Appreciation and Retirement Speech

I would not have posted this on here, but I was asked to by certain people, so I hope those of you who were not included approve as much as the many audience did last night. Now if you would have been in me before saying saying this speech.....Butterflies Alert! But it turned out not soo bad after all. I have always wanted to write my own graduation speech, but never had the chance to, so when I was asked to write a speech from behalf of our colony, the parents, and students, I grabbed the opportunity. So here goes... First off, I would like to thank everyone for attending the retirement and appreciation supper in honor of our teacher, Mrs. Alice Baker. Mrs. Baker taught school, grade one through nine, at the Hulbert Hutterite School for 32 1/2 years. I would like to take this opportunity to thank her for all she has done and accomplished in the past years. Mrs. Baker gave us something no one will ever be able to take away from us. She gave us an education which is one of the key points of getting through life. Living in a colony we often don't further our education from grade nine, but being finished with school is not the end. We keep learning from experiences in everyday life, and to learn these experiences we often use the education she has given us. Most importantly, she always encouraged us to never stop reading. Reading can take us to places we will never be able to see with our own eyes. (After all I have been to Europe more times than Leonardo Da Vinci himself!) It can teach us things we never had the opportunity to those nine years we were under the influence of such a great teacher. If we never stop reading we never stop learning. This is something most of us have held onto very strongly. Along with education, she taught us many valuable life lessons. One being, Be Responsible, Actions have Consequenses! This slogan was always enforced in our classroom. Think before you do something, if it will affect your future in a bad way, refrain. Be responsible! Another thing was common sense. Most decisions gone wrong in everyday life is due to the lack of common sense. Mrs. Baker always taught us to use ours. She taught us that common sense is the basic practical knowledge, and judgement that we all need to help us live in a reasonable safe way. In life there are good things and bad. Many times one single thing can be used for both. Take a knife for instance, it can be used to cut your food, or can be a great convienience for everyday work. But it can also be used to hurt someone. Use your common sense, use it for good. We cannot help the world from spinning out of control, but alot of times we can help ourselves and those around us by using our common sense. Thank You, Mrs.Baker for using this example to help us understand. When certain situations arise and we are forced to make a decision, or when we are in charge of matters, I always think of her words. "Think outside the box. Don't be narrow minded. Use your imagination. Don't be blunt." This will make for a successful life. Our teacher always taught us that education is a two way process. The teacher can come 50% of the way, but the student has to meet her there, therefore doing their part too. Without such communication the outcome cannot be a success. Another thing we would like to say thank you for are the unique and simple learning techniques you came up with to help us understand better. We know you sometimes stayed up half the night thinking about them, but these are things we still use today. She taught us that as years go by we will not remember the things we had or were given. We will remember the quality time with certain people, the love and kindness that was spent with doing things together. She made us all feel special and unique. Mrs. Baker always said we were just like her own children. She said it's not how big the gift is, its the thought behind it that counts. She told us that at the end of the day if we tried our hardest and did our best, we were all winners. Her remarkable honesty and fairness is a rare nature to find these days. She often went through much distress to plan the best fieldtrips for us, to make the best that can be for one in their school years. The colorful classrooms she created for each season and occation were of great imagination and made the atmosphere of learning light and fun. The most important thing I will always remember about our teacher was, she never broke a promise. I could go on forever with praise for your hard work, so let me just say, alot of times you made the classroom a joyful place to be in with your brilliant ideas. And although most of the time we had too much extra energy to realize, or were too blind to see, we would not have wanted anyone else to educate us. I have tried my best to make this speech as colorful as you taught me to with writing skills, that I can, but suddenly I find myself at a loss of words of how to thank you. Let me say we are honored to call you our teacher. You are a true role model, and someone we will always look up to. We hope we can teach our generations only half as much as you have taught us. In return we will ask God to bless you, we wish you a great retirement. You deserve the best! Thank You Mrs. Baker, thank you for the awesome gift. Thank You from the bottom of our hearts, we are eternally greatful!

If you could go anywhere in the world, where would it be?

Here's a very common question, "If you could go anywhere in the world, where would it be?" More common answers are, "Hawaii. The Bahamas. Mexico." And your point is? Ahh! The beaches! A great vacation! Sounds awesome to me too, but I have a slightly different answer. Europe. And my point is....? History! Rome! Vatican City! Leonardo da Vinci! The Renaissance period! Oh I could just fall in love! I mean have you never wondered how awesome it would be to lavish your eyes on all the surroundings in Vatican City? St. Peter's Square is enough to get you going! Imagine taking in every aspect of the Basilica (St. Peter's), just knowing that it is the largest church in the world! Imagine walking over that floor and knowing that one of history's greatest influences, St. Peter, is possibly buried beneath! Getting a glance of creations made by Renaissance artists. After all Raphael was one of the architects! Let this tease your mind. The Louvre. At night! The grand pyramid, being hugged by the palace with warm lights of all shades, pronouncing every detail ever meant to see. Look closer, you might see some things meant to be kept a secret. ;) This palace, this Grand Louvre of which I speak houses one of the greatest paintings ever done, by one of the most complex individuals to challenge history. I preferably point to da Vinci, and the Mona Lisa. Can you just see yourself squinting your eyes, and moving your head from side to side to see if you could possibly discover the secret hidden in her smile. Could is really be that the figure in the photo can be seen as both male or female, as some have assumed? Going back to da Vinci. It's not that I admire him because I agree to every single idea he has ever had, or every painting he has ever done. Perhaps I admire him for the exact opposite reason. I mean his anatomy of the human body is quite ideal, but "The Last Supper" painting is where I would have an argument with the guy, and quite possibly achieve my true point. The person beside Jesus is NOT Mary Magdalene, and they were NEVER married, therefor the story of the Holy Grail is complete and utter nonsense. See, da Vinci had the ability to make some acute minded people believe his assumptions rather than the true facts stated in the Bible. That part about him does not impress me. However, the titles that have been known to subject him, still many years prior to his absence do! Being tagged as a painter, sculptor, mathematician, engineer, scientist, inventor, anatomist, botanist, geologist, cartographer, and writer are enough to blow even the ever consuming human mind of a modern day genius! Lets sink into a brief account of what is taken place within the Early Middle Ages, or the Dark Ages as some might be more familiar with. And what an interesting history that particular time beholds! Vikings, Goths, Slavs, Angles, just to name a few. Many of these movements are practiced even today, in modern day society, and guess what? Yes! They were influenced by the Dark Ages. Many of which I frown upon, but it does take all kinds to make up what in a couple hundred years will be known as "history". The Sistine Chapel. No, I am not particularly interested in it because the Pope resides there. You will have to turn your head slightly to the heavens to find what captures my attention. Do you see all of those drawings, those paintings? Could you do such fine art soo brilliantly? Me neither. Its the work of Michelangelo, his crowning achievement. This piece of art which covers a vast part of the ceiling is known as "The Last Judgement", and yes, it gives me goosebumps as well. Fantastic readers of my blog, this is only a diminutive fraction of what there is to be discovered in breath taking, mind blowing, and history infested Europe. But! Let me warn you, I hear the plain tickets are quite expensive, the crime rates are excessively high, and Spain has the most heaven shooting rate of suicide. Either way, we can hire a body guard, and start somewhat of a "Europe Fund". :) Also I would like you to know I've almost mastered my Italian! Ciao! Come Stai? Although, around here, Europe is a good as a couple hundred light years away, but a girl can always dream, can't she? So, help me out here, state your opinion on my blog, and let me know where you would go if you ever had the chance! Until next time....Arrivederci!!

What is a Christian?

Written the evening of July 17th 2011.
Wow! I just realized how long ago my last blog was written! Must have been because I took a bit of a break.
So I’m going to tell all you guys a secret. I keep a note book beside my bed and write in it in case of emergencies. When some things dominate my mind, I have to jot it down. Emergency!!
Tonight while I’m lying in my bed, trying to get early shut eye, I think about something, well I think about this alot. What is an actual Christian?
By the way I’m trying to get to bed early because I have to be in the pea patch at 4:45am.
Back to the subject...
The definition of a Christian in a dictionary might be, “a person professing belief in Jesus as Christ or in the religion based on the teachings of Jesus Christ.” Well that’s a fairly well starting point, but falls short of actually communicating the biblical truth of what it means to be a Christian.
“Christian” is used several times in the New Testament. Followers of Jesus Christ were first called Christians in Antioch, as read in Acts 11:26, because the behavior, activity, and speech were like Christ. In case you might be wondering, “Christian” literally means “follower of Christ.”
But here comes the unfortunate news. Over time the word Christian has lost a great deal of its significance. It is often used of someone who is religious or has high moral values but who may or may not be a follower of Jesus Christ. Across nations people who do not believe and trust in Christ, consider themselves Christians, For the simple reason, they go to church or live in a Christian nation. But this along with good deeds does not make one a Christian. Going to church does not give one the authority to call themselves a Christian, just as making you stand in a garage make you an automobile!
Titus 3:5 says, “He saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of His mercy.” He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal of the Holy Spirit.
So a Christian is someone who has been born again by God, stated in John 3:3; John 3:7; and Peter 1:23, and has put faith and trust in Jesus Christ.
St. Paul wrote to the Ephasians, “By grace you have been saved, through faith, and this is not from yourselves, it is a gift of God.”
A true Christian is a person who has put faith and trust in the person and work of Jesus Christ including His death on the cross as payment for sins and resurrection on the third day, John tells us, “Yet to all who received Him, to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become Children of God.”
The mark of a true Christian is love for others and obedience of God’s word. A true Christian is indeed a child of God, a part of God’s true family, and one who has been given new life in Jesus Christ.
Definitely makes ones thoughts go on and on. Do we measure up to the standards of being called a Christian?

The Wedding.

The Wedding.
Tuesday, October 19 - It is getting really exciting around here today. We got up at 4:30am to start baking the wedding cake. We made layer cakes and a whole bunch of cupcakes. The girls decorated the cakes with two tiny horseshoes and a small flower. We also made two ‘bible cakes’ as a Thank You gift for the preachers on Sunday.
Besides baking cake we had another excitement going on. I look out the window and realize that the slaughterhouse we are building is taking advance rather quickly. The boys from Swift Current Colony and Sand Lake Colony came to lend a hand and make that part possible. As I watched it reminded me of an Amish barn raising, it was quite interesting.
Wednesday, October 20th – Tim, his dad, Toby, Uncle Paul, Jake, and Albert left for Arrow Wood early this morning. My Aunt Josie is also “anointed” as headcook for the wedding today!
After supper all the colony members come to the kitchen for a wedding cheer, and sweets. The girls sing songs and we have a really nice visit. We get a phone call from the grooms father, saying that we will have a wedding! Tim got her! The oufreden went well. We are soo excited we start to clap! Aunt Katie gets tears of happiness in her eyes cuz she knows she is finally getting a shnur (daughter-in-law)!
Thursday, October 21st – Today we are practicing singing,,,hardcore! I lost my voice, which really sucks, but I’m thankful enough to regain it for the wedding. The girls are making signs to put along the road when the “bride people” come. They are all really funny! Our school girls are practicing a small skit. “Magdlein willst du heiren.”
In the kitchen we have started to cut up vegetables for the wedding meals. We made all the spring rolls and egg rolls a week before. The viet also brought home everything we need for the wedding, the ware house and fridge is packed!
Friday, October 22nd – Today the brout leit are coming! We are all super duper excited!!
All the ladies are shelling the shrimp and sing songs. We are soooo in the wedding spirit! We have takeout for lunch. This allows the guys to bring the tables from the basement and arrange everthing. The girls decorated the tabled with glitter and leaves. Everything looks really beautiful and weddingish.
Around noon, everyone under the age of 25 is out putting signs along the road, and decorating the welcome wagon. At 3:30pm sharp every living person on the colony is on the wagon, men excluded, on our way out to the sign. We are expecting then soon!
An hour later everyone’s patience is getting low and we finally get a phone call from Toby that they will soon be here. My heart starts pounding and everyone is screaming, overjoyed!
James and I speed towards the coming party. We are the first to meet Tim and Bertha! I see that there are a whole lot of vehicles behind the bride and groom. We never expected that many people! Now I am getting even more hyper. As we come closer to the sign where the ladies are all waiting the kids are waving and holding balloons high. I notice that everyone of our colony vehicles are there to meet Tim as well. I think they came out to see if Tim is actually bringing Bertha!! The horns are going and everyone is going close to crazy!
When we come to the groom’s house his mother and sisters are waiting. There is a happy greeting as everyone greets the new bride.
The cooks then go to the kitchen to prepare supper! Chinese course tonight! Ribs, wings, egg rolls, sesame glazed veggie dish, noodle/rice dish, sauces, and mushroom tarts. Supper was a success!
We have church at 6pm, and a late supper at 7pm.
At 10pm we go to the kitchen for a small gathering. “Englisha hulba.” The girls sing, I am impressed! I got my voice back! The school girls also sing. They also do their little skit. It is soo awesome! Tamra and Aunt Josie open the surprise package, it’s hilarious! The girls from Arrow Wood also do a candle light play. The evening goes on and ends up to be really enjoyable.
Saturday, October 23rd – The day basically started around dinnertime. We had lunch at 12 noon. Roast, fries, gravy, a salad....
After lunch the young people all went to our neighboring Lehra colony for a visit. Going there is always fun, especially the buffet those people can set up. Sweet things! We stayed most of tthe afternoon, and got home in time for church, which was at 5:30pm. For supper we had stuffed duck, a salad, oven fried potatoes, noisemaker appetizers, spring rolls, and pistachio/creamcheese dessert. It was delicious!
We had the real hulba around 9pm. It was a very beautiful hulba. Our choir sang, so did our school girls choir. We all sang out of books, the preachers didn’t have to onsog. We had chips, ham dip, sandwitches, fruit, fruitdip, crackers, and the like to eat during that time. I have just realized the most thing we did at this wedding is eat! After the hulba we cleaned up and gathered again for another ‘englisha hulba’, similar to the one the night before. Again, it was extremely enjoyable. We stayed in the kitchen very late, singing and visiting.
Sunday, October 24th – Today is the Hochzeit (wedding)! Lehr (church) was at 10:00pm. It was packed, which is a great sign! It was around 11am that the couple said I do. To love each other for better or for worse, in sickness and in health.
When they came from the lehr, they were very happy, I guess you could say their dream came true, withthe help of out good Lord. The little girls were all waiting to throw confetti’s at them, and one of them gave the bouquet to the bride. The couple then went home to his parents house where everyone gave them a blessing.
We had dinner around 1pm. Cornish hens, noodle soup, a salad, shrimp...(I can’t remember what else). Afetr lunch everyone went to their house again, and we sang songs for abit. We went back to the kitchen at 5pm, for the hochzeit. We sang for an hour, and visited for another hour before supper was served. Pizza, won ton soup, and a seizure salad.
It was10pm before everyone was out of the kitchen, clean up and everything. Later that evening the young people gathered to discuss their trip in the morning. Again I say it was a marvelous wedding, the best we ever had!
Monday, October 25th - Today the bride and groom’s family, along with all our boys and girls went to Moose Jaw for the brout shein. The Mineral Spas! It was an awesome way to unwind from the busy week we had earlier. Never will I forget the wonderful time we all had.

Summer!

Wow! It has been awhile since I’ve updated. I have been soo busy recently that I hardly had time to do my online work. A couple days ago ‘Suvose’ itself came and bestowed guilt upon me, leaving me with no choice. So I decided I will write about the summer.
I will start with the wedding in July. One of our girls got married to Huxley, Alberta, around Red Deer. I have to say it was a beautiful wedding, I was soo happy to have been given the chance to see one of my friends start a lifelong dream!
After the wedding something terrible happened to me. I did not know what was happening to me, I wasn’t really here for 5 full weeks. Maybe it might have been a blessing, because soo many people have told me that what happened has changed their life for the better. I definitely know it changed mine. I have God to thank for everything.
Then there is all the garden work. We have been soo busy. Canning is a number one priority in the summer. We also have two markets a week, and each market is soo immensely big that it takes us two days to prepare one! We work from 8am until 6pm preparing everything. Personally I think its such a pleasure working with all the ladies and girls, I must say I never took a single day for granted.
During the time we worked in the garden we also made lots of sausage, baked bread, buns, hamburger buns, hotdog buns, and many different kinds of pies to sell. These doings have bestowed much joy and delight upon me, while working. That’s the best thing about living in a colony, the togetherness with everyone.
After supper we also found time to reward ourselves with the diversion of hitting the pool in town. We got to go there about three times a week. All our little girls were satisfied that they had the advantage of learning top swim on those days. I must say their dives were getting pretty amazing too!
This week I was cooking with Glenda and my Aunt Mary Ann. It was a great week, we had soo many great laughs.
The guys are also combining, we have been richly blessed with a beautifull harvest this year. Again I say, I can’t thank our good Lord enough!
Next week we are butchering turkeys, oh and I’m gonna go see my massage therapist, yup I need it!

A Very Boring Day!

Have you ever been bored? Soo bored you would practically do anything to kill time?
Outside the sun is scorching every bit of unshaded surface, but yet the kids are having fun building little villages and towns in their sandboxes. I long to join them as I imagine what all the places they’ve built could be. Is that a department store, where a mother is walking out tired from the heat, and sighing as she tugs her three year old along who wanted that candy push pop, but was hyper enough?
The children laugh and giggle with glee under their fancy sun hats as they haul water to dump into their little lake they’ve build. I look on with envy as I realize the quietness of my house, where only the air conditioner let’s itself be known how hard it’s working to keep everything cool. Hmmmph.
I silently give my ear a cold word for having to get infected at such an inconvenient time. As if it’s the ears fault huh. I watch as the yellow finches eat from my little bird feeder, only pausing occationally to look about and sing a song of thankfulness. “Your most welcome!” I reply back, and smile.
My laptop is laying on the floor reminding me I have yet to beat Richard and Glenda in Bouncing Balls on Facebook. Ha! I think, whoever’s idea of playing that game all day must be joking. I’ve also made myself a dress today, one which I really wasn’t in need of, but anything to keep myself busy.
I wish I could be at the Dairy, helping my mum separate milk, and make cottage cheese. Suddenly a bunch of little angels come running through our front door asking for slush to beat the heat. I smile and tell them they have made my day, as I fill up their small cups with the ice flavoured beverage. They hug me, and joyously chorus a song of thanks as they flutter through the door again, just like those little birdies. Kids are awesome! I wish sometimes we adults would have the minds of children, see the perspective in their way. Won’t that be wonderful?
Well, I think, enough of the self pity, and outside to visit the flowers!  It’s been a whole day since I’ve seen my lilies and 1 inch Dahilas peek out of the ground. Well the lilies are more like 12inches. I want to check out my Glads too. I can hardly wait to see my whole flower garden in full bloom, it’s gonna be soo awesome!
So as you can see anyone who takes their dear sweet time to write such a blog must be realllly bored! Haha! Oh well, if anyone takes their time to actually read it, I guess it shows it wasn't really a waste of time! :)
Have a wonderful gut(good) day! 

An Angel.

Yesterday I was at a funeral. It was the funeral of a child.
Victoria was 2 years old when she passed away, she suffered from a breathing condition which I am unable to remember. I recall this small child as always being cheerful, and giving away the cutest smiles. The last few weeks she was in and out of the hospital with pneumonia and infection on her lungs, as these children are easily apt to catch any of these illnesses. Last Thursday, April 22nd, Victoria was taken to Saskatoon with the Air Ambulance, a couple days later she died peacefully with her parents looking on tenderly.
I did not make it to both the wakes, but the day of the funeral, April 26th, I had to go to. As I entered the house where the little girl was, I saw it was filled with many people who were singing to honour the child in God’s name.
I immediately walked over to Victoria’s parents and gave them both a long hug and told them that the little girl was an angel now. I told them I had no way of knowing how they felt, but I did know that a part of them was in heaven now, and that they should feel blessed by God. Jesus was taking care of their little girl now, and she was not suffering anymore. They should feel happy that God chose them to be the parents of Victoria this little while. They will surely be rewarded in heaven for taking care of this tender being so deligently and patiently.
As I proceeded to look at Victoria I saw how perfect and beautiful she was. She was like a porceline doll, every part of her was soo angelic. It was the prettiest sight I has ever seen. I thought to myself, that if one doesn’t believe in angels one look at this picture will definitely change their minds.
I touched her hands and expected that kind of rubbery feeling that a dead person’s skin has. But they were soo soft and felt realistic. If a person did not know any better they would think Victoria was only sleeping. I felt tears tease my eyes as they were about to spill while I admired this undescribable view.
This, I thought is a perfect Angel!