Oh Canada!

The first weekend in April I went with a team from my church to Sherbrooke, Quebec to run an all night sports craze for middle and high school students. As we left Boston and headed north we drove through snow, snow, and more snow... and that ain't no April Fools!!

I made a special Canada mix CD for my car complete with the national anthem and of course J Biebs!!!

I got to show my mad packing skills and was once again wondering why I did not become an engineer. We got 4 people's stuff, food for the team for the weekend, and so much more in the trunk!!

When we got into Sherbrooke we met up with Robert and his team for lunch. I tried Poutine for the first time and was a bit sketched out by the looks of it and well by the description... fries with gravy and cheese curds. I was pleasantly surprised with how yum it was!!

The rest of Friday was spent preparing for the craze. We cut up colored armbands, made the schedule, put the kids on the teams, and then got dressed and ready for the craziness!!

The theme was The Incredibles so since my team color was black I decided to go more for the Edna look so got some amazing glasses at the party store

Pink team represent!!! (Adam, John, and Angela)

There were 188 middle and high school students who came to the sports craze... it was CRAZY fun to stay up all night and play sports games, even if my team came in dead last!

The Boston Crew (Mark, Connie, Neena, Janelle, Me, Angela, Adam, John, and Jonathan)

Bill the intern was trying to get in my picture, those crazy interns

When we emerged from our all night bubble we walked out to this, it was gorgeous!!!


After sleeping most of the day we went to a Maple Sugar shack place for a buffet dinner... the Canadians and Buddy the Elf have one thing in common, they love maple syrup on EVERYTHING... it was DELICIOUS!!!

At the end of the meal you go outside and they pour maple syrup onto snow and then you twist it on a stick for a candy like maple goodness... it was yum!


Saturday night we hung out and played games with the missionary interns and Sunday we went to church which was quite interesting because it was all in French

I was asked to write a little blurb for my church's e-newsletter last week about our trip so here is my little diddy:

When I think of unreached people groups, I think of people in remote villages in a deep dark jungle somewhere on the other side of the world. But a few weeks ago I learned of and visited a place, about four hours north of Boston, where one of the most unreached people groups in North America is located. Four hours is not very far, many of our hometowns and families are farther than four hours away! And yet Sherbrooke, Québec is a city so close, but very much in need of laborers willing to go and share the saving grace of Christ. As I stood in the gymnasium with the 188 middle and high school students our team went to serve, I could not help but notice that they looked just like I had at their age, wide-eyed and excited about hanging out with friends and about life, however many of them had never heard of Jesus or stepped foot inside a church. So we went and played fun and crazy games with them, built relationships, and showed them the love of Jesus not with flowery words but through dodge ball, crazy costumes, and merely by showing up. It was not hard; it did not even feel like a sacrifice, yet the mere act of going can seem so daunting and the lies of inadequacy can hold us back so often from being obedient to what God has called us to do.

What about you, what is God calling you to do? Sometimes it is merely showing up and when we get there He gives us all that we need for the task at hand.