Summer Time Edition

Hey Everyone!

We decided to take a little 'time-off' from blogging for the summer, seeing as we have been travelling all over the country (literally) and do one update for the last two months.

This summer has held quite the high's and low's for us as a family and we are both in much need of some reeeeeesssssst before we hit Toronto again for school.

Sadly and tragically this summer, my (Amy's) sister-in-law, Lisa passed away suddenly, due to a combination of heart failure and an undetectable tumour behind her kidney. Left behind to figure out life without her, is my brother Ashley and their three beautiful children - Taylor 14, Madison 11 and Brody 8. After a recent conversation with my brother he has shared that it's 'one day at a time' and keeping life as normal as possible, because that's how Lisa would have wanted it. There were 600 people at her funeral, a clear indication she was a woman who left a legacy. We love you Lisa. You will be so dearly missed.

Now for other news...

This summer began with a jump start into some R&R in Alberta and Saskatchewan. We attended cousin Burke's wedding in Edmonton and had a blast connecting with the Nagle (Mom's) side of the family. Following the wedding we toured Saskatchewan to see the Friesen (Dad's) clan and I (Amy) got to meet a few Friesen's I had not yet met! We had a great time at Jeanette lake with Uncle Merlyn and Aunty Elna - we even went fishing for our dinner and Kevin and I caught our first official fish. Kevin outdid himself by gutting, cleaning and EATING his catch - truly impressive for a non-fish eater! We then spent a few days at Middle Lake to visit Uncle Kenton's family and hang out with the kids.

Upon arriving in Vancouver we were greeted by some wonderful and missed friends whom we were able to briefly catch up with before heading back on the road again States bound for California and Washington. WE spent an amazing time in both states with dear friends and were so blessed to have the opportunity to work and play.

Back in Vancouver for the second time around, Kev and I both plugged into our old jobs to continue compiling school funds and baby funds for the little one on the way, due in December. We've enjoyed some great moments with our church community and friends throughout this time and even a surprise visit from a dear friend Jess, all the way from Greece.

Our last trip on the road took us to Kamploops and Vernon to spend a short but quality time with Dad Friesen and friends Marky and Heather and Greg who popped up to the lake for his 40th. Happy Birthday Greg!!! We love you.

As our time here nears to an end, goodbye's are again difficult, yet we feel a fresh sense of anticipation for the second season of school to come, and of course parenthood!

We send our love and blessings to you all and hope your summer's have been a time of rest and play and sweet memories.

The next update will be back in Toronto once school is underway and we have 'settled' again.

Peace,

Kevin and Amy

Double Jointed

Hi Guys!

I don't know exactly what happened with last months post, but somehow we got booted off the site...leaving everyone including us perplexed and wondering if those crazy Friesen's are ever returning to Blogger.

Well fear not - I am in fact going to do a double posting this month, hence the title and recap to inform you of all the great and wondrous happenings here in Toronto.

First things first, for those who may not have caught the fly by of the last post, our bumper news was that we are PREGNANT!!!! Yay, a baby Friesen is on the way. Last week Kevin and I were able to hear the heartbeat which confirmed in us, one - there is a baby in there, and two - we LOVE this little dude/dudette!!!

So the last two months have been super packed full of events, schoolwork, roadtrips and all the in between.

Here are some highlights:

- Our Two Year Anniversay, celebrated in Stratford.

- The Ohio Roadtrip with John Arnott for the Miracles, Signs and Wonders Conference. We got to be the ministry team and have a whole lot of woot-hollerin' fun along the way! Kev and I also got to meet one of our favourite musicians - Rick Pino (in pic).

- Boys Honouring Day: where the SoM girls organize a day to celebrate and honour the men. This school we had an Army theme and sent them out canoeing with an Awards Ceremony in the evening - tears were noticed in certain mens eyes.

- Girl's Honouring Day - this time it's the guys who put on the big day for the ladies, and it started with breakfast in bed and a single rose...awww, and ended in a glamourous ceremonial dinner with the two french and one italian guy making us dinner! B-lessed!

- Most recent subjects studied: The Law/The Pentateuch, The Book of Revelation and currently studying Foundational Doctrines - all of them stellar teachings that leave your mind hugely expanded!

- A new member of the Friesen clan: Freedom the Fish, who was adopted after Girl's Honour Day. He was previously used as a decorative table piece, but we saved him from a life of exploitation. He now happily decorates our room!

- Summer weather! Need I say more...

- And I guess just all the fun little moments we share together, whether studying for book reports, doing homework outside, going for walks, analyzing the nutritional value of the cafe food and hanging with the other students. It all makes life all the more enriched.

Until next time loved ones, have a great Spring/Summer or Winter (depending on your hemisphere).

Love Kevin, Amy, Friesen Jnr, Verdi the Plant and Freedom the Fish

Core Values

Hello to One and All!

Greetings from Toronto, currently a windy 4 degrees and sunny, with the possibilities of snow and 9 degrees tomorrow?! I haven't completely figured out why the weather likes to have a sudden mood swing, but I'm very much ok with the extended daylight hours and sunshine.

It's safe to say that Kevin and I have been catapulted, tossed around and come out the other side LOVING school and yes, our new community.

The first month was indeed difficult and testing. There were definitely some home-sick tears shed. Now, however, we find ourselves surrounded by 50 new friends from all over the world - Italy, England, Norway, Finland, Netherlands, Brazil, USA, Japan, France, Germany and Canada. It's an entertaining melting pot of cultures and personalities, that we have been enjoying immensely! It certainly took us a bit to warm up to the idea of new friends, especially when all you want is what you know and love. Now we realize that we don't have to give up what we love to embrace what is new; that in fact we are just making a fuller life for ourselves by embracing the new things God has given to us.

As for this past week... we have been studying the book of 'Mark' from the gospels. It has been a great teaching so far and we can't wait to see how our amazing teacher Steve Cummings unpacks the rest of it. It's so nice to be at this stage in our lives and be blessed with this opportunity to study and learn at this depth. We are understanding new things and ways to perceive them every day! We have been loved on and taken care of from the very beginning of this journey until now and it doesn't look like the love is going anywhere. This is the greatest part of it all: being able to pack up your whole world and what you love, only to get where you're going and be received in love. Wow! What an honour.

On the lighter side of this adventure, we found ourselves at a BlueJays baseball game the other night. The church was holding an event called 'love your city' in which they do something of a grand scale in the community to reach out and love on people and of course the 'city'. The church sold 500 tickets to the game and we filled one entire section. On our end, we couldn't pass up going to the home opener with all these wonderful foreign students for only $12.

What a steal, and what a game! The Jays won 13 - 3! We've been able to get out a bit as well and see the town a little, start to get our bearings a bit, and with the warmer weather on its way we're hoping to get out even more in the months to come. Our internship starts this week as well which will be entertaining. We are going to be interning at a smaller campus in an area called High Park, which is supposed to be quite beautiful. It'll be nice to get out and about a bit more, not to mention we will be able to put some of this new found knowledge to good use ;)

I suppose thats the long and short of this past month and a bit, stay tuned for next months blog cause I'm sure it'll be as jam packed as this one was! In fact, the way things have been moving since we got here, probably even more.

We also got to catch up with our dearly missed friends Mark and Hanna and meet their adorable little girls, Sophia and Lucy. Good times were had by all!

Love all of you and still miss you...

The Friesen's

School Starts Now...

Hi All!

From the moment we ventured off into the great unknown

(well the Canadian East is pretty unknown, personally speaking), we have not stopped moving, thinking, enduring and adapting.

Until now.

It's Sunday afternoon. The incredibly large morning service has ended, lunch at the cafeteria eaten, the 90 second walk back to our room accomplished and now, nothing but a quiet and restful Sunday afternoon awaits.

Yes. The Friesen's have moved to Toronto from Vancouver and have successfully endured the first week of school. Emotionally we have both cried and longed for what is familiar and 'normal'. But as the week has progressed and faces become more familiar and jokes are shared, encounters less awkward and places not so new, we begin to feel that little bubble of hope and excitement well up and dare to think that maybe this wasn't such a crazy and formidable idea after all.

To think, God has not stopped blessing us, showing us acts of kindness and favour along the way since leaving Vancouver until now, is so extremely encouraging and affirming. Confirmation that we are in the right place and we are going to be ok.

Here's just some of the awesome things that have happened on our transitioning jour

ney:

- Getting our two over-sized bags on the flight for free! Saving us $60 +

- Having our two sets of wonderful spiritual parents buy us lunch and dinner at two of the yummiest restaurants ever - 'The Farmhouse' and 'Claim Jumpers'.

- Having no problems at all at both border crossings, and making all our flights and connecting buses.

- Getting into Toronto downtown bus terminal with too much luggage and having our dear friend Paige turn up to give us a ride to our homestay, who also did not charge us to stay the night!!! And we were saved from having to take public transit an hour out of Toronto with ALL our stuff. Paige also had our bedding, and basic homewares all sorted for us! Wow.

- Getting to the school Monday, being dropped off by our wonderful homestay family and finding out Mark and Hanna had also provided us with bedding - wow and that we had an awesomely sweet little room, with a window!

Words of encouragement spoken and left at our door as little notes with chocolate (from Amy's small group leader) have followed since arriving here Monday. And being the only married couple it seems this has been much needed, as we have felt at times 'out of place' and lost in in all. Yet God keeps bringing people around us at unexpected moments who offer an act of kindness, word of affirmation or warm smile, that lifts our spirits and shows us we are in God's perfect will.

As you will see in the pictures we arrived in Ontario with minus temps and snow blizzarding, however only a week in, it seems the weather is transitioning, much like ourselves into Spring.

And just to feel at home and feel somewhat domesticated, we even bought a plant, called Verdi, and he sits regally at our little window embracing whatever sun finds him.

I can probably speak for both of us when I say that it has gotten better day by day. What began as a hard adjustment and 'culture-shock', being immersed into college age community and living on a schedule of cafeteria food and classes, has been difficult. But not impossible. Slowly I can see my old groove fade and a new one emerge, and with that is coming some amazing experiences and moments.

It's been bitter sweet.

And I wouldn't change it for anything.

We miss you all so much - as now ALL of you are afar, but we will look forward to seeing you again in the future and rejoicing in our fellowship!

All our blessings,

Kevin and Amy

Happy New Year

Hi All,

January has been a fast paced and fairly uneventful month in some regards.

We have been adjusting to communal life here at the Culley's, and apart from Kevin eating all the 'Life' Cereal that Ernie brought for himself, we have been quite the model of harmonious community living!

Working hard has been the priority for both of us. Kevin has been working full-time and also picked up two side jobs for us in construction. The latter was a demolition of a fireplace at Tenth church which proved quite laborious for Amy, who got to haul big-ass pieces of rock and debris out to the dumpster. But I don't have a gym membership and well, my triceps and biceps will thank me later! Financially these extra jobs have been a blessing toward our school fees as well.

Three highlights of this month have been:

1) Seeing Wayne and Marilyn mid-month for a RTF seminar and going out to dinner.

2) Celebrating Ernie's Birthday with him at Minoas Greek Restaurant - great great food!

3) Spending the weekend at Bernie and Rusty's and chilling out excessively - so needed.

Oh, and I guess number 4) Missions Fest film Festival - A bunch of us went to see the film Freedom Fighter - oh it was brilliantly eye-opening and informative. We really have it too good here in Canada and other western nations. The film focuses on one man who is risking his life to help persecuted people and minority groups around the world. Here's the link if yo wanted to check it out: http://www.theonemillionvoices.org/videos/

PODAH Update

As it stands, Greg, Kevin and myself have been plugging away at our documentary filmed in 2007 Mozambique. We are closer to being finished which as I speak is soooo exciting, yet with the pressure to try and do it all before Kevin and I leave - it seems still a lot of work is left.

However we are faithfully continuing and with hope that it may be very close to completion before we leave. One of the exciting things Amy has been working on is the score, with surprising results coming out of the Mac application Garage Band - the music is part of new inspiration the three of us are working with to finish Paths of Dust and Hope.

Until Feb...

Love and hugs,

K and A

Christmas Cheer and Tears

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

With 2011 underway, Kevin and I are just that bit closer to the starting date of school - March 7th 2011. Coming into a new year always brings things into simplicity, as you can justifiably leave the old in the year just past and deliberate on the new things that will come to pass. It's a fresh start - which in all truth can often be more psychological than actual!

As the year began we relocated to other quarters in the Vancouver district. We officially moved in with the Culley's, our Pastor's and spiritual parents, and have had the foreboding task of saying goodbye to Rax and our first home. I swear Rax knew exactly what was happening, as he turned remarkably quiet and sported an ill disposition leading up to and on the day of our leaving. I was perturbed yet grateful for his kitty-cat smarts that were helping him let go of two wonderful owners, after all, the cat owns you - not the other way around as we wish to think! But regardless of all three of us creatures knowing that we were never to be a little family again, it was difficult. I admit to a week of tears leading up to my leaving and packing things, and even in the warm and cozy abode we now have with Ernie and Merrilyn, I miss the presence of Rax and his meows and ridiculous cleaning procedures - legs flung high as he meticulously licks him self into further vanity....sigh.

Ok, moving on. Let's talk about Christmas! A wonderful time of cheer! kevin and I spent Christmas in the State of Washington and embraced a relaxing, rejuvenating and simple Christmas. We stayed with Wayne and Marilyn and experienced cornish hens for the first time. I proudly ate the whole hen along with my husband. Where it goes - I don't know! Check out the pix on the left for a delicious visual of Christmas dinner cooked by Marilyn. It was yum! We decided to go homemade and simple on gift giving this year. Jesus is the reason for the season, and we thought to avoid the blanket of commercialism this season, we would get into the spirit of gift giving by making things for each other. A treat indeed.

Mid-month we performed in the Christmas Production, which was a huge success. And extremely fun. Everyone banded together to create a very unique and entertaining two nights, well worth the effort put in by our backstage and on stage crew. Well done Suseh for writing and directing a great performance!

That's the most of it for December. I imagine as we move into January there will be an increased buzz of excitement as school nears and leaving Vancouver approaches.

Love to all and have a splendid New Year!

Love,

Kev and Ames

Nevermind November!

Well All,

We are past the first week of December and I am horrified that once again, I seemed to have just let November pass us by and not reflect and report to you all the wonderous month it was.

Kevin and I both are nearing our moving out date from our humble abode here on 45th Ave, and are overwhelmed by the fact that we actully have to PACK things. How absurd! As we look around at the wall hangings, kitchen, our paintings, goal board, blue leather couch, we just assume this is home forever...right? Hardly. And so as this reality sets in we feel perhaps bothered that we can't just take it all with us, set it up exactly the same and keep living life from the 'safety' of our first home.

Kevin and I finally wrapped up our four-week teaching on Love and Respect toward the end of November and were granted the released to take the pulpit anytime in the future by our dear Pastor Ernie...an honor indeed!It was an awesome four weeks of working through a message that is so pertinent to any relationship and was exciting to share with otehrs and hear their experiences with the Love and Respect dynamic.

Being closely linked through spiritual adoption to Ernie and Merrilyn, and their American roots, we celebrated yet another thanksgiving on the 25th November...yum! We also had our dear friends Wayne and Marilyn up from the US for the weekend to teach a seminar and they gladly partook in the extravagant spread of turkey, baked potatoes, yams, sweet potato bake, stuffing, pumpkin pie, apple pie and icecream! I believe there were some greens in there somewhere.

During this month Kevin and i have also been actively participating in the making and rehersing of our church's Christmas Production. Kevin and I are playing Mary and Joseph! But are not the lead roles...it's a humble change for two lively entertainers who naturally want to take center stage, yet we both find it refreshing to step back and let others embrace their talents and enjoy something we have had ample time to experience.

Somewhere in all of this, Vancouver was hit with a cold snap and its first snowfall. Temperatures dropped to below -10 and Rax and myself were very unimpressed with the abruptness of climate change. Our space heaters were on max heat and I learned new techniques for keeping warm, three pairs of socks, 4 layers, and beanies. Or touques, whatever it is you call them.

We got a quick yet special visit, from Dad Friesen in November and low and behold, the burly woodsman and hunter that he is, he discovered that you could sharpen knives on 5000 year old marble from the Acropolis. It was quite the discovery for all of us Friesen's as we sat aorund our coffee table sharpening kitchen knives.

And I am pleased to say that November also boasts a new accomplishment with our documentary, Paths of Dust and Hope.We now have a 20 page script to begin working from in order to weave together a story. Not long to go now folks!

So the end to yet another month here in chilly Vancouver, and as December is well on the way, we will be rugging up even more preparing for Christmas and leaving our home. The adventure begins!

Love to you all, keep warm or cool, whichever continent you reside and know you are blessed.

Kev and Ames