Czech Republic vs Austria

Darren was able to get three free tickets to the Fifa World Cup Soccer game for last night's game in Edmonton through his boss at work. He had a casual conversation with the boss that went something like, "Do you know if there are any tickets left for the Fifa World Cup Soccer games?" And his reply was "I am getting company from out of town. I'll give you my three tickets." It was the Czech Republic playing Austria in the semifinals. Our seats were in the second pier close to the top. At first we were confused and didn't realize if the "red" team was the Czech Republic and the "white" team Austria or vice versa. So after discussing back and forth for a while, a girl in front of us heard our conversation and clarified that the "red" team was Austria and the "white" team was the Czech Republic. So after figuring out the teams it was easier to understand who was winning. Darren work until 4:45 or so and I work until 4:00 and the game started at 5:45... so we arrived at the game after the only two goals in the whole game were scored. Czech won 2:0. After the game we walked back to Darren's house. I bet it was probably a lot faster walking than driving. There was 28,000 fans at the game and a lot of people with cars. There has been so much fun summer stuff happening this past week, and the soccer game was just some of the fun!!

A Winter's Tale

By the title of my post "A Winter's Tale" your probably thinking why the post "A Winter's Tale" in the middle of summer... unless perhaps you a devoted Shakespeare fan. That's right Shakespeare. There was a crew of Darren, some Bible Study friends and I that went to see "A Winter's Tale" at the Ampitheatre at Hawrelak Park on Tuesday. It was an excellent play... excellent characters... and excellent company. For those of you who are new to Shakespeare "A Winter's Tale" is about the Hermione (already pregnant) who has an affair, this angers the Leontes and he has her arrested. The daughter is born, abandoned and adopted by a shepherd. Hermoine comes before a jury to prove her "guilty" or "not guilty" and an oracle is read. The Leontes rejects the oracle angering the gods and Hermoine and Maximillus are struck dead. The shepherd's daughter (Perdita) grows up and falls in love with the Polixene's son, Florizel. The King rejects his son's love for the shepherdess viewing it as inappropriate for the heir to the throne. At harvest festival hosted by the old shepherd, Polixenes intervenes into the impending marriage of his son and the shepherdess. Autoclycus, a thief and vagabond attends the harvest festival to pick pockets and sell trinkets. Florizel and Perdita are welcomed into the court of Leontes. Polixenes soon enters his court and the truth is revealed that Perdita is the long lost daughter of Leontes. Hermoine has stayed in hiding for 16 years until the safe return of her daughter. A life like statue of Hermoine was created and during its presentation it comes to life. And it appears that she falls in love with the King again. This is a short version of the play... if my version of the play intrigues you... then you will have to go see it for yourself!

Sunday Drive

Darren and I took a trip to visit Uncle Dick, Aunt Agnes, Jon, Kevin and Catherine on Sunday July 15. Our first stop was at Starbucks so that Darren could pick up his bold roast coffee before we headed out to Ponoka. We arrived in time for their church service. The praise and worship was amazing... Its just so awesome that we can sing praises to our King!!! Pastor Kirk shared about the boldness given by God so that we can go forth and proclaim the gospel to the nations. Specifically, he referred to the story in Acts 3 of Peter and John's response to the lame man begging at the gate called Beautiful. This man was panhandling hoping to receive a few coins but Peter and John responded, "I do not possess silver and gold, but what I do have I give to you: In the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene- walk!" They took advantage of this opportunity to share the gospel and proclaimed it with boldness. May we also share the gospel with boldness so that people will come to repentance and salvation through Jesus Christ alone.
After the church service we departed to Uncle Dick and Aunt Agnes' for lunch. A wonderful lunch of BBQ chicken, some fancy rice, broccolli salad and apple pie for dessert.
Shortly after lunch we packed up a picnic supper to take with us to Open Creek Dam Campground. Approximately 10 min after we arrived it began to rain with thunder and lightening. So we stood under a picnic chalet with the company of sparrows. A baby sparrow had attempted to fly earlier (before our visit) and fell from the nest. The mama sparrow was trying to encourage the baby to fly back up to the nest. This encouragement was mearly words of a sparrow and never turned into action. The rain clouds never did pass ... so we packed up our stuff once again and headed to Gull Lake hoping that maybe it would be sunny over there... well we were just out of luck! So this turned into a long Sunday drive with good company and good visits along the way! Once we arrived back at Uncle Dick and Aunt Agnes' we had supper and a wonderful visit.