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!

Branding

Branding...
Its always such a big event at our place. Everyone is there to help out or just watch to see what's going on.
This morning when they said it was Branding day, I decided I wasn't gonna join this year. After dinner though, I could not hold myself back, I had to go down there. Jordan, my older brother came home to get me, and a few minutes later there I was!
All the kids were there, a few girls, a couple moms, and of course all the guys. Instantly three cameras were dropped into my hands and I was told to photograph every little detain (nothing new, since I do it every year).
After awhile of some closeups of this and that, I decided I was going to brand too. I went over to my Uncle David and said, "I wanna help!" He gave me a hot iron with 'P' on it, and I did a couple calves. I figured that part wasn't as cruel as taking away the prarie oysters :P
There are various jobs at branding. Injecting the cows and calves with whatever, tagging, taking away the horns....
Year after year the guys always wrestle, there are usually no ropes involved. Two guys would just sneak up behind a calf, grab it, and hold it down until it was time to let go again.
This year however they roped the calves, t was much easier and not as tiring as usual. A bunch of english neighbors came to help us out. They do it every year, it almost seems like tradition :)
After awhile of branding I realized I had burned a hole into my dress, it was a new one by the way. It was then I needed another job, well I didn`t need it I wanted it. So I grabbed a tagger and started tagging.
I couldn`t help but notice as my sister bypassed me a couple times with the royal delicasy that everyone was so crazy about. Yes, I`m talking about the prarie oysters. I`ve eaten a few too in my lifetime, and as much as I don`t want to admit it, they acually taste good :P
Branding is a very fun and tiring day, so after supper everyone gathers at the ranch for a feast of steaks, hamburgers, salads, the royal delicasy and stuff. I didn`t go however because I realized I had been away from my auntie too long whom I was supposed to be taking care of, since she just had a knee opertion :P
So despite the hole in my dress my very muddy keen shoes (from chasing calves and flooring the gator through mudding lakes) it was one of the best brandings ever!

Why is the Ressurection of Jesus Christ Important?

The resurrection of Jesus is important for several reasons. First, it witnesses to the immense power of God Himself. To believe in the resurrection is to believe in God. If God exists, and if He created the universe and has power over it, He has power to raise the dead. If He does not have such power, He is not a God worthy of our faith and worship. Only He who created life can resurrect it after death, only He can reverse the hideousness that is death itself, and only He can remove the sting that is death and the victory that is the grave’s (1 Corinthians 15:54-55). In resurrecting Jesus from the grave, God reminds us of His absolute sovereignty over life and death.

Second, the resurrection of Jesus is a testimony to the resurrection of human beings, which is a basic tenet of the Christian faith. Unlike all other religions, Christianity alone possesses a founder who transcends death and who promises that His followers will do the same. All other religions were founded by men and prophets whose end was the grave. As Christians, we take comfort in the fact that our God became man, died for our sins, and was resurrected the third day. The grave could not hold Him. He lives, and He sits today at the right hand of God the Father in heaven.

In 1 Corinthians 15, Paul explains in detail the importance of the resurrection of Christ. Some in Corinth did not believe in the resurrection of the dead, and in this chapter Paul gives six disastrous consequences if there were no resurrection: 1) preaching Christ would be senseless (v. 14); 2) faith in Christ would be useless (v. 14); 3) all the witnesses and preachers of the resurrection would be liars (v. 15); 4) no one would be redeemed from sin (v. 17); 5) all former believers would have perished (v.18); and 6) Christians would be the most pitiable people on the earth (v. 19). But Christ indeed has risen from the dead and “has become the first-fruits of those who have fallen asleep” (v. 20), assuring that we will follow Him in resurrection.

The inspired Word of God guarantees the believer's resurrection at the coming of Jesus Christ for His Body (the Church) at the Rapture. Such hope and assurance results in a great song of triumph as Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 15:55, “Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?”

How do these concluding verses relate to the importance of the resurrection? Paul answers, “...you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain” (v. 58). He reminds us that because we know we will be resurrected to new life, we can suffer persecution and danger for Christ’s sake (vv. 29-31), just as He did. We can follow the example of the thousands of martyrs through history who gladly traded their earthly lives for everlasting life via the resurrection.

The resurrection is the triumphant and glorious victory for every believer. Jesus Christ died, was buried, and rose the third day according to the Scripture. And, He is coming again! The dead in Christ will be raised up, and those who remain and are alive at His coming will be changed and receive new, glorified bodies (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18). Why is the resurrection of Jesus Christ important to salvation? It demonstrated that God accepted Jesus’ sacrifice on our behalf. It proves that God has the power to raise us from the dead. It guarantees that those who believe in Christ will not remain dead, but will be resurrected unto eternal life. That is our blessed hope!

Happy Easter! :)

Christus der Herr in Garten Ging!

Christus der Herr in garten ging
Sein bitteres leiden dar amphing
Das Ihn Sen houpt von blut shweis nas
Da trouet laub und grienes gras

Da kamen dir falshen Juden gegangen
Sie thaten den Herren in garten fangen
Sie thaten ihn geiseln und auch kronen
Sein Heiliges Houpt auch sehr versonen

Sie fuhrten ihn ins richter house
Mit sharfen streichen wieder herous
Sie hingen ihn an einer kreuz
Maria beweinte dieses leid

Das macht der falshen Juden zorn
Sie shlugen Jesus mit sharfen dorn
Sie shlugen Ihn in einer stund
Mehr als den gar funf tiefe wund

Maria kam under das kreuz gegangen
Sie sach ihr liebes Kind dort hangen
An einer kreuz war ihr nicht lieb
Maria war ihr herz betriebt

Da kam ein blinder Jud gegangen
Der trug ein spies an seiner stangen
Kam mit der selber voller louf
Stach Jesus Seine seita auf

Ein Schwert durch Maria's Seele ging
Sie sprach O weh mein Liebes Kind
O weh mein's herzen's trost allda
Mein Kind mus ich verlassen gar

Johannes du liebster junger mein
Las dir meine mutter befohlen sein
Nin sie und fuhr sie weit davon
Das sie nicht shau meine marter an

Ach Herr das will ich gerne thun
Ich will sie fuhren weit davon
Ich will sie trosten also wohl
Wie ein kind seine mutter trosten soll

Nun buck dich boum und buck dich ast
Mein kind hat weder ruh noch rast
Nun buck dich laub und grunes gras
Last euch zu herzen gehen das

Die hohen boum die bogen sich
Die starken felsen zerrissen sich
Die sonn verlor auch ihren shein
Die vogel verliesen ihr rufen und shreien

Nun merket auf ihr frau und man
Wer dieses liedlein singen kan
Der sings des tages nur ein mal
Sein seel wird kommen ins Himmelsaal!