I guess we could almost call this week ‘Renovation Week’, with all of the renovation type things we managed to get done. Starting with the bathroom fan we decided to install one that had over twice the output, and boy did that make a difference. The one night the temperature had dropped down and the condensation we think had either frozen in the exhaust line or just accumulated so much that we had water dripping down from the fan on the floor the whole next day. So with installing the new fan as well as insulating the exhaust line I think we have it covered:) We installed new roofing on the overhang that had never been done when the carport was added on, I guess the contractor shortchanged himself or something, and kinda caulked the broken plumbing stack so that it would hold until we can get a proper coupler next time we are in town. The snow had broken it off last winter, with the roofing being switched over from asphalt shingles to metal. We also installed a motion sensor light at our front entry and fixed 3 of the broken kneelers in the church. Needless to say, we still have to fix a broken window on the church, but it seemed to me that there may be an extra one in the basement, and who knows what else we’ll find. It works out quite good being handy so that we can do all these things with limited expense. It felt really good to be doing physical work again, especially roofing, but it was just a small taste, to keep the passion alive:) But we’re probably boring you with all of this renovation talk:)

Josh, installing roofing on carport overhang!

Kateri’s pretty good with the camera!

For those of you who are roofers! Check out my home made snow guard. We’ll see how it holds up. (The things you do when the closest hardware store is 8 hours away!)

Half way there!

We had 4 people join us for praying the rosary on Wednesday. The children seem to be getting a little more used to the fact that it is quiet time and they did very well.

We also had the monthly school awards at Kateri’s school. She definitely was’t going to get the perfect attendance award, being that we were gone to Whitehorse for the last 2 days of September and the first couple in October, and she didn’t get any other awards, but she was fairly positive and we told her to keep trying hard. It was really neat hearing from one of her classmates Grandma’s, who attends church regularly, that her grandson is hearing all about God, from Kateri. That made us proud!!

Kateri & Aliz at the awards assembly

Our new computer has arrived and we must say, this whole process of blogging is now 95% easier. What a difference:)

Aliz had her first go at real food, starting with sweet potatoes. We have a video that we will get up for y’all to see, hopefully soon!

On Friday we had the opportunity to have a wiener roast out behind our house with our neighbours. It was planned short notice, but we ended up have a great time just catching up and trying to stay warm with the temperature plummeting as the sun started to go down. By the end of it we had the wife and 2 kids of the other constable, who was out of town on training, join us, as they had just arrived from back east after being on vacation, and the fill-in constable join us as well. We are enjoying our time outside before the snow flies and the temperature gets that much colder!

On Saturday one of the ladies that we know from church, Diane(and her daughter, Maria) Pakula, invited us over to her place, up above Glenora(about a 30 minute drive), for supper. She had also invited another young Christian family that also live up in Glenora, the Anderson’s. They have 2 kids, Anna(age 7) and Isaiah(age 3). We had such a wonderful time, staying for about 5.5 hours. The kids had a blast with eachother, and we had a great time visiting.

On the swings at Diane’s place!

Today, at 2 pm, Denise took communion to one of the ladies who is homebound. Being that Denise had never done this before, it was really beautiful. The lady was so thankful and really enjoyed the company. It will be good to get to know her more and made us realize we should do a little more work at finding out who else in the community is in need of visits. And then Fr.Kieran joined us for Mass at 5 pm. The kids were so excited to see him and came charging out the door of the house to greet him. Kateri and Gianna both said their favourite part of the day was seeing Father Kieran. One realizes how special the presence of a priest is when you only get to see one once a month! There were 16 people in attendance, the most to date, and they all came over for a potluck supper afterwards. Mass ended up being such a crazy house with the kids. We are still trying to figure out how to manage it, but we’re hoping it will work out in time, with patience:!

“Brothers and sisters: Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” -Phillipians 4:6-7
It is natural for us to think about giving thanks during this time of year, and as we were reflecting on this past week this scripture reading that we read recently(at Mass), at the beginning of the month, came to mind.

Late in the morning, on Thanksgiving day, we were greeted by our friendly oil delivery guy, Curly. He had come to fill our oil tank for our small heater in the basement. To date it has heated the house quite well, and even though the outside temperature has remained mainly between 0 and 10 degrees Celsius, dipping down to -3 degrees occasionally, we have not had to heat up the wood furnace yet. The mountains around here are starting to show the snow line coming down but we’re hoping we still have a little time yet before the snow flies here.

We had Thanksgiving dinner at our neighbor’s place, Constable Kyle and his wife, Kristen, and their kids, Carter(3 years old) and Brooke(1.5 years old), along with the other constable, Evan. It was really great that, even though we do not have family here, we were able to celebrate with friends.

Pictures in front of the old Catholic church(in old town – Telegraph Creek)

Starting Tuesday, Denise continued her work in the school kitchen, for the morning, cleaning and organizing. Commiting to work two hours every morning, during the school week, has worked out quite well with our routine at home. It has been a neat way to connect to the community and Denise has had some faith chats with people in the cafeteria several times now. In the afternoon we took a drive down to the old part of town to take our family Christmas card pictures. Taking some in front of the old Catholic church and others down by the river, on the sand. It was a beautiful afternoon, and despite losing the charge on our camera battery rather quickly we managed to get at least three good family pictures out of forty☺ Arriving back home we celebrated Isaiah’s baptism anniversary with the chocolatiest chocolate mud cake(and ice cream) ever(cake homemade by Denise and ice cream homemade by Josh)!

Pictures down at the beach, on the banks of the Stikine River(in old town – Telegraph Creek)

We had our first rosary prayer meeting last week and hadn’t booked another one, but somehow one of the community members thought it was now a weekly thing and came over on Wednesday night, much to our surprise. But it was a lovely and blessed time; one of those moments where you really feel the Spirit guiding and directing your ways. This lady who did come is now one of our closer friends and is one of the kids’ adopted grandmothers. So we will now be praying the rosary every Wednesday evening.

On Thursday Denise took the secretary’s place in the office, as she was away for a couple of days, and took a break from the kitchen. We were remembering back to when we first arrived in the community, wondering what we were going to do, and now it seems like there are so many opportunities. The school also needs substitute teachers and the post office a back-up replacement. We will definitely need to discern what we take on as we want really be present to our family and to the needs of the church community.

Josh has been occupied with the kids, when Denise hasn’t been around (and been doing an amazing job! I (Denise) think Josh makes better bread, hands down!), and planning for our All Saints/All Souls Vigil which we will be holding on the evening of November 1st.

On Friday we joined in the celebrations for the Tahltan Declaration/Treaty Day. The Tahltan Declaration is when in 1910 the Tahltan people refused to sign Treaty 8 which would have meant partial loss of control of their lands and made a 5 point declaration of their land rights to the government. Josh, Gianna, Isaiah, and Aliz went over to the Rec. Centre for lunch. We also had the opportunity to look at some historical pictures of the different families along with the Tahltan Declaration/Treaty. It was interesting trying to juggle the kids around and get them lunch, but one of the ladies (actually one of Gianna’s teachers) offered to hold Aliz and so was able to manage. There were no other children there, which was surprising but more than likely due to the fact that it was a school day. We realized how different it is when you’re not really totally a part of the community. People are friendly enough, but there’s a whole new level to get to. We had a lunch of fried and baked bannock, vegetables, boiled/baked salmon with boiled potatoes, vegetable noodle soup and beef(it may have been moose) barley soup, and lots of goodies. Needless to say the kids were a lot more interested in the goodies.

Denise worked at the school Friday making her first lunch for the kids. The produce truck broke down on the way to Telegraph Creek on Thursday so the school and store were not able to get fresh produce and other groceries. So it was an improvised lunch of canned salmon sandwiches and Campbell’s soup. Let’s just say the majority of the kids were not too thrilled about the lunch and most don’t like salmon of any sort. They were all still polite but one student asked, “Umm.. do you know how to make pizza or burritos?” It was actually quite comical. Meanwhile, Kateri sat at her table and ate every bite. She brought her dishes up to me and said thanks Mom for lunch the soup was great!” Awh, thanks Kateri! My highlight of working at the school has been knowing I am close to Kateri and getting to be more involved in her day and school life. Halloween is huge here so it is nice to be able to see what Kateri is learning and bring in some teachable moments about what we believe as Catholics. Kateri’s teacher came up to me and let me know that Kateri is fitting in really well! Yes, Kateri says everyone is her friend! It’s so nice to be only 5 mins away so I can come home to feed Aliz and not miss out on too much around the house with Josh and Gianna and Isaiah.

Our Sunday celebration with the community was amazing today, and one of the ladies even stayed for a while to play cards. We really look forward to seeing our church family each week. We are especially excited for Mass here next weekend, with Fr.Kieran!

In Summary, our time here is a continual conversation in growing and giving of ourselves and we are reminded of our own inadequacies quite often by the circumstances or situations we find ourselves in. However, in touching on the scripture quote that we began this post with, we feel that we have been so blessed with our time here in Telegraph Creek. We continue to find peace, in giving our lives to God so that he may use us as He wills and create a masterpiece out of our littleness. It is truly a treasure!
 

We took our first trip outside Telegraph Creek, to Whitehorse, last week. Having celebrated confession and Mass on Sunday in the late afternoon, with Fr.Kieran and the community here, followed by a parish community supper we decided to head on our way north early in the morning so that we could make the trip in one day. It was fairly smooth sailing after departing at 5:45 am and only one sick stomach from the road out to Dease Lake. It was a beautiful day for traveling and we stopped in Teslin (just under 2 hours from Whitehorse) for a big stretch break and a late lunch at about 1 pm.

The Alaska Highway                                                                                                (R)Coming in to Jade City(on the Stewart Cassiar Hwy)

Views along the Stewart Cassiar Highway

We arrived in Whitehorse, just in time for supper (4:45 pm), to a warm welcome from our good friends Michel and Andrea Lefebvre and family. We stayed with them for the week, automatically doubling the occupancy of the house.☺

Our main reason for being in Whitehorse was for the Pastoral Study Days for the diocese; being nourished through a retreat with Fr.Edward Evanko, from Our Lady of Grace on Saltspring Island, and with some more pastoral and hands-on applications from Theresa Vogel, who had been pastoral administrator in Telegraph Creek before us. It was also a great opportunity to meet the other pastoral staff members and priests (and a seminarian) from around the diocese. With the children we were able to alternate our attendance so that one of us was able to attend the morning session and the other the afternoon, while we overlapped at mid-day with both of us, along with our kids, being able to attend Mass and lunch. This was a real treat, being able to attend Mass daily, as on a regular basis we are only able to celebrate Mass once a month in Telegraph Creek. During our last session, we were dealing with practicalities of missionary life. A comment was made that priests and religious have had years of pastoral preparation but us lay ministers we have had very little formal training. This person continued to say. “Frankly, I am so surprised Josh & Denise said yes to their role in Telegraph Creek!” Why did we say yes anyway? Because God put an invitation on our hearts we could not ignore. And despite the love pangs of being away from family, which is hard, we have a resounding sense of peace being in the North. Our time in Whitehorse at the pastoral study days gave us some practical tools for ministry but most of all we realized this whole new role for us can’t help but bring us to our knees in humility. Asking like little children to their Father, “What are we to do next?” Again, the words of Bishop Gary ring in our ears, “God does not always call the equipped, but equips the called.”

While in Whitehorse (on September 30th!) it snowed about 4-5 inches (and it had snowed about 3 inches in Telegraph Creek while we were away), but it had melted by the time we left. The kids had fun playing in the first snow fall of the year. We were able to get a lot of errands done that we needed to; a haircut for Denise, groceries, office supplies, banking, and even bought a new computer (which we are awaiting in the mail) as ours is getting so old that we can’t upgrade it anymore and I have a hard time even posting pictures to this blog (some days it works and others it doesn’t).

The kids playing in the back yard at the Lefebvre’s

We were also able to go to the Canada Games Centre(Whitehorse’s Rec Centre) and went swimming with the Lefebvre’s. Kateri, Gianna, and Isaiah were all able to go down the big slide with us and really enjoyed that! Isaiah had a blast pulling Aliz around in a floating fish(so sad that we forgot to bring the camera for a picture of that).

On the Friday we were able to join in the northern Holy Family Apostolate(HFA) meeting; praying the rosary, having silent time in front of the Blessed Sacrament, and reflecting on “Love… love… love, never counting the cost.” Afterwards we shared a potluck meal and met some of the families and people that are a part of the group. If we remember correctly, there was about 15 children present. Most families present were all in the same situation, living away from their family, so everyone especially the kids love being together. After being a part of the HFA in Vancouver/Langley for the last 6 years it was a real blessing to be able to see the workings of an offshoot from the same group in it’s northern form.

Denise & Andrea were able to attend a play put on by Fr.Edward Evanko(the same priest who had done our pastoral retreat) on the life of St.Damian of Molokai. It was a wonderful opportunity to learn more about the life of this amazing saint.

Movie night at the Lefebvre’s

It has some sadness ending our time there; to say good-bye and be heading back to the mission field. It filled us both with a bit of nervousness; that unknown and the gravity of our role in the community as the sole spiritual presence. Being around friends and fellow missionaries we found that we started to really enjoy the environment and the company. Packing a lunch for the road we were able to make it to Dease Lake by mid-afternoon before stopping for a bigger break at the school, only to end up locking our keys in the vehicle. Going to the closest house, to ask for a clothes hanger to ‘break in’ to our truck, we were very surprised to see one of the church members and her husband visiting these other very nice people. What are the odds? Fortunately one of the doors was only partly closed and with the extra help we were able to get the doors open within a minute or two. It definitely just affirmed for us the generosity and small-town feel within the community that we are now a part of. We were welcomed back to Telegraph Creek with blinding sunlight, just like when we came in for the first time. God is so good!

Where the Tahltan River meets the Stikine River(the funest stretch of road)

Can you see the eagle imprinted in the rock?

Although the whole trip took about 11 hours it didn’t really drag on at all. It felt like it went by rather quick, probably because there just isn’t too much in between.

So, back to life as usual, or not so usual, and here is a compilation of some of the most memorable events of this week. Being gone last week left us with quite a few things to catch up on, and so this post was kind of left in the dust☺

-We prayed the rosary as a community for the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary!
-Denise started working 2 hours a day at the school kitchen, cleaning and preparing lunches for the students as the school is in desperate need of a cook until Christmas.
-Kateri’s school went for a field trip to pick wild cranberries, so we all joined in the fun. It was actually a lot of bushwacking to get even just one coffee cup full of berries. The older students were making cranberry jelly on Friday so hopefully we’ll get to try☺ Again, we forgot to bring the camera on this one too☹
-Josh baked his first loaf of cinnamon raisin bread, and it was a huge hit!
-Josh was a chimney sweep for the first time in his life! Cleaning both the chimney in the house and the furnace and chimney in the church.

-We were delivered a fresh caught salmon to our door last Friday night by one of the families in our church community, so we had it for supper Saturday with French fries. Yummy!
– Sunday, we had our biggest congregation for a Communion Service yet, 15 wonderful people. Even two other children were there. Kateri, Gianna & Isaiah were so thrilled they couldn’t help but stare at them and whisper hello to each other from under the pews. Kateri was very excited to invite them over for cookies and to play! After the service most came over for tea and people just stayed! It was so wonderful to feel us all just really enjoying each other’s company. One of the parishioners who read today shared how moved she was to read Paul’s letter to the Phillipians. She was almost in tears. Josh affirmed that he noticed and was also touched by the way she read the passage. Another parishioner shared how the readings touched her as well. When everyone left, we couldn’t help but feel so thankful and a little giddy with how the spirit was moving! “I can do all things through him who brings me strength.” Phil. 4:13

(above)Stikine River Provincial Park Rec Site to the northeast, (below) to the west

Just above the Tahltan River

Kateri’s first day of school

 Gianna with her teachers Darla (on left) and Glenda

Gianna and Isaiah at their school (Head Start)

Making pancakes with daddy on Sunday, after church!

Aliz having a great time in her jolly jumper, now her routine while we’re eating supper, so that she is not pushed and hauled on by the other kids!

 We went out for a family stroll yesterday evening, after supper, and  we thought we would share some pictures with you! These pictures are of the view from the ridge just above our place, about a 15 minute walk!

View to the East, with the old town of Telegraph Creek down by the river on the left.

Happy hikers!

A view of the Stikine River to the West

The view to the West towards Alaska & the coastal mountains

The fun bookshelf I made for the office today!

My bookshelf model HAD to be in this shot, by her personal request:)

We celebrated the feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary  today with a cake!  Everyone was involved, from making and mixing, to licking the beaters and the spatulas, even Aliz got to taste test the icing. Oops.

Gianna & Isaiah are attending the Head Start program and, since the teacher strike is still on, Kateri is joining them until she can start Kindergarten! They were all very excited today!!