YOU ARE NOT YOUR OWN

Sorry America, I'm moving to Canada!

So in addition to being breathtakingly beautiful, our mission trip to Canada was great! Of course two different Customs officers on the way back thought we said we were on a "fishin trip" and asked how many we caught. I was too tired to exlpain the parallel to them so I just left it alone.

Flew from Dallas to Seattle. Then drove from Seattle to Port Angeles where we caught a big honkin ferry that took us to Victoria island. That was a cool ride. We stayed in Brentwood Bay, B.C. (about 30 minutes north of Victoria). We stayed on the Tsartlip (sart-lip) First Nation reserve. A community of about 800 First Nation (Indian) people. We were at the house of Muavea (Mua) Va'a. He is a YWAM missionary and is from Samoa. He is now the coolest guy I know.

A few quick highlites:
Saturday (15th) - Got to see a sweet-awesome fireworks show at the marina from Butchart Gardens
Sunday (16th) - Went to a nice little church and took communion with them
Monday (17th) - Camp Day 1. Played with the kids and went to a waterpark. Oh did I mention that it was 69 degrees outside? Kids had fun... We froze. And yes, I went down all the rides. That night we went into Downtown Victoria and did some sight-seeing. Saw the Empress Hotel, Parliament, and a bunch of other famous Victoria buildings. Oh, and a guy on a 10ft unicycle... Sweet!
Tuesday (18th) - Camp Day 2. Played Soccer, did crafts and then took the kids to see an IMAX movie in Victoria. That night we visited Butchart Gardens. Holy cow check out the pictures on the web site... it is truly that pretty! We got to see the Flemenco Dance show... very cool.
Wednesday (19th) – Camp Day 3. Played more soccer, kickball, baseball and took the kids swimming again. Except this time it was at a super-sweet indoor pool. That night we had our own church at home. We sat around and traded music with Mua. He loves Southern Gospel music!
Thursday (20th) – Camp Day 4. Gave 1,009 “Piggy Rides” as they say. Played lots of games and did more crafts. That night we got to see Mua and his friends practice the Polynesian dancing.
Friday (21st) – Camp Day 5. Took the kids to the beach (The Bay) and kayaked and swam. Oh did I mention it was a salt-water bay full of star fish, seals, crabs, etc.? Friday night we watched more Samoan Dancing and Hula Dancing. Then we had a campfire sing along (no lie). We sang more hymns and the kids burned marshmallows.
Saturday (22nd) – Woke up at 3:00am and traveled all day. Got back into Sanger around 11:30pm.

There were 13 of us total that went. We shared 1 shower (not at once of course). There are too many stories to tell here. I’ll post some pictures and share some more later.

Great Trip!