Not By Chance

"However, it is written:
'No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love Him'--   But God has revealed it to us by His Spirit" (1 Cor. 2:9-10a)

  If you would have told me on August 8, 2008 that during my marriage I would be travelling from coast to coast to coast with my husband, I would either not have believed you or I would have had a major panic attack. That was not the plan. I'm not sure what "the plan" was/is anymore, but this journey we've been on the past four years was definitely unexpected.
  The pastor at Charlottetown CRC posted a great quote this morning that really spoke to my heart and relates to this topic quite well:

"God often takes years to position us in the place he has in mind, rarely revealing the entire plan at one time. The Lord nudges and leads a half step here, a quarter step there, to get us where he wants us to go." -- Margaret Feinberg Hungry for God

  That said, I believe in living in the "now", making the most of the place He has you at this time. I'm thankful that He knows that I wouldn't have been ready to move to The Yukon back in 2008. The adjustment this move is going well so far. I'm surprised at the lack of meltdowns and and attacks of lostness and loneliness. I am sure that a big reason we are doing so well right now is because of the the prayer support of so many back "home". I say "home" because we have had many homes and amazing communities that have loved and supported us along the way and it is overwhelming to comprehend being on the hearts and minds of so many incredible people.

  I can't believe Marcel and I have only been in the territory for four days... so much has happened! By the grace of God things have fallen into place in amazing ways. In ways that we could not have orchestrated-- not matter how much planning and preparing I tried to do :)

 Not by Chance:

* The border crossings (we drove through the US) went so smoothly. We had cheerful guards who didn't eve)n ask to look at all the paperwork I had prepared to prove our journey through their land was legit.
* Our 2003 Nissan Sentra, "Scout", was a real trooper! We had NO problems the entire drive. PTL!
*We had the opportunity to visit with great friends from Terrace, BC who had relocated to Cold Lake, Alberta. What an encouragment and blessing to visit with them!
* We met a couple in August on our plan ride to PEI who lived in Dawson Creek, BC which just happened to be a great place to stop along our route. When they heard we were going to be driving to the Yukon in a couple weeks, they invited us to stay with them and so we texted them along the way and unfortunately only the girl was home, but she still opened her home to complete strangers and showed great hospitality!
* We met a trapper at a little campground on the Alaska Hwy who teaches survival in the wilderness courses to the RCMP. What a great story he had! He also directed us to some more reasonably priced gas stations along the hwy and informed us what gas stations were even still open for the season which came in real handy when the gas gage started getting lower.
* When we arrived Saturday night, an old highschool friend just happened to be "in town" which was a great lift to the spirits on a night that was a bit overwhelming.
* When I had called the hostel we ended up staying at this week from Ontario they were booked full. Our only option was to stay in a dorm room on bunks with four other people for the week. Marcel's boss had some connections though and got us a little cabin (literally the greenhouse shed) that had a heater in it, a warm bed, and some lights where we had privacy and a place to lay our head to rest.
* Marcel's first day of work was excellent!! I knew right away when I came to visit in the afternoon and was told he was at the "roadhouse" with his co-oworkers that he was doing okay. They are fun people and the guy Mar shares his office with even gave us a tour of Whitehorse yesterday and a bottle of homemade wine to welcome us! It made me so happy and thankful when Marcel turned to me and said later that day, "Amy- this is aweome! I'm going to love my job!" Wow. PTL.
* Marcel's first day he had to do a story on a marathon that happened on the weekend... and this is almost too crazy... the guy who won the marathon-- David Eikelboom-- has connections to some of our Redeemer friends. It may have been a stretch-- a friend's sister's fiancee... but still really nice to have some sort of connection to ease the nerves of his first story.
* Wow- Not by Chance... my husband is a Sports Editor at a daily paper. PTL.
* Getting a phone-- a bell plan-- and having 10 numbers I can call anywhere in Canada for free! Awesome!
* Then, yesterday, I called our apartment manager (we are supposed to move in on October 1st) and I was pleasantly suprised to find out that our apartment was already ready!!! YaY! I mean, the cabin is cozy, but to have our own place... to know that we are going to stay in one place for awhile... I can unpack boxes and put pictures on the wall, and buy whatever groceries I want... Yessss!
* When I got the call that our apartment was ready, I was at the Yukon Teacher's Union with a woman who photocopied all my documents for me and gave me a little pep talk about heading to the Education department to finalize my supply teaching application. She heard me on the phone with the apartments annnnd... get this, her sister owns our apartment building! Everyone is so open and friendly in this town. Awesome.
* Right after I got the key to our new place, Greyhound called. We were worried about this. We were hoping the bus would get stuck somewhere due to an avalanche or something to delay our 9 boxes from arriving before we had a place to put them.... but all in God's timing.... it worked out perfectly!
* So now, four days in, we are in our apartment, we have working cell phones, I'm delightfully unpacking boxes like it's Christmas, and I'm hopeful about my trip to the Education Department later today.
 
  I believe that all the above has not happened by chance, but by the purposeful orchestration of a God who sees all and knows all and works through all. He has His hand upon us and is before us. I know there will be challenges in the future, but my hope is that we can rest in the Faithfulness of our caring Father and know that all things (even trials) work for the good of those who love Him and have been called according to his purpose (Rom 8:28).

Signing out with a thankful heart.
Amy

A New Adventure

"The whole land was aflame with autumn colours, the birches and aspens yellow, the shrubs above the timber-line crimson, the sky frost blue. Etched against it were ragged V's of mallard ducks going south for the winter like the people we had passed on the train (the goldrush train headed home)." (excerpt from "I Married the Klondike" by Laura Betrice Berton)

Autumn is a great time of year to travel the Canadian landscapes. This land is diverse in topography, climate, and natural resources, but shares a rugged beauty and is filled with warm people ready to share their unique stories. I'm finding great joy in hearing stories of travellers, locals, and fellow adventurers. I'll have to share some of those stories here in the weeks to come.
Marcel and I left last Sunday, September 16th from Beamsville, Ontario and planned out seven days of 10 hours of driving each to make it to Whitehorse, The Yukon by Saturday, September 22. I have to say, I love that it is called "The" Yukon, not just Yukon... there is authority and presence held within the added pronoun.I've lived in three of Canada's provinces and have travelled through all of them, but living in a territory is new to me and I'm excited about the allure and "newness" that is to be explored here.
After Marcel accepted a job here, much of our time and vision was spent on the initial journey here. Many questions ran through our mind that included subjects such as: housing? phones? fly? drive? vehicle? how much are groceries? what is the best route? Is this too crazy, even for us??! Can we afford to take this risk to gain valuable experience? It was a whirlwind of packing and planning. It felt good to hit the road and know that whatever gone done was done and whatever didn't get scratched off our climbing to-do list would have to wait... our only job was to concentrate on our route and enjoy the drive. I will have to blog about the 7 days in a vehicle together which was an adventure in itself.
Now that we have arrived in Whitehorse, we face new challenges. We arrived on a Saturday night and our hostel was full so we were offered the VW van that was buried behind a tree in the backyard. Marcel was quite excited about the prospect, "We'll never have this opportunity again!" "Imagine what we could tell our kids one day!'... while, I thought we had had enough rugged experiences already (camping two nights in chilly temps, staying with a random friend we met on a plane a few weeks earlier, and experiencing some interesting motels). Tired, overwhelmed, and emotional-- I won out. We had only stayed in two hotels on our entire journey, so I reasoned that we deserved a good night's sleep before taking in all the sights of our new hometown.
We stayed at the Best Western and it was beautiful! Clean, soft sheets and an abundance of white towels and fluffy pillows were a welcome sight to my tired, stunned self. You would think that driving across the country would allow you to adjust to the time changes slowly (we went through three (central, mountain, and now we are in pacific), but we were still exhausted by 8:30 and alert by 6 am. Sunday morning we made ourselves stay in bed as long as possible to adjust to Pacific Time and to get our money's worth at this fabulous estate.
There is much yet to tell, but I've been sitting in this big red starbucks chair for a couple hours now and probably should head out to explore a little more today. Starbucks-- what a comfort :) They are almost out of pumpkin spice lattes here and we are supposed to be getting snow next Monday so maybe the Candy Cane White Hot Chocolates will come out earlier here :)

Signing out for now,

Ames
Whitehorse, YT