sarah's blog

We’re spending the next six weeks living in a house with two other families. We’ve worked out a system of cooking, cleaning and copious amounts of coffee making. Then someone got a brilliant idea to have a lobster dinner party.

So Sunday night we boiled 12, count ‘em, 12 lobsters for supper.

I’ve only tasted lobster once before (on our honeymoon in Cuba) so seeing them come in the door in a cardboard box, being chased around the house by a friend holding a squirmy one and seeing them go into the pot alive and come out red and ready for butter was a stretching experience for me. But I ate some, enjoyed the rest of the feast – and the atmosphere surrounding the whole process.

Ten people living under one roof can be a lot of fun and we’re already talking about our next lobster night.

I just have to brag about my dad who actually has a couple books published. And recently we were chatting on a skype video call and he showed me his commentary on the the book of Genesis… in Korean!

You are probably wondering, well how does this make you famous in Korea, Sarah, I thought you said your dad is the book writer? Well yes, true. But fortunately for that book writer he raised a perfectionist daughter who was all to happy to critique anyone’s work, even her our father’s. So for my proofing efforts (which I have to admit I cannot imagine were much at that age) I got a dedication in the front cover.

And now I have a dedication in Korean. I’ll need to take it down to UBC and find some foreign students to tell me what it says because they only left one thing in English: my name!

Thanks for sharing some of your global fame with me, Dad! And if you’re studying or teaching Genesis, go out and get yourself a copy of the Holman Old Testament Commentary Series. In English, or Korean if you prefer.

Click on the picture to see the dedication up close.

I joined John for his staff fun day on Friday which consisted of “stick & puck” and Vietnamese food. It was so much fun to get out on the ice which I haven’t done since we lived in Edmonton.

Kim loaned me some gloves and a helmet (though my little head ended up needing a rental) and John did his best to teach me some new skills. Maybe I just need some more ice time…

The past couple weeks have really been, challenging. It just seems to be one thing after another. A snowball effect. One day you wake up and you’re snowed in.

It just seems like in the last couple weeks so much has happened around us and involving us that John and I keep looking at and each other and wondering what is going on.

It started last Friday when I came down with a bad cold. No wait, back up. It started months ago when for various reasons my job almost got the best of me. It’s such an insane time of change, new things, unknowns, being short-staffed, still getting used to my role… I was taking a lot on and it was showing physically, emotionally, relationally. Stack on top of that John’s role that seems to expand daily and we were a thinly stretched couple. Oh and we’ve been married less than two years, moved twice and going to do it again this summer. Good times.

Back to last Friday. I got this cold that still plagues me as I write this post a week later. I really did not need this because I have to be at 110% if I expected to get everything done before we leave on our trip next week.

At home sick on Saturday morning, the bomb dropped. One email and a couple phone calls later it was clear that our church was in crisis. I have blogged about our church before and what an amazing, welcoming community we have found there. John is very close with some of the leadership guys, I have found friendships with some amazing women and we both look forward to worshiping with them every Sunday. But now some vital members of the community have left the church and everyone involved is hurting. I don’t know if we will ever know the full story but I suspect the truth is somewhere in between what both sides sincerely believe happened.

Church on Sunday was hard. Almost everyone attempted to show love and grace and come together as a church but the hole left by those who were missing was obvious. They are our friends, we love them, no one knows quite what to do but we do know things won’t ever be the same.

On Wednesday the wife of the Director of Church Relation, Glen Driedger, passed away. She died in her sleep and was found by her teenage twin daughters, who will graduate high school in a month. She was a friend to many in my office and the reaction to her death was palpable.

We have staff chapel on Thursday mornings and this week we took time to talk about Irene’s death, as well as what turned out to be three other deaths, and a baby born that will not live, among staff families. It was so much to take in at once and everyone felt the weight of loss.

I picked John up at lunch time yesterday and hugged him so tightly he had to put the car back in park and let me finish. I told him I don’t want to take him for granted. Glen said he didn’t know the night before it would be his last time with Irene. I tried to imagine what I would do if I said good night and in the morning her was gone.