Retail Price Check at Till 5!!!

Yep, my day consists of running to do price checks, changing displays, unpacking new product and making room on the shelves, adjusting prices as they climb due to fuel prices, and all of that fun stuff that goes on in a large retail store. I must say, it's not a bad way to spend the day, all in all it's an okay place to work. The worst part is that I see all of the new stuff coming in before anyone else does and have to keep myself in check as far as shopping! I'm so busy all day long that the time just flies bye. I'm part of the staff club committee and have already participated in organizing (and baking for) a bake sale and a fifty fifty draw. We are currently planning several staff events including the Christmas party. I think I'll be baking quite a bit to raise the money we need for that! :) It sounds like Dan might be moved to the main store now that all of the managers are back from holidays, so we may be working together soon, but we'll see in a few weeks, nothing is set in stone as of yet.

Things are progressing well at ICF. The next step to being able to get ready to build the church has been made, some of the paper work has finally gone through, so now there's one less piece of red tape to wrestle with. James and Looee are encouraged. Also, there seems to be some changes taking place in the leadership which will maybe shake things up a bit. So keep them in your prayers, things are moving and there is an excitement in the air, but also some warfare being done.

It's getting colder everyday here, we're having to dress for winter whenever we step outside. The snow is already visible in the mountains surrounding us, so we know it's coming. The puddles are frozen when we walk to school in the morning, and the run off streams are drying up, all of the signs of winter here, as there are no leaves to change color!

Dan is doing well, he's applied to be a volunteer firefighter, he just has to wait for his police check to go through and he should be accepted. He's really looking forward to that, as he really loved being a volunteer captain when we lived in Massey. It may even pan out some day into a permanent hire position, because they try to recruit from their volunteers before doing an outside hire. The department is a combined department made up of 19 full-time staff and even more volunteers. It should be a good way to get involved in the community as they have their own hockey team here and have a lot of community involvement.

The girls are doing well. Right now they are upstairs at a friends place. There is talk of sleepovers and birthday parties, and their social calendars are filling up fast! They can't wait to start their skating lessons and gymnastics, both of which start up in October. We're really pleased with how well they are doing in school. Julia is reading very well, and is able to read complete books on her own. Elisabeth is just zooming by in math and is growing in confidence as she excels. They both love coming to the store for lunch and have made many friends there as well. The shyness of the first few days has given way to such a stream of chatter that I have to continually remind them to eat before the hour is out and they have to go back to school. Elisabeth was asking for a job today, and was told by the HR lady that she had to work on having a tidy bedroom first to show that she was responsible enough to work in the store! Of course, she's a mom too and knew exactly what to answer! :)

All in all, I would say that we're doing well here in Iqaluit. Making friends, keeping busy AND keeping warm! Oh, I've got to go...price check at till 4! :)

Simone

Well, I went hunting with a couple of guys from church on Saturday. We went out hoping for caribou, but all we saw were a couple of arctic hares and miles and miles of beautiful country! Just when I thought that the view couldn't get any better, we'd walk over another crest and there would be yet another amazing vista! I'm not a great photographer, so take my word for it, the pictures don't do the land justice! On one of my next days off, I've been offered a chance to go out seal hunting...Hopefully that pans out!!!
Dan<>{

Perseverance

This is the word that keeps coming. Whenever anyone prays for us, or gets a word for us, this is what comes - perseverance.

I guess this is God's way of encouraging us not to give up, and I know that from most of our posts most people would think that we never even consider giving up. We have a tendency of sharing all of the fun, exciting and adventureous things that are happening. We try to reasure everyone that we are doing well and in doing that, may sometimes give the false impression that this whole thing is just a breeze to go through.

The reality though, is that we do have moments where we cry out "Lord, why are we here?" "Why did we leave?" "What were we thinking?" "We left all we had, our friends, our family, our church, everything we've ever known for this? Are we crazy?" There are times when loneliness overwhelms us, and we wonder "are we alone?" We know the truth, but the darkness comes and the attack comes with it. There are times when we feel so far away...when the kids cry and ask us why we moved them away from home. When Dan looks around the convenience store and wonders "I left my job for this?" When I come home from work and the kids are doing their homework and I wish I could sit and chat about my day with my girfriends like I used to, but there isn't anyone.

Last Sunday was one of those days...I just broke, I couldn't hold it in anymore. I missed my church, my home, my friends, my worship team, everything! I couldn't see what God had brought us here for anymore. I just couldn't see how anything here could ever come close to what we had in Cambridge. I just wanted to go home, I was hurt and angry with God for bringing us here! I cried and cried and cried. I poured myself out before the Lord. It just so happened that the service had been changed to an evening one, so I had to gather myself for church that night. I surrendered it all to God again and went, not expecting anything, just wanting to be able to control the waterworks long enough to get out of there in one piece! One of my biggest issues was the hard time I had worshiping here, its mostly in Inuktitut, and I don't know most of the songs they do sing in English, and they don't have powerpoint or songbooks or anything...and I miss my worship team! When I walked in, James was playing "Forever" on his guitar, a song that our worship team sang often! It was like the Lord was saying that He was forever going to be faithful to me, that He was with me and that He hadn't sent me here to be alone. I just broke! I had been feeling so far from home and far from God and here He was again, faithfully meeting me where I needed to be met. So James opened saying that He just felt that whoever wanted to share could share what was on their hearts...there weren't many people there, and I didn't want to say anything (imagine that!) but once everyone was finished, I was moved to share because I needed to share my heartache with these people. God had sent me here not just to minister, but to be a part of them...so I had to take the first step. I shared and cried and they prayed for me and blessed me...I've been feeling better most of the time since then. I had to humble myself and be open and vulnerable. How could I minister here, if I couldn't be real? And the only reason I could be real, is because of God's faithfulness to me...reminding me that I'm not alone, that He has sent us, and has not abandoned us. So I must not give up, keep my eyes on Him, as Scott kept reminding us "remember the call" and PERSEVERE.

"Forever God is Faithful,
Forever God is strong,
Forever God is with us,
Forever, Forever."

Finally and update!

Hi Everyone,

Sorry its been so long since I've posted, I've been adjusting to life with work again and the kids being in school. So here we go with the updates;

Julia is doing well in school. She is liking grade one, even though she thought it was going to be much harder than it is and is a little disapointed that it isn't a little more challenging. It was her birthday on September 7th and we celebrated with cake and a few friends. She got some toys and an outfit and a bit of money to spend on whatever she wants. She did pretty well I think.

Elisabeth is flourishing in school, she's got tons of friends and is blending in quite nicely! Her fiddle arrived in the mail this week, so now we've got to get her lessons started. She's really looking forward to that...though I'm pretty sure our neighbours aren't!

The mass registration for recreational activities was this weekend, so the girls got signed up for gymnastics and skating. We wanted to get them into swimming, but people were lined up hours before opening to get into it, so they didn't get in. Julia wanted to get into Karate...but I'm not sure I'm ready for her to do that yet. Maybe when she's a little older and more able to control her emotions!

Dan and I are well. I'm getting into the swing of things with work. I'm working in the retail store, stocking shelves, arranging displays, serving customers and general stuff like that. It's been a while since I've done anything like this, but its all coming back to me! Dan is doing alright, he had this weekend off and went hunting with James and Dennis another friend, they didn't get anything, but really enjoyed being outdoors for the day. Looee and I took the kids public swimming and out for lunch and had lots of fun.

James has asked Dan to start a men's ministry at the church, so he's looking forward to that, and I've been asked to do some teaching, we're still looking over the materials to see what we're going to do. I know for sure I'll have to get used to teaching with a translator, which will force me to change my teaching style a bit, but I'm sure it will just help me to streamline what I say which is never a bad thing! We are looking forward to a regional leadership conference in October. This is specifically to build up and minister to the pastors and lay leaders in the churches, it should be a great time of growth and healing for everyone. Please pray for this!

That's about it for now!

Blessings,
Simone