A little change of plans....

A new little one is changing our plans.... Darnell and I are expecting our second child in the middle of April! We now plan to leave for the Philippines after our baby is born, which means in June we will finally be on our way to a new and exciting adventure of church planting in Manila. And now it will be even more of an adventure with two little munchkins about 19 months apart!


Because of our later departure date, we have been more deeply immersing ourselves in our local community this fall. Darnell is coordinating the Extreme Weather Shelter at our home church, Emmanuel Mennonite. For the month of December our church is open to shelter homeless people during below freezing temperatures. Darnell is finding volunteers now and will be very busy if we get a cold December! He is also leading our bible study and leading a monthly newcomers potluck at our church where he invites people to share what God is doing in their lives- so far, it has been a wonderful time of community fellowship.


In September Cody turned one and I went back to work as a Teacher-On-Call. I was going to TOC part time and was hoping to squeeze in enough hours for another maternity leave. On my first day of TOCing I happened to fall into a perfect position at my former school, WJ Mouat Secondary and I will be staying there the whole semester (until the end of January) and can receive another maternity leave! Because I had already given up my last position (thinking we were leaving much sooner!), I did not expect to get a great full-time position. Thank you Lord! I am teaching Beginners ESL, Planning 10 and French 9. It's really a great course load and I am still home at a decent hour to spend time with Cody:)


Cody is learning so much everyday and is such a happy, silly little boy. He is having a lot of fun with grandparents while I am at work- mostly Grandpa Barkman, who takes him all over town campaigning for City Councillor right now. I think if he's re-elected he'll have his friendly little grandson to thank!


This Sunday we will be preaching at our church for Missions Sunday and we are welcoming invites to other churches as we seek more ministry partnerships with local congregations. In February we plan to travel to Alberta to speak at a few Mennonite Church Canada congregations there.


Thanks again for all your love and support! I'll leave you with a giggly little pumpkin:)