Thursday, June 5, 2014

OnFire #315 Update from Moncton

Hi Folks:

It has been a very surreal night in Moncton as police continue their search for a man who is alleged to have killed three RCMP officers and shot two others last night just after 7pm. This morning, school is cancelled and public transit is shut down. The streets are very quiet. We are approximately 4km away from cordoned area, but Moncton is not a large city so everything feels close. 

I am preparing a regular OnFire, but will wait until this situation is resolved. Please pray for everyone involved. Police and first-responder lives are at risk. There are many victims, eyewitnesses and family members. Undoubtedly many in Moncton will be directly affected.

Let me give a quick family update since it has been a while. A lot has happened since I last wrote. Ian has graduated from his forestry and wildlife program and has moved twice since then. He moved home while he was job hunting, and then last Thursday he flew to Prince George BC for his new job there. As a parent, that was a little weird, but we keep telling ourselves that we didn’t raise him to live in our basement. He is upbeat and started work yesterday.

We’ve been getting our house and yard ready for the market. Jan painted and touched up inside the house. The flower beds and rock garden are looking good, and yesterday I painted part of our car port. The place is looking pretty good but it is a chore to keep on top of the weeds. That, in itself, could be an OnFire letter.

I finished my responsibilities at Highfield Baptist Church in Moncton. On May 25 the church held my last service, which was amazing. There was a great turnout, I got to play in the band one last time, people sang and worshipped well, people said neat things, and there was a great fellowship time after. As a gift, they presented me with a canoe paddle with a picture of the church on it. Truly a very thoughtful gift. It seems a little like a dream that six years could go by so quickly.

We’re on vacation currently, using our time to visit friends and family before the military, and to get the house ready. This past weekend Jan went to Yarmouth NS to visit her sister while I went to Shelburne NS for a canoe trip with some friends there. And then we met up to go to church at Shelburne Baptist where I used to pastor. It was great to see our friends from the church.

We still await final word from the military with my job offer and posting notice.  We have been told where the Chaplain Branch would like to send us, but this is not official yet, so I’ll leave that for another post. It is a lesson is patience, for sure. We’d like to have everything settled, but all will work out in due time.  We expect to move in July.

Please pray for us along these lines: that our message would arrive, getting the house ready, Mark's grad year events and transition from high school, selling our van, finding homes for our cats.

Please also continue to pray for Moncton police and residents.

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