Day 7 - We awoke without an alarm and could slowly greet the day ahead of us.  The sun was shining and spring was all around us.  The tree outside our window was budding.  We saw robins bobbing around on the grass. 

Some of the restaurants were just reopening after the COVID restrictions in BC were lifted.  This day, we ate in the hotel restaurant but on Monday, their breakfast buffet would be reopened.  Yeah!  

I entered the address into Google Maps and we found our way back to the Pearls' home where we had that early breakfast two days before.  Our hope was to interview Rueben and Makayla as prospective missionaries with NCEM.  Through Zoom, two others joined us from NCEM and we proceeded with the interview.  Long story short, we accepted this young couple as new candidates, who want to work on the north Island along with our other NCEM staff!  Very exciting!

Our next appointment was lunch at White Spot in Courtenay, BC just a few minutes away.  Ralph, the chairman of the Board for Esperanza, met with us.  It was great to hear more about the ministry and the vision for its future.  Two hours later, we felt very encouraged by the hopes to work together with their infrastructure and our personnel.  This is what we love about serving in God's Kingdom!

Walter had received a call a month ago from an old classmate from his Clyde elementary school days.  They live in Nanaimo and had said anytime we may be around to look them up.  So on a whim, Walter texted.  They were free so we found their condo and had a nice visit.  

Time flies when you are catching up!  All of a sudden we realized it was almost 5 pm and we had hoped to catch the 5:55 pm ferry.  We said hurried good-byes and made our way to the ferry terminal.  Whew!  We made it with 10 minutes to spare.  

Riding the ferry is restful.  We grabbed a snack and sat for a bit.  I read more of the book on "The Orange Shirt Story" and then we took a stroll on the deck.  The wind drove us inside again and we made a couple laps before we arrived at Horseshoe Bay.  

I am getting pretty handy at making hotel reservations on the fly.  We got to our hotel in Langley by 8 pm.  Feeling a bit hungry, we went to the 7-Eleven across from the hotel and found something edible.  I wouldn't recommend this as a steady nutrition plan, but it satisfied us so we could sleep.  And that is what we did.

Our plans for Sunday were to attend "The Grove" Baptist church with our NCEM couple who are retiring pastor/Tribal Trails staff.  But at 9:30 pm,  Lyle called to say his wife was sick.  So they weren't able to meet up with us and could Walter preach? So our Sunday was not going to unfold quite as expected  Stay tuned for our next day's adventure!