all at once

This last year has been an intense time of learning for us. August 1st marked the end of my first official year of ministry. And as we reflected on the year it became clear to us that I am a round peg in a square hole. Lake Park is a good church, and I am called to be a pastor, but we just didn't seem to fit each other. I found over the last year that I am more passionate than I thought about music. I also love to preach, and teach, and lead. Yup, you guessed it, none of those were in my job description. So after a long and prayerful struggle I had to resign. I was officially done at the beginning of September so many of you know this already.

Now you may be one of those people who would not resign their position until you had a backup plan, or knew that work was ligned up for you. Not me! No sir, when I resigned there was no insulation in the walls of our living room and I had about two months left of solid renovations to sell the house. OK, I've never been accused of being smrt. To our suprise and through the grace of God, our church was very understanding and supportive. They even offered to pay me for an extra two months while we finished renovating. They really are great people.

I was not sure what the next step would be (past renovating that is) but God had seemed to be leading us in the church planting direction before we came here and I was again feeling led to pursue this area. In fact an opportunity arose in Warman for a church plant and it looked really exciting. However, there are certain personality traits and skills that a church planter needs, did I have those? Enter the Church Planting Assessment Center. Yup, off we went (on my sisters B-day) to Burnaby, BC to take an intensive three days of evaluation and testing to see if we had church planting skills. This is also why we haven't blogged about this yet.

Oh, the kids had to stay with Grandma in Martensville. Thanks Grandma, they had a blast. Lisa was there for a few days but she got the flu just when she arrived and then Grandma got sick too. Somehow they managed to care for the kids though. Another couple of weeks and we will have the kids back to normal. Thanks Grandma and Lisa. OK, back to us at the assessment.

And the results are? Not recomended. That's right, we are not church planters. But man did I learn about myself. This assessment was incredibly valuable not only for me but also for Anna. Without this assessment we probably would have tried to plant a church and it probably would have killed us, or turned us into small tasteless vegitables. A big thankyou to the Baptist General Conference of Saskatchewan for sending us to this assessment and covering the cost (Lake Park actually covered the flights, thanks again guys). It was expensive but it saved us both money in the long run and was very valuable for me as a pastor. Thank you.

As a bonus from the flight to Burnaby we stayed an extra day at Annas parents place and got to see the family once again. Without kids though, sorry guys. It was great to catch up and see everybody, thanks for your hospitality Mom and Dad.

So as of right now I only know a few things for certain. God is good and He will lead and guide us, I'm doing hardwood this week, and we are still wanting to sell our house in November. After that, who knows. Please pray for us as we look for a place where I can be the man God has made me to be. I know everything is in His timing and He always works things out for us, but He always saves it to the last minute too.

So if anyone knows of a pastoral position or a place to live or wants to buy our house just give us a call. On a lighter note, we did sell the Lumina, so miricales can happen. We just got a new CD of Third Day and we have made the song Revelation our theme song for the next couple months. Check it out. Thanks for reading and catching up with us.



Tim Sawatzky

in the past week...

....we've done a lot of things. Nadia and I went to the dentist, and afterward she got new clips and barrettes. Daddy helped to put all of them in at once. Not sure why she needed to sit in the basket, on top of the sofa.
Nadia and I have an agreement that if she doesn't bite her nails for 1 week she can have nail polish on all her fingers and toes....and thumbs! We made a little sticker chart to keep track. And I painted her 1 thumb to get her excited about it. I'm happy to say it's working and she hasn't even nibbled since we started.
Colin thought it was fun to get on the basket, throw the toothbrush and then get it and get back up.

Daddy helped Nadia climb into this tree.

Over 20 cans of paint still to go on the walls of our house. (a downfall of a large house)

Nadia and Keziah both wearing polka dots.

Ummmmmm.....

Colin loved this hat, and why not, it makes noise.

Today is my Grandpa's birthday....HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRANDPA!!!!! We love you and can't wait to see you next week. Tell us more stories when we get there.

kiddos

With all the renos going on it doesn't leave much time for fun. So we squeeze it in whenever and where ever we can. Tim and Nadia were having a tickle fight. I think she pushed him off the sofa.
We don't have much left in the garden, just carrots and gourds. And Nadia is still excited about the garden and really loves to pick the carrots. Translation: she loves to chose the ones she wants me to pull. Here she's doing a little dance with the carrots. And Colin is a full time walker now.

Does he ever love the cat. I don't really think the feeling is mutual.

Colin loves playing in the sand. I always thought people were making-it-up when they said their kids liked to eat sand. Well, now I understand. Colin will grab handfuls and chow down. Maybe I should be more concerned.
In the playroom. Tim was sitting on the pillow and Colin came over, and strategically plunked himself down just like Daddy. However, Tim copied Colin with the cup thing. Boys making boy noises into a tiny cup!
Colin started this rampage of running around with Nadia's balloon in his mouth. Later he would walk and whip his head around so the balloon would hit his face. You had to be here.
Nadia was enjoying her play dough, something we haven't done in a long time. She made this snowman in hopes that snow would come soon. Every second day she asks if it's snow time because she wants to go outside and eat the snow. I almost forgot to tell you, she's doing her fish impression here.

living room renos

Last week Tim put in insulation and did poly. This weekend the drywall went up. I should have snapped the photo this morning when the walls were free of stuff, but you get the idea. Today was garbage-to-the-dump day. Richard and Tim took 5 loads to the dump in his trailer that he pulls with his '54 Jimmy. Richard is so cool.

harvest

We are privileged to have a farmers field in our back yard and last week they got the crops down and off. The machines were literally in our back yard cutting down the peas. We sat out there and watched them harvest the top of the field behind our house. They swathed and combined together.

perfect day to harvest.

This is our back yard grass and the combine only feet away. We were glad the wind was in our favour.

electrical

After all the gutting Tim had to fix-up the electrical, and Nadia was right in there to help. I stuck a screw into a crack and she turned it back and forth for a long time. She said she was doing her work.