Rick and Cheryl on Adventure

FOUNDATIONS   He will be the sure foundation for your times, a rich store of salvation and wisdom and knowledge; the fear of the Lord is the key to this treasure (Isaiah 33:6).   We were at the beginning of week #4 of our sojourn in the Similkameen, and it didn’t look like we’d accomplished much. Passersby glancing up at our lot from Pincushion Trail would have considered it vacant. BUT that’s because Rick had been laboring on the cottage foundation, and you usually can’t see foundations. Foundations underlay everything that you CAN see later, both with buildings and with lives.  I’ve been receiving an education in construction as I hold the ends of boards, read the bubble in the level, and watch cement scٰhlop out of the mixer. And wow – there are a multitude of finicky but necessary steps involved in laying a solid and dependable foundation. For those who haven’t been witness to the process, here’s a quick summary with illustrative photos:  1) Create a piece of flat ground –  in our

  A THIN PLACE "Who may ascend the mountain of the Lord? Who may stand in his holy place?" (Psalm 24:3) Development is progressing slowly but steadily here on Pincushion, accompanied by a similarly slow and steady drain on our bank account. While Rick’s wheelhouse is sequencing consultations with contractors, foundation preparation, cement pouring, and sewer system planning, my sojourn here may be more of a spiritual one. My thin place I’m sure many of you have heard of the concept of “thin places” I can’t remember exactly when I first came across it – probably at our Regina church when learning more about contemplative prayer. A short time later, I encountered the term while visiting the isle of Iona off the coast of Scotland, learning that Iona is considered one of the world’s best known thin places. It is described as the birthplace of Christianity in Scotland, site of a Benedictine Abbey and Augustinian nunnery where monks and nuns lived, worked and worshipped for three a

Welcome, family and friends, to a reinstatement of our blog. Previous entries detailed our experiences in international development work which has been suspended for now as we lean into a new adventure! PINCUSHION PROVIDENCE "No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined what God has prepared for those who love him." (I Corinthians 2:9) One might wonder why Rick and Cheryl, Prairie born and bred, staunch Saskatchewan supporters, find themselves defecting to British Columbia at this stage in their retirement years. Well, sitting here in a borrowed trailer at the foot of a mountain, sometimes sweating, sometimes buffeted by spasmodic wind gusts, sometimes gazing out at a star-filled sky, we ourselves have plenty of time to ponder what we are doing here. Literally and figuratively.  It didn't happen overnight, but once the game was put in play a year ago, the dominoes have fallen rather quickly! It's one of those things that began with the sharing of a drea