On Our Way

Our house is shut down. Our car is loaded. Our goodbyes are said.  We are on our way! We are stopping for a last chicken dinner in Victoria Cove at Angie’s. Then two or three quick stops in Gander and on to Deer Lake. Pioneer Sessions tomorrow. If all goes well we’re on the boat tomorrow night.


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Farewells and False Starts

 On Sunday, two days before Memorial, the congregation had a party for us. A nice cake – quoting Isaiah – was our send off (along with enough food for 10 other congregations!). They were profuse in their affectionate farewells and generous to help us on our way.  The terrifying part is it felt more like a Goodbye party than a Going to Class party!  I think there is some fear that we might only come back to pack our bags.  Of course, to the best of our knowledge, we will be back to our assignment. Memorial was excellent!  We had Ed Musseau from Gander give our talk. He has volunteered to help out in the congregation while I am away and he started by taking the Memorial talk.  We had 55 in attendance, many from the community. The hard part was after.  This was the major goodbyes, Hugs all around (especially hard on me!!), and many pleas to “come back”. Wednesday we started packing for real!  Full day planned. Pack, clean up the house and be almost ready to leave on Thursday. The plan was to travel Thursday to Deer Lake, have our Pioneer Sessions on Friday (I have a part), Circuit Assembly on Saturday then get the boat Saturday night.  It was a good plan. Saturday afternoon I get a call from Donna Musseau. She had wondered about our plan and checked on it. Unlike our assembly, the Corner Brook assembly is not on Saturday, but on Sunday!  Pioneer Continue Reading →


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Times & Places

Leslie very kindly put together a quick list of what we are up to (so far) this summer.  It’s kindda scary!  For those that want to keep track of us, here you are: In Newfoundland April 13 we leave home April 14 Pioneer sessions in Deer Lake April 15 Circuit Assembly in Corner Brook April 15 Ferry to the mainland at midnight. Before Class April 16 travel as far as Edmonston – staying with Stephens for the night. April 17 Travel to Ottawa – arrive late Monday night. April 19 Travel to Bethel – overnight in Bethel April 20 Norval Assembly Hall April 21 Orientation Day April 24 Class starts After Class June 18 Graduation Day June 19 Travel back to Sherbrooke June 27 Leave for Home June 27 Tatamagouche Back to Newfoundland (briefly) June 28 Ferry to NL June 29 Travel to Ladle Cove July 5 – 9 Convention and St. John’s appointments Trip to Toronto Convention July 17 Fly from Gander to Ottawa July 20 – 24 TO Special Convention Touring the Headquarters (yea!) July 25 Travel to Walkill – July 26 Tour of Walkill July 27 Tour Patterson July 28 Tour of Warwick Travel back home  Arrive in Sherbrooke July 30 or July 31 August 2 Fly back to Gander Now is that wild, or what?!?!


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Back To School

I always loved September.  First day of school.  Mostly I loved the new “supplies”. Fresh books, pens, pencils, and any other thing I could convince Mom was necessary.  Everything bright, new and full of hope. Decades after school is a distant memory, here we go again!  Who’d have thought the old dogs could take on some new tricks? And we started it off the right way … with new supplies!  True, most of what we do will probably be electronic so we are packing tablets, a laptop and phones. However, being “old dogs” we still want paper, both books and notebooks, just in case. Probably get laughed at by all the young’uns. Our boat is booked for the trip out. We are hearing more and more reports of ones in our class.  Its going to be great.  Love the first day of school!


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It all started 30 years ago ….

It was supposed to be just a simple, easy summer.  Nothing too fancy. Maybe actually go to an all inclusive for once in our life. Maybe get a certificate to an off-season condo for a week.  Maybe two. Hey, 30th and all. Then the Toronto convention was announced. “Waste of time applying”, we said. “They’ll never take us”, we said. Then madly filled out the forms. Imagine our surprise! Ok, so we shifted to a new gear!  If we were going to The Convention we certainly couldn’t plan any other outrages this year!  This would be our trip. Could we maximize the benefits? We hooked into some easily duped and corruptible friends (who shall remain nameless, but whose initials are M & P) and convinced them to take us on a trip to see the new Headquarters in Warwick after the assembly!  Let’s make it a Major Trip! Much wrangling of rooming, planning flights, how long to go, where to stay.  Then, there was no more we could do. “Now we wait for 7 months with nothing”, said the oft wrong Leslie. The words barely out of her month we received The Letter. When you get a letter from Kingdom Schools, especially after having applied, there is a certain, sudden change to the effects of gravity. Notably centered near your midsection.  Invited to the School. Starts April 24th. Arrive on April 20th. Course graduation (should we be so fortunate): June 18th. Now our panic upped considerably. Three months to get Continue Reading →


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