5 things you wont find in Canada

Hey Everyone, well we've been collecting photo's for the last little while of things that you won't probably ever... (at least not likely) find in Canada. I'll even have to explain some of them as they wont make sense.

Photo #1 is a giant L&P bottle. All you who know a little about Kiwiland will know that this drink is "world famous in New Zealand". Created here and sold by the truckload here...kiwi's are proud of this drink. It's actually quite good, It's been John's replacement for iced tea (he's been missing it) This little man (Photo #2) is a maori carving that is traditional. I just had to... (just be glad it's a photo of his front side and that he's holding that jadestone...)
Photo #3 is of a local natural wonder. These rocks are natural erosion on the wild west coast of the south island. Puna Kaikai (sorry if that's spelled wrong).
Photo #4 This is a one way bridge, common throughout New Zealand on most any road other than the main highway. There are always clear signs showing which side has the right of way however this one really got us as this is a car bridge, one way and the train always has the right of way. Photo #5 - I hope the photo is big enough for you to see that it's a penguin crossing sign and it's for real. I had to get a picture...

Well I'm sure there are many other things that you can find here that you can't find in Canada but those are the best ones we've seen so far.

Merry Christmas Everyone

Well, Christmas has come and gone this year but I just wanted to wish you all a merry Christmas. This has been a different holiday season for John and I, being away from our families and missing out on some of our treasured family traditions (like eating all the ugly jam jams with my mom and having a try at winning the nut prize with John's family) Know that you all were missed as we celebrated but that we did have a wonderful Christmas.

We'd love to hear how your Christmas went so please comment your favorite moment or memory from your holiday this year. For all you anonymous commenters, when you are choosing an identity you can actually click "other" and then type your name (leave the "website") box blank and then instead of being annonymous you will be "mom" or "anna" or whatever... Unless of course you want to continue to be annonymous which is okay with us. :)

We love you!

John's Day at the Beach...

Today we finally had a day to relax. As you know our days have been so hectic with our busy schedule. We are now on the south island. We had a wonderful ferry crossing and are now at a little camp called Bridge Valley Christian Ranch. John met the director and his wife when they came to Qwanoes doing a tour of North American camps and they invited us to come visit them when we were here. We've really enjoyed seeing their camp and spending time with them. They've even extended a job offer to us so you will all have to pray for us that we would have wisdom to know if this is or isn't the next place that God has for us.

Anyways, at the beach today we had lots of fun and here are some pictures to prove it. :) For all of you who are wondering... the wierd photo of John with a stick is John walking like an old man hunchback... heehee (guess who let me do this post all by myself...)

Andrea

On the road again...

...Just can't wait to get on the road again… ( tee hee to anyone who now has a song stuck in their head…) Well it’s the end of day 3 of our North Island trip. We’ve breezed past a lot of really pretty places and if we had longer we would have stopped to enjoy much more of the senic views. Tonight we found a place with high speed internet for $2 NZD per hour (which is fabulous) We can even use our laptop which makes things just that much easier. I’ll try and do a recap of the last few days with photo’s.

So we started out on our journey by leaving Finlay Park (go figure) That was actually kind of sad because we will miss hanging out with Quintin, Dan & Bex (and Beth), Ian & Christine, Joan & Gary, Nicole & Gus (and Mia), Tim and even Jono (although we won’t miss his singing) We didn’t get away until after lunch as we tried to find an insurance company who would insure us (non-native and for less than a year) We made a short stop in Auckland before carrying on to the beautiful beaches that awaited… Our first night we spent at a tiny little Motorcamp (as they call it) that wasn’t actually all that nice but it was a place to stay. We were on the beach of a little inlet, which was nice. Day two we took off from our parking spot and found the road Quintin recommended for some awesome scenic views. As we drove we realized we were going through an area where we had a contact. We thought we would look up Bill & Ann Pearson. We stopped by their lovely souvenir shop and they recommended that we spend the night at a near by beach (Quintin also recommended it). Matauri Bay was lovely and we really enjoyed the view from our van as the campsite was next to deserted and we had a beachfront site all to ourselves Day three (today) we had to make it all the way to Cape Reinga and then as far as we could get in order to keep to our tight timeline. We did a short hike to the top of the hill where the memorial for the rainbow warrior is before leaving the campground. We skipped quite a few things that were beautiful in order to get going. After a fairly long drive on a windy road we were headed north to the tip of New Zealand, the “Far North” as they call it, which just happens to be the warmest part of New Zealand. On the way we half missed a turn, half decided to stop and check out the giant sand dunes. We passed up our opportunity to go sand tobogganing but still went for a hike up the giant hills. John went on further than I did so while I waited for him to come back I got this bright idea that if you can toboggan you can also make a ‘sand’ angel. I can still feel the sand in my mouth…and in my hair, my eyebrows my ear’s, my legs…etc. After that we continued on to the tip which is called Cape Reinga. The view is amazing. From there we drove all the way back down and headed for the Kauri forest. We only got a little ways before it was time to call it a day. We found a backpackers inn at Kohukohu that’s pretty sweet (called the Tree House) and what do you know they have cable internet too!

Anyways that’s a good summary of the last 3 days. It’s time for bed.

Oh one final note… we’ve been having a little bit of car trouble along the way… our horn is sticky and seems to have a mind of it’s own. It went completely ballistic a couple times. I was laughing so hard and John was trying to drive, shift, find a place to pull over and hitting the horn all at the same time. It was really comical, not to mention the looks of those around us as our horn was blaring loudly. If anyone knows where the cable is to disconnect the horn on a 1989 Mitsubishi Delica or if you can read Japanese (as all the labels, stickers, etc are in Japanese) let us know. It may help.

This is the story of a van...

Well folks, we are officially on our way to exploring the unknown world of New Zealand. We finally managed to finish the van today (Tuesday) so Wednesday morning we are taking off. It took us 2 1/2 weeks to get the van in ship shape but now it is beautiful and ready to go. We started with an empty shell of a van and now it is a beautiful converted campervan! Yay! and it looks sweet. Get this I even sewed curtains for it. Crazy hey? Who would have thought. Our friend helped us make 2 awnings (one over the back door when it's open and one over the sliding door) He also helped us make all the upholstery inside the van for the bed cushions, etc. Tonight we stuffed our little van full of all our stuff! It filled up quickly. Yikes. This does mean that we are also leaving our new friends and Quintin behind. It will actually be kind of sad because we made a lot of good friends here (Thank's everyone at Finlay Park). From here until Christmas we don't know when we will be able to get in touch with anyone as we wont have free internet anymore. Know that we love you all! and we are missing you! Enjoy the photo's of what we've been up to the last little while. **For more pictures of the progress on the van and the finished product check out click.**

Testing Photo's

These photo's are just a few we've taken since we've been here. The first one is of the local landscape. This is what most of the country (that we have seen so far) looks like . The next one is of John and Quintin and I when we went lougeing (sp??). The last photo is the view from one of the highways out into the ocean where there are large rocks way out... pretty cool.

Anyways that's all for now, we'll post a photo journal of the progress on our van soon if all goes well. Sorry for the poor quality of the photo's.

Andrea

We got a Van!!!!

Yay! What a relief. We bought a 1989 Mitsubishi Delica last week on Saturday (grey and silver for all you girls who don't really care what it is) . We paid $1800 NZD for it and we think it's a pretty good deal. We had a friend here check things out with the engine and it all seems okay so we just have to trust that it will get us from one end of this country to the other. I'll send photo's by email soon as we're finding it hard to upload anything to our blog when we have to pay for Internet. Now the real work begins. This van isn't converted into a camper so we now have to make it something we can live in for then next little while. Yikes!! Our plan is to take out the back seats, build a raised bed in the back with storage underneath and a bit of a kitchen in the back that you can access from the back door. One friend we've made here used to do upholstery and he's offered to help us make a little awning that would go over the back door so that would be our little eating area most likely. We'll let you know how it really ends up happening because there's bound to be some changes to the plan as we go along. The plan is to set it up real sweet and then sell it again before we leave. God definitely answered our prayers for this little van. It took 3 vans that we thought we were going to buy before we stumbled across this one. It ended up being a Christian family who had been praying that the right people would come along to buy their van. Pretty cool hey? The first one we were going to get the guy was a little shifty. We weren't sure we could trust him and then when John took a mechanic friend up to look at it, when they got their he told them he'd already sold it. The second van was already converted into a camper and was pretty sweet but needed a little tune up because it wouldn't start. Well when they got it to the shop we called them to ask for an honest opinion and found out that the fan belt had gone and fried the engine, woops guess we won't buy that one... Then we looked at a couple others before finding this last one.

I'm excited because now we have something to work on and a goal to get going. On Sunday John and I washed the outside and began the long job of totally cleaning out the inside. It's pretty dirty inside and has a fairly large ding in the sliding door that needs fixing. The first few days we were just cleaning, mostly ripping out the insides of this van and starting new. We found more and more food and dirt and money and all kinds of things the further down we went in the van. Yuck. The family we bought it from had 9 kids so we definitely noticed the dirtiness. Anyways, after we got it all cleaned out we began the long job of putting it all back together. We've had many "Where did this piece come from?" moments already so we know this should be really interesting. Some of the plastic trim on the inside was really banged up and quite dirty/sun-bleached. I decided that we should paint it so we bought some paint on Monday so I could paint them up. It looks pretty sweet now that I'm done. We also bought the lumber on Monday so John started cutting up the pieces to make the bed and interior. Next we need to pick out new material for curtains and new upholstery type material to redo some of the paneling in the back. We're having fun and I can tell already that it will be hard to part with this van when it's all said and done. Oh well.

It's now been just over one week of work on this little van and we have the frame for the bed made and in and we drew up the detailed plans for the rest. Today and next week we should be able to finish and get going mid week. I'm excited to see how this has all come together. It will be fun to see how long it actually takes us. We've had some pretty good ideas (we think) and I'm excited to give them a try and see how good they really are. For example, the bed in the back of the van converts into a couch that about 3 people could sit on and there will be a table in the floor that comes apart when it's not needed. The dilemma was that our bed was then made up of 6 cushions which we thought wouldn't be very comfortable for sleeping on. We decided we would buy a foam topper to go over all the bottom cushions but then how do you work out putting sheets on the bottom??? We decided to make like a pillowcase out of sheets that goes over the topper that will be our bottom sheet. The foam topper and sheets will then roll out of the way quite easily when it's time to make the bed into a couch. :) We shall see how it actually works.

On a more somber side of things, the friend that I spoke of that used to do upholstery, on Monday afternoon had an accident here at the camp. He was spraying for weeds on the quad and was driving slowly along a steep bank looking backwards to see where he was spraying and the grass kind of covered up an area that had sluffed a little. The quad tipped over the bank and threw him down the hill. He looked up to see the quad rolling down towards him but couldn't move out of the way and it landed on him and then continued down the hill, leaving him with a lot of pain. In the end it worked out that he broke 5 little bones in his back that some muscles attach to right above the pelvis. John helped carry him from the bank up the hill on a stretcher while they waited for the ambulance. It really shook everyone up and we were so glad to see him up and about today. Praise God, it could have been so much worse.

Well that's a brief summary of the last week and a bit, sorry it took so long to get this up. I know you've all been dying to know what has happened with us lately.

- Andrea

Van? Maybe?

Well folks… today just might be the big day. John and I, after lunch, are heading out with a mechanic to check out a van that we have found (or should I say was found for us). If it seems to be okay we will pay the guy and bring it home. The plan is to convert this little van into a camper van that we can travel the country in and park at night and sleep in it. Now when I say van you need to think van like Volkswagon vans. The one we are looking at is a Toyota but shaped like a VW van. Anyways… I’ll do my best to post some pictures if everything works out.

Since the last time I posted I don’t feel like much has happened, we really have been kinda playing a waiting game while we looked for a vehicle. I am feeling quite restless and so is John. We both just want to get this van going and get going. For all you BC residents we booked our ferry crossing the other day to go from the North Island down to the south, which books up really fast because we want to go right before Christmas, and the cost is… $218 NZD. That is for a undersize vehicle and two adults. Crazy hey? Makes the what? $70 look not to bad hey?

One thing we did do was go to hot water beach last weekend, which is on the cost of the Cormandel Peninsula on the east coast of New Zealand. It was a rainy weekend so it wasn't as good as it could be but we still enjoyed seeing the area, which is very pretty. There are a lot of nice beaches that reminded me of the Oregon coast with large rocks and boulders sitting way out from the beach randomly scattered around. Peter (John’s brother) recommended hot water beach to us and it was pretty cool. Basically there is a hot water spring under the beach that is fed into the ocean. All you have to do is dig a shallow hole in the sand and it will fill up with hot water, really hot water. We planned it right with the tides and got to the beach just as the tide was going out (and there wasn't too many people there yet). We picked our spot and John and Quintin started digging. I watched while putting on sunscreen. :) We got quite a big hole and it was really, really nice to sit on a beach in our little pool filled with hot water. About an hour and a half later the beach was crowded with people who were all trying to dig little holes to sit in. Unfortunately the spring is only in a small area and so if you don't get a good spot, the water is just cold. Our spot however continued to get hotter and hotter the lower the tide got. At low tide there were crowds of people digging pools and getting cold water while we were being forced out of our pool because the water was too hot. We got a pail and started hauling cold ocean water into our little pool but that only helped for a short time before it got too hot again. We had a good chuckle of the irony of this. After 3 hours of sitting in hot water we decided we'd had enough and headed back to the car where we ate lunch and examined our sunburns.

The differences half a world away...

Well we are getting adjusted to life in yet another culture. New Zealand is beautiful. Very similar to Vancouver Island in that it’s very green, but different kinds of plants grow here. We got over the bit of jetlag quickly and are enjoying our time here at Finlay Park Adventure Camp. Quintin and the other people here are being so helpful in getting us started. We have a whole network of people looking out for a good vehicle for us, particularly a guy here named Ian who used to do upholstery. He has offered to help us make a plain van into a campervan, we’ll just have to wait and see. Much is different over here. Let me explain some of the differences. Let’s start with breakfast. This morning in the kitchen I was surprised to see beans, like pork ‘n’ beans without the pork. To them that is a breakfast item, to be eaten, get this… on toast. Also for breakfast, pancakes and waffles are non-existent; instead it is cold breakfast like cereal and porridge, and granola, with the exception of the beans on the toast. John put peanut butter and jam on his toast and they all grimaced because to them jam and peanut butter should not be mixed. Crazy hey? Driving was another interesting difference to experience. We borrowed Quintin’s car the other day and went into Caimbridge. It really throws you for a loop when all you are used to is opposite not to mention that Quintin’s car is a standard (you try shifting with your left hand and driving with your right). John and I both drove because we both wanted to try, but I got really nervous driving in town. I was so scared that I would forget something and crash. One thing that was a funny difference is because the hands are switched when driving, the little lever that you push to signal right or left is on the opposite side and on the other side is the windshield wipers. Both of us, every corner, the windshield wipers came on, then the signal light… on a perfectly sunny day. Oops. Another difference is the intensity of the sun. Since I have my hair in braids, I currently have a lobster red scalp, take that back… a peeling, chunky scalp, I also burnt my neck and a bit of my back, when we were just out and about one afternoon. I have to make sure I call it a boot not a trunk, jandles not flip-flop’s, tog’s not swimsuit, tah not your welcome and so on. I just laugh when we are speaking the same language but I can’t understand what’s being said.

Quintin had Monday off this week so he took us on our first sight seeing trip. We went to Rotarua (row – tah – rew – ah) to see the thermal activity. There is just all kinds of geysers and boiling mud pots and sulfur lakes etc. We really enjoyed walking around and seeing it all, we also got to tour a Maori village and see a concert. These are the New Zealand natives, and it brought up a bunch of other differences between North American Natives and Kiwi Natives. For instance, the songs they sang were in harmony, songs like hymns but not in English rather than rhythmic chanting and drumming. They did a Hakka, which in their culture was traditionally used as intimidation before a battle. The hope was to scare the enemy away and avoid battle all together. It is quite intimidating. They also did a poi demonstration and some stick games. All of it was quite unique. The sounds that they use in their language are very different than any language I’ve ever heard. Wh = F and the sound whaka (smile) is used in combinations in many of the words. I can’t bring myself to say half the words or town names because they sound like I’m swearing. Oh well. After that we got to go luge-ing. It was so fun. Think luge like in Canada but instead of snow and ice, they have pavement, and instead of a sled with runners a cart with wheels. It was crazy. You are ripping down this hill on a curvy course on a little sled with wheels and a steering wheel. So fun. You go back up the hill on a chair lift and do it again! We went out for supper where I had a BLET (a BLT with egg in it) it was really good! Then we found a little natural hot stream that mixes with a cold stream and where they meet it’s really nice to swim. That was so nice. Mmmm, what a perfect ending to a good day.

Don’t worry we have worked a bit now too at this camp, so we are not being completely lazy, not completely… However the fun continues and tonight we are going out on the Kayaks to see the glow worms in a near by gorge. Sounds like fun.

Austrailian Sunrise and First Glimpse of NZ

We have arrived in New Zealand. Once again we are quite tired as we flew through the night but we are here and safe. We even managed to make it through customs with all the wierd things we bought in Indonesia. We were so worried that they would take some of it away from us.

Anyways, got to go! I'll post more later

Andrea

Goodbye Indonesia

Alas, the time has come for us to say goodbye to this country we have enjoyed for the last 3 and a half weeks. Tomorrow we embark on a new leg of our adventure. Since our last post we have enjoyed the orphanage and a lot of shopping and just hanging out with the Janzens. We are enjoying the culture and learning some new words. I can officially count from 1-10 in English, French, German, Spanish, and now Indonesian! It’s a little sketchy with me remembering how to say them but I sort of can. This first picture was the best we could do to capture the useage of bicycles (and motorbike's too) here in Indonesia. We were asked to take a picture of snake fruit so if you are wondering what that is… it’s a fruit.We really have enjoyed our time here. It has been so good to see and experience. We have been mostly healthy and God has blessed us with safety. We have another long flight ahead of us on Wednesday, about 12 hours of flying and a 6 hour layover in Singapore, but not before we enjoy another night on the beaches of a tropical country. Hmmmm, life is tough.

P.S. I know it's been a while since we posted on 'Click' so for those of you who don't check it anymore, there are a bunch of new photo's there too! :)

-Andrea and John

The Adventure Continues

We’ve been in Indonesia for just over two weeks now and we are loving it. I haven’t got this much sleep in years. I’m getting like more than 9 hours per night on a regular basis. Rinus and Sheralyn say it’s the heat and being in a strange culture so I’ll take that excuse I guess. The last two days we’ve been in an area of Indonesia that was hit really hard by the earthquake a few months ago. They are still only barely started to get on their feet and rebuild.It was a very interesting time as we went to help them, to contribute to their efforts of rebuilding. We went with an organization called GenAssist, and they basically empower the people to do their own reconstruction work. They provide the supplies, train supervisors in building codes to make the buildings more durable if there is another earthquake, and then divide up the people into crews that help their neighbors, one house at a time. I really appreciate the way they are doing it. When we got there the people associated us with GenAssist, so to them we were the face of the organization, thus they all thanked us a million times for helping them even though we hadn’t done anything yet. The first day they let us help at first but when our jobs ran out they never really assigned us to new things. After a while I gave up and made efforts to play with the kids that were around. This was challenging, as they are extremely shy of white people. I got all smart and thought I would try and teach them a game. So I drew on the cement a hopscotch game. They were too shy to play it with me but when I would walk away and turn my back they would try it out. After a while they got less shy of me and I tried to teach them some English. I thought I would start with numbers so I drew 1,2,3 on the cement and said them very slowly. I could see them mouthing it with me but they wouldn’t say it out loud. After a while I gave up and just as I walked away I heard one of the girls count out loud in English from 1 -12. Obviously they already knew their numbers. After that I decided that they could maybe teach me numbers in Indonesian. It took a while but we got it figured and I learned one to ten, sort of. I got them to write down their names and how old they were and some other Indonesian words like bicycle and house and body parts. It was quite neat to have them teaching me.

That evening we met up with a doctor and nurse who were associated with GenAssist. They took us out for supper to a restaurant that was on a lake…literally. It was a floating restaurant. To get to it there was a pull bridge or trolley. Like they only build part of a floating bridge and then use ropes to pull the bridge from one side to the other. We had fish and fish and rice and spinach. It was very good! The house that we slept in that night was very nice and the next morning I had chicken soup for breakfast and John had chicken curry. Mmm Mmmm We both passed on the Cow Lung.
That day we wanted to start working but every time we indicated this they would offer us a snack or show us more things. This could have been frustrating if we had been really determined to do some work. In the end we let it slide and it was a good day. An Indonesian that spoke some English came around and did some translating for us. He said that the Indonesians felt like it would be mean to make us work and that’s why it wasn’t working out. We told him to tell them that’s why we came and after that they let us work a little bit. The biggest thing that came of that was that they ladies asked me to come into the kitchen and help prepare lunch. I fried Tempe and Tofu and made Sambal. Tempe is made from Soy Beans and is pretty good, Tofu when deep-fried is actually quite good if you can get over the consistency, and Sambal is basically hot sauce to the extreme. I actually got to make the Sambal so I am excited to make some for my dad and brother when I get home. The recipe goes something like this… 2 cups broken up jalapeño peppers, 3 cloves of garlic, 2 baby purple or red onions and 1 tsp salt. The peppers, garlic and onion are deep fried for about 5 minutes. Then I used a stone bowl and stone tool to crush them all together with the salt. In Canada I think I would use a blender on a slow speed for about 2 minutes, you want it to still be quite chunky. That’s it… I think I may have offended her by not wanting to try the thing I made, John tried it and he said it was VERY hot. After lunch I also got to go on a motorbike ride that day, me and three other girls…on one bike. What an experience. In Indonesia, motorbikes are the cheapest form of transportation, cars are too expensive for most Indonesians, and many families use their bike to do anything and everything. Think of things that we would do with trucks, cars and vans and then put all that onto a motorbike. We saw someone the other day hauling chickens, about 50 – 60 of them, on his motorbike. They were all tied by their feet in bundles and then draped over the bike, we’re pretty sure he couldn’t see his speedometer because there was chickens on the front and the back. People use motorbikes to haul bales of rice or tobacco, whole families, or anything else they can strap to the bike. The thing that gets me is the babies that are tied to their moms, like a baby carrier, and then the moms can drive or ride and still have use of their hands. I couldn’t imagine riding on a motorbike with my baby, let alone not holding on to him…

Tomorrow we are going to an orphanage about an hour from where we are. I’m excited about this although we’ve been warned that the kids are very shy so they won’t seem excited to see us at first. I’m still looking forward to it.

On a special note…we’re now able to give a more firm idea of when we will be returning to Canada. John’s brother Peter emailed us to let us know that him and his girlfriend Mel will be getting married in May next year. We think we will try and be home for that. CONGRATULATIONS PETE AND MEL!!

John and Andrea

Continuing Travels in Indonesia

Today was a great day. We got to do a tour of a temple about an hour out of the city called Borobodur. It was a beautiful place to see. We had to get up at 3:45 AM to catch the bus that would take us there for sunrise. In the end the bus was late and we didn't get to see the sun come up but it was still very pretty. This afternoon we went to a pool with the Janzens and played in the cool water. We are really having a good time here. Next week looks like it will be pretty packed. On Sunday we will attend church with the Janzens and then on Monday we will hopefully be joining up with a group they know that is doing earthquake relief. That may be a two day thing, we aren't sure yet. We are also going to join Rinus one day at the University and Sheralyn in her English class. That should be fun! Thanks for all the encouraging comments and emails! We will do our best to bring back some of the warm weather when we return... :) Here are two more emails that I wrote the last couple days before I got online to post them...

Well we have now finally arrived at Rinus and Sheralyn’s house and it is wonderful to be with English speaking people again! After our time on Gili Air (which in Indonesian translates to Island Water) we got to spend 3 days at a resort on Lombok. The resort is fairly cheap for what you get and it was very nice to have freshwater showers and flush toilets again. The resort has a pool and lots of restaurants and shops all around it. We even got to a little Internet shop where we posted from last time. We really enjoyed our time there as well and if any of you are looking for a great place to go for your vacation the getting here is the expensive part. We were paying $12/ night on Gili Air for a little bamboo hut on the beach (think like camping but one step up) and that included breakfast and then about $3 each for meals like fresh fish, rice, sautéed vegetables, chicken and so many other good dishes. Then for a posh resort we were paying about $50/night. The fish that we have tried so far is Brown Snapper and Barracuda, which were both very tasty. The locals do a lot of BBQ so both of those dishes were right off the BBQ on to our plate. One night we ordered pizza and the waiter politely told us that if we wanted pizza that was okay but we would have to wait because they had to light the fire for the wood fired pizza oven.  We waited and it was worth it.

Our flight to Java was a pleasant surprise in fact the day was filled with pleasant surprises. For our travels within Indonesia, Rinus arranged everything. We had no idea what airlines we were flying or anything from island to island. When we got to the airport we asked around before we found the right counter to check in and when we did it seemed pretty normal. Well we must have looked lost because the guy behind the counter called a lady over to personally escort us to the right gate. Well as she was leading us she took us into this little room off of the main waiting area. In this little room there were beautiful plush couches, free drinks and snacks, and games and TV. We were a little shocked before we realized that the tickets Rinus had bought us were first class. We were enjoying the wait in our little room when we also found out that they would come and get us when our flight was starting to board. That was also nice because the announcers often have such strong accents that it’s hard to tell what is being said over the intercom. When we got to the plane we also found that first class seats are… well they are amazing. I’ve never sat in such nice airplane seats and John could barely reach the seat in front of him even if he stretched his legs all the way out. That is a pretty big deal for someone who usually can’t sit strait in planes because his legs are too long. It was so good to see someone we recognized on the other end this time and Luke and I became good friends instantly. We’ve really enjoyed the time spent hanging out with the Janzen family and are definitely looking forward to the next two weeks that we will spend with them.  Rinus has shown us many pictures of the sights to be seen in the local area and it looks like there will be plenty for us to see and do while we are here. It continues to be almost unbearably hot here and we’re not on the beach anymore so my cooler attire is no longer appropriate. I’ve never had sweat soak through a pair of jeans before but I have now .

Anyways, We love you all and thanks for all the emails!!

John and Andrea


We have now been here with Rinus and Sheralyn and the boys for a couple days and have been enjoying our time immensely. We have gone shopping at a local shopping area, been to the South Coast, went out for coffee and bought a McFlurry for 5,000 Rp (about 60 cents), which was wonderful! Today I plan to head out with Sheralyn and do some shopping. We shall see if I actually buy anything but there is so much to look at here. If I had a shoe fetish I would be in heaven because there are so many cute flip flops (jandals) here made of so many different materials that we don’t use back home and some really cheap also. I bought one pair of flip flops here for 10, 000 Rp (about $1.50 Canadian) but they are pretty standard cheap flip flops like what you would find back home. I bought them because my flip flops were giving me blisters and I gave them away to a local who didn’t have any…maybe they will give him blisters too, who knows.

This morning Sheralyn and I went for a walk to the local fruit market and bought some fruit. We bought grapes, bananas, apples and Snake Fruit. Snake fruit has a scaly skin that looks like snake skin and is a dry fruit that isn’t really possible to compare to another fruit. I’m not sure that I liked it but it was fun to try something different. Rinus and Sheralyn have a mango tree in their backyard so we have been enjoying picking and eating fresh mango’s here on a regular basis also. While we were gone John took care of the boys who are enjoying building all kinds of Lego things with him.

One of the funny things that has happened to us since we’ve been here is that our bodies, in adjusting to the time change, have decided that it’s bed time around 7 or 8 PM. As I am writing this it is almost 9 PM on Thursday evening in Alberta but it is almost 10 AM on Friday morning here in Indonesia. When you go to bed at 8 PM waking up at around 5:30 – 6 AM isn’t all that difficult, it just seems weird. It does kinda make sense because that is approximately when the sun disappears and reappears. We have a good laugh when we feel so very tired and look at the clock and it’s 7:30.

One final adventure that I will tell about is that after our time at the coffee shop yesterday we had to catch a becak home. A becak is a Pedi cab type of transportation, or a guy with a tricycle that has a seat in the front for two to sit while he peddles behind you. It cost 10,000 Rp to ride for about 15 minutes home. It was very interesting as they don’t go on the sidewalk, they are right in the midst of the traffic so there are cars and motorbikes all around you and the seat wasn’t actually big enough for John and I to sit comfortably so I had to sit a little sideways. It was an adventure.
That’s all from us

Love John and Andrea

Indonesia...

These are two emails that I wrote that I didn't get to send as we didn't have internet for the first little while. I wanted there to be pictures but we are having trouble getting them there with public internet. We will post them later...Enjoy

We’ll we have not been anywhere lately where there is internet so I am writing this email before I will be able to send it. We arrived safely in Indonesia with all of our luggage and were so tired that the issue with porters who steal your bags and then want you to pay them for “carrying” it was almost enough to push me over the edge. After a great supper meal and a good sleep and wonderful
breakfast I was feeling a lot more human again!

We are very much enjoying our time here on Gili Air and I can’t think of another place that is more peaceful and idyllic. There is no vehicles, no industry, just people and ocean waves crashing on the shore. It is ridiculously hot here and clothing seems to be excessive. I have taken to wearing sarongs and loose shirts or the sarong as a dress as it is much cooler that way. Even at night it is so hot! Last night it got a bit windy and was a little cooler but just enough to feel
comfortable. The locals all had long shirts and long pants on and said it was
cold. We got to talk to one guy the other day that said that he had never seen
snow but some tourists had brought a post card of a snowy scene and he thought
it was beautiful. He laughed and said that it’s all about perspective. North
Americans think that white beaches with palm trees are the epitome of beauty and
they think it is normal and think that our snowy white wonderland is more
beautiful. He of course took a long to time to communicate this to us, as he
didn’t speak English very well.

Our little hut that we are in is wonderful. It is two levels and the bottom floor is completely open except for the bathroom. It has a small table and a couch that is screened in. It’s all made of bamboo and the walls have woven grass for wallpaper. The upstairs is the bedroom and a patio. It is all very nice!

Anyways, I’m about to go snorkeling now. Who knows when I will actually get to send this but know that we are having a great time!

Andrea (and John too!)


Today was a very interesting day. We have been having a great time here. I cannot think of a better way to completely relax and just veg than to be here. It is so relaxing. We found a place with Internet on the island and it was fairly cheap 15 minutes for 5000 R (which is about 65 cents) however it was really slow and so we only sent a short email to our parents so they would know we were safe. We really
love it here. The people are so fun and interesting. It’s an ongoing debate of
what is the nicest way of telling the merchants that we are not interested, in
what they are selling, that we already have a hotel, that we don’t need a ride,
that we don’t want a cold drink… It just goes on and on. They tell very
interesting stories and even bold face lie to you. I’ve been enjoying just being
around them and seeing their life.

The part of the day that was interesting was snorkeling. For about $10 you can go on a guided snorkeling trip to the three islands. The part that caught my eye was the sea turtles. We booked a trip even through I had found that I did get a little sea sick just snorkeling on our beach the day before. I took some gravol before we left but to no avail I woofed every cookie I had for the benefit of the fish. Word from the wise, it is not easy to throw up underwater… anyways I finally asked to be taken to shore as I could not take it any more. Needless to say I don’t think I will do anymore snorkeling. Unfortunately I really was enjoying all the things you get to see
underwater here. I did get to see turtles before I went to shore as well as many
other fish of so many colors, shapes and sizes. John has been snorkeling every
day so far. He loves it. We also got a chance last night to take a traditional
horse cart ride. That was very fun and sometimes scary. I thought for sure the
cart was going to tip or we would lift the poor little pony right off the
ground. To explain what I mean a horse cart is a one-axel cart pulled by a
little pony and the cart is held from tipping over by attaching to the pony.
With three people in the back of this cart it pulls really hard on the horse.
The roads here are just sandy paths so the ride was quite rough also. At one
point we drove off the road and onto the beach and the beach was much smoother
than the road…for a while.

Tonight we are going out for supper with some people that we have met here; two girls from Germany and two girls from Holland. Poor John will be outnumbered but oh well.

Love
Andrea and John

I thought it would be good to write things down as we go rather than try and remember later so those were two takes of our time on Gili Air. :)

Andrea

Singapore...

Well we have now arrived in Singapore and have tried to trick our bodies into believing that the 2 hours of sleep we got at our stopover hotel was actually a whole night because now its the beginning of a new day! This is especially hard as I am so tired and hunrgy...but I am in Singapore on my way to Bali this morning. By this afternoon I will be in my little hut on the beach relaxing and feeling the sand between my toes. Mmmmmm sooo good. Our long flight went well, Singapore Airlines is definately a good choice for anyone looking for a good airline. We especially enjoyed the steaming hot face cloths they brought around a couple times. They even give you a toothbrush with toothpaste, socks and good meals too! It was however still very long. Even with 80 movies plus TV to choose from. My back and legs were sore by the time we stopped. My ankles even swoll up a little. John is fairing a little better than i am right now. He doesn't seem to be tired yet and said it's hard to believe that we'd actually been up for more than 24 hours straight.

I think the coolest part of the flight was that we didn't just fly accross the ocean we actually went up the coast from San Francisco over Canada and then accross where Alaska and Russia meet. We saw amazing views of the mountains up there and I got to see Russia, Japan, China etc. Pretty cool. Well there is a digital fair at the aiport in Singapore and we'd like to take a look around before we have to go to our gate so more from us later...

Andrea

Just another sunny day in California :)

Yup, that's right... we're in California. Only the San Fran airport but California no less. I was warm when we got off the plane. We had a 5 hour wait between our flights which was enough time to figure out wireless internet in the airport and send out a couple emails, post on our blog, and eat super greasy pizza. So far most everything has gone very smoothly other than our frazzled start. Our alarm clock did not go off this morning so instead of waking up with plenty of time we woke up to Mom Gall knocking on our door wondering if we were ready to go. I was so upset I was shaking my whole 2 minute shower (I refused to start this trip without a shower) and hardly managed to eat any breakfast. We made it through security and to our gate with a few minutes to spare, which was enough to calm down my nerves a bit. I really don't like flying... It's just not my favorite... Ask me again after this next flight, then I'll tell you how I really feel about flying :)

Anyways... Indonesia coming soon to this blog! Ciao..

1 Day and Counting!!!!

AHHHHHHHH! Only one day left on our native soil... John and I are both nervous and restless. We slept pretty good but John got up pretty early because he couldn't sleep and I woke up thinking through all the different stops on our flight and stuff that I had to remember. I think I dreamt about it all night.

We've had a really good time at home...

Mom and Dad Wiebe thanks for letting us stay in the camper and giving us heat :) Mom thanks for helping us sew those little cases for our computer stuff. Joel and Richard...stay out of trouble!

Mom and Dad Gall thanks for all you did in helping us get ready to go and thanks for letting us spread out all over the entire basement! Peter sorry you didn't get to come with us, I can't imagine why you'd stay in Canada...Oh right you'll be with Mel, never mind... :)

Heather, Candace, Corissa and all my other dear friends here thanks for still loving me and being wonderful even though many miles separate us. I love you guys!

To all our Qwanoes friends and family we miss you! Keep us in your prayers and let us know how things are going throughout the coming months!

For the next few days I'm sure we will be without internet. Please pray for us as we travel. We will be visiting 6 Airports and 4 countries in the next 3 days. Pray for safety and that our luggage doesn't get a better vacation than us somewhere else. Pray that we don't get delayed or miss any of our flights and that all goes generally well for us! We'll post again as soon as we can with pictures I hope!

Bye Canada...

Look What we can do!!

Check this out... We just got our new computer. We figured a lap top was a lot more practical for the travelling couple. Thus we sold our old computer and got a new one. We're having fun already...

12 days... and counting

That's right... only twelve more days! I am so excited! John and I have now started to figure out what we are going to take. This means that we are sorting through piles of clothing deciding what to take with us and what can stay at home. We are nearing the end but it is really hard to figure it all out. Some of it is really hard because we are not going to New Zealand first. This means that yeah, we can buy some stuff when we get there...but probably not in Indonesia. Oh well, I'm sure we will be just fine. We are still trying to sell our car. We've had a few calls so far but no one has called back a second time so we are feeling a little discouraged. We still have 12 days anyways so we'll keep trying. Maybe God knows we still need our car to get around??? I actually did manage to get a job while we are home so I start today at 2 and do a temporary job for an agency that I have worked for before. It's only two days and 13 hours total but I'll take what I can get. They're paying $14/hour so it will help. We are also having our first immunization appointment tomorrow so pray for me. I HATE needles. If you do think of it pray that we will not get sick in Indonesia as we won't have enough time to get the full rounds of immunizations. Our doctor was really concerned for us and pulled some strings to get us in sooner, but it's still not enough time to get everything that we need.

Well that's the latest from us...

Andrea

Of Planes, Trains and Automobiles

Well we are now in Alberta and have been spending a lot of our time at our parents places just trying to get everything in order it is now less than 20 days until we leave on our trip and we are getting very excited (minus the moments of pandemonia when we wonder what we are doing!!!) Things are falling into place but there are many things that we still have left to do! John and I both have managed to get odd jobs here and there to make some cash before we leave which is nice! I've really been enjoying hanging out with my long lost friends here! I even got to meet Peter's (my brother-in-law's) girlfriend which is also nice! Our trip home was good but long and we did experience some car trouble along the way. Alas we survived and now we have the for sale sticker on the window praying that someone will call! We enjoyed hanging out with Ben and Ash and Noah in Birch Bay just south of Vancouver, and John's parents in Seattle. From there we went east and drove up through Idaho into BC and through the Mountains into AB! All that took us two weeks.

One story from along the way... (the reason I put 'trains' in the title) We camped one night in Eastern Washington and by the time we got to a campsite it was dark. We picked our spot and set up our tent. The campsite was right by the interstate but I figured I could handle a little highway noise for one night. As we were setting up the tent a train sounded in the distance and I wondered how often the train went by over there. Moments later I was still wondering the same thing as that train in the distance barreled it's way between our little tent and the highway (about 100 feet from our tent). I thought well... the train probably doesn't go by that often... So at two in the morning (or maybe 3) when the train had proceeded to pass us every half hour... John and I both were frazzeled and I was having serious thoughts about what we had in our car that I could put on the tracks to make the train crash and stop the insanity. I didn't think of anything and about that time the trains stopped coming. After a few hours of sleep, we got up and left the cursed camp site.

Anyways enough adventures for now, we'll keep you up to date on our coming departure from Canada and into a whole new world (anyone singing?? 'A whole new world...')

Anyways,
Andrea

Youth Camp - God's doing BIG things

Pray, and pray hard. Pray for the youth here that are so bombarded by the world around them, that they can't be open to what God is doing here. Pray that he breaks down those walls and that they can get past their culture to see him.

I had the chance for the last few days to be a part of a cabin! It was wonderful. I got to share my testimony and then this morning I got to be a part of discussions. The girls that I am working with are struggling with the idea that our God would be so intolerant and so harsh as to send people to hell. Instead of them seeing the gift being offered to them they see the punishment of those they love if they chose to believe what we are telling them. Pray that they can get past this. Pray for Victoria who is their counselor, who is struggling this week and is also not feeling well. Pray that God would continue to do great things!

Tonight was a much simpler evening chaple than usual. Those of you who have been here before need to picture Q-town, but accoustic. Russ and three others are in a stage in the middle of a circle. The stage wasn't high so in the back you couldn't see them. Russ only had his guitar plus one other guitar, a singer and a jambay drum. They startded right off the bat with contemporary worship songs (no Q-town songs) and then Andy, the speaker came up and gave a huge talk on grace and mercy. They did this symbolic thing where they had crosses in pools of water, Huge crosses standing up in a little kiddy pool. The instructions were that if we wanted to be washed or take anything to the cross, we were to go and wash in the pool. I would say about a 1/4 to a 1/3 of the room got up and went over to the cross. It was really cool. Then we just continued to have a powerful worship time. It was great, so powerful.

Pray that the youth who went to the water would be changed people forever, and that those who did not would continue to think about it and ask big questions.

Thanks

Busy, Busy

Well, sorry to all you faithful blog checkers who have been dissapointed in the last month at the lack of posting that has been happening. What can I say... I've been busy. I know that's a dumb excuse but it's true. Well since my birthday I can't believe that a month has passed. I'm trying to recall what I did in the last 4 weeks. One of the very exciting moments of the last month was that I actually did go surfing :) I have pictures to prove it. This time I actually had a board and a wetsuit and I did catch some waves. I definately did not stand up or anything (I did get onto my knees once) but it was fun. I learned that I have (what I think is) a healthy fear of the ocean. I was terrified when I couldn't touch the bottom anymore and I was sitting on this floating thing and I couldn't tell if I was getting sucked out or pushed in by the waves. I'm told also that the waves I experienced here are nothing compared to the waves in New Zealand and Australia. This terrified me even more as I'm not sure that i want to go surfing there...but I'm told I have to. I'll post those pictures soon-ish.

In the last week or so we've been extra busy preparing for another big change for us. We have officially decided we are finished here at Qwanoes (I think most of you know that) and we are moving on... By moving on I mean we have to move all our stuff out of the house we've been living in for the last 2 ish years while working full time with 24 hours off a week. My parents are coming in exactly 1 week to pick up all of our stuff and take it back to Alberta with them. We will then finish the summer here (with much less stuff) and then do a little bit of travelling, taking the long way home, to visit relatives and friends that we haven't seen in a while. During that little travel we even get to go to a wedding, our friends Nick and Amanda Muik (who actually got married in July) are having a reception in Abbotsford just after camp which we will get to attend! Yay! We will also be joining John's family in Washington for a family reunion type thing. Then we will slowly make our way home stopping to see other family and friends along the way.

Right now our house is a bit of a disaster with boxes everywhere. I feel like my house is throwing up because there just seems to be more stuff coming from everywhere. Isn't that the worst part about moving? you find out how much stuff you have. Oh well. This time while packing we also have to decide what we would like to take with us to New Zealand. This is somewhat tricky as we don't really know what to pack and what we should get when we get there. If any of you have any advice we would love to hear it! If we were going for a couple weeks or even a month or two that would be one thing... but when you know you could be gone for a while...??? What all do you take? We are allowed 2 checked bags at 50lbs each and one carry-on. Anyways...

Update on the camp... Things are going really well! It's been a good summer overall. So many good things have been happening in the staff and the campers. At the end of each week we have a fireside where the campers can share something they learned in the week and when kids are getting up and saying stuff like, "this week I asked God a question and He answered me! Now I really believe in him" you know good things are happening.

Prayer Requests

1. Well summer is almost over, so please pray that we as staff would finish well and press on right until the end. Many staff have quick transitions from the end of camp right into school. Pray that things would go smoothly for them and that they would recover from summer quickly.

2. Please also pray for the health of the staff. All summer has been pretty good in this way but there is always a cold or flu affecting some. Right now we also have pink eye circulating. Pray that it would stop spreadding and that no campers would get infected.

3. Pray for youth camp, the last camp of the summer. Pray that God would prepare the hearts of the campers and that they would be brave enough to put aside their pride and 'coolness' and ask the big questions and be really real with themselves and God.

4. Finally, pray for John and I. It has been good summer for us this time. I know it's because of the prayer behind us. Pray for me as I am not feeling to well again today. Pray also for John as he continues to learn about leadership. Lastly, pray that our move goes well. Pray that we have the energy to finish packing and clean up our house before the end of the summer!

Thanks again to all of you for being behind us in prayer! We love you!

Andrea

It's My Birthday!!!

Alas, my birthday has come and gone once again. However this year was, I must say, a special one. Since coming to Qwanoes, I have done my best to keep my birthday a secret as we have this tradition here where on your birthday you get "Thrown". This means that about 10 people pick you up and throw you up into the air about 10 feet high and then catch you repeatedly until the song is finished. I am terrified of being thrown. This year however my birthday did not stay a secret (I still didn't get thrown, to my delight) I woke up to streamers and balloons all over my house. One balloon was a clue to a bit of a scavenger hunt. To make a long story short, by the end of my scavenger hunt I was wearing about 5 balloons, attached to my person in some way, with a plastic basin taped to my head like a hat, fully embarrassed while I sang happy birthday to myself spinning like a ballerina, with "dentures" in my mouth that make me look like I haven't brushed my teeth in 10 years (I'll post that picture later) and dancing to my rendition of a spice girls song. That was just the morning. I managed to get the afternoon off and so John took me to Victoria where we rented scooters (so much fun) I have a story to tell about that... then I got my first pedicure which was wonderful (I officially have the cleanest feet of all the staff at Qwanoes) and then we went out to dinner. What a great day!

Now my story about the scooter. Let's just say that I've never driven a motor bike or anything with a hand throttle (other than our quad or skidoo, but they are different) So the guy that rents them needs you to prove to him that you are competent and know how to drive them before he'll let you leave. So he stands about 5 feet in front of me on this little scooter and says "pull slowly towards me and then stop" I guess to prove that I can start and stop. Well...I ran him over. He never told me that I only had to turn the handle a little. I cranked it. Needless to say, he made me try that a few more times, and after a while I did get the hang of it. I was so sure that I was going to get in an accident on my birthday because I was concentrating so hard on this scooter thing that I would forget how to drive and obey traffic laws etc. Well over all it was so much fun, I would highly recommend it, but...Start out slow!

-Andrea

Freight Train...

That's how summer comes and goes... like a freight train. It happens so fast. I can't believe that tomorrow the second week of summer is over. Wow! So far things have been going well for the most part. The last couple days have been hard for a couple of reasons. #1 I have been sick, fluish/coldish not nice-ness I missed one day and crawled back in bed at 10am thinking I would wake up in time for lunch and the next time I moved or heard anything I looked at the clock and it was 2 pm. Yikes. I must have been pretty tired. #2 The camp has been a little under-staffed so far this year. We could really just use a couple more people who would be excited about serving in a support role like kitchen or janitorial. This means that people who are supposed to be counseling are doing dishes instead and people who are supposed to be doing the mountain bike program are cleaning bathrooms instead and it's really just taking a toll on the staff. Overall it just means that there is an underlying stress at the camp.

Again, I must say that over all it's been really really good! However please continue to be in prayer for us here!

Prayer Requests

1. Please pray that God would send more people who are willing to come and volunteer in support roles week by week.

2. Pray for the morale of the staff team. Ask God to bind Satan as he tries to attack our passion and replace it with discouragement.

3. Pray that God would continue to change lives here. Pray specifically for the counselors that are on the front lines, pouring their lives into these kids. Pray that the campers would have open hearts and open ears and that they would really understand what is being said.

4. Also, I know that I am getting better but pray for physical health for myself and for the many other staff who are also sick (things go around so quickly here).

- Andrea

IT'S HERE!!!!!!!!

Summer that is...

360 or so campers arrived at Qwanoes yesterday! It was fun and exciting just like every first day of the summers are! I loved it! I am now however, exhausted and It's only the end of the 2nd day! God has answered many of the requests I've already given. This years staff team is great! It's been awesome to be a part of such a neat team. INTEGRITY is my word for the summer. This is my prayer for all those who are here! We bonded together really well and staff training was great! Marv Penner was the speaker and he once again, challenged us all in so many ways. This week the speaker is Storm Moore for those of you who know who he is. I laughed so hard tonight during Q-town (chaple) as he told a very funny story about his youth group and a game of sardines. Picture this, Storm is black. Sardines is played in the dark. Black people blend into the darkness but he was wearing a white shirt. So he took it off. Anyways to make the story short, by the end of the night he had one petrified student who "felt" Storm before he "saw" Storm and one parent phoning his house asking why he was naked in the church during youth group (naked being derived from the fact that he took his shirt off during the game). Anyways, I laughed hard. All the kids around me thought I was crazy but oh well.

I'm helping in tuck today and boy was I glad that I wasn't the tuck store manager today. Almost everything that could go wrong, did go wrong today. Mel the girl that is doing it, smiled and said, "I thought I'd get all the problems out of the way in one day, now I'm set for the rest of the summer!" I'm glad that she took it well, I would have been crying at that point. Let's not talk about that.

Well, please keep praying for us here! Again if any of you would like to be an official part of our prayer team, just send me an email as I'd love to add you to the list! I'm going to go to bed now and try to reclaim all the sleep that I need already!

-Andrea

The Last Day...A New Beginning

Today was the last day of Advance Crew here at Qwanoes. It doesn't seem that long ago that I was posting about the beginning of Advance Crew (to me anyways). This spring has been an amazing time of working together as a team and meeting some really awesome new friends. It has also been an encouraging time of learning how to be the body of Christ and worship God together. Last Thursday we had a very powerful worship time together during our weekly bible study. The room was so filled with the Holy Spirit that you couldn't help but be excited and dance with joy ( and that's a big thing comeing from me who doesn't dance...ever) God was really working in the hearts of those who were there and it was so wonderful to worship God without any hinderance. I fully believe it was a taste of Heaven.

That aside there will be around 80 or so who will be joining our 60ish tomorrow and Staff Training will begin. I am excited to meet all these people whom I have been emailing and phoning for the last few months.

Prayer Requests

1. Unity and Integrity of the staff team. Pray that those who are here would warmly welcome those who are coming and that we would merge well.

2. Open Hearts. There will be a lot of stuff and learning happening during staff training. Pray that we all would have open hearts to what is said!

3. Excitement for the summer. Sometimes it is easy to remember how tired I was at the end of last summmer and look ahead and feel drained already. Pray that I would look at the summer with excitement for all that God has ahead of me.

4. There have been several staff who feel that God has shown them that he has HUGE things ahead of us this summer. Pray that we would have faith and that nothing we do would hinder what God wants to do this summer!

- Andrea

This is Where we are Going!!!

Okay so I must say that right now my excitement is high and who knows what really will happen in the end but as it stands right now John and I have been finally getting somewhere with our trip planning. After some discussion with Rinus (John's youth pastor from High School)who lives in Indonesia, we think that we would definately like to go to the Gili Islands. The Gili Islands are three islands (Air, Meno, and Trawangan) right off the coast of Lombok (which is an island off the main island that makes up Indonesia) From what I have seen so far they look beautiful. They are away from the city busyness of the bigger centers like jakarta and they are tiny with lots of beautiful beaches. The picture is one I pulled off the internet from a beach on Gili Meno.

Andrea

Prayer

As part of my job here at Qwanoes I have to enter all the prayer team lists into our database. Let me give you a picture of the enormity of this task. This summer at Qwanoes there will be approximately 200 Staff over the entire summer (including volunteers that come and go) Each staff member is required to find 7 people to pray for him or her. Granted some of those people over lap but do the calculations. That's a lot of people. This is also a cool thing as I know that there are over a 1000 people praying for Qwanoes this summer. And its a good thing because this ministry is intense and requires a lot of prayer support. Now I am one of those staff members who are required to find 7 people to pray for John and I both over this summer. I encourage you to do so. Over the summer I will (at least I hope I will) post prayer requests and updates for you to pray for. If you would like to be an official part of my prayer team please let me know, I would love to know you are behind us in prayer.

Prayer Requests

1. Right now summer is almost here, less than 30 days away. As always there is still tones to be done before we would be ready for camp to start. Please pray that God would send the resources needed to complete the projects and the staff would have energy to work until the job is done.

2. Please also pray for the staff team. My burden is for the staff to be a team of integrity and unity. Please pray that God would impact the lives of the staff this summer in the same way that He impacts the lives of the campers.

3. Pray for John as he leads the boating program on the water this summer. Pray for safety and that John would be the leader that God has called him to be down there this summer.

4. Finally, pray for John and I. Summer is busy and sometimes a marriage relationship gets pushed to the back burner. Pray that our relationship would be strong and that God would continue to work in and through our marriage this summer.

-Andrea

Events of the passing days

Much has happened big and small lately as the days pass quickly and summer looms ahead of us. As Scott got us all to say out loud in staff meeting "a month is a long time" many shook their heads in disbelief, knowing the list of things that still needs to get done. For me my job is slowing down now. I don't have as many people applying anymore so the influx is slower than the hiring or not accepting rate. The most discouraging thing is the people who pull out, especially last minute. We struggle in our office (mine and Howards') with feeling compassion and care for those who do this as they have found other places to be for the summer, but yet we also rage at the idea of them leaving us empty handed and backing out of a commitment they made only a month or less before. For John the boats are now arriving and in fact we (John and I) had the privilege of driving to the mainland to pick up one of the new beauty's. The picture I've included is off the tige site not a picture we took but feel free to check out their site at http://www.tige.com/2006/. We enjoyed the many people who commented as we waited in line at the ferry terminal too! I also just got to see my parents and my uncle this past weekend while we were on the mainland. My parents were down because they left on a 14 day cruise to Alaska and back on Sunday. John is out tonight "test driving" the boat we picked up. Of course this is the perfect day for it as we have had mid summer like weather the last few days and I have been enjoying the muggy feeling because I am cold for so much of the rest of the year that it's nice to be completely warm. The weather makes us all get a little giddy here at the camp because it means that summer is coming and we like summer! I get excited thinking about all the kids coming off the busses on the first day and charging down the hill towards the registration deck. I'm also excited lately that Danielle can finally re-enter Canada without fear of never being allowed back into the USA. Why you may ask? Because this means she is coming to visit us!!! I am thrilled! I can't think of too much else to tell you about the passing days other than that we are still working on plans to head out to New Zealand this fall. Right now the big decision is how long do we plan to be there for??? John thinks we will get there and not ever come back but who knows what will happen. We will continue to live our vagabond life wherever God leads...

that's all for now - Andrea

Photo update...of us

Hey all! So things are getting pretty busy around camp these days. Advance crew has begun and all is well! We had our very first Advance Crew staff meeting today and really enjoyed seeing everyone in one place! The picture is of us at Bryony and Toban's wedding a few weeks ago. Please continue to keep us in your prayers as summer is now charging towards us... pray that the positions that need to be filled will be filled and pray for staff team unity. This is something I have a huge heart for and I know that God will work in this team this summer! Thanks! - Andrea

Friends At Qwanoes

This past weekend has been great! It was the annual spring Qwanoes Ladies retreat and I got to be a camper. It is a lot different when you are a camper! I also had the double blessing of having my mom and mom-in-law come out and "camp" with me! It was lots of fun and we enjoyed the time just to be together. We enjoyed going to a play at the Chemainus Theatre "She stoops to Conquer" was the name and it was quite funny. We also enjoyed a card making seminar (which some of you know has been my latest passion) where I got some new ideas and drooled over very expensive stamp sets from Stampin' Up (see their website here) We also enjoyed a great speaker and great worship times where I found that I enjoyed listening to a group of 120 ladies sing as much as I enjoyed singing along. It was beautiful. Anyways my other exciting news is that my friend Rhonda is now also officially here and a member of the Qwanoes staff team summer 2006 which I am soooooo excited about! Hey if any of you guys are not sure what to do with your summer and you'd like to come and work in a place that focuses on impacting the lives of kids...let me tell you Qwanoes is the place for you and you happen to know someone who works in the "hiring" department who could get you in :) - Andrea

Life... Post wedding

Well I must say that this weekend has been a huge relief to me! On Saturday one of my close friends got married! I had the honor of being her "matron" of honor and I very much enjoyed being there for her on her special day. I am however glad that all the hype is over. I didn't have much responsibility but the excitement and busyness of planning is tiring after a while. I think it was the combination of wedding planning, CRAZY busy at work, and also quite busy at church with playing in the worship teams almost every Sunday and directing an Easter choir which performed the day after the wedding. Needless to say I spent a lot of Sunday afternoon just relaxing and catching my breath. All in all everything went quite well at the wedding and choir went well also! Now life continues as John and I are back to work tomorrow and busy as always with that. Happy Easter to you all! Praise God that He loves us so much that He sent Jesus to us! Our lives would be so different had he decided not to! That is what I am thankful for this Easter! - Andrea

Countdown to Advance Crew - 21 days

Well for those of you who know the Qwanoes lingo Advance Crew is the start of the summer here and that means that there are only 21 more days of sanity around here. Well come to think of it the insanity has already begun. In the staffing office (where I work) :) I am working with over 200 applications doing reference checks, interviews, paperwork, sending out acceptance packages and generally trying to keep Howard (my boss) from going crazy! Needless to say its been a little hectic in our office lately. John has been busy laying floors all around the camp. The dining hall and the upstairs of the main chapel building have a new look as the maintenance team just finished putting down an Immitation hardwood industrial vinyl flooring. It looks fantastic! There were a couple of longs days for them though because there is a very small window of time where those buildings weren't being used so they had a deadline to be finished by for both floors. Other than that our news is that we have at this point in time decided to not sign on with Qwanoes again this fall and so big plans are underway to head to New Zealand this fall! We are super excited about this and I'm sure we'll post more later about our plans. Plus of course we will post every once in a while from down there to keep you up to speed on all of our adventures! - Andrea

A New Undertaking

Well hello again. In our attempts to get out and take more pictures I had the swell idea of trying to keep myself accountable by posting a new picture every week. So, as a result we created click. A weekly look through the lens of our camera. So I hope you all enjoy. The first post is for my Dad. He had been asking if we had any buds on the trees yet. So I guess I'll be focusing on spring...click. -john

Took a little trip

This past weekend John and I had the opportunity to go with our friends Bryony and Toban up to Powell River to visit her parents and attend a bridal shower for Bryony. We had lots of fun and the beautiful weather made going to the beach, mini golfing, etc. lots of fun. This is a view from the beach. - Andrea

Photo of the Week

At some point in time we would like to post one photo a week just to show off some of our favorite pic's. Here is the first one, not necessarily my all time favorite but a recent photo of mine - Andrea

I went surfing... see!

This past weekend John and I and a Sarah Kesler (a friend from Qwanoes) went up to Tofino and attempted to go surfing. Unfortunately the weather wasn't good and there was a wind and wave advisory from Environment Canada and so none of the surf shops were renting that day. Alas we had to pretend on the beach... We had lots of fun but my feet were very cold by the end of it all.

At last...

Well, here goes... were going to try out blogging. Hopefully we can learn how to use it quickly and you'll see some changes soon, along with some photo's! Cross your fingers folks we're about to dive into a new world..."The WorldWideWeb".