Retrospective Recap

Well, I didn't think it had been quite that long since we'd posted! Sorry about that. Here's a quick recap since October 2008 of what we've been ensconced in.

Work and Study:
Bronwyn has enjoyed her first year teaching at Westside Christian School. Her class of six students expanded to include four Grade 6 students who moved up from the elementary class after Christmas. This class made coming to work a joy, and I will miss those who moved on to other places and schools at the end of the school year. Some highlights include the Christmas production, electives week, an overnight camp at Porteau Cove, and the end-of-year celebrations. The new school year commences in September, and I am looking forward to having many returning students, plus a few newcomers.

Nathan has also enjoyed his job as teaching-assistant (TA) for the history course, and has revelled in the teaching role. He undertook a history seminar course with three others on the Interwar Period, looking at the Soviet Union, Germany, Italy and Great Britain between the two world wars. Whilst very challenging, he loved the research, stimulating discussion and decisive essay writing that were part of the course - a highlight of the term. His other classes in Intermediate Greek and History of Doctrine also kept him busy learning during the term. In addition to research TA work this coming year, he has taken on leading a pilot internship programme for the Marketplace Institute at Regent. More details, next post.

Friends and Family:
We spent Christmas with our friend, April, in Wyoming with her family. The severe snowfall on the west coast at that time played havoc with our travel plans, but we had a great time meeting her family and friends, and becoming familiar with her university town, Laramie.

Our friend, Claire, also returned to Vancouver to study in January (after a 6-month stint in NZ). It has been great having her back and joining in our 'community meal' each Monday night with April, Susannah and ourselves. Claire and April are now flatting together, and we spend a lot of time at each other's places, eating and hanging out.

The end of semester saw us welcoming our friend, Matt, into our household for a few weeks. He was up from California visiting Regent friends, attending convocation (graduation), and going to some weddings. He left us with some great theological conversations and a beautiful sketch copied from a Van Gogh print in our house.

Sadly, Susannah has flown the Regent nest. She graduated with her MCS in April, and headed back to Australia. Our community meal most weeks now features a Skype conversation with her - allowing for time differences! This year we are hoping to be joined by another Regent friend from the US, Dave, who has also lived in NZ. Our UK friends, Esther and Kev, have headed back to the UK, and will finish studying there as their family expands with a baby due September.

Bronwyn's parents, Lynn and Robert, joined us for much of July. It was their first time in Canada, so much of our time together was spent sight-seeing in and around Vancouver, and venturing forth a bit further to Whistler, Vancouver Island, and down to Seattle in the US. They did a small road-trip through southern British Columbia and then caught the Rocky Mountaineer train from Calgary back into Vancouver. Some highlights (apart from seeing each other, of course) were a First Nations cultural centre in Whistler, seeing some of the countryside, discovering various artworks (chainsaw carving, jewellery, paintings...), seeing an exhibition in Victoria of artefacts from the Bristish Museum and visiting the Boeing factory at Everett. The summer weather was a bit of a treat for them too!

Church and Beyond:
We continue to worship at Holy Trinity Anglican, Vancouver. Our work and study commitments, and our Regent community keep us pretty busy, so we are enjoying being mostly "pew-sitters" for now!

Our "green thumbs" have got particularly itchy over the year, so we (April, Claire, and ourselves) have persuaded some friends to turn some of their back lawn into a small garden. So far we have harvested an abundance of lettuce, parsley, and chives. The beans and zucchini are becoming prolific, and the shoulder-height tomato plants have numerous green fruit developing. Plenty to offer the 'landlords' too. Yum!

Enough recapping! Check out some of our photos in the link to the right. I'll post soon with new and exciting developments for us in the near future.