Canadian Generosity

Since arriving in Canada at the beginning of September I have heard of at least 10 different fundraising opportunities.  Whether it was Alex's middle school fundraising by selling vegetable packages to provide food for families in the community who need it, or our Steinbach church organizing a banquet to raise money for the typhoon-stricken country of the Philippines,  or various concerts and other events providing opportunities to GIVE. It seems to be coming from all sides. I have asked around to see if this year was unusual.  "Oh no," they tell me.  "This is just how things are done here. We expect it and we just get involved where and when we can."  Just today I read on the Web that Canada is the 3rd most generous country in the world.

"Christmas Open House" Fundraiser

Today I went on a fundraiser "open house tour".  Different families in the Church opened up their beautiful homes for a Christmas tour, sold Christmas crafts, offered hot apple cider and cookies. The money is going towards a building project.  It was a ton of fun!














I am finding the "normalcy" of helping others by giving or acts of service so refreshing.  Maybe it is because many of the people who have come to live in this part of the world have themselves been the recipient's of other people's generosity or maybe they just realize that there is so much joy in helping others and that it is more blessed to give than to receive. Whatever the reason, It is GOOD!

Morning thoughts...

.."My soul doth magnify the Lord,.." (Lk. 1:46)

Woke up this morning to the an unusual quietness in the air. 

It's a snow day. No school.  Alex's first one here in Manitoba. 

 Phil and Alex are still sleeping, so I snuck upstairs, made myself a cup of black tea and cozied up on my "princess chair" to spend some time with my Creator.  How I love these times.

I've been reading a devotional by Ann Voskamp. I would call her one of my spiritual mentors in the last 2 years.  Her main theme:  Giving thanks.  Listing your thanks, writing them down, giving thanks always in all circumstances..  A life lesson. Something to be practiced over and over again...

So Mary's response, " My soul doth magnify the Lord.." to the angel announcing she was to be the mother of the savior of the world was praise, thankfulness, acceptance...yielded to God's will for the purpose of others. Wow!  

When I was back in Austria a month ago I visited a very good friend who had just buried her husband of 26 years.  We cried together, talked memories, did the things good friends do as well.

 Sitting in the train on my way back to Germany, recalling the precious moments we had had together.

I felt a peace about her life, her future. Why was that..?  For me it was her attitude of yielding to God's will..."your will be done". Not by renouncing her sorrow, anger, or questions she might never have answers for, but by yielding and allowing the person she claims to be savior and King of her life to take the wheel.

Last night when praying with Alex before he went to sleep I was lead to pray that he would have the awareness that he has a God who goes before him, stands behind him and walks beside him at all time.... therefore whom shall he fear.(Chris Tomlin's song "Whom shall I Fear" is one of my favorites at the moment).

So may our souls magnify the Lord today because, using Ann Voskamp's words:

You are the Giver infinitely greater than the sum of all gifts and how can I not slow and bow? Bow right now and worship. Kneel throughout the day in gratitude. Slow, wherever I am, in adoration.

A Fun, Full, Thanksgiving Week End!

Leaving the great white north..

Well, we woke up to snow, lots of snow, the morning of our departure for Minneapolis to meet up with Michael and Amanda for American Thanksgiving. 

Have you ever seen a Virginia license plate with a power cable wrapped around it'? What is that cord for, you ask?  Well, up here in the great white north, those of us who don't have a garage need to plug in our cars so that they don't freeze up and you can't start the motor the next day when you are trying to get your son to his 8 am violin lesson across town. So we have electrical outlets in our parking lots, even outside of some grocery stores...or we just leave our car running (to my environment-conscious daughter's horror).

A BFA Thanksgiving reunion

What fun to meet up with our two college kids and 14 other BFA alumni at friends in Minneapolis to celebrate Thanksgiving together.  

The Turkey Run

No, we didn't run after a turkey to catch and eat it for our dinner....that might be kind of fun actually. We decided to go on an actual 5 or 10 K run around Lake of the Isles in MInneapolis with our homemade T-shirts , which we all "enthusiastically" made that morning.

Turkey t-shirt production

 The Turkey Runners

Lake of the Isles, Minneapolis, MN

Thankful Hearts

It was moving to sit around a beautifully decorated Thanksgiving table enjoying a time of friendship, memories, yummy food and listening to our "kids" share what they were thankful for in the last couple of months. It makes a heart glad to listen to young people express their gratefulness...

...great friends at college

...a place to live after I finish college

...friends in my new Canadian school

...my sister

...a good supportive church

BFA Thanksgiving Gang

                        

We had some more fun, crazy days...and yes we did go shopping for the first time in my life on "Black Friday" at the Mall of America of all places. Enjoyed staying with our very good friends Scott and Lisa Countryman and their off-the-wall dogs, Gracy and Zoe.  Also got to witness live the engagement of Elizabeth Kronk, one of Amanda's very good friends,to Jon.

Recording in Germany and on the Prairies

A few weeks ago.  I ( Tammy) was in Germany to take part in a very special "live worship recording" that our Church in Germany "G5" was producing. This was more than an enjoyable time.  It was for me a culmination of years of watching and walking a long side a very young church to today seeing the young people I sometimes "mothered" and patiently prayed for, now write songs that are in a beautiful way pointing to God, His person, His love and our need for Him involved in our lives.

The worship service was what can I say,... beautiful!

Yesterday afternoon I got to spend a couple hours in the studio with my brother in law JP who was helping the project with some voice-overs still needed.
Was a ton of fun spending time with him.  His professionalism, fun-loving manner and positive encouragement could make most anyone feel and sound like a nightingale!!

John and I in his studio (Private Ear Recording) in Winnipeg.  Thanks you John!!

The CD, called "Vater Unser", will come out sometime in April.  It will be one of the first "live worship recording CD's"  by a German church in Germany. I'll let you know when it comes out.

Thankful and blessed to be able to connect the work in Germany to the prairies of Manitoba.

Time for creativity...

Before we left Germany this summer I had been seeing a chiropractor for pain in my lower back.  Out of the blue she asked me:  "Do you have time to exercise your creative side? "

This got me thinking...
I guess I have always managed to be creative in some way or another; through music, ideas with different project ( starting schools, women's ministries), etc.., but the "hands on" creative side has definitely been put on the back burner these last years.
So here in Canada I have a friends who seems to pull the creativity out of everyone she spend times with.
Spent a wonderful afternoon with her yesterday crocheting snow flakes for a Christmas garland, drinking hot chocolate, and looking out of her sun room window at the beautiful snow landscape.
I went home and after supper put on my granny glasses and kept working on my "new project". My guys at home didn't recognize the "new me".
Thank you Valrae!

 Who knows, maybe this will be better therapy than a chiropractor!

Starting out...

Creative Valrea and her apprentise :-)

First winter run...

Even here God has provided friends we can run with.
 Monday we went on a run with our  good friend Yvonne.  The air was crisp and clear and the sun was out...it was "only" -5 Celsius, a balmy winter Manitoba day.  We loved it!

The Peters year on the prairies

On one of the summers we were back in Manitoba some very good friends gave our children a book to help them learn and remember their roots. The book "If your not from the Prairies"by David Bouchard  became one of our family favorites; perhaps because what it described was in stark contrast to the world we lived in then, (the Austrian Alps), or perhaps because it drew us into connecting with the roots of my husbands family, a family of Mennonite heritage who had settle into the prairie lands of Canada to restart life in a vast, open, untamed land, not without hardship, but full of new freedoms and opportunity!
It is in this area of Canada in the prairies of Manitoba that Phil, I (Tammy)  and our son Alexander get to spend most of this year.
 Several friends of mine encouraged me to keep a blog about our time here.  I have never done this before, but I'd like to give it a try.  There will be a mix of impressions, photos, thoughts,  and learning experiences.  So here I go!!

Here is the poem I mentioned earlier:

If you're not from the Prairies...

If you're not from the prairie, you don't know the sun, you can't know the sun.
Diamonds that bounce off crisp winter snow
Warm waters in dugouts and lakes that we know
The sun is our friend from when we were young
A child of the prairie is part of the sun
If you're not from the prairie you don't know the sun.

If you're not from the prairie you don't know the wind, you can't know the wind.
Our cold winds of winter cut right to the core
Hot summer wind devils can blow down the door
As children we know when we play any game
The wind will be there yet we play just the same
If you're not from the prairie you don't know the wind.

If you're not from the prairie you don't know the sky, you can't know the sky
The bold prairie sky is clear bright and blue
Though sometimes cloud messages give us a clue
Monstrous grey mushrooms can hint of a storm
Or painted pink feathers say good bye to the warm
If you're not from the prairie you don't know the sky.

If you're not from the prairie you don't know what's flat, you've never seen flat
When travellers pass through across our great plain
They all view our home they all say the same
"It's simple and flat!" They've not learned to see
The particular beauty that's now part of me
If you're not from the prairie you don't know what's flat.

If you're not from the prairie you've not heard the grass you've never heard grass
In strong summer winds, the grains and grass bend
And sway to a dance that seems never to end
It whispers its secrets - they tell of this land
And the rhytym of life played by nature's own hand
If you're not from the prairie, you've never heard grass.

So you're not from the prairie and yet you know snow you think you know snow?
Blizzards bring danger as legends have told
In deep drifts we roughhouse, ignoring the cold
At times we look out at great seas of white
So bright is the sun that we squeeze our eyes tight
If you're not from the prairie you don't know snow.

If you're not from the prairie you don't know our trees you can't know our trees
The trees that we know have taken so long
To live through our seasons to grow tall and strong
They're loved and they're treasured we watched as they grew
We knew they were special - the prairie has few
If you're not from the prairie you don't know our trees.

Still you're not from the prairie and yet you know cold..you say you've been cold?
Do you know what to do to relieve so much pain
Of burning from deep down that drives you insane?
Your ears and your hands right into your toes
A child who's been cold on the prairie will know
Of all of those memories we share when we're old
None are more clear then that hard bitter cold
You'll not find among us a soul who can say
"I've conquered the wind on a cold winter's day"
If you're not from the prairie you don't know the cold you've never been cold.

If you're not from the prairie you don't know me you just can't know ME.
You see, my hair's mostly wind, my eyes filled with grit,
My skin's red or brown and my lips chapped and split
I've lain on the prairie and heard grasses sigh
Ive stared at the cast open bowl of the sky
I've seen all those castles and faces in clouds
My home is the prairie and I cry out loud


If you're not from the prairie you can't know my soul
You don't know our blizzards, you've not fought our cold
You can't know my mind, nor even my heart
Unless deep within you, there's somehow a part
A part of these things that I've said that I know
The wind, sky and earth, the storms and the snow
Best say you have - and then we'll be one
For we will have shared that same blazing sun.