Its a New Day

On Friday I was invited to watch the drama "Three Trees" put on by the homeschooling group that a number of the children from Riverside attend. It was great to see Jonathan, Anne-Marie, Miriam, Esther, Jonathan, Hannah, Josiah and Peter up on the stage singing away. I count it a great priviledge to be part of the family of God and to be able to encourage our young children in their different activities.

A few years ago my sister Karen and I went to Taiwan for 2 weeks to teach English at Christ's College for a program called American Villiage. Students from the college could sign up for an intensive 8 day program where they would pretend they were coming to America and were only allowed to speak English. Karen would be teaching one of the 4 classes held each day and I was a room 'mom' and helped with planning different activities. Before we left we got a video to look at from the previous year and there was a girl who had been to American Village to help improve her English. Karen and I immediately hoped that we would get to meet this sweet girls who was touched that people would come from the States to teach her English "They don't even know what Taiwan is... is it a tree?" she said. To our great delight we got to meet Fiona on our first evening! She was going to be taking care of some children that had come along on the trip. Fiona showed ...

Have you ever done something that you never thought you'd do in a million years? Well this weekend I am. Growing up we always had cats in the house... it was just part of the maddenss. At one time we had 6 girls, 2 cats, 1 dog and a bird, so it isn't like I haven't grown up around animals. This weekend I'm dogsitting for some friends... the least I could do to help them out for 1 day and 1 night, right?!? I had been talking to a old landlady of mine and mentioned what my plans were for the weekend. Even she was shocked. Normally, Hettie is the one who is called on the watch the animals. Dogs go crazy with joy when Hettie is around - she'll play, wrestle and snuggle with them. Me, well, let's just say, I don't pet them, don't talk to them, don't look at them... To my pleasant suprise, Winston is a great dog. Basically she has been laying at my feet since last night. She 'runs' outside and then comes obediently. I even pet her last...

This past weekend I was up in the mountains at Bonclarken in Flat Rock, North Carolina for a whirl wind visit (Friday am till Saturday pm). Bonclarken is the conference centre for the Associated Reformed Presbyterian Church (ARP). I was attending a Women's Ministries Executive Board meeting. (I know, I know... it sounds really official and what am I doing there right?) At these meetings the presidents and presbyterial representatives (that's me) come to talk about the things that are going on in our area. We have ladies from Tennesse/Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Catabwa, North East, First and Second presbyterials and I represent the churches in Canada. A lot of what goes on at these meetings is really way over my head. A lot of these churches are celebrating 100 and 200 year anniversaries, so they have a long history of being involved. Some of the ladies had their grandmammies, and great-grandmammies on the board and are carrying on the tradition. I haven't been part of a chu...

Have you ever 'Goggled' yourself? Sometime ago I was passing on an email to someone I thought I knew... but it turned out I was using the wrong domain name in the email address and someone else was getting my emails. Imagine my embarassement when one day I got an email from him saying "Jennifer I loved the cute story you sent to me... but who are you? Where do I know you from? I goggled you and maybe I was at your church one time?" I was goggled!!! So I quickly did a goggle search on this person to find out who he was (a pastor in the states somewhere) and then one on myself to see what could possibly be on the web about little old me. First thing that came up.... "ARP Women's Minstries... Jennifer Hovestadt Canadian Representative..." (that explained why he thought he had been to my church) Second thing... "Pedigree - Golden Lions Jennifer of Hovestadt" This one scared me a bit... then I looked at a picture... it is a very unattractive ...