Less is More

Lessons in Simplicity

I tell you the truth," Jesus replied, "no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me and the gospel will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age (homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and fields—and with them, persecutions) and in the age to come, eternal life." - Mark 10:29-30

So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. -Matthew 6:31-34


The bible says these crazy things! Giving up our possessions, friends, and family and going after these invisible promises of God is getting very real in our lives (and scary!) as we prepare to go to Arizona. Because of the huge expense of moving, we have begun the process of sorting, returning, and giving away the things we own until all that's left will fit in our little Toyota Echo. For Bethany, it was especially challenging to wrestle through the idea of not always having nice things, but continuing to trust God to be our treasure and provider. Once we resolved that we couldn't take everything with us, we felt free to start narrowing down what we would be able to take and letting go of the rest. We realized if we never take God up on these promises we would never know if He would provide and be faithful. So we are going after His Kingdom by traveling to Arizona to take care of foster children and orphans!

Prayers: That God would provide and be our treasure in awesome ways.
Praises: Marriage is great and we are excited about our trip to Arizona!

The Wedding Slide Show

The wedding went beautifully. We enjoyed every moment of the ceremony without having to worry about a single detail and only had to worry about a few things at the reception. Thanks to everyone who helped make that wonderful day possible and came to be a part of it! It really was beautiful. Sadly, the one little hiccup of the night was the slide show was not able to play correctly, so here it is!

Honeymoon Sand Castle

This marks our final day of honeymooning. We have started trying to make a regular routine of spending time with the Lord in the mornings and inviting Him into our day. He has been giving us lots of hope and encouragement recently. We made ourselves a yummy breakfast of all the last breakfast foods that we had. Bethany didn't plan on eating anymore bacon until she smelled it cooking! Then we set out to a white Nova Scotia beach. Mission: build an amazing sand castle! Our only opponents were cute children who love to destroy sandy masterpieces. The success of our mission is visible below.

Our tasty snack of the day was a "lobster burger." We found out that lobster season is actually from November to May but this lobster sandwich tasted super yummy anyway. We ended the day by jumping into the pool after dinner and then enjoying the whirlpool bath one last time. We have had a great time chatting with our Canadian Loyalist hosts and we may see them again because they love Arizona!

Dinner of Wild Mussels

This morning we thanked God for the blessings of yesterday and for finding the following two verses, “Daughter, your faith has healed you.” And “Don’t be afraid; just believe, and she will be healed.” We had been praying for a wonderful day and against some of the fears in Bethany’s life so both of these events were encouraging. After yesterday's mussel collecting success we went for a walk in a local park and gathered a full bucket of mussels. At first we had no success but once we wadded in up to our knees we found enough mussels to cover the ground and feed everyone at our wedding.

Later we went rock hopping through a marsh and into a river. The goal was to not land in the mud. The slime looked threateningly extraterrestrial as we hopped our way to safety. Bethany was very brave as her cute clothes could have been a large casualty.

We purchased a “fish and chips” dinner, some wine and fruit and headed home for a nice dinner. The last course was the mussels we had gathered in a white wine and butter sauce. The mussels were a lot of work to prepare but very tasty. This evening we went and saw Kung Fu Panda which was a very good flick. This week we also ate some award winning banana bread.

Kayaking and Seafood

Today we awoke to brilliant sunshine instead of dense fog which was great for the days planned adventure - kayaking. We realized just how small and local Shelburne is when we showed up to rent a kayak and no one was there except an old lady with a cigarette. She told us to go across the street to the pub for assistance. At the pub the staff called the kayak boss who said he would try to come by in half an hour, luckily we are patient. An hour later we were in the water and ready to start kayaking. We rented a double kayak with a rudder. It was a huge help against the wind and tide! Our first mission was to visit the two salmon hatcheries near the opening of the harbor. We were not allowed on to the hatcheries due to a few bold red signs with chilling warnings. So we turned around and explored the coast on the way back where Eric found a massive rock he needed to conquer.

Our last stop was a neat private island where we took some more pictures before we headed back for a seafood dinner at a recommended restaurant.

The dinner was the best we have had here and everything we hoped for in a Nova Scotia seafood feast. We started off with cocktails, bread, and a variety of smoked fish before splitting a main course of lobster and scallops in brandy sauce. Yum! Eric found and cooked some mussels from our kayaking trip for an after dinner snack to end the day.

Search for the Secret Seals

Today Bethany and I decided to head out and visit a local park because Shelburne only has so many places to visit. We grabbed every relevant pamphlet from the local information booths and found one that promised seal sightings. After a quick exchange from American money to Canadian (when did Canadian money ever become worth more??!) we headed off to the park. There was no chance of asking for directions because we could not pronounce the name of the park even with our combined intellect.

Once we arrived at "Kaj-a-blah-blah" we found out Nova Scotia is the foggiest place on earth.

This is not good for any of our weekly plans such as sight seeing, seal searching, and kayaking because none of these activities are safe in a dense fog. On the trail we had a brief discussion with a passing hiker who claimed the only seal he saw was a dead one. So we prayed and asked God to show us seals. We don't know if he brought the dead one back to life and made it multiply or if others came out of hiding but we saw a bunch of seals! The rocks, waves, fog, beaches, tide pools, and wildlife made for a cool trip. Thank you God!

Canada Day

We arrived in Nova Scotia, which we found out means “New Scotland” (which made Eric wish he brought his Braveheart sword so he could be a local hero) and discovered that Shelburne, N.S. was founded by Loyalists to the British crown during the American Revolution. Canadian and British flags are explicitly plastered all over this town. We immediately felt out of place. In order to disguise ourselves, we cheerfully participated in “Canada Day” celebrations on July 1^st. This included waving Canadian flags, wearing Canadian sunglasses, and sporting Canadian flag pins while smiling. We noticed that everyone else wore red and white without any complimentary blue. We will also be in Canada on the 4^th of July and we plan to eat at the local Loyalist Inn and shop at the Loyalist plaza wearing red, white, and maybe some blue underwear to secretly remain American. On Canada Day we ate at the Sea Dog Saloon overlooking the harbor where the Loyalists first landed. Hail Canada, eh!