We drive across the Canadian border into familiar territory. Our little Honda was first purchased by our daughter in Austin, then by our son in Seattle. He has acquired another vehicle and loans us the Honda. Yay for generous children! We're going to the Fraser Valley where our family has lived since the 60s.
"So where do you live?" asks the Canadian border guard. Our USA residence is Seattle so we have to explain the Texas license plates. The digital reader board said we'd be through the border in "5 minutes" but that's wishful thinking.
There are only 3 cars ahead of us. First, we wait over half an hour while their drivers are grilled about vaccines, swab tests, and other matters. Everyone gets pulled over, either for inspection of goods or for health screening.
We are given a self-swab test and told to park behind a pickup truck. A very cheerful and professional employee walks us through the instructions. "Take out the top paper and fill in this information. Don't bother with these lines. Now put the paper on the dashboard." Ok.
"Take out the foil pack and put it beside the paper. Now take out the plastic bag. Do you see the flap? Put the paper you filled out in there." Etc. We comply quickly - and are sent to Employee #2 for the actual swab and handoff. The guy wears a full face shield besides his mask. When we've swabbed and sealed, W wipes the test bag down with a sanitizing tissue ... and hands it off. It has taken an hour but we are glad to be on our way.
Autumn is definitely here. The trees are turning to gold and red. Snow is creeping down the mountain slopes. The mornings are crisp and cool (5oC/41oF).
On our drive up from Seattle, we stopped to see Christian Lindbeck, who leads Hillcrest in Bellingham. They've been partners from a while - and their Advent devotional is part of our annual BIC Advent package.
BTW: Advent - the 4 Sundays before Christmas - are coming up. if you live in Bandung and want your own pre-Christmas Advent bag email us here with your name and address. The gift bags, which include a book of meditations, a candle for each week of Advent, homebaked cookies, and more, will be ready for pickup in north Bandung before the last week of November.
Christian buys us hot drinks to warm up our cold hands and shares what God is doing through his community of faith. Among other things, Hillcrest has a lively preschool. I love their 6-child carts for taking the youngest students on walks. Aren't they cute? I bet they're even more fun with kids in them!
Friday
It's a joy to walk with Mom every morning, sometimes twice. The sun comes up after 7am as the autumn days shorten and nights get longer. Winter is approaching. (Where we live, I don't miss these shorter cold days at all.)
Mom says everyone should get outside; walking takes the tensions of the day and loosens her sore joints. She's a trooper! Having a beautiful setting for her walks - just outside her door - helps.
Her garden is bursting with the last harvest: cool crops like kale, beets, carrots, and garlic. The organic apple tree drops ripe apples every time the wind blows.
She faithfully picks them off the lawn. We give away 2 big sacks of Spartan apples to 2 women walking by on the trail but there are many more apples waiting to be eaten or made into applesauce. One lady comes by later with German chocolate bars as her thank you. How sweet!
Above Mom's head, hundreds of kiwis are growing. She faithfully deep-watered the vine during the blistering hot summer and it's paid off - in hundreds and hundreds of fuzzy globes.
Dad planted the kiwi vine in the late 80s when a friend insisted that kiwis could thrive in Chilliwack. He was right; it bears up to 700 fruits each year. After the first frost kills off the leaves, the rock-hard kiwis are plucked, stashed in bags and boxes, and left to ripen in the cold garage for a few months. By late January or early February, they are ready to eat or share with others.
Mom and I walk every day but Sunday. One day her friend and neighbor Donna joins us. Mom knows almost everyone on the walking path and introduces me to them.
The wildflowers are dropping seeds, as are the pines that shed long cones on the pathway. Thousands of little helicopter seeds from the 80' maple trees land everywhere.
There's a Daher tradition for special events, And today's the day! Mom bakes her special and beloved family secret recipe for our Thanksgiving dessert this weekend. It's a Black Forest Cake. I'm her assistant. Once it's baked, we put it into the fridge to dry out a bit and cool so we can decorate it tomorrow.
Saturday
The day-old cake is ready for the toppings. Mom brushes each layer with watered-down Kirsch and loads them with whipping cream and cherry pie filling. I film the process to send to the family.
"You have to see it. You can't just read instructions," she says as she pats chocolate sprinkles around the sides. It goes from this:
to this.
The cake is heavy: it goes into the fridge overnight to settle. First, Mom poses with the cake and Dad's violin, from his memorial service last year.
Our son Timothy arrives and stays overnight.
He brings personal cards and gifts from his family for Mom.
The home-baked cookies are from Kinsey, the oldest great-grandchild. Mom's delighted. And says the cookies taste sweetly good.
It's so much fun to see what the kids create for her. Melissa has tucked all kinds of goodies into the gift bag. Each one produces a smile.
The guys hang out with Mom at the table while exchanging jokes, family stories, and getting godly counsel.
Our family stays connected across the continents. I love talking to my beautiful niece in Germany. (It's not so bad to talk to her dad - my youngest brother - either.)
W's family had planned a 90th birthday celebration for W's mom today. Earlier this week, a COVID-positive intern in her care home put all events on hold. However, seeing her disappointment and because we're vaccinated, her doc tags W as an "essential" person. He is able to visit her daily.
A Sunday morning on Saturday night? From Chilliwack, which is 14 hours behind Bandung (7pm Saturday instead of 9am Sunday), we host BIC Online. It's a harder switch mentally to imagine our home base being a day ahead than what we usually do: taking along friends who are 14 hours behind West Indonesia. We hop into bed afterward, ready for sleep.
Sunday mornings are special, no matter where in the world they arrive. We attend Main Street Church (Chilliwack, BC). Their generous and loving community values are posted in the foyer.
On our annual trips, we enjoy meeting God's people in various venues, whether with individuals or small groups over lunch and coffee, or in larger communities for services.
Pastor Shawn Vandop stirs our hearts with his call to faithful prayer. "Stop saying, 'Prayer works!'" he challenges us. "If we say 'prayer works!' and don't get instant answers to our prayers, that may lead to disappointment or the feeling that God is not paying attention to us."
Instead, he encourages us to proclaim that "God works and prayer matters!" That's a good reminder. God is not a cosmic vending machine where we drop in a prayer and press him for answers. Instead, our prayers open us to his work and make us willing to be the answer to someone else's prayers along the way.
We've been invited for Thanksgiving dinner with my brother at his friends' house. The house is beautiful: restful, hospitable, and open. It feels like the surrounding mountains are right outside the floor-to-ceiling windows.
Shane is a professional chef and his wife Tammy assists in getting the meal ready. Shane roasts a cauliflower in the barbecue; it has the perfect amount of crisp smokiness.
Oh my! Thanks be to God for such abundance.
Our plates burst with flavors: cheesy scalloped potatoes, sweet corn, roasted cauliflower, fresh rolls, and tender marinated meat.
The Thanksgiving feast and the good company warm our hearts and fill our stomachs. We take home enough leftovers to feed Mom in the next weeks. I divide the roast into freezer-ready portions and cut a baggie-full for W's mom to snack on.
We squeeze in the Black Forest cake at the end. Look at the small dent 6 people - eating generous portions - make in it. (We divide and freeze the remainder for another day.)
Monday
The walking path is wide and level.
Beside it, two edible dogwoods hang full of fruit, waiting for happy foragers.
The wildflowers are splendid. What is lifting your heart where you live?
Read more:
*But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Jeremiah 31:33
“In that day,” declares the Lord, “I will gather the lame; I will assemble the exiles and those I have brought to grief. I will make the lame my remnant, those driven away a strong nation. The Lord will rule over them in Mount Zion from that day and forever." Micha 4:6-7
*Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away. Luke 21:33
Moravian Prayer: Dear Law-Writer, you’ve clearly decided things here. You’re going to be our God and we’re going to be your people; sounds like our baptism liturgy. Today, help us ponder if there are any people that aren’t yours and see what that does to our opinions of others. Amen.
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