Magrath - Week 1

Here is a brief update of our first week or so on the field in Magrath. Our first day, we just went around town, looking to meet people and try to find places to volunteer in the community. We were very fortunate to find several places to do that. We went to the Town Hall, talked to them for a bit, and they suggested that we go see Johnny, the president of the Lion's Club, who also owns the Hardware Store in town. We went and saw him, and he suggested that we go to the Good Samaritan Society, which is in the old hospital and serves elderly adults now. We decided to head over there and see what we could find out. On our way there we walked by this place called "SASH" and they had a sign for a pizza place, but more interesting to us was their motto, which was relating to building community, which is one of primary goals as a team for the summer. We went in and found out that this place seeks to put mentally handicapped adults to work in the workforce. We volunteered to help, and they said they would be glad to have us. We have been there almost every day since, getting to know all the people there, especically the workers who help out with those that have disabilities. We have already been invited to Heather's for dinner one night, which might not seem like a big deal to many of the Southern Americans that will read this, but for a Canadian to invite you into their home for a meal, after only knowing you for 4 days is huge! We are planning on doing that this sometime next week.
Eventually we did make it to the Senior Home run by the Good Samaritan Society, which is part of the Lutheran Church. They said that they would be happy to have us volunteer as well, but we needed to get a background check completed from the police first. We got that done the next day and have been at the Senior home most afternoons since. We are beginning to build significant relationships in both places.
We also led the Bible Study group on Sunday for the first time, and that went really well. The group normally only meets every other week, but we are going to meet every week while we are here for the summer, since we'll only be here 6 weeks. Overall, our fist week was incredible, and we are anticipating great things to happen over the next 5 weeks. Until then, I'll try to update everyone this weekend, which by the way Saturday July 1st is Canada Day, which for you Americans is the same as the 4th of July in Canada. I'll try to update this weekend on that, and hopefully again soon after our Bible Study on Sunday, which I will be leading this week!

Training week
I know it has been a while since I updated, but we have had pretty limited access to the internet in the past week, and I just have not had enough time to update the blog. Training week went great. Lots of cool things were happening, we went white-water rafting, had a great time hearing from Mike Tibedeaux about evangelism, great worship services, and plenty of time out serving in the communities. My team was able to go to a Hutterite Colony and learn about their way of life. The family that we visited are all belivers, but they believe that they are the only one in their colony of around 100 that are believers. We were able to have a Bible Study with them and had a great time encouraging them and just hanging out. The highlight of my past week and a half came early when Rebekah picked me up at the airport on the 11th. It had been almost a month since we had seen each other, and it sure felt longer than that. Although training week was great, seeing Rebekah was better.

My team and I traveled to our location yesterday, Tuesday, and settled in to where we are going to be living. We are staying in a Bed and Breakfast in Raymond, Alberta, about 10 minutes from our place of service, Magrath, and have a really great setup there. As most of you know, Magrath is about 90% Mormon, so it was really cool to find out the owners of the bed and breakfast are mormon, and we'll be living with them and interacting with them all summer. We are in Magrath today, and it has been going well. I will post an entry of what has happened here today, in the next few days. Finally, as of today, Rebekah and I have been dating 6 months, so it's kinda a milestone for us. Thought some of you might want to know that. Until next time, God Bless!

Back in Alberta

Yes, I do know it has been almost forever since I have last posted. My little brother got married this past Saturday and there was lots to do with that and all while that was going on, I have been trying to finish up all of my post-workshop assignments from the classes I took in New Orleans a few weeks back.

I am back in Alberta for the summer now. I'm currently in Cochrane at Team leader training. I arrived Sunday and we will be doing team leader training until Tuesday when the remainder of the Students arrive. We will then train for a week and head to our respective places of service for the summer. I will be trying my best to update very frequently what goes on during the summer, so check my blog early and often. Until next time, hope everybody has a great week.