Home For Christmas 2023

There is no place like home for Christmas!

Three is Not A Crowd

Jocelyn’s mom became an Albertan in October 2022. After breaking her neck in a fall she was forced to sell her home in Truro, Nova Scotia. A month later she moved to St Albert and laid claim to a chair in our living room (as well as a bedroom).

A special moment having four generations under one roof.

Jonesapalooza

We celebrated our annual Jonesapalooza at the cabin on Sylvan Lake in the first week of July. With our families spanning two provinces, get togethers are infrequent. When they can, the cousins love being together, and we love being with our family.

All the kids are good swimmers and have mastered the paddleboard. They spent the majority of cabin time at the beach and in the water. They set up their annual summer candy store under the direction of auntie Lynsey and Angie and enjoyed a sweet lunch.

In her last month of Grade 6, Quinn’s floor hockey team won gold and in September, she started JR HIGH!

Vincent is in Grade 2. He is taking after his dad and played quarterback in flag football this spring and is cheering for the NFL Buffalo Bills.

Annora is in Grade 2 and Jayda started Kindergarten!

Lena is in Grade 5. She was baptized at church by her mother as a follower of Jesus.

We took in a couple of our nephew Lukas’ minor league hockey games. He’s an outstanding goalie!

In October Jean Marc and Angie surprised their girls by taking them out of school and flying them to Disneyland!

Alberta

This was the year of devastating forest fires in Alberta and NWT. Residents were evacuated to Calgary, Edmonton, and St Albert.

Bob traveled across Alberta coaching pastors. He had a busy summer preparing for the Church Vitalization Summit in August and speaking almost every Sunday in various churches. In May 2024 we will be in Niagara-on-the-Lake for a conference and Bob will help host a conference on May 17th in Burlington at Crossroads Communications

Ukraine

Bob was invited to go to Ukraine. He traveled with a new friend Ed Dickson, Director of Loads of Love. They left on November 28 and returned December 21. Trains, planes, and automobiles over 24,000 km from Canada to Poland across Ukraine and back.

Bob helped deliver humanitarian aid, spoke in churches, in two pastors conference, schools, orphanages and a church in Warsaw. At one point he was 3 km from the front lines of the war and 13 km from the Russian border. It’s a bit ironic because the last time we were in the area we were in Siberia.

Home For Christmas

His experiences are a reminder that the overwhelming majority of the people in Canada, Ukraine or Russia, Israel, or Gaza are good people who want nothing more than a roof over their heads, a job that provides an income for their family, food on their table and peace.

Jocelyn did the lion’s share of the work decorating for Christmas.  There is no place like home for Christmas and Jocelyn makes home, a sweet home.

We’re not sure what 2024 holds, but there are strong possibilities of a couple of published books and international travel for us.

God bless you this Christmas and in the new year with joy and health. Keep looking up!

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