A Full Week

Hello friends, 

It has been a busy week. 

Several days a week, I have been trying to devote time to the study Spanish.  I've also been scouring used book shops for good dictionaries and phrase books.

I purchased this small phrase book of Latin American Spanish, a book of verbs and a small dictionary.  If I continue to spend time in self learning I will expand the Spanish language resources I have.

My Spanish teacher is from Mexico.
Thoughts and prayers are with the people of Mexico right now.
They have just experienced one of the strongest hurricanes on record on the Pacific Coast. Many of us have thankfully never had to experience a hurricane and I can only imagine the horror of it all.
For some of you this will hit closer to home if you have friends visiting the country or family living there.

I've said before that Fall/Autumn season is my favourite time of year. Each year I try to get some photos of the Fall/Autumn colours but it has been so very busy this past 6 weeks and I missed many of our beautiful sunny days and photo opportunities.


Believe it or not, I spent many of the earlier sunny Fall days decluttering and organizing. I did a significant amount of work then got busy with other things. Once the weather gets rainy again, I will get back to my decluttering and re-organizing exercise and finish what I started.

The two photos (above and below) of Fall/Autumn leaves were taken one rainy day earlier in the week.

I love all the variations of red and orange in the leaves.

Mid-week I had the pleasure of hosting the members of the Kenyan Boys Choir to dinner at Simba's Grill in Vancouver.

I thought they might be homesick for some African food as they have been on the road for more than a month and are only part way through their tour.

The choir was performing at the annual WeDay Conference here as well as at many schools and other venues around the city.
The young men are always a big sensation.

The choir members are ALL wonderful ambassadors for the country of Kenya.

Each singer has his own style and strengths and together they blend and harmonize in one terrific sound.

If you get a chance to hear them you will find out what I mean.
They work incredibly hard each and every day to give the best possible performance to a wide variety of audiences.

If you haven't heard them yet, please do check them out on YouTube and support their work and mission when they come to a city near you.

You can also follow them on Twitter and Facebook or purchase their music on ITunes.

Mid-week, my brother and I spent some time together going to a movie. We seldom spend time together outside of family meals and duties but it was his birthday earlier this week.  We went to the advance screening of the newest movie starring Bill Murray and Kate Hudson. It may not appeal to everyone but I found it entertaining. I won't give away the story.  If you like Bill Murray or Kate Hudson you can check out the movie trailer here.

To close out the week, I had a foot care appointment.  The nurse noted an improvement in the way my nails are growing and that is welcome news as it has taken about a year of specialized foot care to get to this point.

After my appointment, I went downtown to English Bay with my camera in hand as it was a beautiful, sunny day.

I took a lot of photos along the waterfront.

I missed so many photo opportunities earlier in the season so I was making up for it.

  It really was such a perfect afternoon.

Although the water was very choppy there was a lot of  traffic on the water (more on that in a future post).  There were plenty of people walking or sitting along the waterfront areas: soaking up the sunshine, people watching and enjoying the sound of the surf. I easily spent a few hours enjoying myself and taking photos.

The first photo looks north west toward the West End.  The famous Stanley Park is beyond the highrises.

The next two photos feature an Inuksuk.

The houses on the hillside are part of British Properties neighbourhood, an exclusive part of the city.

An Inuksuk is a landmark made of stones and built by the Inuit people of the far north to help them find their way over the vast and flat tundra.

This Inuksuk has graced the beachfront of Vancouver since the Winter Olympics of 2010.

The first bridge in the photo is Burrard St., beyond it is Granville St. bridge and the Fairview Slopes neighbourhood.

While I was taking photos of the waterfront I heard a lot of commotion in the air.

I looked up and saw a swarm, or rather several swarms of birds. It was quite the sight to see. and hear. I can't share all the photos today so there will be more in a future post.

Another most important activity this week has been praying for, and liaising with, the Missions of Hope in Kenya.

In an earlier post, I shared that the team went to western Kenya to deliver food aid to the Pokot people and to evangelize.

While they were there they were called upon to rush a young woman in delivery distress to the nearest hospital.

The closest hospital was in a small town just over an hour away.  The journey was tense as the woman's water had already broken before the journey commenced and time was of the essence.

  This medical  mission was not part of the plan or budget but it was very important to the community that the mission team help this young mother to be and she needed urgent help.

The team drove the young woman to the hospital and she delivered a healthy baby.
However, the young mom had been circumcised causing problems in delivery.

She needed more urgent care and ended up having to be transported by ambulance to a larger city centre (Eldoret) for surgery.

Doctors there saw that she had lost a lot of blood.  She has been in hospital all week getting and recovering from surgery, getting blood transfusions and being treated for infection.

Church service in Western Kenya

The newborn baby had to go with her and so a young missionary woman from the community escorted both mom and newborn. She is helping with translation between mother and medical staff and also looking after the baby.  She didn't have time to prepare for the trip to hospital because the decision to transfer the young mother was made very quickly. Basically she just took a change of clothing and they have already been at hospital for a week.

It  has been an incredibly challenging week for everyone involved, especially the missionary, the young mom and Jonah from the Missions of Hope.


The missionary woman is a single woman and has never had to look after children let alone a newborn.

The young mom, the baby and the missionary are all far from home and it has been difficult living in the hospital accommodation all week with no fresh air, no familiarities of home and inadequate clothing and hygiene supplies.  My friend Jonah has also felt the added responsibilities of trying to help the young mom get the help that she needs and medical care in Kenya is expensive.

To conclude, the woman is ready to be discharged from hospital.

She can be discharged once the bill is fully paid.

Only this financial expense was not anticipated. 

We covet your prayers and any help you might give.
Don't feel pressure or discomfort in reading these words.
I am simply sharing the needs and the realities of real people in another land.
Some of you will know as a result of travels to Kenya yourself. For many more of you, all this kind of thing is very new.

We wait to hear from anyone who feels a leading to assist.

Linking today with

 Skywatch Friday

&

Saturday's Critters

Thank you to all the hosts of these great memes!

Sending my readers lots of love, laughter and wishes for a great weekend.
Be kind to one another and to yourself.