Oops :)

We enjoyed our visit with my nephew, Michael while travelling across the US. We ran into each other in South Dakota. Well actually Karen and Michael ran into each other on Facebook that morning and figured out our paths would cross so they made plans for us to spend the evening together.

 A few days later he enjoyed a visit with his cousin, Tim at our house. I think they had too much fun:

Everyone is okay although Tim's hand was sore for awhile as it ended up under the truck. Things happen quickly when out four-wheeling. Some guys came along and helped Tim and Michael roll it back on its wheels. Its now resting comfortably in our garage waiting for a donor truck to arrive that Tim is purchasing.

Life's an adventure.

Thankful to God they are both safe.

Where to begin

Where does one begin when there has been a four year gap in updates? Ugh!

The short story:

Meg graduated from college in PA, moved home and a year later took a job back in PA. She now has a job in the Social Work field that she has been wanting to get into. She's doing well.

Tim spent 4-1/2 years at Fort Hayes State University, decided he had enough, moved home, spent 7 months in the real world working and is now returning to finish his degree. Tim loves his vehicles and enjoys working on them (well most of the time he does).

Ryan has now graduated high school and is heading off in the fall to Fort Hayes as well. He wants to do something in computer program designing. Life's an adventure and he may change his major a few times before he's done. Ryan loves throwing hammer, not the kind you pound nails with, the kind in Track and Field where you throw a heavy steel ball on a wire rope and handle as far as you possibly can.

Karen and I keep getting younger and younger (oops, that's not quite accurate). Karen has had a number of health challenges over these past four years. God has been gracious throughout. The latest is an apparent bulging disk in her neck that is causing extreme pain and numbness. The Canadian health system is racing around at glacial speed to find the cause and relief for this. Ugh. Pray for Karen. She has also taken on the position of Financial Administrator for NAIM. This is a very big job and bulging disks do not mix well with the demands of the job. Neither one wants to give ground to the other.

Scott is presently in PA and NY looking for more support for our ministry. He continues to wonder why they raised the height of the basketball rim since he was 20 years old. Also he wonders why God made salt, fat and sugar taste so good if they are so bad for us. If they tasted like brussel sprouts, we would all be a lot healthier. Well they do make us emotionally healthy. In spite of enjoying these treats from the Lord, he is relatively healthy.

Enough for now, that's the long and short of it. I'll try and keep up better in the future. Drop us a line about how your doing :)

Nov Update

I can see that it has been embarrassingly too long since my last post. Sorry!

Everyone is doing well. Meg is in her 4th year at Phila. Biblical University. She is on track to graduate in Dec '09. Tim is also doing well at Fort Hays State University. This semester he took a 5 credit Chinese course to which we said, "WHAT?!?!" He has surprised everyone and is presently carrying an 'A' average for the course. WOW! Ryan made the basketball team again this year, we love his perseverance, not being one of the most talented players, he goes out and plays with lots of heart. Way to go, Ry.

Karen and I celebrated out 25th wedding anniversary in August of this year. It was especially meaningful in light of Karen's bout with cancer earlier this year. Notes of congratulations should be sent to Karen for putting up with me all these years. We were able to visit with Karen's mom who lives in Florida while we were travelling this fall. I always wanted to see a live wild alligator in person. So one day I took a walk to check out the ponds by Karen's Mom's house. Sure enough at the second pond was a 6-7 foot alligator sunning itself. I was so excited but I didn't have the camera, only the cell phone. So I closed to within 8 feet to take a picture but I spooked it and it went into the water. So the resulting picture is only of its eyes and nostrils sticking out of the water. But hey, I finally got to see my first up close wild alligator. Ryan was upset with me when he found out what I did.

We are looking forward to having everyone home for Christmas this year. We had planned to go to Klemtu this Christmas but Meg and Tim both have to work and earn money for school bills in January. So we will be staying home this year. Meg has already lined up work at the Day Care she worked at this fall. We are so thankful for this.

We hope you enjoy the family picture from August.

If anyone is interested, I have a blog page for a study in Ephesians that I am doing with a local group. It can be found at http://www.scott-on-ephesians.blogspot.com/.

Karen's Clean Bill of Health and Visiting Friends.

Horseshoe Bay Terminal

Last Monday we went to Karen's final appointment with the cancer doctor. He gave her a clean bill of health and has turned her over to our family doctor for future checkups. We are eternally grateful to God for this positive outcome and thankful to everyone who showered us with expressions of love and covered us in prayer.

Mary Lou, Emma and Karen working on a scrapbook for friends from Klemtu

We were also glad that our friend, Mary Lou, who was visiting from PA at the time with her daughter, Emma, was able to be there and share the moment. We are in the midst of one of those uniquely rich times of visits from a number of friends. The day before Mary Lou and Emma came, friends from NY, Chuck, Deb and Mary, arrived for a 5 day visit before their cruise to Alaska. A good friend from Klemtu, Melody, is visiting this week. Before the week is out, Chuck, Deb and Mary will return for two days before flying home. Then this weekend a family we know through Tim and Ryan's Track club on Vancouver Island are coming.

It has been fun and profitable week of enjoyable activities and ministry opportunities mixed together. Please click on the 'comment' button below and leave a note or just your name and date so we know someone is reading these blogs. Thanks!

See our ministry blog for updates about the ministry opportunities from this past week at http://scott-at-naim.blogspot.com/

Chuck, Deb and Mary leaving on Cruise to Alaska (you can tell by the big smiles)

Tea Time with Melody, Emma and Mary Lou (taking picture)

View from Mt. Seymour just outside of Vancouver, BC

Karen Update and Father's Day Weekend

Karen finished her radiation treatments last Monday although the side effects have not yet peaked (normally 10-14 days after treatment, involving pain and discomfort). We continue to be thankful for good reports and look forward to complete recovery (including side effects) soon.

The family was all together for Father's Day weekend as Tim returned from Vancouver Island to compete with Ryan in a local Track and Field competition. The weather was generally good. Ryan had two personal best throws in shot and javelin.

The highlight for us was on Sunday when we left one competition to go to another where Tim was competing against two other athletes, one who was trying to qualify for World Junior Championships and the other was Scott Russell, the Canadian record holder in javelin, who was trying to qualify for the Canadian Olympic team. Scott is tall, about 6' 8'' and very friendly. All the kids and competitors love him. He did qualify for the Canadian Olympic Team with a throw of over 83 meters. For those of you not as familiar with metric, that's most of the length of a football field. It was quite impressive to see. Watch the vidoe below.

Scott Russell Throwing Javelin

This week we have Dakota and Vasille staying with us. They are the foster boys we have done foster relief care for the past 9 years. It should be a fun week. Karen has lots planned for them. Today we are going to watch the BC Lions football team practice, they are holding their pre-season camp here in Abbotsford.

Megan has landed a job at a Christian Day Care center here in Abbotsford. It is a full-time job which we are most grateful for. I told her that by the end of the summer she will either never want to have kids of her own or we'll know she wants some of her own.

This is Meg enjoying the track meet!

Family Update June 1

Karen is past the half-way point in her radiation treatments. They have left her feeling quite nauseated and tired at times. Six more treatments to go, five this week and one more the following Monday. The side effects may last for a few weeks after treatments end. Please keep praying for Karen.

Our time together as a whole family is over quickly. It only lasted two weeks and was full of life, action and commotion. It's nice to know that even with two of the three in their 20's, they still love to wrestle and argue. Tim has moved over to Vancouver Island to live and train with his javelin coach of many years. He will be looking for work, taking a summer class online from Fort Hayes State University and competing at various track meets. Tim hopes to make TeamBC to compete at the Canadian National Championships this summer. We miss having the extra driver around as well as miss our car which Tim drove to the island.

Megan has started her new job at American Eagle. It is a trendy clothes store and we are sure Megan will love it. (Actually, 'trendy' is my word, you know my high fashion sense:) She was determined not to get a job in the 'food industry' and succeeded. Its nice to have her home.

Ryan just competed at the BC High School Championships for Grade8/9. He qualified in shot put and discus. It was a great experience for Ryan to compete against the best that BC has to offer. We look forward to Ryan building on this experience in the years to come. He was quite nervous but we were proud of him and it was a joy to see him compete at that level. The picture above is Ryan throwing discus at an earlier competition.

Karen's Radiation

Karen Helping Ryan With Math

On Friday, May 16, Karen begins her first radiation treatment. Please pray that all might go well. Last week the Cancer Center did a catscan to prepare for the radiation treatments. It was very painful for Karen because of the position she had to hold her right arm (over her head for a half hour). She has to have her arm in the same position for each radiation treatment. Pray that the pain will not be too much. She begins treatment Friday and they are Monday to Friday for the next three weeks.

On a lighter note, that is a picture of Karen helping Ryan with his math. She went to school ??? years ago and now she gets to do it again. Not all the moments are lighter, as you can imagine.