Sunday, December 3

We finished our time of speaking in the maritimes this weekend with one last visit in Nova Scotia. It was a delight to worship with friends in both New Minas and Halifax where we first began our ministry together (oh so long ago). A big thanks to Rev. Bobby Knowles, senior pastor of the New Minas Baptist Church, for welcoming our family on Sunday morning. In 1999, Erica and I both served with the New Minas Youth Centre -- Tristan did alot of crawling around this place! It was a treat to come back and meet with the kids in "The Orchard" and Sunday school classes (Thanks so much to pastor John Dixon for inviting us). During the worship services, we shared about our call to serve in Kenya and Sterling Gosman shared an inspiring message of the JOY of following Christ. (The pictures below are a few taken by our friend, the Rev. John Beers)

Family Life Pastor Mark, New Minas Baptist Church

It was sad to say good-bye to our survivor buddy Luwana Fagan

(and David & Serena too)

Rev. John Beers (thank you for your prayers!)

On Sunday evening, I shared our story at a gathering at the West End Baptist Church. This was the first church we served after we were married in 1998. It was such a treat to be able to return to West End and see so many familiar faces -- thank you all so much for the encouragement you have poured over us. A huge thanks to David and Florence Watt for the work it took to pull this evening together. Not only was David my missions instructor at Acadia, but I came to learn that he and I shared the same office when we each served at West End (it is now the newly renovated library). Among the folks present was Jake French, it was very cool to hear his story of when he and his sister first went to Kenya as missionary kids at age 7 and 5 (just like our children). Thanks so much Jake!

God Bless!