Spring 2014 Update

Dear Family & Friends,

Wow, we have had a full season these past couple months. Here are some highlights/pics for your perusal.

Most recently Murray was at Camp Nakamun (NW of Edmonton, AB) (www.campnakamun.com) as a trainer in a Leadership Matters Course (lmccourse.org). It was 16 days away from family but a great opportunity to train with some great people and to make many new relationships with leaders from China, Indonesia, Europe, Middle East, Caribbean, South America, Africa, North America, and New Zealand.

For the first week at the course the weather was cold (like -20C at night) and the lake was completely frozen. This offered a chance to do some snow shoeing on the lake each day for exercise. Not often can you walk on water, but in a Canadian winter it can be the normal experience :0)

On the day of solitude Murray took a long walk and found some very interesting things on the Canadian prairie.

One of those things was rediscovering the beauty and majesty of the flat part of Canada. What a country we get to live in and be from. Imagine walking along this road and listening to Shawn McDonald’s Yahweh.

Now, the contrast of the Canadian prairie and the Caribbean coast, on Sanibel Island in Florida, is rather obvious. We had the privilege of being in Florida to meet with our CMA US counterparts for Latin America. The US leadership team and the Canadian leadership team had a great week together. Fred Hartley was our speaker (www.collegeofprayer.org) for the first 3 days. We really enjoyed the deep learning we did together as well as the great conversations. The picture was taken from a restaurant balcony during one of our meetings. We didn’t actually stay at the beach :0) but at the Shell Point Village Guest House (shellpoint.org).

Here is proof that we really were working.

While in Florida we got to spend part of a day with some of the Petrescue gang who live in Florida (Bernie, Winn, Burt & Julie and their 4 children). That was a real treat for us.

Prior to that we spent 8 days in the Toronto area with our global team for CMA Canada (www.cmacan.org). We have the privilege of working with a great team that gives strong leadership to our movement in Canada all around the globe.

Just before arriving in Toronto Murray had the opportunity of being in Antalya, Turkey with 2 CMA Latin America leaders. Javier Cortazar (right) serves as the Regional Coordinator for the Alliance World Fellowship/Latin America. Mario Perez (left) is the president of CMA Peru. We were attending a conference together to see what God is doing in Central Asia. These were inspiring days together as we talked about what God could possibly do with Latin Americans who are willing to serve in Central Asia.

And prior to Turkey? Well, we were at home, enjoying a Canadian winter. It gave us a chance to get up to date with correspondence and spend some time with family.

We were even able to spend some time at Big White, enjoying the beauty of the mountains and the thrill of sliding down them. It gave us time to spend with our kids as well as some Manitoba relatives (Wiebe/Dalke gang).