Most people think that moving to Canada the adjustment is easy because they speak english, you have McDonalds and in our case – you’ve lived there before. If only it were that easy. If our immigration process was stressful, then the adjustments this week has certainly put a new twist on stress for me. Some of the conversations are about topics I have no experience of: outboard motors, rural lifestyle, fishing and hunting! I feel like I am the fish out of water. The cream on the cake was to discover that one of Gracies shoes she had left on our deck had gone missing. The person managing our log cabin told me “it was probably the raccoons!” Not something we have to deal with in the UK. Although our cabin is very rustic, it is beautiful. It is very peaceful with a great view of the creek where the loyalists first landed in Canada. We have seen blue jays and have had humming birds feeding at our deck! Ben and Grace have been catching the biggest tadpoles and frogs you have ever seen at the lake. Both seem to settling in well!

This week we have set about all the paperwork required on moving to a new country. We have also been buying a home, which is stressful in any country. For quite a while I have been saying to Lyn that I have the feeling that the right house will come up at the right time. The home we are buying is in the community we wanted to live in but couldn’t afford. This house came up the day we arrived in the area this home came up and was just within our price bracket. We were helped with a morgage offer that required 5% less downpayment than the one we already had. We were in a bidding battle with other people, but when we had offered the same, our proposal was accpeted. Presently, the date to move in is set to be 24th July. That is just 3 weeks after landing. Amazing.

Church was good on Sunday. We enjoyed a potluck BBQ lunch with other families, and another family offered for us to come round and do our laundry, and ended up having us for dinner too! I’ve met with the people I hope to be working with and am doing some example work for them so they know what they are getting. I feel that the adjustment from ‘ministry’ is huge for me, so prayers are appreciated – especially that I maximise my creative potential and adjust quickly and professionally to the world of print media. Although stressful, I think it is a really positive thing, and all church pastors should have sometime working outside of the church bubble to help them connect to the the realities of how everyone else lives. It is certainly challenging to see how God fits in to the work, but that is what I’m going to try and find out. Stay tuned!