almost done

The end of my 3 week hitch up in Northern BC is almost over, only 4 more days to go. This is good. The part that is a little sad about it though, is that the 4 days of work that I have left include Christmas Eve & Christmas. Now I know that Jesus isn't going to be too upset that I will be celebrating his birth away from home, or that I will be re-celebrating with family a couple days late. I'm pretty sure that the 25th isn't his actual b-day anyway, it's just the day that was chosen by a bunch of dudes a long time ago.

The other exciting part of it all, is that work here in camp is only part one of this trip. After I am done work I get to visit some family in Surrey before heading down to Washington State to visit some friends that we haven't seen for a while. In the middle of visiting them, Vanessa and I will be taking a brief 3 day trip to Tulsa. Not quite ready to share what we will be doing there, but we will be leaving the kids to visit the Messengers while we are away.

As exciting as all the travelling is, I am looking forward to getting home. I don't really have a job lined up yet, which is adding a bit of stress, but I do believe that things will work out and fall in to place as needed. There are a few opportunities that I am pursuing right now, and hope to have something sorted before getting home.

For now, I will spend the next couple days listening to the wind blow ferociously. I will eat a lot of camp food, which is pretty decent (and I hear rumors of lobster on Christmas day?). I will visit the gym and get my sweat on. There will be some resume sending, and probably some napping.

Where will you be for Christmas?

Next to the middle.

Today I have officially been in camp for a week. It is located right beside the middle of nowhere, up in Northern BC. Business is pretty quiet, which in most ways is good, considering that means that there are few people getting injured. Doesn't do much for the experience or keeping the practical skills sharp, but that is ok.

A month or two ago I read on the blog of an experienced EMT his story of first starting out, and how he was always anticipating his chance to get "the big call" so he could have a good story to share with the other vets. It finally came, that call that was very intense, very serious, and extremely unpleasant. He finally had a call to share when sitting around the proverbial campfire (read: coffee shop or ambulance bay at the hospital) with the other medics...but wished he hadn't.

I am anxious to do some calls, but I am cautious about wishing for something major. If all I do up here is treat a minor slip and fall, a sore back, or headache, I am perfectly ok with that. There will be plenty of calls that come along in my career that will stand out as major incidents, and I am confident that there will be a good many of them that will result in being something I wish I had never seen. In fact, I already have one of those from my practicum days. You know, the kind that becomes material for when someone asks "what's the worst thing you have ever seen" question. Funny thing is, I don't often share that story with people. Even though they ask, I don't think they want to know. They might think they do, but on the rare occasion that I answer the question truthfully about the worst thing I have seen, I can tell that they wished they hadn't asked. And I don't blame them...I wish I didn't know it either.

I can wait for the big call. I know they are out there and I am in no rush to get them, even if it will give me a good "guess what happened this one time" story.

Back again

Hey, did I tell you I was going to take a vacation from blogging? No? Well sorry about that. See, this thing called "facebook" crossed my radar (maybe you have heard of it?) and with all the hubub of moving, starting a church, working and the such, I found that I just didn't have the interest in writing posts on fb as well as the blog.
Now I am in Dawson Creek (that's in BC, somewhere up north) and will be working as a medic in a camp for the next 3 weeks. What better time to regale the populous with some tales of the goings on in the life of the Greenhows. Or at least my life. Or the lives of people I come across that make me want to vent in a blog.
Cheers!

Sunday

Sunday. Pancakes. A visit to the church across the street, where we met some fellow BC ex-patriots. Sunny, 22C outside with a constant breeze. Slurpees after church. Some catch in the front yard with Thomas. What a fantastic Sunday. Grasslands church meeting tonight, get to hang out with a class full of boys for the hour. What could make this Sunday better? Having a job to go to on Monday morning.

quick updates

I have been thinking about a nice long, eloquent post about how things are going for us. It's not going to happen right now though, so here are some rapid fire updates for y'all.

-The new house is great. The location is fantastic for us, the house is clean & well cared for, lots of space for the family. Never had we had a home that felt so "right" for us.

-No job yet. I have applied at some places, have not heard back yet. I think that I am going to take this week to look at "day" jobs, and if nothing pans out, I will hit up some restaurants next week as the fall back. Would prefer a job that allowed me evenings, and more importantly weekends off. If only...

-BC licensing is still in progress. I managed to flub up one of my practical exam calls, and because of this, I will have to redo this exam. Hoping for a quick turnaround from the EMA licensing peeps, looks like a possible July date for this exam. Until I pass that exam though, no Alberta license.

-Epinepherine Versus Salbutamol. A super fun essay I get to write, resulting from the licensing exam. Not because I did anything wrong, just because I am sure the examiner wanted me to write an essay.

-"Canada's sunniest city" so I'm told. I am still waiting to see it, it's been cloudy and rainy pretty much every day this past week.


That's it for now. Feel free to comment if you have any questions...

study break

I am finally taking a moment to update my blog with the happenings of the last couple weeks. It has been hectic, especially the last week or two, and although I am on the computer alot it has been mostly for studying.
We managed to get our stuff all packed up and ready for the move on April 30. We spent a good part of the two weeks leading up to that day disassembling furniture, packing less-used items, and arranging things in the house for an easy load in to the truck early Saturday morning. This caused a lot of stress for certain people in our house, namely everyone. It was chaotic for a couple weeks, and tension mounted.
Saturday came, and we picked up the truck with little fanfare. Our friend Gord offered to drive the behemouth truck for us, all the way to Medicine Hat and back! It was such a blessing to have him drive the truck out, since a fully loaded 5 ton truck is a bit more than I was comfortable with.
We drove to Golden, BC, and stayed overnight. After a quick rest, and a morning meltdown from a short but opinionated girl, we managed on to the city of Medicine Hat. By the time we passed through Calgary, we were all quite excited to see, in person, the house we were moving in to. See, we hadn't actually seen it before committing to renting it. We saw some pics of it, the property manager sent us some lovely photos to look at, but we hadn't seen it in person.
We made it to the Hat, and were well pleased with the location, size and condition of the house. It seems to be a great fit for our family.
I say "seems" to be, because early Monday morning I had to return to Surrey, with aforementioned truck, and I haven't been there to find out first hand.
I am back in Surrey now, a week later, studying like crazy and awaiting my licensing exam. It takes place next Friday, and by the grace of God I will pass, get my BC paramedic license, and return to Medicine Hat to be with my wife & kids.
From there, I will need to quickly find a job to pay the bills until I can register with the Alberta College of Paramedics, and get hired on as an EMT there. I know, it seems like a weird process to get a BC license and then move, but this is the way God has it planned for us.
As I am getting the pieces in place to work as an EMT, we will be involved in helping start up the Grasslands Church, in the Hat. No, I won't be a pastor, just one of the families involved in starting up this much needed church in a city of dying churches.
Until then, it's one more week of studying, working, and maybe a quick men's retreat with the Cedar Grove church to refresh my soul before continuing on with this epic journey our family is now taking part in.

"ska-doosh" is the new phrase for everything around our house. Playmobil and Lego games all involve this fantastic new word. We saw Kung-Fu Panda when it first came out, but it didn't catch on then. This past week or two we have had it out from the library, and have seen it a couple times. Since then, we have had this new verb to describe many different actions. Such a good movie...

Good Bye March

It is the end of March today, and I feel like March tried to beat us. It brought excitement, sure, moving to Medicine Hat to be "missionaries" and plant a church is pretty awesome.
But with it also came some distractions and false hope. We spent a good amount of March trying to secure the ability to purchase a house instead of renting one once we got to the Hat. Because of this process, we had to let some time go by while everything was sorted out. Turns out that without a job there, lenders don't really want to give me a bunch of money to buy a house. Weird huh?

Once we realized that we needed to shift from property buying to property renting, we had just a few days left to find something. It's a pretty good thing that my wife had be planning a contingency, and researched some options for us ahead of time. That being said, we have had just a couple days to communicate back and forth and secure a place 1250kms away. Today we will give the final go ahead on a unit that should suit our needs for the next year or two.

I am looking forward to April, and I have a feeling that it will be good to us. April will afford us many opportunities to share time with family and friends before we leave. Sure school the kids' school work may not like April, since we will probably do a good bit of ignoring it, but there will be plenty of time for heads down school work once we get settled in our new home. Until then, we will be taking advantage of every opportunity to spend time with the people that we love, and even some people that we like.

Now, to spend a good portion of what little March we have left trying to figure out my job situation. Stay here and send the kids ahead while working and waiting for my licensing exam in May...go, get a job, and come back mid-May for my licensing exam...help move the family there, then come back right away to work and get ready for the exam...

Tick-Tock...

the announcement

I would like to say that we have been settling in since returning from our trip to the Hat, but really it has been the opposite. We have been seeking direction, and making plans of the plans that we will need to make.

For what?

For the move to Medicine Hat.

We have been listening for God, to hear what He has in store for us. And as such, when you listen, quite often you will hear Him. But that comes with a warning though, that you will need to be prepared to listen, whether you like and agree with what He has to say or not. When you are fortunate enough to hear His plan, it is a blessing for sure, but only if you choose to follow.

And that is what we are doing. God is working in Medicine Hat, and we are going to go and be a part of "His-story" there. So, we have spent the last couple weeks figuring out where we are going to live, how we are going to get there, and when we are going to go.

Of course there are more things we need to work out, like transferring utilities, phones, insurances. Sorting out the kids school/homeschool. And lets not forget the whole job thing. Apparently, you need to work if you want people to give you money to pay all the bills.

The list goes on. When one thing gets figured out, it's time for 2 on the table to be sorted. This is an exciting time though, and as busy as we are getting, we need to remember to keep focused on Him, and the reason we are going.

Also, as excited as we are getting, there is sadness. We are going to miss so many people. Long time friendships and family, as well as the new friends we have been getting to know these last couple years. I know that we will keep in contact (which is why I caved and joined facebook, and there is skype, and good ol'fashioned letter writing and phone calls), but the ease of driving up the road to see Grandma & Grandpa, or hang out with the guys is going to change. There will be new relationships, sure, but that does not ease the loss of these ones.

Our solace comes from knowing that we are doing His will, and he will help facilitate these relationships as needed. And speaking of such, it is a beautiful sunny spring day here today, and I am going to go and spend some time with a friend during his break, walking the trails of the Green Timbers forest and chatting about life.

Change of Seasons

As we arrive back from Medicine Hat and start to settle in to our daily routines again, I look around and see that Spring is arriving. Maybe part of that is because it is +10 degrees Celsius today instead of -20, but it could be due to the sunshine and birds too.

I see that the seasons are changing. Outside, the trees are thinking about coming back to life and the animals are venturing out of their hidey holes for the first time since winter began. Outside, seasons are changing.

And I see that they are changing for our lives too. Since the beginning of January, our family has really focused on listening for God in our lives. We spent a season coasting on what He had told us previously, and then we kind of stopped listening and set the spiritual train on cruise control. Thankfully, our God is forgiving and continues to have His great plan in mind for us, whether we are aware of it or not.

As we become more aware of Him speaking to us all the time, we look around and see the work He is doing in this season. We can see glimpses of what He is preparing for in the next season, and we notice that right now we are in the midst of those seasons changing.

Now we have a choice. He will continue to do His work whether we watch and listen for it, or turn back to our lives and intentionally ignore it. We can choose to stand idly by out of fear...fear of change, fear of loss, fear of inadequacy...the list goes on. Or, we can choose to step out, step up, and trust in Him. Trust that He will provide, trust that His plan is better than anything we can come up with. Trust that we will be blessed by listening to and obeying Him when He calls.

The choice is never easy, although it should be.

I am surprised.

At what you ask? (all 2 of you who read this blog)

I am surprised at how basic the written exam was for licensing. It seemed to me to be about 1/4 of what I expected to be on it. With that being said, I am cautiously optimistic that I have passed. I will have to wait on edge for the next 2-3 weeks though, while I wait for "the man" to mark it and get the results to me.

What will I do until then you ask...maybe visit some friends we haven't seen for a while? Like since they moved to "the hat"? Thomas and Eleanor do miss the boys...

My written exam is this Friday. About 3 weeks sooner than I thought it would be. Time to dust off my brain and get it fired up to retrieve the info I crammed into it all last summer. Then, 3 months to practice until the practical exams in May.

I have just finished applying for and am now awaiting confirmation of licensing exam dates. I am now in to a state of anxiety and panic.

We've been working on a book study with our church, the "experiencing God" series. I am only 2 weeks in or so, and trying not to fall too far behind where the rest of the group is at. I find it hard though, because as I read through and study there are some major points that are getting highlighted to me.

One of these is the notion that I need to look at where God is working and meet Him there, instead of making all of my "man" plans and hoping & asking God to bless them and work in them. My plans suck. They have always sucked, and I think I have always known that, and because of it have so often just failed to plan.

God has chosen to bless me, and to help me along the way regardless of my less than adequate plans or lack thereof. What I am realizing now is that I need to stop trying to fit God in to my plans and arrange my life to meet God where he is working. This is how I will grow closer to Him. This is how to open the floodgates of His blessing in our lives. Meet Him where He is working, and open myself up to be used by Him for His plans. That needs to be my plan.

So, now comes the next step. Meet Him in His work, and trust completely that His plan is so much better than what I have ever come up with. What does that mean for us? Not sure exactly yet, but I do need to move forward or I will never be able to meet up with Him.

A 3 day weekend comes along, and wouldn't you know it, both Vanessa and I are sick. Of course there is still so much to do...find a van being at the top of that list. Once I get a free bit of time, I'll figure out how to link up my twitter account to the ol' blog here.
Also looking forward to the rest of the "experiencing God" series that we are doing.

The lack of vacation time over the holidays has paid off. I am no longer a paramedic student, I am now a trained paramedic. I just need to get my license to practice, and then I'm off to the races.

Vacation? Not for me...

I'm taking most of this week off of work from Coza Tuscan Grill, the finest Italian cooking at the corner of 200th and the Langley bypass. What a crazy idea you may say, to take most of the week off. As a server, you don't get paid unless you work you silly man.
Well, I am taking it off to work on the ambulance. And by work, I mean ride on the ambulance and do everything that I would do if I was getting paid to be a paramedic, all in the hopes of coming across that last elusive competency "spinal management".
That's not to say I haven't been learning with every call I have done for the last two days, and will continue to learn from on my two night shifts coming up, cause with this job you need to learn something from every call you do. Like the guy who had an infection that caused him to be hypothermic. Usually when you have an infection ravishing your body you end up sweaty and feverish. Apparently, there is such a thing as a hypothermic reaction to an infection. Very rare though, as testified by my preceptors. 32 years and 20 years experience for them, and neither had ever seen a "cold sepsis".
I am thankful that I get to have these shifts for the experience. It would be nice to be finished though, so I can get my license and start getting paid to take a week off of work.