It's About Time

Yes, it is about time I get another post done since it's been 2 weeks since I last touched this blog. Things have just been that busy. With what, you may ask? Well, with getting ready all the things that need getting ready for our travels and sharing about the work in Mozambique.

Dwight has had his hands full with preparing the presentation we'll be showing. First, there is the retrieving, renaming, and ordering of video clips taken over the past 2 years. Then there's writing the script, recording the script, deciding on the best background music, and last but not least, spending hours piecing all that together!

(Some of the work was done at this sound studio in Edmonton.)

And me? Well, since we're back home with our kids, for some of the time I'm being a mom and enjoying every minute of it. And when our kids are busy (which is quite a bit of the time), I'm finalizing the development of SAM's new website. It was supposed to be finished by mid-December, but, well, time got away on us.

We're going with a Wordpress site, which is a brand new platform for me. I've messed things up quite badly a time or two, but thankfully I've been able to figure it out and reverse my mistakes. I've learned one thing, web languages are hugely hung up on little characters like "<" ";" and "/"!

Last Saturday morning, we headed to Summerland B.C.

Judging from the photo you'd think this was 5 or 6 a.m. (if you're from Africa anyway).
But no.
It was precisely 8:19 a.m., Edmonton (seemingly near the North Pole), in the dead of winter.

We were relieved that on this trip, we got to fly. This is Alberta from the air.
There has been little snow fall so far this year.

This mountain range is the Rockies. There's always snow in the Rockies.

Here's Dwight catching up on all the "good" news in the world.

When we arrived in Summerland, it was snowing. It snowed for hours. Dwight joked that maybe the name should be changed to Winterland.

Treacherous for driving, but sooo beautiful!

We made the trip to meet with Rick Cogbill and the Mercy Tech board, and to participate in a time of sharing about the Vocational Training Program and new workshop going up in Mozambique. It was wonderful to see familiar faces and meet new people.

We set up the recently made pull-up banners, and set brochures in the fold-up rack.
Sure beats the old system with its clumsy interlocking bars and teetering display boards.
Thanks Royden Lepp for the photos/design/time/etc. :)

Rick Cogbill and us in the "hot seats" (as Rick put it)
sharing interview-style.

John Topham (above, right) has organized for the donation and shipping of a lathe for the wood shop in Moz. He will be accompanying Rick (left)on his next trip out to train the woodworkers on its use.
(For those of you like me who know nothing about woodwork...a lathe makes round things. Bowls, round pegs, table legs, knobs, and such.)

On Monday morning Rick took us back to Kelowna to catch our flight home.
No snow on this stretch of highway.

I did my best trying to capture (with my cellphone) the amazing morning sun filtering through the clouds over the lake.
(Time: 8:57 a.m. Not early-morning sunrise. In case you were wondering.)

Before we knew it, we were headed back over the mountains, over the patchwork of farm fields to Edmonton. Back to finish up our work on the presentation, website, and so on.
Our time for preparing is almost up!

Let me close with a few photos from Heather and the team in Mozambique:

In the background, progress being made on an improved home currently under construction for a family of orphans. I can only imagine how happy they will be to finally move in.

Celestino, who I'm sure is keeping very busy in my absence, measuring Sr. Andrea's blood pressure.

Raimundo with a flap-necked chameleon in our yard. Rural Mozambicans aren't big fans of chameleons, so I commend Raimundo on his smile here :)

What I find even more amazing though is the plant growing to his right. I'm pretty sure that's a Cycad we planted about 2 years ago that never did show any signs of growth. We sort of figured it had died and would need to be dug up and replaced. Now it looks like it's decided to come to life.

It's about time.

ttyl