CHRISTINE’S 2015 BIRTHDAY PARTY

July 23, yesterday, was Christine’s birthday. She is looking and feeling great for her age, which will go unidentified here. She is fantastic to be hanging around with me, an older guy by eleven months and I am 72 and will be 73 in September. We are fortunate for so many reasons, for our health today, for children and grandchildren only minutes away, for a comfy downsized home, for friends.

Last night, Eugene and Elaine Bodner joined our family, Cari and Tim and their three, Kailyn, Ryan and Jayden and Jeff and Gina and their two Kale and Kadence. We gathered at Jeff’s and Gina’s home for an evening of appies and desserts and conversation and some nice wines. It was another pleasantly warm day with a lovely sunset. Children love each other and love playing with one another. This is how Christine likes to celebrate, casually, simply, and with people close.

Today, we get ready to make a trip together with Karen and Rob Stewart, leaving tomorrow morning for the Tsawassen ferry to Nanaimo, from where we will travel north on Vancouver Island to Port McNeil, meet Ben and Anna Crumbeck and have lunch, and then go by ferry to Malcolm Island. We will drive to the village of Sointula, where Ben and Anna live and pastor the Sointula Community Church. We will stay overnight, and I will preach on Sunday morning and then the church is having a community BBQ. We will leave the island at 3pm and we have a reservation on the 9PM ferry from Nanaimo back to the mainland, so we’ll be home between 11:00pm-12:00am Sunday night.

Monday, we may be at Cultus Lake with the Locken clan for the day.