God knew our greatest need and sent a saviour at Christmastime
E-mail jrye@sk.sympatico.ca
Christmas 1999
The Christmas shepherds were ordinary folks working nights, like Christine has to this year and God didn't forget them. Indeed, by laying Jesus in a manger, all theY0K problems of an ordinary crib were avoided!
On December 6th 1998, Peter was driving a snowmobile that went through a barbed wire fence into a tree. By God's grace, he sustained only cuts to his chin and neck, including one about 2cm from the main neck vein. There is still some scarring but it has healed well.
Last December, we all took part in the Christmas play at church about a homeless couple and the first nativity. We had a busy Christmas workwise, but for once we were able to do a significant amount of down hill skiing. There's something positive to be said for global warming! We still enjoy cross country but the season was mild and there were squirrels chattering at New Year.
In January, Michael was confirmed in St. George's by Bishop Burton. This is an occasion when he becomes a full member of the church, after publically confessing Jesus Christ as Saviour and praying for the power of the Holy Spirit.
In February as anaesthesia came to an end for John, he was in Saskatoon doing attachments in geriatrics and palliative care at City Hospital while Christine continued the course from Edmonton in palliative care.
March was the month of Science Fairs with Michael building robots, Peter devising an aluminum suit for cold weather and Deborah investigating what melts ice. Peter and Deborah took their projects to the regionals and Deborah was asked to repeat hers at the children's festival in June
Over the summer from May to September, John was having weekends away covering the emergency department in Nipawin. Saskatchewan has been having shortages in most kinds of front line health care staff.
In June, we enjoying a visit to Muskoday, one of the local Indian reserves for the 10th anniversary of our native suffragan bishop, Charles Arthurson.
July was holiday month and we drove to the East Coast, crossing the longest bridge in Canada and the longest wooden covered bridge too. But to find out more you'll need to read the other side. August is summer camp month. Peter and Deborah went to separate camps at Camp Okema while Michael and later us as a family went to camps run by Inter-Varsity at Camp Oshkadee. Undismayed by Peter's winter experience on the snowmobile the boys were introduced to the joys of water skiing.
In September, John had a trip to Moose Jaw for the family practice conference. Christine started the next module of her course and is struggling to finish by the December 15th. deadline.
As I write, the waft of cookies cooking for a bake sale for Christine's ward reaches the computer. The Victoria Hospital in Prince Albert is celebrating 100 years and fund raising is still using penny collection and bake sales to equip the wards. We even have the original mattresses!!
Coming Soon:
Pictures
Holiday 1999
We spent July 4th in the U.S. The cathedral in Grand Forks is recovering from the great floods of 1997. We saw a traditional 4th July parade in Bemijdi, home of Paul Bunyan and his blue ox. Staying in Cass Lake, by the headwaters of the Mississippi, we saw a bald eagle and the first of several ospreys. However, programme was not what we would normally expect of an American park. Unexpectedly, we did see truly spectacular fireworks at Marquette.
In Toronto, we spent a day at Gretsky's restaurant and the (Ice) Hockey Hall of Fame, and the next day at the Science Centre and Royal Ontario Museum. At Guelph, despite arriving after closing, we were given a ride on the Interurban streetcar at the Radial Tram museum.
In Quebec, the old city was alive with street performers and we saw the Cirque du Soleil. At Kamouraska, in South Shore Quebec, the coast is flat and rocky with hard mud. After getting the permit from Mairie (that's the Town Hall), we were able to have a campfire on the beach and watch the sun set over the mountains on the North Shore. We were also taken to a storybook swimming hole, with warm water and a real waterfall. Grosse Ile was the quarantine station where thousands of immigrants died at the time of the Irish potato famine.
Hopewell Rocks at the head of the Bay of Fundy has the highest tides on earth, routinely going to five stories. At the base of the limestone cliffs, with caves and tunnels, is thick, sticky ooze to paddle in at low tide [we did!]. We didn't see seals, whales or puffins-we'll be back.
Rush to Prince Edward Island before it washes away altogether. Each end of the island is losing a metre a year and its only 140 km long. The dark red clay absorbs heat so the water of the Northumberland Strait is the warmest north of Virginia. The cliffs are only about a hundred feet high. Wood swallows nest almost at the top, so we laid down on the ground and listened to the baby chicks chirping, waiting for the parents to fly home with insects.
The red and white lighthouse is as characteristic of the Maritimes as the elevator is of the prairies, differing from the English lighthouse by having a rigid wooden structure like a clipper sailing ship so as the cliff erodes it can be dragged away from the edge.
Truro is inland in Nova Scotia but close enough to the sea to have a tidal bore. In the stillness of the morning, the three inch high wall of water moving upstream at walking pace is inspiring rather than spectacular. A kingfisher was waiting for it to come on the abandoned abutments of the old Dominion Atlantic railway and dived in obliquely behind.
Halifax harbour is the cleanest we have ever seen and busy with military ships, container ships and cruise ships all mixed together. This was the year of Titanic, so even in the home port of their great rival Cunard, we got to sit in the reproduction deckchair from deck. You did stand a better chance of surviving in first than third, but your very best chance of all was to be below third class traveling free as family of crew.
Is there no sand? There is! Beautiful clear almost white sand that is said to be made from the shells of shellfish and coral from Florida and coarser yellow sand from the rocks of the Canadian shield. Good for digging, good for walking, good for sitting on and singing and most of all for just being and enjoying.
Prince Edward Island has no trains but a very large fleet of genuine red London RT buses. We leave you with the view from the top of one, as Bluenose II ,star of the 10 cent coin, leaves Charlottetown harbour under full sail.
John and Christine,
Michael,Peter and Deborah Rye