And the time has come to return.

What better way to be welcomed back to the Island than to take a walk in the rain to Victoria's own Break Water...

Boxing day...

Just a couple snap shots of Boxing Day in good 'ol Southern Manitoba and friends found there..

On our way back from Tim's and the park, we were stopped and asked if we would take a picture of a man who just got back from a motor bike ride! This is unheard of this time of the year in our area. The fact that there was no snow on the ground was somewhat miraculous. I truly did miss the snow and feel like I missed out on a big part of Christmas without it. Though the time with friends and family made up for it and then some! 

word vomit

No matter what I do or how I try to form my words, they seem to come out the wrong way. I get misunderstood. I'm sure every human can relate to this. 

"Want" or "want"?

I really struggle with money.

 I hate how it runs the world; and to some extent, my own life. I wouldn't say that I have ever "obsessed" over money (though I do appreciate it when there is a little extra kickin' around), but I have definitely stressed over not having enough to pay for school or rent or a car. Today I am dumbfounded by how easy it is to get stuck beneath the worry, guilt, stress, and weight of being in want. ...or at least feeling like you are in "want".

The Lord has blessed me to grow up in Canada in a middle class family where we have always had food on the table, clothes on our backs, and a roof over our heads. My brother and I even had the privilege of being in extra curricular sports and musical groups. Our family has even gone on family trips almost once every year. How can I consider myself in "want"?

Philippians 4:12
"I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want."

I can't remember a day where I have gone hungry because there was not enough food to go around. How can I sit here and complain? Maybe to make it more accurate..when I talk about being in "want", now that I have established that I am not living in "want" in the true sense, let us think about being in "wanting". There is a massive difference between being in "want" (I mean this as wanting something you need to survive) and "wanting" (I mean this as simply wanting something for the sake of selfish comfort). I want a car, I want a house, I want to go on vacation, I want to be debt free, I want my neighbours to be quiet by 10:30pm...and the list goes on. When I was in Africa in 2008 I saw men, women, children, babies, and grandparents in want. There were toddlers living off of one large mug of fortified porridge a day..5 days a week. Anywhere from 4-10 (or more) family members live in 10x8 foot (if that) mud brick shacks that are on land that could be taken from them any day. They eat the same little bit every day and work harder than I ever have to survive. I would not wish this on anyone. 

And yet, I have never seen such praise being offered to the Lord. Every time we drove into the slum to meet with these women, they would be singing songs to God and dancing. It was contagious! Even us uncoordinated Canadian "azoongoos!" attempted to join in. Even in the midst of not having all their basic needs met, being sick with AIDS, being orphaned, I saw so much hope and joy in these eyes. They trust that God will provide...and He has and He is and He WILL!

Seeing this, knowing this, and knowing that my God is looking after me, how dare I worry and be anxious. I am ashamed of myself for being so selfish, so blinded by material possessions and wanting what I do not need and for not changing. Lord Jesus, please help me to change and be gentle with me as You continue to mold and shape my heart.


Matthew 6:25-30 


 ²⁵"Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? ²⁶ Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? ²⁷And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? ²⁸And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, ²⁹yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. ³⁰But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?"