Well we are now living in a cute little cabin on the Okanagan Lake. We feel like we are on holidays except Gary still has a couple of weddings to do. The weather has been fantastic, in the high twenties to low thirties, a great time to be living on the lake. I got to go camping with the twins and their class for three days and we had a great time. We are busy finding people to feed us and we have had most nights taken care of so far,HEE HEE. We feel very loved!!! Well that is all for now. Chow.

Here is a pic of Lauren in her beautiful Irish dress. Thankyou Lauren!
We also wish to thank Thor Sundvick, Grant Nixon,Judy Schneider, Maryann Chartrand, Stephanie Erdt, and Eric Scramstad for sharing, we know it was hard to be center stage sharing your heart. Big thanks to the Back Porch Gospel group and all the others who organized the evening, not forgetting Cheryl Davies for the cake.

On Sunday June 4, there was a gathering at Summerland Baptist to say goodbye to us. There was many people who shared how Gary had affected there lives while he was pastoring here. It started with Thor Sundvig and how when he first met Gary all he could see was his earrings, but as he got to know Gary and his heart to serve God, he saw Garys true character. He even honoured Gary by putting on earrings!! The generations were all covered as others shared how Gary had touched their hearts and led them to our Lord Jesus. Lauren Nixon sang a beautiful Irish song and did an Irish dance. The mens choir also honoured Gary by wearing earrings and a couple put on wigs to look like Gary, Hans Vandermay even shaved off his moustashe for the first time in decades we hear!! They sang a song they made up to send off Rain Happens and even popped open a few umbrellas. Make sure you click on the pics to see the earrings up close up, such a hoot! The evening wrapped up with a beautiful watercolour painting of the Summerland landscape painted by Ken Ballintyne presented by the church.Before we went downstairs the whole gathering came togeather in a big group hug, layed hands on us and prayed for us. Then we all held hands and sang one of Garys favorite songs, All for Jesus, led by our son in law Luke. Quite an emotional time as a couple hundred of us held hands and sang. We then went downstairs for some cake and an open mic time for people attending to comment. I, Denise, even got a few praises. Then Gary gave his final benidiction, which I tried to take a pic of but my batteries had died, then we went home. It was a wonderful evening with tons of loven from everyone. We will miss you all.

This is a great picture of Summerland Baptist celebrating the end of going through the Story. It is a condenced version of the bible in cronilogical order. We went through it from Sept 05 to May with Gary and others speaking on each chapter on each Sunday. Many of the small groups in our church also went along with a study in their study times. It was a great way to get a general pic of Gods story throughout the history of man. Everyone who was there for the final Sunday released a balloon with prayers for family and friends and for the town of Summerland. Oh ya, the balloons were bidegradable!