Free Food Sunday!

Isn't it great that when the grocery money runs out, God provides Free Food Sunday!?!?
For lunch we ate our way home from church, enjoying East Indian delicacies and a festival to boot. For dinner, we get to enjoy a BBQ put on by Columbia Bible College, to welcome new students and their families. Since Dan (and my mom) are both taking courses, we will partake in the celebrations. Thank the Lord for Free Food Sundays! What could be better than free food, never mind a whole day of it?

Sikh Festival of Unity

Today is one of our favorite days during the year. We look forward to today, like a young child anticipates Christmas. Today is the Sikh Festival. We enjoy eating our way home from Church. The generosity is overwhelming. We couldn't walk more than 10 steps without someone encouraging us to eat food. If we refused, they push a plate towards your hands anyway. A polite refusal is NOT something they understand in their culture. We have gotten used to this over the years, and come prepared to share in the meal.

Another reason we love the Sikh festival is we enjoy participating in a cultural event. We like experiencing new things and are trying to understand people that come from a different culture than our own.

We love watching the beautiful colours and faces that pass by us. The crowds are enormous. People come from Surrey, Vancouver and all over the Fraser Valley to take part in this festival. The crowds, along with a few floats, walk from the Sikh Temple, to Rotary Stadium and back again.

One thing we find particularly interesting is the reverence they have for their Holy Book. They purify the street with "Holy Water" before the float carrying their Holy Book can grace the street. No one may pass over the cleansed spot until the Holy Book has passed by. This year, we were pleasantly surprised to have this man pictured with Dan (Gurvan???), ask if we would like an explanation of the festival. We agreed. He explained that years ago(404 years!), the head Gurus, (those at the top of the caste system) decided that there should no longer be a caste system. No one should be considered above or below anyone else. They shall all be one. They are all equals now, and thus separated from the Hindu religion and formed the Sikh religion. This festival celebrates the fact that the "city is all one."

We found this to be very similar to the Christian worldview that we are all equals (neither Jew nor Greek etc), and that we are one in the Spirit. What a day that would be if the city was all "one in the Spirit." We found it fascinating that one woman tried to explain the festival in Christian terms. "Its like your Bible, our Holy Book." When we asked what her Holy Book was called, she kept relaying information back to us in terms we could understand. (Talk about cultural relevance!)

Overall it was a fantastic experience! We learned a lot, enjoyed great food and watched a cultural festival. We got to talk with many different people, both old and young. We are already anticipating next years event!

You don't see this everyday!

While driving down Fraser Hwy yesterday, we saw a young girl riding a horse and texting. I've heard of texting and driving but that was over the top. If only we could have gotten a picture! I can already see the accident report and the girl trying to explain her way out of it. "It's not my fault! The horse has a mind of its own!" You truly don't see that everyday.

Something must be wrong...

My Rhubarb Coffee Cake isn't burnt. No, wait! My oven MUST be working again!!! YIPPEE!!! I am super-excited that the oven is working again. I hate wasting food and we've been eating burnt bread for a month now and probably will continue to do so for another month, until its all used up. But from here on in, unless there is some sort of default of my own, we will have no-burnt food and properly cooked food! Who knew an oven would cause so much frustration?? and so much joy? And now, I'm going to enjoy that rhubarb coffee cake while its still warm!

My Squirrel Tendancies

Around this time of year, every year since I've married Dan (and a few years before then), I find myself with squirrel tendencies. You know what I'm talking about. Storing things up for the winter. I find myself baking bread and buns, making casseroles, soups and many meals that I can freeze and use later. I find this saves me so much time and money. When I'm tired from a long day at work, I can come home and pull out a frozen meal instead of calling for take-out or dragging myself through making a meal. Plus, I can make healthy meals full of summer veggies without paying a premium for the vegetables.
Currently our freezers are stock piled with quite a few meals. I've got cabbage rolls (3 meals worth!), borscht, hamburger soup, chili, chicken noodle soup, lasagna, spaghetti casserole, homemade frozen pizza, and ham pot pie. I make enough to feed a small army with each meal and then portion it out into family portions. This way, I can feed unexpected guests or have leftovers for Dan and me. I still need to make refried beans and Mexi-wraps, but those are easy to make in the crock pot in a few weeks when I have room in the freezer to store them.

Am I in Hell?

Nope! I'm just standing too close to my oven. It runs 75 degrees hotter than it should! This oven has been a battle for me ever since we moved in. The landlord is dealing with the situation, but I'm still perturbed at it. We got the temperature within a 5-10 degree range of what it should be. (and we learned a new skill...anybody else with this problem? We know how to fix it!)
So, I figured that since the temperature is fixed, baking bread would be okay. So yesterday, I did my mass bread baking (20 loaves) and buns as well. I put my first 6 loaves in the oven, and was very excited to see that the tops of the loaves were a perfect golden brown. As I pulled out the bread, my fire alarm went off. I removed the bread from the pans to find CHARCOAL BLACK bread. It was burnt!! So, I turned the oven down 50 degrees and tried again. This time the next 6 loaves, were uncooked on the top and burnt on the bottom. I am baffled.
Out of the 20 loaves of bread, I got 3 that aren't burnt and are cooked properly (And two of those I put in the toaster oven!) This is driving me nuts! But within 10 minutes, the oven technician (who knew they even existed?) will be here to hopefully fix my oven or say its dead so that I can get a new one. I just hope to get this figured out. I may be one woman who truly struggles to live without her oven. I'm a "cooking from scratch" kinda lady. Am I in hell? No! I've just got a troubled oven.


An Update: The temperature control needs to be replaced. Apparently, the oven temperature is wonky since it goes up and down by 50 degrees during its cycle and this causes burnt food. So Friday the new part comes and we'll have a working oven!!

"Hey! I like you wagon!"

That comment caught our attention while we were shopping in Pricesmart this past week. People seem to be curious about us and the wagon. "So, did you walk here?" We always respond, "YES! When you choose not to own a car, you need to get creative in your transportation. " People usually comment that the yard works cart is nicer than a shopping cart, or how ingenious we are to use the wagon. Or they ask if Dan pulls me in the wagon on the way home if I'm tired (which he doesn't).
It never really surprises us anymore that people make comments or stare at us. Often when walking down South Fraser Way, people (complete strangers) honk at us and wave! Sometimes we think that we have a reputation around town and people are comforted seeing us and feel like they know us. When in reality, all we do is walk everywhere. But there is this sense of community in our town.
People are curious about our lifestyle and want to know how we live without a car. Really, its not that complex. We have two feet and a heartbeat, a Yard works wagon. There are no other options. We don't own a car, and don't really care to bum rides from people all the time. We are adults who've made a choice to live without a vehicle. You just make do. You need groceries, so you get them. You want coffee from Starbucks, so you walk. Its just the way life is. At times its inconvenient, but mostly interesting. The conversations you have, the people you meet and the memories you make as you walk along.

The Jacket off his back

Last week I got to take G-ma D. to the eye doctor in New Westminster. She had one appointment in the morning and one in the afternoon. We spent most of the morning wandering around, drinking our Starbucks and then stopped at McDonalds for lunch.
During lunch, there was a man next to us that seemed to be talking quite a bit. Grandma asked me if he was talking to himself. I told her, "No. He's talking to the man behind me." She laughed and then told me that she couldn't see him since I blocked her view. So, in my regular silly fashion, I bent over to and fro and then turned around and said, "See Grandma, there's a guy here."
Then I noticed his jacket. It was nice and I thought it would look nice on my husband and I wanted to find out where he bought it. I complemented the man (I like complimenting older gentlemen. I think that they think that they are fashionable when a young lady says that she likes their clothes. I usually do like their clothes, since Dan looks good in old man fashions.) The man and I chatted a few minutes about where he got his jacket (a thrift store) and how disappointed I was that it wasn't in a store (cuz i can't buy one for Dan) before i turned back to Grandma.
A few moments later, he stood next to us. He asked me, "How big is your husband?" I was a little shocked. He rephrased his question, "Do you think that this jacket would fit him? Cuz he can have it." I told him that my husband has broader shoulders and longer arms, but thanks for the generosity. He insisted that my husband may have the jacket. I refused, grateful and shocked by his insistent generosity. Then he surprised me some more. He asked, if the jacket would fit me and if I would like it. I gratefully refused stating my monkey arms wouldn't fit.
The conversation continued and I got the feeling that this man was a Christian trying to live out the Christian love. My suspicion was confirmed when at the end he gave us tracts (I guess our agreeing with church and everything else wasn't enough to confirm our own faith..or maybe he just likes tracts.)

I found it utterly refreshing to meet a complete stranger who was willing to give the jacket off his back to two woman whom he just met. He expressed his gratefulness for the opportunity to meet us, saying that it was a divine intervention and that God had placed many things together so that we would meet that day. I had to agree. It was a pleasant conversation, that reminded me of Christ's call for generosity.

It got me thinking. Would I be willing to give the jacket off my back? Or more than that? Dan and I try our best (although we often fail) to live a life filled with generosity. We love to give to others, especially food since we have both been gifted in that area. (Tomatoes or Rhubarb anyone?) We have realized that everything we "own" is God's and should be used to glorify him. It is not really ours and rather it should be shared. We are really good at this with our friends, but are we good at sharing when it comes to strangers? Would we extend that same generosity to someone we've just met? I hope so. Its a constant reminder to me that we need to share and be generous.

As my nephew said (he was 4 at the time), when I received chocolate for my birthday, "You have to share. Jesus likes it when we share." What do you say to that? Needless to say, sharing does make Jesus happy. And it makes me happy too.

Fruit Thieves

Warning to the residents of Abbotsford (especially those living in the Clearbrook area). There are two fruit thieves roaming the town. The come unexpectedly, and often at night. They seek fresh, and somewhat organic fruit, straight from the trees or vines. They prefer grapes and plums, but will often seek out apples as well. Be aware that they are neither armed nor dangerous, but if challenged will offer some sort of pie or preserve in exchange for the fruit that they are thieving. Abbotsford residents, you have been warned!

House and Home

We all know the saying "home is where the heart is." But what happens when home doesn't feel like home anymore? It happened when we were coming home from our trip at the beginning of the month. As we came back to Abbotsford, I (Dan) had this overwhelming feeling of disappointment at coming home. Now this wasn't the usual sadness at coming at the end of a trip; rather it was a feeling of depression, if you will, at the thought of Abbotsford. I don't mean to say that this is a bad town to live (despite the Bacon brothers attempts to prove otherwise) but it has lost its attraction and pull over me.
Amanda and I have both discussed more than a few times the thought of moving to a small town somewhere out of the grip of the Fraser Valley. Be it up north in a town like Smithers or Vanderhoof, or over on the island. We long for the relaxed way of life and generosity that seems to come inherent with small towns. A quick story to prove the point: at the wedding (in Smithers) while talking to another guest he told of how while camping on the brides parents farm his sons went out quading. Unfortunately they didn't have enough quads, but the father of the bride said not to worry, that the neighbors had a quad that he could use. He then proceeded to tell him where the shop was, where in the shop the quad and key were, and that the neighbor wouldn't mind that he borrowed the quad without even needing to ask.