He Can Walk!

Yup - that's right - Jayden's walking now! Actually, its more like running. After practicing for several days, he finally gathered the courage to stand up and walk - with lots of bruises to prove it! Jayden has won the affection of many here at MAF, so he does whatever he can to gain their attention.

Since the MAF Apartments are not yet complete, we have been living in a hotel (without a kitchen) for the past 2 weeks. We have gained an extreme appreciation for home cooked meals! Hot dogs and Kraft dinner are a specialty for dinner until we move.

On the weekend we spent a little time enjoying the sights around southern Idaho. We took a 2 hour drive along a small gravel road into the desert to visit a ghost town. We were amazed at how incredibly remote this town was!

We’ve gotta run to class now – look for another update next week.

Let the Classes Begin!

Classes have been going very well! Since we are on loan from MAF Canada, and have done some of the classes back at our home office, we have a slightly lighter work load then the others. This gives us extra time to get our homework done during the day, learn more about the Haiti program, and explore different shipping options for Haiti. Classes include learning more about world missions, different MAF programs around the world, and getting to know what every different MAF department does. The office here is HUGE, and I mean Huge! Back home in Canada, we have about 6 people on staff, here it’s more than 120 people on staff! Most of the staff have served on the mission field so we are really enjoying getting to know them, as well as learning from their experiences overseas. Idaho is really a beautiful place. Everyday here the skies are crisp blue with the temperatures in the high 90’s for most of the day! Thank you all for your support!

Driving to Idaho

How do you make a long story short? Well, I guess we can sum in up that we had an eventful trip, and are truly thankful for God’s care and protection for bringing us here safely. Wednesday started bright and early at 5:30 in the morning. Although we had worked till 12:30 the night before there were still a lot of last minute things that needed to get done. Finally, two hours later then planned we rolled out of our apartment, our car loaded full of stuff. I had so many bags of my lap I could hardly move and was contemplating how fun it was to sit this way for the next 11 hours! Border waits were not too bad, after about a half an hour it was our turn. Little did I know that four hours later we would still be sitting there, feeling like criminals!! We were denied entry into the US and detained at the customs building. Not permitted to use cell phones, fax, or computer, we were left prey to the US BP for interrogation. We begged, we pleaded, we reasoned, we cried, but all to no avail. You’re wasting your time, you have now been officially refused entry to the US, return to Canada immediately they said. In tears, with a screaming, and by now hungry child in tow, I was pretty upset. Now what? We had just signed the sale contract to our house, and the new owners would be moving in less then month from now. Where else could we do this training? No where? Dejectedly we drove back to Abbotsford. We got MAF to fax another letter to us at a local bank, and drove to the next border crossing to give it a try there. We were shocked / amazed when we were permitted to cross - no questions asked! Miracles still happen today! We drove south without looking back, and arrived in sunny Nampa 8:00 PM the following day.