Category Archives: Travels

This was my first time up to Chitek Lake. A fairly typical northern lake resort town. The pace of life is always a bit different there even though there are lots of people around – especially on a long weekend.

Randall  comments on the quiet and peacefulness of the surroundings while he was there. I guess the thing I enjoyed the most was the good conversation. Leighton, Dave and Mike are fun guys to talk to. I also got to meet Becky and Alberto the first day I was there.

I enjoyed talking to Becky about her Masters paper topic on Revolve, the “Bible” for girls. I guess I pretty much agreed with her concerns about the slant the magazine is giving to issues about young women. She has other issues with it as well but she maybe will tell us all about that one day as her paper gets done.

I will post some pictures up in the gallery soon. The weather was very cooperative. I even got enough sun to turn a bit red.

Sorry for those who commented on this last post but accidentally, I deleted it.  we really are off to Winnipeg now in a few minutes.  So I don’t suppose i will do much blogging till Monday.  Randall seems to have found a way to blog but I’m not sure if I will.

Biggar has this crazy slogan “New York may be big but we are Biggar”  that about everyone repeats and that about everyone is tired of.  Biggar is just a little spot on the prairie map, a small hotel, a restaurant or two, a few churches and an art centre.  The community is big into music and dance festivals and competitions.  They hold one of the largest dance competitions in the province.  And today that is where we are going.

Grace and her friend, Nathalie, will be dancing their duet today.  On Thursday, Grace danced her solo and large group dance – Gold medal performances in both.  Today, I wouldn’t be surprised if they don’t pull off another gold. 

Grace hasn’t danced a solo in competition before this one.  I am so thankful that it went well.  She had been stressing out in her own inward sort of way for over a week.  She stopped eating on Tuesday.  Another thing for me to worry about I suppose.  She ate a hot dog on the way back Thursday night and was sick – lost it all.  I suggested that a hot dog is probably not a friendly to your stomach sort of food.  Maybe she should start out with some soup or toast – something a bit more bland and easy to digest.  But what does a mother know anyway?

Anyway, in about an hour we will pack ourselves into my vehicle and head south to the big town of Biggar.  It looks like a beautiful day for the trip.

I know that one of the things we are going to get to share tomorrow is where we saw God this summer.  I can’t share the pictures with everyone but my time at Anglin Lake was a time of meeting with God for me.  It was good.  You can see more of my pictures down under my photos section.

In This Place

Day slips silently, softly into night.

The night breeze touches my face.

A loons haunting cry echoes between the hills.

Golden fire upon the water

Reflects the setting sun,

Its image undulating

With the small wake of a fishing boat

Coming in to dock.

In the beauty of this place,

In the silence of these green hills

And colours of His wild grown garden,

God the Creator, Friend, Sustainer

Sits with me,

Speaks to me,

Filling the empty voids in my spirit

With His.

Now, I hope you aren’t tired of my reminiscing about my time at the lake, but all too soon summer is going to be fall and then winter.  I have to store up enough warm experiences to make it through the dark of winter.

I promised I would relate to you some of what God taught me during my too short stay up at Anglin Lake.  I think the quietness of it being the middle of the week with the abscence of weekend crowds gave me the space and privacy I needed for a real spiritual retreat.

I recorded this in my journal:

When I have time and a good book and lots of opportunity to sit and talk to God, I begin to feel at one with this earth.  The magnitude of all God has created coupled with the smallness of me make me more acutely aware of the greatness of his sacrifice and full of wonder that he did it for me.  And I am aware that God has been here caring for this part of the earth far longer than me or my immigrant ancestors have been present in this place.  God has been here forever, we didn’t bring him.  If our task is to introduce the people around us to the sacrifice and love of his son, Jesus, then we need to resee them through his eyes. 

God,

There are so many mysteries.

You have been here forever.

When the far distant ancestors of my children lived on this land,

Before my immigrant ancestors interrupted their ways of living,

Did they know you at all?

Are you the Creator God they revered

Since you were always here seeking them?

Did you accept their care for this land as hommage to you

As yet unknown?

Have we utterly failed to love these people as you require?

Open our eyes Lord and forgive us our sins.

Remove the stumbling block of our predjudice

And teach us your ways.

Oh God!  Hear my prayer!

Amen.

One of the most unusual experiences on my trip to Alberta was the amount of smoke in the air.  Usually as we approach Cochrane, just west of Calgary, we have a view of the mountains in the distance.  Not this time.  Everything was shrouded in a haze of smoke.  On Sunday the smoke was enough to obscure the mountains in the distance.  Monday it had cleared enough to see them, although not the pristine white snow covered mountains we have come to expect of Banff – but they were there – as if covered by light clouds. So far this smoke was coming from fires much farther away than Banff – mostly in BC.

On Thursday, my sisters and I went for a day trip up to the area around Banff and Canmore.  As we approached the Banff area this is what we saw    just about one ridge of hills from the highway.  We had planned a trip up to Johnson lake to see if the trail around the lake was open.  It wasn’t – due to the presence of Grizzly’s in the area – not the fire.  We spent some time there watching the interesting process of getting water to fight the fires in helicopter carried buckets – each carrying about 45 gallons.  Seemed a bit like spitting at the fire to put it out!  As we watched I captured this interesting shot – Helicopter picking up water while close by a canoe passes and if you look closely, the head of a very foolhardy swimmer is seen out there too.  Wonder if anyone has ever been scooped up and dumped on a fire.  It seems to me that happened somewhere.

Yesterday my sisters, who live in Cochrane, and I spent a day together. We headed up to the Banff and Canmore areas. We did some things none of our husbands would much appreciate doing – like visiting the show homes just east of Canmore. What magnificent homes! What expensive homes! Of course the one we liked the most was only 1.2 million.

Then in to Canmore for lunch and a visit to a fudge store. Up to Johnson Lake where we watched the helicopters coming in to fill up there buckets for firefighting. A constant turnaround as the fire was just east of there – quite close to the highway. Got some interesting pictures which I will post later. Then in towards Banff for a short hike. Thought we would visit Banff too for some ice cream but as we drove into the town we realized that they were having a power outage – due to the fire not the big black out in the east of Canada. So we revisited Canmore for the ice cream.

The smoke lies heavily over the city of Calgary this morning. The downtown area completely invisible from Sarcee trail where it rises overlooking the city.

Tomorrow we return home. It will be good to get back to my own computer.

Watch for a change over the next couple of weeks as I switch over to hosting by Prairie Fusion.

Here I am in Cochrane, Alberta, home of the world famous Cochrane ice cream. I haven’t had any yet but will before I leave. I think you can only get it here and in Calgary(today I saw a place in Calgary selling it) and it is all made here in this pretty growing town.

I used to think that Cochrane was a strange place – all new houses in their neat little rows. No slums. No place that could be considered the bad part of town. Some places that could definitely be called the rich part of town though. (We’re not there!) It actually lacks a lot of the character that a place like Prince Albert has. We have excitement and police action – check out Randall’s blog. Saskatoon seems to have the same.

Yesterday, I traveled from Prince Albert to Pigeon Lake via Edmonton, then on down to Cochrane. Left at 8 am. And got here around 8 pm. Only a slight detour in Edmonton trying to find the #2 South. Last night I was exhausted. It felt so good to lie down. Then the alarm went off! I got two very sleepy dancers out of bed and off we went again. Rush hour traffic wasn’t half bad. We got downtown in way under an hour – even had time to take them for breakfast before getting them registered.

Then as any good bibliophile does, I found a bookstore and passed a very quick hour there. I came away with a heavy bag and a lighter purse. I got some great books and a couple new CD’s.

Calgary has done some very nice things as far as preserving green spaces in their city. I spent about three hours in a park down by the Eau Claire Centre. It was a beautiful day to spend in the park with some books.

I decided to try blogging from my sister’s. I didn’t remember how slow a dial-up connection was. It challenges my patience and takes so long that it makes it difficult to follow links and find some of my favorite blogs. I might try this again one more time before I leave.

I probably won’t be blogging much over the next week. I’m off to Calgary via Edmonton and Pigeon Lake where Covenant Bay Bible Camp is located. Drop Sara off there and then go down to Calgary where Grace and her friend Nathalie will attend a dance workshop. I get to stay with my sisters and drive in to the downtown centre of Calgary every day for a week at rush hour and back out to Cochrane every day at rush hour too. When my kids are rich and famous they had better put me in a really nice nursing home! They owe me.

Now I just have to see if I can get onto my sister and brother-in-law’s computer to check up on all of you while I am away. I’m hoping to convince my niece, who is entering the school of journalism at the U of Regina to start up a blog of her own.

The kids arrived in Tennessee. Just got a phone call from my two. They called with the most popular request kids everywhere make – please send more money. I guess there was a slight mixup and no day before or day after reservations were made for them. So it will cost a few extra dollars. I have really come to appreciate internet banking. Only trouble is, it is too easy for kids to catch on too.

The kids will learn an important lesson about travel – check the reservations. I guess we parents can be held partly responsible. Next time…

I really regret the extra hassle this will cause the two counselor/chaperones.

Any way on a more upbeat note – Grace left me a wonderful little note under my pillow before she left. It is a very special note to me because what she said was so significant in the light of some stuff that has happened this week in her life. I am praying that God will meet her in a very special way at CHIC this week- Christian as well.

This morning Grace McK and I were at the church for Gate Crashers. As we sat and shared and prayed together, I was made aware of the deep need I have to develop meaningful relationships with fellow Christians. I need the support of their prayers and they of mine. And we talked about the need to mentor our young people as they grow in the faith but how hard it is to get a legitimate entry into their lives. This is something – one of the many things – we need to do in our church community . But it can’t be some program set up. It has to grow out of a genuine interest in each other.

God,
Help me be part of the building process. Show me, timid, introverted me, where I can be useful. Help me to discover ways to connect with some of the young people in our church and take the initiative to do something to make the connection.

And God help those kids down at CHIC to discover You in new ways this week. Let the difficulties of traveling fade away in the light of seeing and meeting with you this week. Do not let the problems they have run into overwhelm them or their leaders. And help us parents not to be critical and petty about whose fault it was that some things did not get done “right”. Give us the grace to allow some forgiveness for errors made. Protect our kids while they are in Tennessee.

Amen

I was just thinking – Christ traveled much farther from his home and at a much younger age. He knows all about the complications of traveling and finding no room at the end of the journey. He’ll be there with our kids. I think we can count of that!