Fixed hour prayer

Sat. Aug. 28th
Every day the rhythm of life here revolves around the communal prayer that is the heart of Taize. It is unbelievable to gather with 7000 people kneeling on a simple floor of a church and singing scripture passages and then reflecting in silence together three times a day.
Every time there has been something that has spoken to me. Rob’s revelation was that “if you don’t deal with your baggage before you come it will be an even bigger burden as you try and travel.” This is said both spiritually and practiacally as we pack and re-pack our bags to try and get rid of excess luggage to which I reply “back off, I just sold everything I owned to do this I’m allowed to carry too many bobby pins. They’ll be lost by the end of the week don’t you worry!”
Then there is the study of the prodigal son. We are both relating to the younger son because we have left our life and wonder if we are squandering our birthright. Yet, I am mostly relating to the older son in the story. The one who has always done the right thing, obeying the letter of the law but not being “home” with the father but rather feeling like one who is a worker operating out of duty. It hit me what a spirit of love the prodigal has towards his home when he returns from wasting his inheritance and how the older son did not recognize what he had. I feel these thoughts in the silences as I sit in the services at Taize and then the voices begin to sing:

Let all who are thirsty come,
Let all who thirst receive
The waters of life
Freely.
Amen.
Come Lord Jesus,
Amen, come Lord Jesus

Amen.

Kids Camp at Olinda

Fri. Aug. 27th

Little did we know we set up camp in the wrong spot. Friday to Sunday had us landed in the beautiful village of Olinda just a five minute walk from Taize. We packed up our luggage and made another treck past horses (Cameron was in his element) and fields of lavender (Kathryn was in hers) and Simeon had old stone walls to climb so all the children were joyous despite their time-zone suffering.
Olinda was exactly what we needed to recuperate. They had a park for each of our children’s age groups and programs for each of the kids in the mornings. They also had a drama and bible study of the prodigal son story in the afternoon.

While the kids had their program in the mornings we had a teaching around the prodigal son story as well and then a group time with parents who also spoke English. Our group leaders were Andrew and Anna from England with Brigitta and Aiden their children. Brigitta became Kathryn’s “best best best best friend” [Emphasis hers] and Simeon and Aiden spent most of their shared time arguing about who was bigger.

Olinda has an incredible chapel in the cellar of the home they had us staying in (Yes, a week without a tent;) And we met a most amazing family from France as well.
So thankful to finally feel like I am able to breathe.

Chocolate for Breakfast

Thurs. Aug. 26th
If there has ever been living proof that the feeding of the 5000 was possible it seems that Taize has made it a mandate to show that it can be done. For some reason the adult section did not enjoy our young Cameron waking them all up at 6:30 with his jet-lagged “hellooo” and informed us that there is a “family” village ten minutes up the road. Before we decided to relocate we had the Taize breakfast which is the same everyday. It consists of a hot-dog bun sized crusty bun, more like a baguette really, two pieces of chocolate, a stick of butter and hot chocolate.
“Chocolate for Breakfast mommy?” my children’s eyes sparkle.

Don't freak out. we are telling stories that have happened a few weeks ago. we are currently in spain. Hopefully it will all make sense soon.

A warm welcome

Wed Aug 25th 5.30pm

Travelling with little sleep to places you have never been tends to both be tiring and stressful. Being tired alone has a tendency to make you emotional. Arriving at Taize after such an ordeal might explain my emotional sensitivity. As I dropped my 70pd pack, I almost fell apart and worked at holding back the tears as I was greeted in English and asked, ‘would you like some tea?’ and she added, ‘and maybe a cookie?’

Miele was from the Netherlands, come to pray and given the task of greeting volunteers at the welcome centre. The welcome centre greets every newcomer in the same way, tea and cookies. Under a large outdoor shelter small groups of teens, and elderly are greeted in their own language and oriented to the stay at Taize. They are given maps, prayer times and a place to stay.

I think the welcome hit me so hard because I realized, I think for the first time, that this trip was not just an adventure in France, but an adventure for me. I think I had thought going into this that, ‘it would be great to go to Taize-to check it out and what it is all about.’ But being handed tea in a bowl in the French countryside after a stressful initiation and a long, long journey I realized….this tea was for me and this pilgrimage was for me.

We pee everywhere

Aug.25th
(macon train station.....pitstop)

When it was a miracle that you got your 3 year old potty trained before a trip like this. You are just thankful it wasn't in his pants.

we have peed in the busiest trainstation in paris

in fountains,

in front of 100's of people,

in lakes,

BUT rarely in pants.

thankyou jesus.

See you in Geneva

Wed Aug 25th 3.30pm

See that luggage. That is the luggage sitting on the high-speed train platform at Macon Loche. About 2 minutes before the train stopped we had 3 exhausted, sleeping children. I said to kate, ‘quick wake up the kids.’ I ran upstairs where most of our collection of luggage was strewn over 3 different racks. As the doors flew open I threw the stroller on the deck. One two, three black bags flew onto the platform as I run up for more. By this time the kids have been rudely awoken and are all somewhere between crying and screaming. The chimes sound for the doors to close and I still have 2 trips upstairs to get more bags. I have visions me screaming ‘I love you’ to my crying kids from the window on the second story of the train as it moves along to the next town- Geneva, and my kids left crying lost in France on a train platform in Macon Loche.
This could be a good time to bring up the fact that when you are in an eddy in life, a place where people and things are moving along around you at high speed and you are sitting still, you are in constant worry of being a casualty of speed. As the train prepared to move along, at its normal speed, it was about to rip my children from me without realizing it. Be warned you could be causing casualties of speed.
This is thankfully not the end of the story. A nice old French chain smoker stood in the doorway, saying nice things to the conductor in French , as I make a dash for the last of the bags……or so I thought. We actually forgot the diaper bag on the train.
As we sat as casualties of speed trains on the platform, huddled and hugging each other till the crying stopped and Sim realized he had to pee. A nice French woman helped carry our luggage to the bus station and translated for us and we sat waiting for our 1hr bus ride to Taize. Yes, the day had not finished….there was more to come-there always is.
Thank God for people who care, who notice and who pick up speed casualties like us.

Don't be confused. We are publishing past stories to get people caught up while we are in spain. enjoy.

Planes, Trains and Moo part II

Aug.25
So, where was I? Ah, yes. Tired, with too much luggage, wired kids and now I’m weeping as I get on the plane where it is demanded by our preschoolers that Rob and I each become their lap-beds for the duration of the trip to Paris which means that sleep was still to be eluded in our lives. Kathryn also did not do much sleeping because she had a personal TV. on that plane with a 24 hour option of watching my little pony movies. A six-year-old girl’s heaven.
Have I mentioned how we’re traveling? Here’s a breakdown:
1. A massive chariot bike-trailer/stroller which acts as luggage cart and child container…thank you Gingerich five!
2. Three children
3. Three rather large and cumbersome suitcases
4. Four carry-on backpacks
5. A diaper bag
6. A snack bag
These eleven bags meant that transport between each deposit point was torture. The Paris Airport had us wandering with the torturous amount of luggage up and down different terminals until we found the right bus that took us an hour away to the main train station. Luckily the main station had pigeons. Lots and lots of pigeons which helped entertain my children which helped maintain my sanity while I searched for 20 cents…I mean Euro’s so that I could use the public washrooms.
Of course we ended up at the wrong side of the terminal and had to RUSH to get on the right train, goodbye pigeons, hello jet-lag on the speed train. Naptime on the speedtrain here we finally come.

Planes, Trains and “Moo”

Aug.17 2010

We are here.
After twenty-four hours of Travel by Van, airplane, bus, train and one more bus we have arrived at our first destination; the ecumenical community in the Village of Taize, France. The Valley’s surrounding this village made Kathryn call France “The Sound of Music” and want me to inform her cousins that they all need to move here. Cameron is a fan of the grazing white dairy cows, which make the best cheese in the universe and takes it as his predominant calling to point at each of them on every bus or train and yell a hearty “Moo!”, but I am getting ahead of myself.

We have had an intense non-stop three months of preparation to make it to this point in our journey and the physical and mental and child-care endurance race it took to survive the trip here has demanded that Rob and I be in a type of survival auto-pilot to make it to this point. Also, WE are known as the “stable ones”. My parents live on planes, Rob’s parents live on planes, my brother commutes to Vancouver and L.A. and it is usually my other brother who I am saying goodbye to as he returns with his family to Israel.

So, when I’m at the airport, being dropped off by dear friends, and then seeing my whole family there to see us off it occurs to me that we are actually doing this. Then, my mom starts saying sweet goodbyes and my autopilot emotional -check is gone and I become a weeping basket-case. I wish the cliché of ‘you don’t know what you’ve got ‘til it’s gone’ weren’t true-but it is-Family, friends, networks, neighbours, and friends. Do me a favour and go buy your mom flowers and hug everyone you love today. I know they deserve it even when you’re on auto-pilot and even when your 18-month old won’t stop yelling “Moo”.

Surviving on simple food

Sun. Aug. 29th
Happy anniversary to us! We have been married for twelve years. My present to Rob? I brought our Garlic Press from home because he had commented in a moment when he didn’t think I was listening that the hardest part of packing up your home and selling everything were the little things. “I don’t want to get rid of my Garlic Press, I love this Garlic Press.”
So I brought it for him.
Speaking of Garlic, I thought I would share about the lack of it at Taize. To feed literally thousands of people on a daily basis the food has to be simple. Here is what a typical daily menu looks like:
8:15 Prayer
9:00 Breakfast- Bun, 2 chocolates, 1 butter, 1 Bowl with hot chocolate in it.
10:00 Discussion Group (Kids Group)
12:20 Prayer
1:00 Lunch- Bowl and Spoon and Plate, Bun, soft cheese, ham, mashed potatoes, apple, biscuits, water.
2:00-5:00 choir practice, work groups, free time
5:15 Tea- Bowl, tea, sugar, cookie
5:45 Group Time/ Kids drama
7:00 Supper- Bowl and spoon and plate, bun, butter, pasta with tomato sauce, plum, cookie, iced tea
8:30 Prayer

Packing up your life and overcoming “The Look”

We are in spain and so we thought we would postdate some letters to the blog and backtrack for you....this is from Aug 2010


I have too many pens. Too many lip-gloss containers in weird shades that I would never wear, too much clothing and here I sit helplessly in the sea of it all supposed to sort it out. I am on the floor of our home in Kitchener surrounded by suitcases and well, lip-gloss. My neighbor and dear friend came over to talk and cry and laugh with us one last time on our living room floor with no furniture and for some reason she didn’t want the ‘Essence of Coral’ gloss I so kindly offered.
Saying goodbye to such formative friendships and such a unique neighbourhood community has required a tangible grieving process. From the trivialities of having my last coconut doughnut at Kitchener Market or having to purge my piles of letters and life memorabilia to letting go people who have shaped our early life as a young family.
Then there are the seemingly insurmountable loose-ends to figure out. I can’t answer the doubts and sheer panic that overwhelm me at times, or the biggest difficulty to overcome: “The Look”.
The look people give us when we inform them that we are selling all of our possessions and taking the kids to Europe, biking the Camino de Santiago and hopefully making it to Africa.
“You’re doing what?” Says the Look.
“Why?”
Why? When our neigbourhood is amazing, when Rob’s job was secure, why would we give up my teaching job and Kathryn being accepted into French immersion?
Luckily we have dear friends who don’t give us “The Look”. These friends took us out for dinner before we left and asked Rob what he hoped to find by undertaking this family adventure. Rob paused for a moment and simply said, “I hope to journey with God.”
I believe that this is the heart of what we’re doing and why I can overcome “The look” despite my own better judgment. To be changed by taking a path less travelled is always difficult and always demands that we lift our feed and leave our comforts to find it.
I am praying that after all the “why, what, where and when’s” have been answered by my getting rid of these lip-gloss containers and finding travel insurance that God will show us the “How”.
“God, the Lord, created the heavens and stretched them out. He created the earth and everything in it. He gives breath to everyone, life to everyone who walks the earth. And it is He who says, I the Lord have demonstrated my righteousness. I will take you be the hand and guard you.” (Is. 42 vs. 5-6a)

Travelling isn't Glamorous

k. so my pack weighs....almost 50pds. Kate's about 35. Here we are walking off the ferry onto the Idylic Island of Iona. The place the book of Kells was written. The heart of Celtic Christianity and it is pouring. The kids are in the trailer with the cover on. It is passed supper time and our hostel is not the advertised 500 metres, but more like 1.5 km. The last building on the island-literally.

Travelling with kids is hard. The other day we were late and waiting for a bus and the words, 'i gotta poo.' come off the lips of Sim. The choice-40minute bus ride and wet, poopy kid, or miss the bus and get home in the dark? You choose.

I think the thing this trip has taught us is not that travelling with kids is impossible, but rather are you willing to make the sacrifices to slow down, adjust your expectations, and let your kids help dictate the tempo.

We could have said,' it's too hard', but then we wouldn't have gone to Iona, to Taize, or anywhere else. I think what often the limitation is our willingness to suffer, to endure, to do everything possible to make it happen.

What is your limitation?

I was inspired by Notre Dame which took 200 years to build. What if the members of the church said, enough? Or Edinburgh Castle, 1000 years to build all of it? I have been challenged of how short, and weak my effort often is.

Next on Tap- Zambia

We want people to know that we are planning on landing in Zambia after we spend 10 days in Spain. We are going to help consult on some agriculture projects and to really get a grasp on how we can help sustainable agriculture projects for NGO's. Its cool because we are returning to build a farm project we started in 2002. It will be a training centre for people from across Zambia, literally impacting 1000's of people.

There is a serious need and crisis in SubSaharan Africa. There is constantly the threat of food shortages and yet Africa produces 1/15 what we do in the west on the same amount of land. It seems to make sense that people feed themselves. But how do organizations responsible for 1000's of orphans feed their own? How do villages who care for orphans and widows grow enough to feed everyone? These are the questions we want to dig into for organizations like:

VisionLedd and Pentecostal Assemblies of Canada, and others if we get a chance.

Where we are at this point is needing about $14,000 to support us on this leg of the journey. This will get us there, give us the startup we need. We really feel like this will come as we start doing the stuff. If you can help we would appreciate it. PAOC has offered to allow us to fundraise and offer tax receipts through them. What it could look like is a monthly donation, or a lump sum. Whatever. Basically we need 20 people to give $100/month, or 14 to give us $1000. Trick is we have a short timeline to raise it or we will have to come home. If you know of someone who likes giving to Africa pass along the note.

In any case, we believe it is the right place for us to be going, but have no way of making it happen. So, if you pray....pray. We will let you know how it turns out. We are so thankful for all the ways stuff has already come together. The gifts we have received that have gotten us out the door and 1/2 way there.

house concerts, strollers, garage sales, gifts....the list goes on.

Just a note

For blog followers we will be backdating our stories. This means that we will eventually catch you up with our journey. It might seem scattered at first, but if you check the dates of the posts you can receive them all in order. It will take time, cause we are severely behind....but so it goes without internet.

r

Friends and Family

We have been well met in Edinburgh. Kathryn had big hugs for Uncle Chris (Jones). It is really Chris who has been responsible for introducing us to 24-7 Prayer and he acts as the leader of 24-7 Canada. For those that remember Deeper, the youth conference we did in 2008 I also met Brian Heasley, who didn't say Hi, but asked for more of my brother's coffee.





We are at the international gathering of 24-7 prayer and like we have had a few times since we left- it just felt so good to be here. It was a real sense of accomplishment just to be here. Totally looking forward to what is going to go on.

We also had a moment as my kids are dancing to the music. I leaned over to Kathryn and said, 'did you know you are related to that guy leading worship.' Ben Cantelon, who is kate's cousin is leading worship. A real treat to hear him live and not just on cds and videos.

What an moment for me to think this is how I get to imprint my kids. Dancing at the front of th church with these people. A real gift.

Scotland

Finally got to the west coast. To Oban. On our way to Iona Tomorrow. A very wet night. Remember....if it's green its cause it rains!. We will send some pictures soon.

Taize France

Out of Touch

Hey sorry folks,
We finally have a good connection in Edinburgh. We are here a week early for the conference so we think we will head to Iona, where it is cheaper. We spent most of the night last night looking for a room. It is crazy busy here. Not going to get any better cause the pope shows up next week.
I will upload some photos for you of france. Tell some stories tomorrow.