happy birthday Canada!

Last year, I celebrated Canada Day with 3 wonderful sisters in Christ in the great outdoors of Banff National Park. This year, I'm doing the same thing except I'm at Muskoka in Ontario and I'm with my family. We decided to have a little family retreat to the Muskoka Baptist Conference Centre. It's a neat little place and really beautiful. We haven't gone on a trip with just the five of us in a long time. I was reminded of why we stopped! :P haha... well I don't care how good of a relationship people have with their families but I am almost certain that every family trips has its trying times and happy times. There is bound to be arguments and impatience with one another.

Fights during family trips is infamous in my family and inevitable. But we always get over them, as if nothing had happened. What made this trip so special this time was that we actually spent time in prayers as a family. We shared with each other our struggles and worries and then lifted each other up in prayers. This family prayer time actually just started a few weeks ago. We pray with one another once every week. It's a little wierd... not really comfortable sharing with my parents... but it's something that my dad has really enforced. I guess now more than ever we have to be strong as a family and continue to connect and support each other since I'm leaving soon.

It's funny... I was reading my blogs from last summer. It's actually really cool that I blogged each day and I'm able to read back on what I did and thought while in Calgary. There was one blog where I wrote about moving back home for my last school term because I had a feeling that it might be the last chance all five of us would live under the same roof and that I really wanted to unite my family together because I had a feeling that a big move was going to happen in our lives. And boy, a big move it is!

Canada, you have been so good to me and my family. It's sad that I'll be leaving it to work in the States... it's also quite sad what happened to our beloved country this passed Tuesday. Equality? I'm all for it. Rights? Everyone should have them. Freedom? It seems we have too much... In a land which sings for God to keep our land, glorious and free, it no longer brings glory to our Father. Rather, we want the glory for ourselves and to shove God's commands back in his face. Oh Canada... how can I stand on guard for thee when I feel your morals, principles and values are no longer causes that I can fight for? I fear what's to come because of this... the repercussion will be great...

Father forgive us.