A Family Wedding and a whole lot more!

The last 8 weeks or so have been very busy for us as we went to Canada to attend primarily our son's wedding and just got back home to Moz a few days ago. As always, there were plenty of other things to attend to besides wedding activities, so I'll try to give you the nutshell version in photos.

The weekend we arrived back was a great time to connect with our family and kids and their significant others. 

Turns out it also was a great time to stay up until 3 a.m. catching up on lost chat time! We enjoyed every minute we had with our kids. Their lives are very busy too-our daughter is a full-time high school teacher, and our son is just finishing his Master's in Biomedical Engineering. 

 Our son's at-the-time fiancee was participating in a Ukranian Traditional dance festival so we enjoyed the colorful sights and sounds of the day. The sunshine was wonderful although there were so many mosquitoes we feared we may be carried away. Thankfully someone remembered to bring repellent, thankfully also (even more so) these mosquitoes don't transmit malaria. :)

We set a week aside to visit our daughter who is now a full-fledged highschool math/chem/science teacher. It was an awesome week. 

And do you spot a proud dad pointing out his daughter's name on the sign?

The end of a busy school day, the classroom is cleared and made ready for the next day's classes.

 

Fort McMurray is an oil boom town with big "trucks", and lots of them. Construction also abounds.

  

Although we were not on furlough, we took the invitation to share with the church in Fort Mac on Sunday since we were in the area. They are key partners of the work of the mission, and their generous offering that Sunday topped the project funds we needed to purchase a truck (pick up) to serve the school, orphan, and clinic work in Mozambique. We were so honoured and so thankful!

Week 3-ish: participating in SAM Ministries' strategic planning meeting.

Part of the activities during the meeting included jotting down our thoughts/vision on poster paper. 

It was a good day of looking back at where we came from, and projecting forward to where we want to be.

During our time at home, we also took in the SAM Ministries annual banquet and Global Care a Thon walk. In the photo below taken at the banquet, Carole Argo describes the quilt that she made to the winning couple (the wife is blind).

 Moving along to the wedding...

Weddings are a time of great excitement, family gatherings, but also of lots of work and planning. It's impossible to capture everything, so the above photo of us decorating the wedding arch at the church will have to do to represent all the other preparatory activities that took place, many of which took place before we even landed. The bride's family did an absolutely amazing job and things turned out so well! I was also privileged to prepare the wedding slideshow which was great fun to work on despite the hours of sifting through and organizing photos and music!

The bridal party right after the ceremony. 

The weather cooperated wonderfully and we had a nice and cool but sunny day where everyone felt comfortable, even the guys in suits.

Russell and Melodie

Stealing a quick shot while the photographer was otherwise engaged.

Amanda and Russell (our kids)

 With my mom and mom-in-law. What a wonderful chance to be together and celebrate such an awesome occasion!

Jon and Amanda, pleased at winning both the bouquet and garter toss :)

 Me with my mom and sister and our daughters.

The Lagore side of the family several days after the wedding. Missing a few members but it's hard to get everyone together!

The week following the wedding was a time of sad family goodbyes and fevered packing to return to Moz. We are now back home in the bush recovering from jet lag and preparing for intensive seminar which starts tomorrow. I'll do my best to keep posting here!