Trying to get a kiss on camera...
Thursday 22 November was US Thanksgiving. We were very privileged to be invited by our dear friend April from Regent to share Thanksgiving with her and some of her extended family.
The next morning Bronwyn and April awoke early to cook the Thanksgiving turkey. In between bastings, we watched the Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade on TV. We then had a beautiful Thanksgiving lunch, with 23 people around the table! Amazing! (Mum McLellan – think those huge family Christmas Dinners!). As if the Thanksgiving Dinner wasn’t enough, before hitting the road on Friday morning, we were fortified by a scrummy breakfast! We would later need this for the longish border crossing
Such a treasured time for us both! People graciously opened their hearts and homes to us, especially Don and Julie (April’s Uncle and Aunt) with whom we stayed, and Florence (Don’s mother) who graciously hosted the festivities. We were so blessed to have been invited by April. We hope to one day return the blessings when she visits us in the Land of the Long White Cloud (NZ).
Deacons in the Church of God serve in the name of Christ, and so remind the whole Church that serving is essential to all ministry. They have a special responsibility to ensure that those in need are cared for with Christlike compassion and humility. When called upon to do so, they may baptise, preach and give instruction in the faith. When the people are gathered for worship, deacons are authorised to read the Holy Scriptures, lead the prayers, and distribute the bread and wine of Holy Communion.
The other day in class, I (Nathan) took my pocket New Testament from my bag (yes - theological students do read the Bible!), where it fell open at the 'presentation' page. I was reminded that Natasha gave me this New Testament as a birthday presentation in 1999. This got me thinking about all the immense ways God has blessed Bron and me through Natasha. Natasha - you have been a loyal, wise, open and loving friend. We are both deeply grateful to God for you! And we both pray that as you enter this new phase in your ministry, that God will continue to richly bless others through you! 
On October 8th, Canada celebrated Thanksgiving Day. This is officially, if not always in practice, "[a] Day of General Thanksgiving to Almighty God for the bountiful harvest with which Canada has been blessed … to be observed on the 2nd Monday in October." We got into the spirit of the celebration when we realised we'd invited a couple for dinner that day! As it turned out, they were ill and cancelled at the last minute, so a quick email around resulted in Claire joining us for dinner instead. 
This day also marked the start of our first Reading Week. We did some solid work that week, in between a bit of socialising (and depression about our workload and the rugby!). Mid-week we devoured another big dinner - this time a NZ leg of lamb, expertly roasted by Claire. Here we are at her house with her housemates and friends. (From the front: Ginny [new Regent NZer], Bronwyn, Claire [NZ]; Middle: Sheila [England], April [USA/honorary NZer!], Sharon [Sth Africa], Nathan; and back, Jonny [Scotland]; Tim [USA] was at work.)
We ended the week on Galiano Island, of the coast, where we helped cater lunch and snacks for the faculty retreat. It was great interacting with some of the faculty in a different setting from college. The island was very green, and reminded us a bit of NZ (but with different trees, of course). Here are some shots of the views we had from our accommodation and workspaces. 
Two weeks into the new term, we headed down to Warm Beach Conference Centre, Washington, USA, for the annual Regent College Retreat - a bit like church camp. We had no problems crossing the border (those visas are starting to reap dividends) and had a very pleasant journey with our friend Amy. Some parts of the journey were like travelling through the pine-forested areas of NZ, though on wider roads. The retreat location was lovely, although not warm and more of an estuary than a beach!
Some new experiences included seeing a bald eagle (sorry, the camera wasn't at hand) and eating 'smores' (below). The centre holds a Christmas light display each year so they were just starting to put up strings of lights (also below). Another new experience, was having meals served to us at our tables, rather than the long queues usually associated with catering for 100+ people in this kind of setting!
We spent the time before classes started walking to the beach, catching up with friends, blackberrying and getting ahead in our reading. We helped out with orientation week (for new students) and have made lots of new friends (as well as caught up with the 'old'.
We were blessed with an free upgrade to a fabulous place, overlooking Sooke Harbour, right on the waterfront - a great deal for us students! It had a hot-tub and a private wharf (if we'd had our own fishing boat) as well as a wonderful house with almost all the mod cons. (I say "almost" because I went to use the hand-held electric beater to whip some cream but could only find 1 of the 2 whisks to put in it. I burnt off the calories from the cream as I whipped it by hand with a whisk!!!) The highlight was really being right on the waterfront. We spotted purple sea-stars (a bit like soft looking starfish), lots of crabs, a fish or two, a sea lion or seal, and had daily visits from a heron, who sat on a rock in our little cove to fish every time the tide turned.
"Canada Cone" (an icecream with cream and strawberries on top), wandered the streets, and watched an IMAX film on an African safari. Victoria is very "English-looking", and had multiple statues of Capt. James Cook, who claimed Victoria Island for the British in 1769 (or thereabouts!)
We spent Wednesday at the famous Butchart Gardens. The sunken garden and dahlia display were particularly spectacular. It was a hot day (in the 30s celcius) and it was great eating a picnic lunch in the shade of a tree on the grass. We even met a NZ couple from Lower Hutt as we wandered around!
Another highlight of our week away was establishing a "Kiwi-American Dictionary" with April. As the 3 Kiwis chatted, April would pipe up "I'll add that one to the list!" We ate 'hamburger'/beef mince, wore our flipflops/jandals, and wore our swimmers/togs in the hot-tub. It was against Nathan's instincts to eat Jif peanut butter, especially when he found some Vim (which looked remarkably like NZ's Jif cleaner) in the cupboard too!
Later that week, our friend Jodie had her first baby. She was in labour for FOUR days and had to have an emergency C-section in the end. Wes, her husband, says she was really worried later that she had been rude to the anaesthatist - even though she had spoken politely and thanked him as he'd left! Another example of Canadians being thoroughly nice! Here is the beautiful Smith family (Wes, Jodie, and 2-day-old Synova Josephine) when Bronwyn and some others visited them in the hospital.
Our most recent visitor has the honour of being our first non-Vancouverite visitor. Nathan's second cousin, Rebekah(Bex) Murch, was staying with a friend in the city and came out to spend yesterday with us. She has been nannying in south London in the past year, and spent her summer as a camp counsellor in a christian camp near Chicago. We took her out to visit Jericho and Locarno Beaches for an iceblock/ice lolly/ice stick, and had long chats about family and the joys of being New Zealanders in other cultures (e.g. the difference between UK and NZ marmites).
After washing and drying all the fabric (so it won't shrink if washed in the future) I cut hundreds of 2.5 inch squares from it.
When I picked them up again, I spread the squares randomly on the floor and decided I needed a background fabric. From there, I manoeuvred the squares into a checkerboard formation with a large feature square at each corner. I then recorded this pattern on a piece of paper to maintain the "random" placement of colours.
As our months in Wellington passed, in between teaching jobs and socialising, the joined squares came to resemble the pattern I had noted on paper back in Vancouver. Technically I was only doing the patchwork - joining the patches together. By the end of June, with the addition of a strip of background fabric on each side, the patchworked quilt top was finished. That was a good feeling!
A further shopping expedition resulted in the purchase of some batting (the fluffy polyester filling) and a large piece of black flannelette for the reverse side of the quilt. Here you can see the white batting overhanging from the edge of my quilt.
Quilting is the act of binding the three layers (top, batting, and backing) together. Initially this is also done with long tacking stitches, just to hold the layers together while a more intricate pattern is stitched. I chose to stitch a circle around each of the coloured squares, not the background fabric ones - I'm not a glutton for punishment! Here you can see the white paper circle I pinned on to guide my stitches.
It was easier to stitch when the layers of fabric and batting were taut, so I used a giant embroidery hoop to hold them in place. I got pretty fast at completing each circle - I think about 8 minutes was my best time. It was a good activity to have while we had long conversations with our parents in Palmerston North and Feilding during July. I had hoped to have finished this stage by the time we left NZ but I didn't quite make it. With less than 20 circles to quilt, it was packed in our suitcase again.
Back in Vancouver the summer weather put me off for a few days. It sure gets warm under a quilt when you're sewing! When I'd acclimatised, I finished the circles and began sewing some satin blanket ribbon around the edge of the quilt, still binding the layers together. Here you can see the post-it note I used as a guide to try to keep the border an even width.
The next step was to cut off the excess batting and backing fabric.
And here is the well-travelled finished product out in the summer sunshine in our Vancouver backyard. Now the quilt is neatly folded up on our couch, waiting for some cooler weather to prompt me to snuggle up in its warmth. If you've managed to read the whole of this blog-post, you'll be feeling some of the relief I felt at finally finishing my project!
The highlight of the month was the engagement of Nathan's brother, Alastair, to Kim. We were staying with them at the time, and got to vicariously relive the excitement of being newly-engaged. We'd forgotten how much happens in those first few weeks! The engagement party in July was a time for the McLellans and Beauchamps to celebrate together. We trust all the wedding preparations are continuing smoothly, Al & Kim.
We finished working at the end of June, and spent July with our parents. This involved a lot of lovingly 'mum-cooked' food, cups of tea, and conversation, with a small sprinkle of exercise (walking with Nath's parents, and digging out the carport base with Bron's parents). Needless to say, our clothes fit a little more snugly now, and our regular walks to the local beach are far more necessary!
Bronwyn also celebrated her birthday in July with more food (dinner and afternoon tea) and various family members. Her Vancouver friends even sent her a birthday card with lots of lovely messages. Now birthday blessings reach around the world!Nathan preached at two services at St Columba's, Linton. His messages, based on the 'River of Life' (Ezek 47 & Rev 22), gave him a chance to put some of his recent learning into practice, and both were well-received by the congregation.
One reason behind our stay in NZ was Nath's dad's health. While we were there, Ian received a report saying his cancer had been cleared. There was much rejoicing in the McLellan clan again! This culminated in a thanksgiving service on the last weekend of July. Friends and family from all around the country descended upon St Columba's (where extra chairs were needed to seat everyone) to join Ian in offering God thanks for his healing, the many answered prayers, and the comfort of many who shared the journey. It was a very special time, and an opportunity for Christian witness that Ian did not pass up!We left NZ on August 1st, with the maximum baggage limit once again. How we'll ever get all this stuff back to NZ at the end of our time here is still a mystery! No doubt the suitcase of Kiwi consumables (pineapple lumps, biscuits, honey, NZ keepsakes to give away, etc.) will lighten the eventual load a little. We're well-stocked until the next trip anyway.
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