Two family reunions in one week - Whew!

What do I mean by two family reunions?  Walter and I helped plan and organize the gathering of the staff of Northern Canada Evangelical Mission.  This is the family of God that we give leadership to as missionaries. About 180 adults registered and 35 kids! We spent three days together at Wilderness Edge in Pinawa, MB, which is a lovely retreat centre in a resort community in the Whiteshell Park.  Lovely walking paths, opportunities for canoeing, tubing, hot tubbing and much more!

We also had workshops, a special speaker each night and wonderful worship through music and prayer.  We enjoyed delicious meals together and fellowship around the tables.  It was a noisy, busy time with much-needed encouragement after four years of not being able to meet as a whole mission body.

Our friend and coworker, Cynthia, helped with most of the coordinating of room assignments, schedule and gift bags.  She also got door prizes that were a lot of fun to draw for!  We appreciated Cynthia's energy and ideas to make the conference fun!

One of the honours I had was to award service pins for our missionaries.  From 5 years of service to 70 years, we gave out pins to acknowledge our faithful workers in the harvest field.  Such a legacy we have in NCEM!

The good-byes were sad and yet joyful as we closed our conference with a communion service. Folks grabbed water bottles and snacks as they headed to their vehicles and drove home.  From Whitehorse, YT and Fort McPherson, NT to Goose Bay, Labrador and many points in between, our missionary family dispersed to their places of ministry for another year.  Our next General Conference where everyone meets again will be 2-3 years from now.

We drove back the seven hours to Regina, with one of our childcare volunteers catching a ride.  This dear woman helped teach and minister to our MK's ages 4-12.  She was quite excited and talked for a while about the different kids and her helpers.  We grabbed a bite to eat in Winnipeg and hit the TransCanada highway.  The next three hours we didn't hear a peep from her - napping all the way until Virden where we got out for a bathroom stop!  

By 7 pm we had arrived at home and within minutes, our daughter and her boyfriend, Eric, came in.  We had ordered pizza and thus began our Selke Family Extravaganza weekend!  On Friday, we slowly repacked and headed to our cabin at Katepwa Lake.  It was a lovely calm afternoon/evening so we weren't able to take out the sailboat.  But we enjoyed a campfire and supper which consisted of "bush pies" (bread and pizza toppings cooked in irons over the fire).  Then Saturday morning, our two sons and their wives arrived and provided brunch fixings.  

It was a hot windy day - too windy for the sailboat - and so we packed up for a day at the beach.  At 31 degrees Celsius, we all enjoyed the shade, the water and lots of cool drinks!  Supper back at the cabin and more campfire and hanging out together finished off our day.

Sunday morning we again enjoyed brunch, then after dishes were cleared away, we gathered around the campfire circle for worship.  I played some favourite worship songs on my guitar.  Then Walter shared some scriptures and some of the journey we have been on in the past year.  Walter wanted to encourage our family to continue to persevere in the faith, to support one another as we all face challenges and to trust God in everything.  We closed in prayer around the circle and what a special time that was!

Then we looked at the time and had a hurried dash to pack up and head back to Regina.  We had tickets to the Rider game and needed to shower and change and catch the shuttle bus!  We made it with time to spare and enjoyed the Rider victory over the Winnipeg Bluebombers in overtime.

By Labour Day Monday, our family was scattering to their homes or further on personal vacation trips.  With all our kids living away from Regina, our times to reunite are rare and special.  As the last one left, the house seems strangely empty and quiet.

But the memories are wonderful and I wouldn't trade the crazy schedule of the last week for anything!