On Canadian Soil

June 6th to 24th

I arrived in Vancouver at 5 in the morning.

Aisha, my cousin and very close friend, drove to Vancouver (a 16 hour drive.... alone.... it was truly a labour of love!)

Oh man it was good to see her.

Dreary and time-zone ridden,

she crept up on me in the Arrivals Gate and I screamed so hard with shock/delight/caught-off-guard-ness that she nearly spilled her hot drink!

We gave each other a big hug.

Then we took the ferry to Victoria, the city that I spent the last 1 1/2 years pre-YWAM.

Stayed with some friends in their "community House", and it was really nice.

Most of them have done missions/travelling,

so it was nice to see them first because they had some sort of understanding of me re-entering Canada.

From there, Aisha and I headed North to a small little "hippie Island" and lived off the land for 11 days.

We both loved it very much,

she's pretty much a lot like me, so she was really really perfect to be with,

as far as living outdoors and eating whole grains and willing to make a fire each day and willing to sleep in the forest and on the beach.

We had a lot of fun meeting local people,

eating berries off the bushes,

and exploring the gorgeous, untouched coastlines of Canada's west coast.

It was a perfect transition,

because I was in "Canada", but not really in "society".... we lived outside for 11 days and slept on rocks and such.

It was a great time,

rising and going to bed with the sun,

and doing lots of exploring and sitting on rugged cliffs covered in wildflowers and watching the ocean glisten in the sun.

We collected lots of driftwood, and found beautiful shells for making necklaces.

I also got to tesify about God to a traveling hitchhiker, and a man we met on the shore.

We also had great sunny weather everyday. I got really tanned!!

Anyway, when we got back to Victoria then I got to speak at my church and share about my time.... it was really cool and brought closure as well.

Then,

Aisha and I DROVE the 16 hour drive together to a town in East Alberta,

through the mountains, past the hills, and then into the prairies....

it was much nicer and slower to see the landscape change than to hop on and off a plane.

Here's a glimpse our venture up in the Gulf Islands.....

Canada, it's good to see you again.