It’s 2009 already!

So, the new year has come and I thought it was about time that I sent out an update to all.  I’ve been so blessed by the support shown to me over the year, and I hope that you know that (between random emails) I love you and appreciate you an awful lot! So, THANKS!! You know who you are 🙂

And so, onto the meat….

Vancouver, this winter, has had the most abnormal weather – I’ve heard rumours that it hasn’t been like this since the 40’s!! (or since 40 yrs ago…either??) Anyways…..and so we’ve been covered in at least a foot of snow for about a month!!! It’s slowly melting away now…although this week it got down to -5C and snowed today!!..aaggh!!

Here’s a picture of my car and me scraping off the snow one day in Dec…

scraping away the icy and snow

 

Me in the snow!

 

Haha…ok….so you’ve got the picture by now!!

By the way, so that is my team car up there – it’s an Oldsmobile Cutlass 1990. We’ve called it Opa or Opi or Oldi (basically Grandpa) It’s such an old man car, it’s funny.    The only problem is that it is quite the gas guzzler – it’s costing us more to fuel it than money we have in our account, so we have a wee problem.  We need a new car or more money – so please pray for that, or if you want to donate to the cause then email me!!

So, this week I got a new team member – welcome David Lancaster, from England – the Brits now out number the Germans!!  He’s a funny one, and I think will settle in well to the team – he’s out at a school basketball game at the moment with Ben (our youth pastor).  It was sad to say goodbye to Sophie before Christmas, but she is safely back in Germany…which has meant that Sarah is the only German on the team now! She’s coping well with all the sarcasm so far!!

I have been badgering two local schools this week, trying to get meetings – Burnaby Mountain and Cariboo Hill Secondary Schools.  We have quite a few students in our church youth group who go to Cariboo Hill, so it’d be amazing to get involved there and meet their friends and make new ones – get them involved with the church.

Our youth program at the church is taking a change, starting Feb 1.  We’re starting new small groups (called Clutch) and fun events and a new service centered night called Crew Nights (that’ll start later though).  We’re really excited to connect more with the girls in our group, we have some awesome Grade 8’s who we really want to see grow in their faith and in reaching out to their friends in their schools.

Here are some names you can pray for – Sarah, Shawna, Rachel, Hana, Jessica, Stefanie, Katrina… they’re all super cool girls who we want to see grow in their relationship with God, their relationships with each other and to see them share that with the world!!

What else…??

The Flying Buzzard set sail at the beginning of December, they are currently around the Canary Islands….what’s more exciting is that her and Mike got engaged!!! My mom’s getting married!!!!!

Ok….so I think that’ll do for now.  This is a new season and I’m super excited!!!

Please email me with comments, or questions, or just to say hi, or to tell me that you’re praying, or to tell me how you’re supporting me….all’s good! I really appreciate it all. Thank you.

Be Blessed, love Jess