It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

It's really feeling like christmas here in Durham as the snow is quite deep. There is less wind than in Saskatchewan, so the trees look like this until it melts. It makes for a beautiful winter wonderland! One Sunday it snowed so hard that they advised us to stay home from Church, so Nate and I went for a walk around camp. Nate decided to make his own snowfall (right) by shaking the tree. Luckily I caught him in the act and got a picture=) We now have 7 days of school left and are all getting a bit ansy in class, but trying hard to focus. We have now been freed of PTC (work detail) next Friday so that we can take off for home a bit earlier. Nate and I are driving up to Toronto, about a 2 hour drive, and staying at the Sharp's (Nate's best man's family) for the night. We fly out from there Saturday morning at 10:00am, jump on another plane in calgary and will hopefully be back home by 3:00pm! I'm excited just talking about it! Then on Sunday we drive up to Pambrun to visit Nate's parents for 8 days, and head back to Mom&Dad's on the 22nd for the rest of our Christmas vacation. We hope to catch up with all of you, but the time is limited so we will do what we can. We have to fly out again on Jan 1st.

So we're just praying for safe driving up to Toronto as more snow is coming, as well as a safe flight out (preferably without delays=) and also that we will finish this semester strong as I'm sure God still has more to teach us this next week. Again, we greatly appreciate you all and you're prayers and support on this adventure of life=) Thanx

Nate & Tash

PS.

Nate plays hockey every couple weeks with the guys here. It's rather humorous to watch 30 grown men wobling and falling all over the place as they chase after a piece of rubber=)

Looking Forward to Christmas!!

Hi all!

Christmas is coming! Nate and I love it here and definately have come to call it home, but we are looking forward to going to see all you guys.

(Right) this is a common view in our area, a church of old-order mennonites. There are rows of horse and buggy all around this church. Last sunday we went to a couple from the church for lunch, and on the way we past an old-order mennonite church that had just let out. The road was packed with carts. The couple's house we were going to grew up in that church and all their extended family are still in that church! He had a lot of interesting things to say about growing up and eventually leaving that church.

Mom! You wouldn't believe what we saw. It's this timmies that was under construction so they were working out of this trailer ish thing. It looked so weird down main street.

So I was given all of these kinda frost bitten but still usable tomatoes, so I made salsa last week! All the vegetation and flowers and such last about a month longer outside than there. It turned out a bit too mild for us so I 'm adding more jalepenos as we open the jars, but still good i think. I thought the pot of stuff looked so pretty I had to take a picture. =)

Myself and a second year student teach Gr. K-2 gym class twice a week, which can be fun and also challenging. We made a snowball fight for them one day out of cruched up paper, which was a blast! Then, of all coincidences, it started to hail outside and we had all this tiny 'snow' to eat and play with. It was great fun, and I've attached a video of it if you want to see the fun we have!

Thanks so much for all your support! We've heard from some of you but would love to hear more! Please write us! nateandtash@hotmail.com

Nate & Tash

Canoe Trip and other fun stuff

Hi Everyone!

It seemed like a while since I updated you all, so I thought I'd write a quick letter before we head off to Youth group.

Earlier this month the entire student body went on a canoe trip. There were 3 groups as we don't have that many canoes. We went down the saugeen river I believe, which is pretty calm minus a few 'rapids'. The group before us had 3 canoes tip, which made us all nervous but we came out dry!
(unfortunately I didn't get any pics as we didn't want to drop our camera in the river if we did tip=)

This month has been another busy month, but we are really enjoying it and taking in as much as we can. We've connected with most of our class and have gotten even closer to one couple. It is great to have someone to play 'settlers' with=)

The ladies went on a retreat on Wednesday to Owen Sound were we did a sort of picture scavenger hunt thing in groups to get to know each other a bit better. It was quit fun.

This past weekend we went to London to visit Nate's sister Gena and her 3 kids. The Video is of Isaiah and Nate playing Wii. We all squeezed into a 3 bedroom townhouse and had a great weekend of shopping, eating, and playing wii.

We are on our way to Youth group now, but will update more later. We also love to hear from you guys! We feel quit out of the loop here and hardly hear from anyone back home. Please send us updates as well!

Nate & Tash

Mom & Dad's visit East

Hi All!

Nate and I are quickly fitting into NTMC life on camp. It's very busy, and the weeks are flying by. It's hard to believe that we have been here for 7 weeks already! Our Week looks something like this:

Monday: Chapel, Mentoring with the Bakers, guys soccer

Tuesday: teaching Phys. Ed. for me, Tuesday night meeting, girls volleyball

Wednesday: No work detail for me, men's soccer

Thursday: teaching Phys. Ed for me, tv show night at challinors, ladies sharing, ladies soccer Friday: Men's soccer, help out at youth group, grill supper with everyone

Saturday: FREEDOM!!! (well, minus homework, cleanup, groceries, etc catching up from the week)

Sunday: Church

Neways, sorry if that was boring, but had to flesh it out for myself anyways=)

Early this month Nate and I toured around Owen Sound and stopped in at Indian Falls and a few other falls.

Ontario is truly beautiful!

So this video is at Indian falls. We made it down into the valley below the falls and were able to walk right behind the falls! It was so wonderful; something i always wanted to do.

My Mom & Dad finally made a trip out here to see us! They got in around 8:0apm on Friday the 26th after some 'detours' around Toronto airport. GPS only works if the user works I suppose=) So we spent Saturday at Niagara falls which was amazing. God's creation is so breathtaking! Sunday was spent at Church and then we headed further to Kitchener/Waterloo for some much needed Shopping! Mom and I found some great deals while the guys tried to tolerate the hussle and bussle of a huge mall. (Christmas shopping has officially started!) This week mom and dad have been touring around while we are in class and then relaxing with us in the evenings. Tomorrow they will be joining class with us to get the full experience.

Flowers are still blooming!

I will start trying to write more often, to avoid long drawn out emails! Thanks for reading!

Nate & Tash

You Gotta go there to get milk in a bag

Hi Everyone!

Life in Durham, ON is most definately different than rural Saskatchewan! Life on NTMC Campus is probably the most different, but I'll start off with Ontario in general. It's amazing how much you get used to being able to see everything for miles around you. I feel as though I don't know the area very well because of the hills and curving roads. There are also crazy things here such as milk in bags, which makes the product seem questionable, as well as the flashing green traffic lights which means you get an advanced green to turn left.

But all the crazy changes outside of campus is nothing compared to the things we are trying to get used to here at NTMC.

When people I know move out of reach I always want to see their living arrangements, so I've put together somes pics.

This is our apartment on the left with Nate there BBQing. This is not quit half of the building, which has three doors and holds 4 families and a freezer/water room. We share the door/patio inside with another couple and our appt is on the left side. And from the door our bathroom is...........

That building on the otherside of the field a bit to the left with the red roof is where our bathroom is with showers. It is also the 1st year classroom/coffee room/library/food room/mission barrel.

This is inside our house from the front door. This house has lots of space; it feels like more room than our trailer in Osler. We have 3 bedrooms and this kitchen dining area, as well as a living room space. (below)
The couches are kinda nasty for color, but really comfortable! Give and take i suppose. All of the furniture was donated by NTMC and supporters I suppose. It was all here for us when we got here; bed included! It's amazing how generous people are with NTMC. We've been invited to almost every staff members home for supper or lunch and there's been numerous food items and other stuff just donated to the school for us students. God's doing amazing things at this school and people know it an want to do anything to help out.

I know, so far it doesn't look that bizarre or weird on this campus, but here is exhibit A. This is our Plumbing situation. Our running water is a Blue Goose which we fill up in the water room beside our apartment; our drain empties into a large pail, and once that's full (if you notice=) you must take it down the sidewalk a ways to dump it. No hot water, so when you do dishes or anything with hot water you must boil it. One really cool perk is that we get our drinking water from a spring. It's across a little bridge over a stream. Very good water.

All this to say that there is much to get used to, but we are doing it and enjoying our time here so far. We've had one week of orientation, which is overwhelming as there is much on our plates, but it keeps us busy.

Prayer Requests:

• Diligents in our assignments and homework




• Adjustment with going back to school




• being able to adjust to a busier schedule




• connecting with fellow classmates

'Fun' Travels

As many of you may have already heard, Nate and I had some car troubles on our second day of travels to Durham, On. We made it to Steinbach the first day with absolutely no troubles. We stayed there over night at some friends of Nate's and took off bright and early to read our second destination which was to be White River, On. by early evening. About 7 hours into our day Nate shifted down to pass as semi on the side of the road, and as he shifted up there was horrible clanking, so we pulled to car over and popped the hood. (not that either of us know squat about cars, but that's the thing to do =) We were extremely blessed to have landed about 2 km from a gas station so we walked back and called CAA. Praise God that we got that as it saved us about $35o in the end.

We got towed to Kakabeka falls and dropped off our car at a mechanic who said that it was a spark plug problem that could take over a week to fix. After talking to my parents and Nate's parents, it was decided that his parents would come pick us up with the truck and a trailer. They happened to be in Sudbury, On. which is over 2o hours away but they came anyway while we waited at some past NTMC peoples house for the night. So they drove straight through the night and then we went straight back, a 17 hour drive.

It is so awesome to see how the Lord works, though. He pulled so much together for us in those few days like I've never seen. What a wonderful God we serve!

So we are know here in Durham all settled in and spending some time with Nate's parents, sister and her kids. The car was fixed here in a matter of 2 hours for a mere $261! God is good!

Mom, We took this just for you. Actually we tried to take all the Ontario ones but didnt want to put them all on.

We thank you so much for your prayers, as you can see that God answers.

I will still update more on the 1st of next month as I'm sure that this is enough info for a bit!

These pics are just some of the trip and below are some sight seeing we've been doing around Durham.

He was so embarassed of these tiny short carts so I had to take a picture!

Beautiful rocky trails beside a huge waterfall

If you can't see it the sign says 'do not stand in front of driveway'.

That's it for now as its late but I'll try to get up some pics of the campus and our housing and such!

We want to hear from you! And if you really don't want to remember to check this for our letter please let us know and we will copy and paste it to an email for you.

Nate & Tash

Starting Off

Hi Everyone

This blog is here so that you can keep up with us, see pictures, read prayer requests, etc. (and if you are techno savvy we'd love to hear from you via the comment options).

So tomorrow we are starting our long trek to Durham, Ontario where we will be taking the two year missionary training with New Tribes Mission. We will be leaving at around 7:00am and staying in Steinbach, MB for the night. We hope to arrive in Durham on Saturday, and spend time with Nate's parents, sister, niece and nephews. Orientation starts August 25th and classes start September 8.

Please pray for:

• safety while we travel


• that our car would continue to work


• patience while we travel for 30 hours

We would appreciate your prayers and would love to hear from you as well!