Christmas in Canada

Isaí and I had the privilege of traveling to Edmonton over Christmas.  It took a lot of paperwork and prayer to get his Canadian tourist visa and then the US transit visa but we both agree it was well worth it.  The Friday before we left was Diaconía Nacional´s annual Christmas lunch and Secret Santa gift exchange.  We had a lot of fun and great food.

Diaconía even brought in a local musician to play for us.  His name is Nahun Escoto and he told us about when he was a kid wanting to play music but was too poor to buy an instrument.  In order to quench his thirst for music he began to make flutes out of PVC piping and other materials around the neighbourhood that most would consider scraps or trash.  He has now been playing for over 15 years with an array of recycled musical instruments and has performed in countries around Central America and Spain.  It was really amazing to hear him play and learn his incredible story.  Isaí and I even bought one of his CDs to take home with us.   

So December 11^th we left the sunny hills of Honduras for the harsh Canadian winter except that we were sorely disappointed – that is, as far as cold weather goes.  I had spent months trying to prepare my husband for the rude awakening he would receive once we reached the -30° mark.  However, Edmonton seemed to take pity on us two travelers from Honduras and the weather was unusually mild.  Of course Isaí still felt the shock of the cold (or rather chilly) -5° climate.  People kept asking him if he found it cold and he responded emphatically “YES!” to which they countered with “This is nothing yet”. 

We really enjoyed our month in Canada although it seemed too short.  We were always busy with fun winter activities, showing off the city, a little Christmas shopping and lots of dinner invitations from family and friends.  We also spent a lot of time planning our church wedding so we could celebrate our marriage Canadian-style this time.  Thanks to my parents, my sister and a whole bunch of extended family almost all of the details were worked out before we even landed in Edmonton.  Still, we had a couple of weeks to finish the decorations, organize the music, pick a location for the photos, get some suits for the guys and buy myself a wedding gown.   All in all everything turned out perfect!

We felt so blessed to have such a beautiful wedding celebration, our honeymoon in the mountains, a great time with our family and the opportunity to visit my home church of Inglewood Christian Reformed Church.    We´re already back in Honduras to continue with our important work with CRWRC and Diaconía Nacional.  My contract has been extended until the end of December 2012 and I guess after that we´ll see what God has in store for us.