Christmas Letter 2006

Okay, it is Christmas letter time again…. We’ve already received 4 Christmas cards from eager Canadians! I know mail travels by dog sled in Canada, but here things move so quickly.

Sinterklaas was over yesterday, I had one phone call from a Canadian friend wishing me a happy day…. The Dutch celebrate Sinterklaas’s birthday on December 6th, and they save Christmas for a sacred holiday. I suppose we could take lessons from them, as their major gift giving is done now, and not at Christmas.

This year seems to have flown by, I am sure everyone feels that way, and not just us. We booked our holiday from June 24th- July 29th and it flew too. We landed in Toronto on June 24th and stayed in TO for a couple of days, traveling to Niagara Falls on a day trip, enjoying the beauty around us immensely! We flew to Winnipeg and stayed our first few days with Henri & Esther, they treat us like royalty and we enjoy the restfulness of their home and their company! Esther is such a great cook, and we have such good talks, I miss her friendship living so far away.

We were treated to anniversary cake on June 30th at my mom’s cousin Vicki’s new home, and had a great visit with her and her husband Wayne. Aunt Colleen brought us there for the short but special visit!

We then went to George & Bessie’s for a few nights before heading North to Thompson. We had the opportunity to go to First Nations Community Church with them, and met some old friends that I hadn’t seen for ages. I always love visiting with G & B as I feel like I am at home again. They lived next door to our family when I was 3 years old, that is a long time ago!

Arriving in Thompson, we found the weather pretty chilly for the beginning of July, it was around 10C and we didn’t like it very much. Things were a bit crazy at my mom’s as my mom was caring for my brother Keith’s children, it was a bit of a zoo there. We saw friends, did a lot of eating, and visiting! After about 5 days we headed, (with my mom and my niece Lenea) for Prince Albert then on to Cold Lake, AB where my youngest brother Mark is now living. Along the way we had a bit of an adventure. Maarten was driving and somewhere around Simon House Bible Camp, (at Fiddler’s junction) we stopped for gas, and the car refused to start again. It had already been acting up the last 40 minutes before Fiddler’s, fortunately my husband had the good sense to keep on driving, until we needed to gas up that is…. We had to get a tow truck. Mom had CAA and one came from Flin Flon for us. The mechanic from Canadian Tire stayed late, and happily it was only a dead battery that was the problem. We got a new one and continued on our way.

We arrived at Mark’s during Hannah’s birthday party! It was nice to see Mark, his family and their new house. Two days later they were all off to family camp, and Mark dropped me and Maarten off at my friend, Donna in Edmonton (300 km from Cold Lake!). We got to meet her new husband, Tony, and what a delight he is. We’re thankful that God brought a good man into her life. We got to see my Aunt Marie, my dad’s oldest sister, she will be 77 this month! We then went to spend two nights at Gretchen’s house, her husband and 3 of the 4 children were off on a fishing trip. We got to visit with Jenny, Claude and their children (except for April who was off in Mexico on a missions trip!) and their brother Reg, as the day we arrived at Gretchen’s happened to be Jenny’s birthday! So we were all at Jenny & Claude’s for her birthday supper! We decided to fly to Regina from Edmonton, to save time, and Donna & Tony drove us to the airport at 5:00 am! What lovely friends we have!

Dr. Penner & Auntie Marnie, picked us up in Regina, took us out for a great breakfast and brought us the 100 kms back to Caronport. We had a lovely 3 days visiting with them, checking out the bookstore on campus, and having lunch twice with Bud & Marge Elford. During WWII Bud served in Holland and had a medal hanging on his wall given to him by the Dutch government. It was interesting for us! It is always great to be with Dr. Penner and Auntie Marnie they are two of the most loving people you will ever meet. She adores Maarten and showered him with kisses, asking me, “You don’t mind dear?” I don’t mind at all! Maarten had a great time watching football with Dr. Penner, that was a memorable time for him!

We decided to take the bus from Moose Jaw to Winnipeg, and arrived in time to go to my old church, South Side Bible Church, and enjoy the annual barbeque at Tina & Lawrence’s house! Hilda and Susan were there, but Randy was on the missing person list! We all used to attend the same bible study, way back when! Oh how I miss those days! We stayed the last few days with my Aunt Colleen, had the only swim of the summer in her pool and the last two nights we stayed at the Holiday Inn Airport West. We got to see many dear friends, and enjoy many meals together with them!

One highlight of the trip was a gift from Jan U. We had a meal in their home and she showed us a quilt she was making for us. It mixed Canadian and Dutch colours as well as symbols, tulips, and the maple leaf! She put her heart and love into it, and the day before we flew back to Holland she gave it to us. I want to enclose a picture of it. In the top triangle, she put two hearts, with my and Maarten’s name sewed into it. It is now hanging in a very prominent place in our living room, you are all welcome to come and see it first hand!

Well, except for our vacation there has not been very many special things happening here in Holland, mostly I have been homesick and missing Canada. In September, I went to a concert by a man named Adrian Snell, and it really did my heart good. I felt like God healed my hurt, the pain is not totally gone, but I am surviving daily better than I was before the concert. I am continuing with Dutch lessons, but will probably soon put a stop to it. I took a course to be a volunteer with a group called, “buddyzorg” and they care for people who are in their last stages of life as a result of cancer or HIV. So far, I have not been given a client as my Dutch skills are not good enough. There were 3 clients who spoke English but all died before I finished the program. We have monthly update meetings to see where everyone is at.

Maarten has not traveled far from home this past year, which affects our pocketbook somewhat! He continues to work on several websites all gratis! He has spent a million hours working on www.childrenasking.org (maybe I am stretching his time involvement a bit…) and created two other websites that he is also webmaster of, www.wensontbijt.nl which is a breakfast service and the third is the website of an artist we know. I’m also a volunteer translator (me and my walking dictionary, Maarten!) with an organization called, Christians for Isreal. I don’t get a lot of request for translating from them, but it is nice to do.

I still sing in the choir and we still attend the Maranatha Church. I made several cakes this year for the fund raiser for Romania, and in September for a separate missionary trip to Romania.

We had hoped maybe to visit a friend in England for Christmas, but we may go for the New Year if things work out.

Hope to hear from you over Christmas at least, I send many birthday cards throughout the year but few seem to remember us. Even my mom forgot to phone this year!

Wishing you all the best, this Christmas and for the New Year!