Rolled Over in South Dakota

Erica is writing this for me, as I dictate to her on the phone.

Patsy and I are sitting in our hotel room waiting to be rescued.

Our cargo van flipped yesterday and we had our first ride in an ambulance.
We have no broken bones, a few scratches and bruises and sore muscles.
Overall we are fine.

We figured angels were re-arranging things in the van as we were flying around.
Patsy had a bag of clothes in front of her that appeared from nowhere protecting her.
I landed on both our purses which were nice and soft.

The doctor kept asking over and over, "Your head is not sore?".
We both said no. I think angels had ahold of our heads keeping them still.
In the hospital, we were laughing and joking, saying we are staying here until spring when the ice melts.

Please pray for Dwight who is driving down here to take us home.
Neither one of us really want to get in a car but there is no train or bus service.

We're both very thankful to be in one piece.

Denomination

Judi, my freind, you are aware that I am a REFLECTOR by nature, so it takes some time to process. I woke up this morning thinking about what I felt the heart of your message was. This is what I've heard you say.

"I want clear values and beliefs. I want to KNOW what to expect. I want boundaries around what people will and won't do. I want community that is real and felt, not chatted about. I DON"T want to be ever searching for something else. I want to satisfied with the present reality. Looking for more is wearing me out!! "

If some or all of this is true and you can find like minded people ----they may already exist in a DENOMINATION --------join with them. Blessings on you!!!
Denomination is not a bad word. They have a clear understanding of what they were put on earth to do and go about doing it. I think the Vineyard is part denomination --sure of their pupose and call and following it with purpose, and part mystic-seeker---there must be more. This doesn't necessarily fit with all personalities. I've heard David Ruis in the past give permission for people to find what "fits" them. Being the very 'black and white' person that you are, I'm sure nothing would COMPLETELY fit you ---so a near fit would have to do. I personally will always fit the mystic-seeker mode. I remember as a small child hearing the message of "And greater works than these will you do in MY name" and the whole of the inside of me lit up. Wow GOD is HUGE!!
In the natural, not every person was called to be a Christopher Columbus, searching for new worlds, somebody had to send him and read his tales of adventure in front of a warm fire!! Be at peace my friend, BE all that God calls you to be -- no more, no less. We need those that call "WOE --Steady on there --" You know from history how crazy a mystic can get!! Probably a quarter of them were burned at the stake!!

THANKSGIVING

I was listening to an American channel and heard them say "Happy Turkey Day" I had heard someone, a few years ago, on a talk show -- complaining about the whole concept of Thanksgiving as that implies that there is a GOD to be thankful to. Along with this, Gaily and I were in a shop and noticed that the Christmas decorations were not NEARLY as plentiful or elaberate as the Halloween decore. How upside down the world is turning. Don't mention or thank GOD, just put metal detectors in school doors and have a camera on every other corner to look after the increase in crime. I read in Romans the other day that the bottom line of a lot of problems in society was that "They loved the created more than the Creator" Lord of Creation Turn this up side down world right side up!!

Miss my computer

All the complaining I have done about how frustrating my computer gets me, I miss it and want it back!! I miss reading blogs and responding to the thoughts espressed. I miss the posted pictures. SOOOO Dwight is re-working the WHOLE mess for me so I can have it back. YEAH. That's life I guess, only when something is gone do you realize it is important. Probably the same it true of people.

Coming Home

I'ver been back home for four days and have discovered that there were certain foods that I missed. Don't get me wrong Rebecca fed me terrific meals, after all, she IS the Queen of the kitchen!! But I discovered that I missed soft ice cream, breakfast at PERKINS (even if their coffee sucks), and stir fried veggies at Canadian Chineese Restaurants. I can see Erin rolling her eyes and Rebecca saying in her English accent "HOW COMMON"!! But whatever--that's what I like. I have changed my phone service and now discover that I need an international service to call overseas. So Lois or Rebecca I'm not ignoring you, I just need an international card. Back to the laundry which I must finish before Erica and DJ return home.

Sunday Monday Tuesday (short version)

I haven't had access to a computer so I couldn't finish telling my trip story. Sunday Rebecca and I went shopping in the Centre of town. We returned home on time to watch BBC's version of Hymn sing. Three people gave testimonies of finding God. One was an older gentleman who had been an atheist and found God and became a missionary with Africa Inland Mission. A young lady had a stress disorder and found God looking out of the window from her sick bed. A third man was financially successful and had all the things money could buy and was left empty. He found God and was now teaching youth and feeling fulfilled. I was amazed that this was on a BBC program!!
Monday we went to Maduridam ( I haven't got my pamplet so I probably spelled this wrong). This is a mini Holland with amazing detail all though the acres of reproduction. Rebecca if you still have my pictures I'd be happy if you added some color to this monologue!! Rebecca was awakened on Tuesday morning by a cab which came at 4:30 instead of 5:30. By 5:30 I was off to the plane and then to London where I had a few hours and then to Toronto and Winnipeg!! 24 hours later I was in my own little house!! Thanks Rebecca I had an amazingly good time.

Friday and Saturday

Friday I went to pick up something for Art that I had seen the previous week. Unfortunately the shop is closed until Tuesday and I leave on Tuesday so I must find him something else. Rebecca is still ill, so I volunteered to help her friend Lisa put together a dinner for the volunteer people who set up and take down their church weekly as they use a school for services. I like the idea of honoring the unseen workers who generally go unnoticed.

Saturday Lisa picked me up at 9:30 and we went to a huge store like Costco called the Ven. It had two floors of goods. The difference between this store and Costco was that they had a wine shop and beer vendor. Of course many of the products were Dutch or European. The cheese shop had the best place to stop and taste stuff. It is hard to believe there are so many types of cheese. When we got to Lisa’s there were no carts to haul her load up to their suite so Charlie went across a passage way to an adjoining building and nabbed 3 carts from their building. Charlie and Lisa’s parking space was a double-decker affair where you drive into your space and then lift your car up so someone can park under you.



We put together a nice dinner of potato salad, hamburgers and sausage with cheese cake for dessert.I convinced them that I would rather not meet a bunch of new people and that I just wanted to help out so I left before the festivities. We brought Rebecca firewood so we lounged before her fire and watched “Strictly Come Dancing” to see which couple would get knocked out of the competition this week. I will miss this show. It is such fun!! Rebecca fell asleep but I waited up to see who got the lowest score from the phone in audience. Alas Fiona is gone!!

Thursday - Poor Rebecca is ill!!

Rebecca's turn hugging the ceramic bowl. She is feeling very tired and awful. Sleeping beauty!!I went to the sea by tram - ON MY OWN- I'm a chicken but I did it. There were huge white caps and waves as it is very windy today. The winds aren't all that cold unless you are wet from rain. I spent time wandering in the shops in the Palace Prominade. In the evening Rebecca slept and Lisa came and dropped off some necessary purchases for life. We'll see what tomorrow brings??

Wednesday

Wednesday we went to Rotterdam Harbour. This is the largest port in the world and it is MASSIVE! We went on a two and one half hour tower of the harbor on a beautiful boat. The first thing that I noticed was the bridge that was very nearly the same as our Winnipeg bridge (Winnipeg copied it of course!). As we started to sight see, one side of the harbor looked new with high rises like our side of the Atlantic and the other side still had the charming old houses like the rest of Holland. Being the needed harbor during the war, Rotterdam was bombed by both sides in their comings and goings. We saw a tower like the Calgary or Toronto towers---actually it probably is more like the Seattle space needle as it goes up and down. In different places along the harbour, there were huge platforms for ship repair. We saw an oil rig being repaired in dry dock. Where the ships were being loaded with cargo containers, they were using cranes, front end loaders and the claw kind of pettibones like Art used to use at the spur in Wabowden. They said there were a millions containers here at any time. These containers are the size of a train car. Some ships can carry 80,000 containers. I saw a Cargill storage area like you would see on the prairies. Near the end of the tour we saw mounds of scrap metal from where old vessels were demolished. The tour “voice” said something about making stainless steal from some of the scrap. As we went along this long stretch of water we would see names we recognized as their product was being sent around the world from here. We ended our day going to a restaurant for some delicious ribs—right around the corner from Rebecca’s house. This was an amazing day.

Monday

Monday morning we went to the Town Centre on a soap hunt. Alas no special lavender soup could be found. We visited the Queens working palace and saw a statue of one of the Willems on a battling war horse with flared nostrils.




We also saw a statue and memorial to Queen Willemina. I took a picture of “The Nightwatch” ---they were done in bronze ----men who were dressed to fight. Rebecca said this was from a famous painting by Rembrandt, who she was determined would fall in love with her!



After some tea we went to the parliament. This was built in a square with buildings all around. A couple of weeks ago there had been an attempt at a terrorist attack on parliament so there was much security here.



While we were there news men and women were running across the square to interview someone in one corner. Of course Rebecca followed suit and wormed her way in to watch the fun.



A new political party was being launched with a dramatic flare. They had a list of Proclamations of things they would do for the country. In the manner of Martin Luther they rolled out this list . Apparently they were actually imitating Luther but a young man in the square said that most of the people who would vote for him would have no idea who Luther was. There were 29 parties running here before so I guess this would make 30. Talk about a MINORITY government!!!

And this cup of hot tea and a nice cold glass of ice tea cost us $17 Canadian..... What is that for nonsense, as they say here!!

Sunday

Sunday morning Rebecca worked on her laundry---- What a job! I spent a good part of the day in the loo. I did not want to get too far away from this ceramic bowl. It was a beautiful sunny day too, but I was stuck inside. I will therefore tell of some of the different things I have seen here. The temperature has been as high as 21 degrees and a whole lot of ladies are walking around in mukluks with the pom-poms and all!!




Since I have only seen these before when it is minus 20 so the snow is hard enough not to get them wet—this seems strange. Apparently winter boots are also for the style conscious no matter the temperature. Scarves are worn by all ladies tied a certain way or wrapped around many times. Nancy’s frilly things are in every shop---- Frilly purses, tops, skirts, and dresses. I’ve seen a few skirts , with the materials that we used to make crinolines of, OVER the skirt not under. Hair is much the same here as a home. Men dress to the nines, no matter their job. Even taxi drivers have suites and ties on. This seems strange to me to see men on their way to work dressed in their Sunday best every day. I’m feeling better this evening so we’ll see what tomorrow brings. Bye

Saturday

Saturday Rebecca went to her church to serve a lunch to a group there, so I was on my own to sleep-in and lounge around. I was thinking about what I saw the other day when we traveled to Haarlem in the car. I looked to the side of the car and thought I saw a pond. As we came right across from “the pond”, instead it was a field with a mist on the top of it. Rebecca said it this is called a “spirit mist” This was very interesting to me,


In the evening Marilyn, one of Rebecca’s pastors, and I met at the Babylon theatre where we watched the new ‘Pride and Prejudice’ movie---- Different from the first one. I took a cab to the theatre and home again as Rebecca said I couldn’t take public transport at night. Rebecca was like the mother of a teenager waiting for me to return home safely!!



We have decided that we aren’t going to church tomorrow but will watch the count down of the British top 20 hymns of Praise in the evening. Last week they had Graham Kendricks and others on telling us about the hymns from 20 to 10. This week is 10 to 1 in The Royal Albert Hall. We both sang heartily along with the crowd!!