2022 Goals and Imaginings

We are one whole week into 2022 and let me tell you what: this is already shaping up to be a memorable year for our family! We’ve set a few goals and imagined a few things and we want to record some of them here. For example…

We set a goal this year to spend 1000 hours outside. Quebec is such an outside-friendly place that I don’t think it will be a problem. Here in Sherbrooke, there are countless parks for kids to play; ice skating rinks pop up literally everywhere in the winter; people take long walks in sub-zero temperature; and everyone seems to enjoy at least one or two outdoor sports. So far, we’ve:

Gone sledding all over campus
Played at the snowy playground
Taken a walk in the woods
Played tetherball (I’m the reigning champion)
Shoveled snow
Had a glow-in-the-dark scavenger hunt

We’re tracking our hours on our Alaskan calendar (thanks, Moose Creek Baptist Church!). I’m so excited to see what fun adventures we end up going on this year. In the meantime, here’s some pictures of our outdoor time

Another goal is to find creative ways to do ministry here this year. We’re currently putting together some welcome gifts for the Language School Students here, both the new ones and the returning ones. We bought a bunch of random and funny mugs at a local thrift store, then we’re putting pens, highlighters, mints, and sticky notes in each one. (We figure since there’s so many random things happening in the world right now, why not get a random mug, too?!) We found some good deals on Amazon on pens, highlighters, etc. so each gift works out to less than $4 Canadian each. Not bad! This has been such a fun and easy project to welcome new (and returning) students to campus and we’re excited to give it to them next week, before classes start.

We’re already brainstorming ideas for Valentine’s Day (which is apparently not that big of a thing here) and I’m really excited to see those ideas come to fruition.

Another goal: Read more. I love to read and am currently about halfway through the book “Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus” by Nabeel Qureshi. I think it would be a helpful read for someone who is engaging in Muslim ministry now or preparing for it in the future. It explains a lot about the Muslim worldview and how the author explored and finally accepted Jesus into his life. I’m also reading through James right now (James!), and the parallels between what James teaches and Nabeel’s experiences are interesting. If you have book recommendations, send them our way!

Finally, we want to find ways to destress this year. For our kids, that often takes a creative form (like LEGO or small projects):