peace be with you

‘yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. what is your life? for you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.’
that is not only in remembrance of a wonderful housemate of last spring but also a contemplation on post-college…
wachiya beautiful sisters and brothers. how have you all been? i admit, i miss you terribly, and as the time since i’ve last seen your beautiful faces widens i find my love for you growing more and more. well, i’ve been now about a month living back in the small abandoned iron ore mining town i grew up in of Schefferville, Quebec. (look it up on Google Earth, just to get a bit of an idea as to how remote this place truly is.) i’m living here with my parents (and now two month old kitten, Sister Sweater Moonshine) and i have to admit, it’s been more than a little surreal: after six years, coming back to the old house and area i once knew so well, seeing lots of people i use to know and places that were once familiar that are so changed now. i don’t currently have a paying job, which is rather frustrating as the forever present school loans loom ahead, but i’ve been praying peace and contentment in my current situation, as i know our LORD is with me, no matter what thoughts i might have.
instead i’ve been keeping busy volunteering with the weekly Girl Guide meetings on the Kawawachikamach Naskapi reservation. (quickly: the reason my brothers and i grew up here is because my dad is a linguist with Wycliffe Bible Translators and he translated the New Testament into the Naskapi language. Kawawachikamach is a 20 minute dirt road drive from Schefferville.) i’ve also just started teaching an afterschool art class, hoping to help fine-tune a lot of the raw artistic talent in some of the Naskapi middle and high schoolers. and, in working with the curriculum development program at the Naskapi school i’ve started to illustrate children’s books written in the Naskapi language that we’ll be publishing to be used in the classrooms. (oh, and i’m also looking into illustrating books for the more general public; anyone got a good story to publish that needs some illustrations…?)
besides that, i’ve been enjoying hiking all around the old mine (which kind of looks like the Grand Canyon) and tundra, picking wild blueberries and cranberries, seeing lots of bears and foxes (and still waiting for the caribou herds to come through), and watching some amazingly beautiful northern lights displays. i have added quite a number of recent photos onto Facebook, if you feel inclined to check out some of the incredible beauty here. (also, it’s been snowing off and on since we first arrived here on August 27th. we had a fairly good-sized blizzard on Saturday, though not much has stuck to the ground yet.)
i was truly thanking God today for having the privilege to have grown up in such a unique and beautiful place; and then to be able to come back for a time to remember it all. it’s tough, at times, to push away selfishness and simply be grateful for life; for an existence and an opportunity to serve our LORD in whatever seemingly insignificant way i might be able to. to try to remember that i deserve nothing really, and that everything is an incredible gift.
brothers and sisters, knowing you is an incredible gift. i thank our LORD Yeshua for you individually. (oh, and none of this ‘i’m sure she doesn’t mean me’ stuff!)
pray for me, for wisdom, courage, patience, humbleness; we’re such imperfections, but more than so incredibly blessed to be beautiful children of … of the Creator of wild blueberries.
may you grow in grace and knowledge of our LORD and Savior Yeshua Christ, to Him be all glory, now and to the day of eternity. amen.