization and responsibility than before, and I couldn’t be more proud of him. 



He is also immensely enjoying the karate lessons that he started in July, and is showing a lot of natural ability for that sport. 

Our home is quite new, however that fact has not seemed to keep a sudden onslaught of breakdowns lately - first was the electrical inverter, an integral part of the solar electrical system we have for the house. Then the washing machine took a dive, we had some water tank issues, and last but not least the shower handle took an early retirement- naturally while in the open, flowing position - so I had to shut the water off to the whole house for a day until we figured out how to close that for the time being.



Each and every one of these experiences has shown me yet again how God is taking care of us through such dear friends, as both the inverter and washing machine were replaced within about a week! Thank You Lord, and thank you my dear church family!

I’ve been able to be involved a bit more with ‘El Buen Samaritano” Senior’s home which has been great - we have participated in a few fundraisers, but the main thing I have been doing to try to help and promote the home has been working on a website for them! I am still tweaking here and there, however I’d like to encourage you to stop on by at www.buensamaritanobaja.org to check it out! I will be periodically posting new blog entries so that you can keep up to date on what is happening with our favorite ‘abuelos’.

With another school year comes another english class-



And in order to be better prepared to continue this service to our little community school, (and perhaps other places in the future), I applied for and was accepted into a diploma program specializing in teaching english. So far it is great and I am very happy to actually learn about being a teacher! (not that learning by being thrown into it isn’t fun too) I also like the irony of learning to teach english, in spanish. So for the next year it is off to the big city every saturday, which is quite the commitment but I pray it will be a great investment for the future. 


Well, throw in a few birthday parties and weddings (as well as my first attempt at MCing in spanish), a quinceƱera, translating for a week long VBS, a weekly bible study, a few baptisms and a couple of beach days with my boy and you’ve got a pretty good idea of what we’ve been up to these past few months! It’s been great! And now I get to see many of you soon, I hope, so if you would like to know more you can ask me then, or send me a message and say hi at windykaren@yahoo.ca

God bless! Karen