Hello All,

This is our first foray into the blogosphere. We are hoping this can be a useful tool to use to communicate with all of you while we are away on our sabbatical. Some of you have been asking about our plans and schedule for our Sabbatical.

As of today this is our schedule:

• On September 29th Joan and Herb will leave for Delafield, Wisconsin - about 30 minutes from Milwaukee - for a six-day pastors retreat at Cedarly Pastors Retreat. If you are interested in information on Cedarly and the Pastors' Retreat Network check out their website at www.pastorsretreatnetwork.org
• On October 6th in the late evening we expect to arrive home in Winkler from Delafield to be together with Joan's family as they celebrate her parents' 50th wedding anniversary over the Thanksgiving weekend.
• On October 9th we plan to leave as early as possible in the day and drive to Orlando, Florida. We may travel via Virginia in order to re-connect with friends whom we met when last we were on sabbatical. While we are in Florida we plan to be tourists for one week or so. We have promised the kids for some time already that one time we would take them to Florida and some of the attractions is offers.
• On or about October 20th we plan to leave the Orlando area and head toward Campo 61 1/2, Mexico where our friends Hans and Irene Friesen live with their family. We got to know them when we came to Grace Church in Winkler. The Friesens live in Campo 61 1/2 and minister among the Mexican Mennonite people. They seek to minister to youth and help others who have experienced abuse at the hands of those in authority to find freedom in Christ. They currently live in a house that has one bedromm, a kitchen and a dining room. They converted a cold storage room into a bathroom. As a family of six they need a bigger home and a place where they can minister to the people of their village and surrounding villages as well as more space for themselves. A team from Grace Church is going to Hans and Irene's and we plan to meet them and work with them for a week helping to build a larger more functional home for the Friesens.
• Sometime around October 30th we plan to leave Campo 61 1/2 and head to Queretaro, Mexico which is located approximately 2-3 hours north of Mexico City. While we are in Queretaro we plan to work at the Pan de Vida orphanage. This is a special place in Joan and Herb's heart as they were there in February 2003 for a two week service term. While we are there we plan to help with maintenance and do other jobs as needed. We are anticipating celebrating Christmas in Queretaro or at a beach. If you want to learn more about Pan de Vida you can check out their website at http://www.freewebs.com/pandevida/.
• Joan and I have committed ourselves to be back in our offices on January 8, 2007, the same day that the kids start school after Christmas break.

As we have been preparing to go there are many emotions and thoughts that run through our minds and hearts. We are both excited and fearful for what lays ahead of us on this great adventure. As we prepare to go I invite you to keep our family in your prayers as the Holy Spirit brings us to mind. As you think about us we ask that you would pray for:

• Safety both in travel and during the times of work. We anticipate that we will travel in excess of 8000 miles in the next three months.
• We will eat much food to which we are not accustomed. In 2003 Herb picked up a nasty intestinal virus and was sick when we got home. Please pray for health as we live and eat in new and unfamiliar circumstances.
• A good attitude when things don't go according to our plan. This past week someone told me that G.K. Chesterton once said, "An inconvenience is only an adventure wrongly considered; an adventure is only an inconvenience rightly considered." As we experience inconveniences we invite you to pray that we would see them as adventures on which God is leading us.
• Our children will be out of school for 10 weeks. Please pray that they will be able to learn both their schoolwork as well as the life lessons that God will teach them in Mexico.
• Please pray for rest and rejuvenation for Herb and Joan. While this is a sabbatical, not a holiday, we strongly sense the need to be rejuvenated both in body and spirit and we pray that this will happen during our time away from Winkler and Grace Church.
• Please pray for good relations within our family. For the majority of our time away we will have only ourselves as English-speaking company. We will not be able to get away by visiting friends or going for coffee. Herb will not be out of the house at meetings on weekday evenings. Our prayer is that as a family we would be able to grow closer to one another.

Thank you for checking this out. Once we get on the road I hope to be able to add to this blog and to have the other members of the family add their experiences as well. If we can figure out the technology we will try to add pictures as well.