Well we had an excellent week in St. John's!!! We arrived in St. John's on Monday, April 23 and arrived back to Makkovik today, Sunday, April 29th. We had an amazing time.

We went to St. John's to play in the Rotary Music Festival. And... all the hard work paid off! They did an amazing job at each performance. They also were so sweet and I got so many comments about their wonderful behaviour and sweet attitudes! It was so nice to always hear positive comments about the three girls. While in St. John's the girls had the greatest musical opportunities that they could experience. They also were able to do other things too!

Here is how our week went:

Monday... arrived in St. John's, went to Dairy Queen.

Tuesday... practiced at Music School, went to Cape Spear for picnic, did a scenic drive to Petty Harbour, went to Signal Hill, shopped at the Avalon Mall, went to a movie and ate lots of popcorn.

Wednesday... Practiced at Music School, toured Music School and MUN (Library, field house, tunnels), drove to Bay Roberts, did a concert/Labrador presentation at Beth's School, went to Pizza Hut for supper, went to St. John's Citadel Band Practice.

Thursday... practiced at the music school, had workshop with Christina Smith (really good fiddler) for two hours, ate lunch at hotel room, went to Bowering Park for the afternoon and went to see the Battery, Quidi Vidi, and other places, practiced at the music school, relaxed at hotel until concert, participated in Rotary Music Festival concert.

Friday... had clinic in the morning, watched the rest of the clinics with a sleep drive in the middle because I will tell you that story in a second, went swimming, went bowling, shopped at the Village for an hour, went to Jazz Concert, hung out with the group from St. Anthony.

Saturday... went running errands for an hour, had a fiddle encounter with the Step Fiddlers (this was a great experience for the girls!!!), had a pizza lunch with them, went to a workshop with a Montreal Symphony violist, had three hours of FREE TIME, went to Jungle Jim's for supper, orchestra concert, and went to Tim's for coffee with Ms. Price.

Sunday... returned home... boo hoo... I could have continued this schedule for a long time. However, we were all starting to get pretty tired! I don't think I went to bed all week at a sensible time! But we had an awesome time! Yeah... for the Rotary Music Festival.

Alright, I will post some funny stories later on!

God Bless,

Rebecca

Nothing beats the sound of the brass band playing O Boundless Salvation.

A Few Thoughts

Ok... so this week has been a very busy week and this weekend thus far has been no exception to that. I am taking my fiddle group to St. John's on Tuesday of this week for the Rotary Music Festival so this week we have had numerous practices and I have had to prepare for different things that we are doing when we are out in town... making it busy. Also, we had a Bridal Shower, a lock down last night at the school therefore I had to sleep all day today, Jamboree tonight in which the Fiddle Group performed, a grade three student sung, and the music group performed. And tomorrow... well I listen to church online before I go to Sunday School. Then I have to make my way to the school to plan for the whole week since I will be away, and then there is church, and planning again. It is going to be a busy tomorrow.

Ok... sorry so long winded before I actually get to my point of : SO for those parents out there who are working and running a family, how do you do it? How do you keep your house clean and do all the mommy and daddy things, plan for school or work. How do you do it? I admire all of you. Because this week I can hardly find time to cook supper, let alone clean up from it.

But with all of my busyness of this week.... I am very thankful to God for allowing me to work with the Fiddle Group which consists of three hardworking, nice girls. They have improved so much since September it is amazing. Tonight, they performed so well... I cannot wait to take them to St. John's. They are very excited as well. We had sweatshirts come yesterday so we are all set.

Alright, so if this blog doesn't make a whole bunch of sense I am sorry... I was up for over 26 hours yesterday and today I only managed to get approximately four hours sleep if I was lucky. I'm not complaining though. I enjoyed every minute of the lock down and the best thing about is it was a part of God's work!

Blessings,
Rebecca

Prayer

I love being in His presence. I love prayer just because of that. Because in that moment when you pray, you focus directly on Him and as you do that, each and every time you become closer to Him. And as you become closer, your passion for Him and His work just deepens. I love praying. I love praying for others. I love praying in groups. I love praying alone. I love looking back through the prayer journal and seeing the amazing things that prayer can do.

The other night while I was praying, I had no clue what to pray about for this person. I just knew that she needed to be prayed for. So I just focussed upward and said, "Lord, you know the situation. I trust you to deal with it. I don't know what to say about it. But you know all things". Feeling a little discouraged that I didn;t know what to say God quickly reminded me as I opened my Bible and turned right to Romans 8:26-28 that the Spirit was right there interceding for me. I could forever sense His presence!

Prayer is awesome. I love it! I really believe in it. I know that prayer is the key to everything!

Keep praying,
Rebecca

An Adventure...

This past week I snowmobiled all the way to Goose Bay. Talk about an adventure! It was amazing!

On Thursday, when school ended, Carla and I headed right to Postville and spent the night at her sister's house. The next morning we got up bright and early to head to Goose Bay. We left (Carla, her boyfriend and myself) at 7:00am in the morning on 2 machines and headed out to Goose Bay on the Trans Labrador Trail. The trail, which is a snowmobile trail, was neat in itself... it actually had signs, like actually road signs: turns, steep hills, speed limits, route numbers, and ice crossing.

Carla and I decided that we would take my machine and split the driving. So we did just that. Every hour we switched up, just like the clock. We didn't know what we were going to think about driving machine that far but it turned out to be a very enjoyable experience. We seen the most beautiful things. At one point we kept climbing and climbling and climbing this huge hill when all of sudden we hit the most beautiful spot I have ever pictured in my whole entire life. It was like we had entered a Magical Kingdom! The trees were very tall and burnt, covered in ice crystals. On top of the hill at the time was freezing fog. It was absolutely beautiful. THe only thing is we did not get any pictures. We were behind by a nice bit in our driving and was trying to play catch up but I really don't think the camera would have done justice to what we saw! Anyway, after much beautiful scenery and funny moments... including me getting half way up a steep hill and saying "I don't think I can do this one" as I jumped off and let the machine slip down over the hill. OK... yes, I know... but hey, I only started driving skidoos last year (but Betsy was good and got us through. (Betsy is my machine and Lou Lou is Carla's machine), we finally arrived in Goose Bay 7.5 hours later.

So we stayed in Goose Bay until today at Carla's sister's house. We had a lot of fun. We played games, shopped, bought clothes at Reitman's, ate out (Mary Brown's, KFC, Burger King, Pizza Delight, and Subway... we ate out a lot just because there are no restaurants here so we took advantage) and we got to go to church. It was lovely. Oh... and I got my hair cut, cut right off! I had a fabulous week.

So today we left at 7:00 again, however this time we drove all the way back to our house so it took us a little longer as we only stopped in Postville for an hour... we got back here at 7:00 tonight so it has been a long day. We went 180 miles today so times that by 1.6 and we get 288 km! But enjoyable! It really seemed like we just left when we arrived in Postville. It was a little harder going today since we had over 40 centimeters of snow over the weekend! I would have to say... if you ever have the opportunity to go from Goose Bay to Postville on machine you should do it. It is an amazing experience.

Well... I will post some pictures later! I think for right now I will go to bed. I feel a little tired!

In Faith,
Rebecca

Galations 1: 10 says:

Am I now trying to win the approval of men, or of God? Or am I trying to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ.

Why is it that we sometimes try to please men or have the approval of men instead of just pleasing God?

I was sitting in church here on Sunday and I felt compelled to just start singing with this song that they were playing which I taught the choir. I just wanted to praise God and worship Him. During this time everyone was quiet, sitting very still so I was afraid to worship and sing because I was afraid of what others were think.

Now. . . this is my thought. God made us to worship. God wants us to witness for Him. God wants us to listen to His Spirit. And therefore, we should put God first. Therefore, I should not be afraid of what people will think. I should just fall down at the feet of Jesus and worship Him.

I know that I am not the only one who has felt that way. I have had this conversation with numerous people in the past. However, it brings me right back to Chris Tomlin's, "Undignified". That's how I feel today! "Some may feel it's foolishness but I will come even more undignified than this."

Isn't it wonderful to feel God's love and love Him?

It's awesome!

Rebecca