Do You Really Know Who You Are?
May 31
Hello!
Apparently a current trend is to look up one’s ancestral roots. We gave into the advertising and so for a combo Valentine’s/birthday gift Gary purchased a DNA kit for me. After a couple of months when a small but significant amount of my spit had travelled to Ireland where it was analyzed the results came back. Gary retorted, “I told you you were not Swedish as you have always been claiming. You are 61% Finnish and 14% Scandanavian. Swedish hardly appears on the radar screen. I want my $25 returned I paid for our marriage license 50 years ago due to false representation!” My parents had lived in a community along the northwest coast of Finland where the majority of citizens spoke Swedish (like French in Canada). That was the focus of my heritage.
Our youngest son, Lee whom we adopted from South Korea upon turning six, took a similar test recently. He turned out to be Mongolian, Japanese and Chinese. No Korean make up there! We will see what Gary finds out about himself when his results come back in the next few weeks.
One’s heritage is not the only factor that shapes who we are. The weekend of the Royal wedding we found ourselves in London, ON attending the 50th and final alumni retreat of the Bible School where Gary and I met. It was uplifting to reacquaint ourselves with our dear peers and professors alike. It was during those school years when I deepened my commitment to being a follower of Jesus Christ throughout my life with all that that would entail.
You probably already guessed that marriage and parenthood/grandparenthood, indeed, shape our lives. This coming July Gary and I will have been married 50 years. Where did that time go?? Early celebrations took place the first weekend of May when most of our tribe (19 out of 20 – our granddaughter, Cass, was still playing softball at her Georgia university) plus our siblings were in town. They surprised us with a very lovely fancy dinner at a local restaurant. I am sure they would all agree that a couple of characteristics of our homelife from the very beginning was trying to show the love for God in all that we do along with tons of daily laughter. We are very grateful for our family. And by the way our son, Rob, is having a great missions trip in Germany over a 4-week period. The team has been travelling from one city to the next and several concert attenders have become followers of Christ.
Our Milton launch team is inching along as we prepare for our official opening in the fall. Aaron Bouchard and Scott Lockhart’s painting business is developing. They have found many clients who want their homes painted inside or out. The biggest problem, however, has been employing honest, trustworthy, capable sub-contrators who actually can get the paint on the walls. Coping with this kind of stress and not giving up really shows who these two men have become. Thanks for praying for this need.
I have also been asking prayer for Pastor Joe Boyachek from Richview Baptist Church in Etobicoke (Toronto) who is struggling with very difficult health issues. Sadly, a couple of weeks ago he was taken off of the liver transplant list which he had been on for his damaged liver due to several years of Crohn’s disease and more recently cancer. Please continue to pray for Joe and his wife, Heather and four young children as well as the future of the church. Contending with such heavy family health problems is another factor in shaping us for good or not so good.
No matter who I believe I am or have become I am very grateful that God knows all about me. Gary and I read Psalm 139 together the other day. What a beautiful chapter that provides insight into God’s understanding of each one of us. And oh yes, He knows about the bewilderment we feel over not selling our house yet.
Serving Him still,
Wendy
wendy.carter@kainos.org