Well hello there…

It’s been quite a while. It was a blast to see so many of you back in November when we visited Cochrane. A few of you we have loved seeing in our home! Yet, alas, I’ve be negligent in staying in touch. Let me try and get you up to speed.

Summer & Fall
Summer was a blur of activity. Mainly, running from one soccer event to
another and hanging at our community pool.   All three girls played and Becky coached.  However we did manage to relax a bit too, and make a couple of trips: one to Ottawa to see the sites, and another to Port Colburn to visit family and go to Marineland.

Fall was pretty busy too. School started and we sent our youngest, Eudora, to kindergarten this year. (FYI I’ve posted some extra pictures at the bottom: Alaethia: age 10, Bethany age 7 and Eudora age 6 and our newest addition Jezebel: age 6.5 months—I don’t know what that is in Guinea Pig years.)  Becky, with the nest now empty during the days, started a new job working with special needs kids at a primary school. (More on that later.)
Also this fall, we officially kicked off our house church with our old friends the Lewis’s and our new friends the Gaudreau’s and the Rodgers'. (This project has been an awesome adventure.  I’ll tell you more about that later.) We had several out-of-town guest visit us; Becky's folks,  Jess and Teyler, and the Hayes', and my folks (They’re the ones who took our latest family picture at Oka.) On top of all that, we managed to fit in that whirlwind tour of Cochrane in November.

Winter Till Now
By the time December was upon us we were ready for a change of pace. Christmas was a quieter time, and for the first ever time we celebrated it mostly alone as a family (with the exception of house church gatherings and two brief but awesome visits with the Nelson’s and the Shine’s). Looking back on it, I think that this was God’s way of preparing us for the following month, because it has been a crazy one.

At first, all we had planned for January was to get me ready for some minor day-surgery which was scheduled for the 25th and then spend the next few weeks recovering (which is what I’m doing right now. I’m trying my best to keep from going crazy at home alone). The first curve ball came the day Becky returned to school. Up till then she had been doing a part-time mish-mash of lunch supervision with a special needs boy; being a teachers aide 1.2 days a week; and occasionally subbing for the full-time integration aides and teachers. The first day of school in January the full-time aide assigned to Becky’s lunch-boy gave her notice and the principal asked Becky to take over that contract for the rest of the year. WOW! This is an excellent opportunity and it helps get  Becky further into the kind of work she is passionate about.

A few days later, I was surprised to be interviewed for a new position in the Program dep’t at C&D Zodiac (I’ve been a material planner there for 2 1/2 years and I’m looking for a new challenge within the company). It turns out I didn’t get that post, but within minutes of learning who did, I got a call from my boss who asks me if I would be interested in replacing the Stores Manager (the guy who got the Program post). Again WOW! With the new responsibilities, I’ll be doing a lot more people-oriented stuff; which will be mainly supervising the people who work in our stockrooms and who expedite on our production floors.

Becky and I started our new jobs on the same day.

Spiritual Stuff
Even a few weeks later, my head is still spinning from all this. We are very grateful for the stability this brings us. In many ways, the last three and a half years have been a slow-motion leap of faith. In 2008, we feel so much more settled into our life in Montreal. Even though my head is still spinning, I have the feeling the more rooted our lives become here, the more we are able to be some sort of blessing here (which is why we moved here in the first place). I’m not sure how it’s all going to look in the future, but if there’s one thing I’ve learned on my journey it's that it always works out best when you know that something just fits right.  (This makes me think about the story of David and Goliath. When David was preparing to go to battle, they tried making him put on the king’s armor first, but it didn’t fit him right. All he needed was a leather sling and five smooth stones!)

Spiritually speaking, house church fits us right.

I know this puts me in the company of a lot of wing-nuts of various shapes and colours, but what can I say besides it fits? (Besides, wing-nuts are everywhere and life isn't about avoiding them) I’m not going to disrespect regular church at all, but for me it’s been a breath of fresh air. Becky and I are much more engaged in our children’s spiritual lives. I’m challenged and encouraged in new ways. I have a renewed vision for ministry. Finally, there is this awesome feeling of being on a journey that we are sharing with a larger family. I’m not saying that these things can’t be found in other places (or churches); it just seems that this way fits for us. My hope is that as we continue down this road, it will continue to be a blessing; not just to me and my family, but also in God’s kingdom and in Montreal.

So that’s about it from our neck of the woods. I’m kind of excited and scared to try my hand at blogging. I hope that this will be an effective way of keeping in touch with a lot of you, and hopefully it will spur some good communication. If it continues to work well, I will occasionally post our family news updates here, and on top of that I’d like to toss around some other topics as they come up.

Please let me know what you think by posting a comment or two, or if you prefer the more direct approach our email address is still the same as it’s always been since we moved here.

Grace and Peace,
Mike and the rest of the Potsy Clan

Extra Pics