April 2007 - Page 2

Joyce and Tom's Ministry to Kelowna, British Colombia, Canada

It's so like God. I've been mourning the small closed-in surroundings of our mobile home and envying those who are able to have spacious homes with a luxury look and feel. Well, we got our luxury for six days (for a motel-room price on only $100 a day!) - and I learned that what we have is so much better suited for us! I actually got tired of and tired from walking the long distances from the living room to the bedroom, the kitchen to the dining room, the bedroom to the laundry room and so forth! Everything seemed so uselessly spread out - and everywhere I looked, I saw a five-by-five or a five-by-ten "room" wasted in hallway space just getting from one place to another. I even tried to picture our "stuff" in that house, and gave up after not being able to place even our piano in that beautiful home. Guess magazine beauty isn't for everyone. I actually realized that I prefer our convenient-if-crowded very usable space! And God is laughing at me!

The convention began on schedule and everything went well - especially the first day. I opened with "Choosing and Using Curriculum" for an audience of about 60 - and went right on to a Keynote of God-blessed "Worldview" for more like 200 (350 paying adults in all attended over the two days). Finished up the day with "From Passion to Calling." I knew going into this that Worldview and Passion had finally "fallen into place," and would be the "best ever." They were. Many came to talk and thank me though the body language of a few others shouted resistance. Oh, well, "can't please everybody!" By the next day, however, when I said basically the same thing in a more humorous way with "Secrets," the most resistant was laughing with me! God is so FUN!

The next day started with a BANG! After a restless, jerky night of little sleep, Tom was rocking in a chair reading the Bible to me as I quilted (a combination we've enjoyed tremendously lately) when his hip popped out AGAIN (second time this month and third time this year – if it "keeps happening, he'll have to repeat the hip replacement surgery that almost left him a basket-case in October 2007)!