The universal constants of Canada

Before I begin, I should apologize for the eclectic of this entry. It's been a few weeks and all my stories are a little jumbled. So please bear with me.
Well, in Toronto I got to spend time with even more family, this time my mom's side. It was great; I met three cousins I'd never met. That was the week of April 10th; we continued on to do shows in London and St. Catherine's. On the 17th, last Sunday after a show in St. Catherine's, we decided to go see Niagara Falls.
It was about 10:30 when we went. There were about ten huge spotlights on either side that kept changing colour from green to purple to blue. It would have been interesting to see red...
The falls are amazing. As we walked along the railing toward the Canadian side, the mist got thicker and thicker until we were all dripping wet. When people used to tell me about the American and Canadian side, I always pictured one big waterfall with Americans on one side and Canadians on the other. But they're actually two separate falls. It was really cool at night, because no one was there and the river was dark except for the falls.
The next morning we went again to see it during the day. I'd like to say that Niagara Falls is a nice town, but it's sort of a cross between a miniature Vegas and a permanent fairgrounds. Not bad, I guess, if you like that kind of thing. We did go to the Hard Rock cafe, which was cool. We also went on a tour behind the falls, which I must say was not worth the $8. I might have paid $4.
I am not an overly patient person. I'm also not very crafty. Despite these setbacks, I have decided to take up knitting. I have a project that I'm working up to, and I decided that I should learn patience and perserverance, so here I am learning to knit. Rhonda is the mastermind behind all this, and has taught me everything I need to know so far. She taught Jonathan to crochet and me to knit; we're becoming the Spread the Word textile factory.
Unfortunately, while we saw the falls and I learned to knit, Jeremy began to get sick; in fact, sick enough that he couldn't perform one night. In our show, it is impossible to do a normal performance if one person is missing, and Jeremy plays key parts in our sketches. So we figured out a way to juggle roles well enough that people asked us what parts Jeremy usually did play. It was pretty nerve-racking, but it went well.
Now, I mentioned in my last entry something about myself getting sick as well. I was backstage with Rhonda as Jeremy was introducing us when all of a sudden I felt sick. And I needed to find a washroom...fast. There was no way I could get through the show, but it was starting and I didn't know what to do! I looked at Rhonda with desperation; she grabbed my hand and led me off the stage past a bewildered Jeremy straight to the washroom. The whole time I was begging God to make me feel better so we could perform, and he came through. I was okay. The show went well. I felt fine the rest of the night.
There are two universal constants in Canada; the CN railway and Tim Hortons. I was fortunate enough to have been on tour when Tim Hortons started the beloved Roll up the Rim contest; by fortunate, I mean I bought a lot of coffee. Possibly too much coffee. The contest is more addictive than the caffeine! I drink my coffee with a feeling of expectation that at the end, I'll be able to roll up the rim and maybe I'll win something...and then I realize I'm drinking Starbucks. And then I think, "Why didn't I go to Tim Hortons? I could have won an Envoy!" They're brilliant, those Tim Horton's people. I should go buy another cup just to prove it. And if all they have left is extra large Roll up the Rim cups, I will buy an extra large. I am that addicted. Sadly, the contest is coming to an end, and I'll soon have to give up rolling the rim. But there's always hope; next year, I just might win that car. If not, there's a 1 in 9 chance of winning some kind of food every time.
As for the CN railway, I don't have any stories about them. Reneyah does like taking pictures of trains, though, because she thinks trains are romantic. But they are everywhere. Reneyah also loves hot tubs. Now when I say love, I mean that if those two words cross your lips, she perks up in excitement and will start asking questions. She jumps at any chance to use one. We even went to a public pool one night and went from the sauna to the hot tub three times. The lifeguard thought we were crazy.
Well, that's sort of a sketchy view of how our last few weeks have been. We also got to meet Jonathan's family, who are pretty awesome. We have two more shows in Ontario; Guelph on Friday and Toronto on Saturday. After that, we fly to Alberta on May 2. Please have good weather for us! I've been missing home the last few days, so it will be good to be in familiar territory. And our show at Southside is not far off; May 22! Can't wait to see Edmonton! Thank you all for your prayers and keep praying for us. God bless!

Stay tuned...

One unfortunate side effect of staying in other people's homes is possible lack of internet access, which is the reason that I haven't posted in two weeks. There will be one coming soon. I have stories of Niagara falls, Jeremy getting sick, hot tubs, knitting, me getting sick, meeting Jonathan's family, the slow and painful death of the Roll up the Rim contest, and others. Stay tuned!

Quotes of the weeks/month

Yes, we have new quotes. The first one is from Reneyah (what a surprise). We met her mom in Calgary a few weeks ago; she's a little old German lady who comes up to my shoulder and speaks with an accent. So imagine how hard I laughed when Reneyah said:
"Me and my mom always wrap together."
Say it out loud then think about it. I still laugh at the picture I get.
And the other one is from me. Yes, I got a quote of the week:
"My sister has an electronic Tetris game."

Better than Grandma

Twenty minutes after learning of Sarah's death, we drove to a church to set up for a show Saturday night. I was pretty numb, but by the grace of God I made it through and our show went well. I cried the whole way home. Over the last few days, the joy of the Lord really has been my strength. I've really been okay, though sometimes I'm hit with the sobering reality and need a couple minutes to recuperate.
After a marathon of nine shows in five days, we left Ottawa for Peterborough. There, on Wednesday, we did one of our more memorable shows to a gym full of kids from K-8. I love kids; I love playing with them and making them laugh. Man, did we make those kids laugh. They laughed so hard at the kazoo sketch, more than any other audience we've had. And think of how kids laugh; high-picthed and without really worrying about whether or not others are laughing. Adults would probably laugh just as much if they let themselves. The whole performance went very well, much better than any of us had hoped, since our sketches are not directly targeted to children.
To all my friends back home still going to school, with lectures and exams and papers, I felt a tinge of nostalgia and a hint of sympathy later that day when we attended a lecture at Trent University. Yes, we went to hear Joe Boot at Trent. He's an apologist for the Christian faith, and he discussed whether or not Jesus is God. It was really good; he spoke very well and impressed me with his answers. I bought the book.
Man, Ontario is wet. I suppose that to an Albertan, most places are wet, but we saw farmers' fields flooded! Rhonda noted that if Alberta farmers saw that, they'd drool. At the house of Wycliffe reps in Peterborough, there's a "creek" in their backyard that floods in the springtime. Looked more like a lake with trees.
On Thursday we headed to Wycliffe's Toronto office to have lunch with the staff, and later we set up our booth at Missionfest. That evening, we played Rook. It seems that every time we discover a new game, we find a new way to get mad at each other. Some people you might meet could possibly describe me as a little bit competitive. Maybe. So it's possible that I'm the only one who's really mad. But don't worry, we don't carry any of our emotions outside of the game. Jonathan won both rounds. The jerk.
And Friday was our tourist day. Having no performaces at Missionfest, we went to the famous Eaton Centre on Yonge Street. I have to say, though it was a beautiful building, the stores didn't do much for me. It was pretty much like every other mall we've been to. And the only word I can use to describe Yonge Street is "overwhelming." There were so many people and so much to look at. It was so crowded it felt like walking through the halls of my high school between classes. We went through what I guess was the red light district, or at least part of it. There were a lot of sex stores and peep shows, strip clubs, night clubs, bars...the type of thing you're not really exposed to when on a trip like this one. We just walked. We didn't go into any stores, even in the more reputable parts of the street, because there was just too much to see. Then we crossed a street, and all of the sudden the buildings were not dingy, there were no more huge video ads, there was actually a little bit of open space, and the streets were far less narrow and crowded. I felt so relieved. That's something I don't think I ever need to experience again; walking along one of the worst parts of Yonge Street.
On Saturday, we spent the afternoon at Missionfest, where Jonathan's friends decided to show up and surprise him. He, Reneyah and I spent the afternoon with them and had a great time. We went on a dramatic simulation (I guess I can call it that) called the Refugee Highway. Basically, we pretended we were refugees on our way to Canada, and the actors along the way guided us through as soldiers, smugglers, and customs officials. It was really interesting, because it's not something you think about very often. We went through minefields, got shot at, went to a prison camp, were smuggled across the border, stayed in a refugee camp, got false documentation, and got to Canada to find a homeless shelter in which to sleep. Not so great. My leg was blown off. I had to hop around for a while, till we got to the end and had cookies.
This morning, we went to a church next door to where Reneyah and I were staying. We literally walked through the backyard gate and were at church. And we managed to be late. Who knew we had such talent?
We were getting ready for our show this evening when Jonathan's brother and sister showed up at the church. They hadn't seen him for three and a half months, so needless to say they were pretty excited. None of his family knew he'd taken up crocheting, or that he'd finished an afghan. His brother's first comment upon seeing it was "It's better than Grandma's." So Jeremy decided that would be Jonathan's new nickname; "better than Grandma."
Well, that has been my week! We have a couple days off, so Jonathan, Rhonda and I are all visiting family while Jeremy and Reneyah hang out in Oakville. We'll see how that turns out. Hopefully they're both alive when we get back. Not that they don't like each other, they just...have an interesting rapport, one that I find to be an endless source of amusment.

Please pray for us. God has been changing all of us, and through that I want so much for our ministry to be effective. We've both failed and succeeded, but please pray that we will learn to rely on God in all things; our show, our relationships with each other and with the people we meet, travelling, bookings, everything. And that we'll be a support to each other when we need it.
I find that lately I've become more and more self-centred, because we are the event, something new, the centre of attention. People ask me questions about me, give me food, don't ask me to help with dishes, ask me what they can do for me, drive me places, etc. Few people love attention more than me, but I know that it's bad for me, too, because it makes me consider myself better than others. Some of the team has noticed this, too, so pray that God would teach us humility and to be servants.
That's all for now, kids. Keep Edmonton together while I'm gone.

To Sarah

This blog has been filled with stories. Stories of this trip, of our team, of our show, of the crazy things we see and do. I have a different story to tell you today.

I went to elementary and junior high school with a girl named Sarah Lopaschuk. I always liked Sarah, but then, everybody did. She was in a few of my classes throughout grade school, but I really got to know her in junior high. We went to separate high schools, and I think I saw her three or four times from the end of junior high until now. After high school, she went to school in the land she loved; Australia. On Thursday, she and two of her friends there were killed in a car accident.

Sarah had beautiful naturally red hair. She had a few strands that were white, and she didn’t quite know why, but she always found them funny. She was one of those people with a perma-smile, but somehow it never felt fake. You could always approach her without fear of scorn, rejection, disdain, or anything but genuine interest. There was always a new story about her many pets. One day she came to school talking excitedly about her new sugar gliders. I don’t think any of us knew what a sugar glider was, but she and wasted no time telling us all about the three she had.

She brought a strange lunch to school one day. It was a tortilla smothered in peanut butter wrapped around a whole banana. Eunice and I thought it was hilarious, but she insisted that it tasted good. So Eunice tried it and started laughing uncontrollably. Though this was not an uncommon occurrence, she just couldn’t stop laughing, and she began insisting that I try it. I did, and promptly started laughing my head off. From then on, Sarah’s weird lunch was known as the "laughing burrito."

When I was in junior high, the internet was a novelty to most. Sarah and I discovered email and found it to be great fun to email each other with the most postscripts possible. Our emails would end with something like this:
P.S.
P.P.S.
P.P.P.S.
P.P.P.P.S.
P.P.P.P.P.S.
P.P.P.P.P.P.S.
P.P.P.P.P.P.P.S.
P.P.P.P.P.P.P.P.S.
etc.

Sarah was athletic, and always beat me in running. Always a high achiever, she pushed to get herself into the IB program at Ainlay High School and got her IB diploma. I remember so many goofy times; making peanut butter cookies and chocolate cake for our English teacher, making up songs, making fun of teachers, saying "ew" whenever someone mentioned the name of a certain boy we didn’t like, playing baseball at lunch, playing in the park, the huge German egghead man who would talk to himself in the park, dances, reading YM magazines at lunch hour, and those funny smiley faces with huge mouths and tiny dot eyes that we always used to draw. I was fortunate enough to get to see her when she came home in December, before I left for this trip. She was full of stories, smiles and laughs. When I heard the news, I thought of us who knew her in junior high; Joyce, Eunice, Mei, Sally, Andrew, Paul, Janita, and many others. My little blog can never do justice to who she was, but I know that we were better off on this world having known her. She made our days bright.