Working together for good

Edmontonians were incredulous (and rather dismayed, I might add) when once again, last week, it dared to snow. Once again we dragged warm jackets from storage closets. I'm sure that even the potted plants that have waited patiently to be transplanted outdoors had cabin fever. I was told that the temperature dipped as low as -7 Celcius. Nasty for May, but the snow flakes were sure beautiful anyway. I even went so far as to say that publicly to the rest of disappointed Albertans. (Not face-to-face, of course, but rather on an internet forum (a safe distance away...heh). I think I was alone on that one though.

See the lovely white spots? That's the snow.

Thankfully things warmed up and by the weekend and we had a warm, sunny day for the SAM Ministries’ 7th Annual Banquet. To me, this is a celebration of wonderful things and working together!

Here we are getting set up for it:

Arranging the tables to seat +/- 100 people--as spaciously as possible.

(In photo: my parents)

Getting food preparation underway in the church kitchen.


Left to right: Wally Fletcher, Patti Green (SAM office administrator), Lil Fletcher, and my Mom. 

Wally and Lil do some amazing work including catering the SAM banquets each year, and printing mission brochures, books, literature.

Lil, Steve Lagore (Dwight's brother, SAM Secretary and banquet M.C.), Wally, and Dwight

Dwight, his Dad, and Patti work together to set up the display board,

 which I then get to hang pictures on. That’s the fun part :P



Table with items to be raffled off during the evening.




Items used as “center-pieces” on the tables that are given away as door prizes. The giraffe’s were REAL cute and goofy-looking, but unfortunately the camera I took this photo with didn’t capture it very well. (That’s it, blame the camera. It wasn't my usual camera though, so I feel quite justified.)

Once things are all set up, it’s time for the event to begin. There’s always lots of greeting and hugging and talking as everyone arrives.



Here I am talking with my Auntie Dorothy (one of my many very special aunts).

We start off with a great meal. Then the program begins and updates are given from both the Mozambique and Brazil fields. After that (although not necessarily in that order), different people who are involved in a number of ways (walk-a-thons, fund raisers, visitors, etc.) share their experiences as well.



This is Kelly Maxwell (right).

 

She spear-headed the Thorsby Elementary School’s “Dollars for Desks” fundraiser which raised enough money to buy 24 desks last year. It was rather cool that she won the Mozambican wood-carvings as a door prize.

There was certainly no shortage of heart-warming stories this year. Here we are with Janette (middle-left) and Wilma (far right).


Last year, Janette was scheduled to join us in Mozambique for a short-term mission’s trip, but she had to cancel at the last minute because she was diagnosed with cancer. She has had surgery and is currently undergoing chemo. This has been a very difficult and challenging time for her and her experience certainly merits more than this brief paragraph in my blog post (I trust to follow up with a more comprehensive account of her struggles and victories).

Through it all, Janette’s commitment to the needs in Mozambique remains constant. She and Wilma surprised us with an amazing story of some of the good that has come from her trials: their efforts, and the compassion of others, has resulted in over $9,000 in donations toward the Orphans and Widows Program in Mozambique! We’re so honoured by their labour of love.

Let me close this time with a heart-felt THANK YOU to all of you who work together with us to achieve good things.

Blessings.