A Journey from Canada to the USA

Thursday, 16 October 2008

A Journey from Canada to the USA
For those of you who do not get my occasional updates on our trip to California, I decided to post my archive of letters here. I will start with the oldest letter... so that you can read it like a story. Enjoy.

Saturday August 23, 2008 9:06 AM
Hey everyone,

I thought I'd just drop you all a line that we are safe and sound and still on our way to CA. We are in a hotel in Idaho Falls, Idaho right now. We'll drive through Idaho today and hopefully enter Nevada yet and go well through that yet. We were hoping to already be able to go to church in Bethel in CA but I don't know yet whether that'll work or not. We'll see.

So far the trip's been good enough... the scenery's great, especially Montana. We've had a big lightning storm (got some great shots of that!) as well as a good old fashioned western dust storm. That was almost freaky, and very mystical.. hehehe...

Anyway, we're taking a lot of pictures and I've gotten lots of good shots of lots of things, so some time when I am able I'll upload pics to facebook.

Gotta go then.... pray that we'll be protected and that we'll have only good attitudes while traveling together!

Love,
Crystal Dueck

Saturday August 30, 2008 4:50 PM
Hey friends!

How's it going? Our family reached our house in Redding, CA, Sunday evening. The house is large, and the back and front yards are big for city life.

We have many fruit trees, including pomegranates, grapes, almonds, white peaches, apricots, plums, and a couple more that I have no idea what they are. The grapes taste amazing and so did the plums (they have finished by now), and the almonds, it's the real thing, and I get to pick em right off the tree!! like WOW! heheh. The apricots are not quite ready, but they already taste good (don't tell anyone i ate one already! lol). As for the white peaches, apparently the "white" kind is very special, rare, and more delicious than the normal peaches. So i can't wait till those are ready, cause I LOVE peaches and we've got a big tree of em!!!

Also in our backyard is a large swimming pool. At the shallow end it's four feet deep, and at the diving board it's ten feet deep. It's AWESOME... I've swum in the pool almost every day... well minus a few, but lots already....And the temperatures are around 100 F. (maybe that's around 35-40 degrees, not sure, in C)

You may all have heard of the earthquake they had here in CA just before we came... wonder if we'll have one yet while we're here? freaky thought...lol. But did I ever tell you about the forest fires we're having around here? When my parents were here a month ago, three weeks before we moved, the forest fires were so bad that they never until the end of the week realized there were mountains all around Redding because of the smoke.

Well, I think it was Wednesday, there was a forest fire ten houses down the road from our place. An evacuation was called. All of us besides Daddy and Cameron were not at home (in town shopping), but Daddy let us know that we could shop as long as we wanted cause the roads had been closed after getting the people evacuated. Lot of people's backyards and their trees were burnt, and also one camper trailer and barn and house were burnt a little (not TOO badly, but burnt nontheless). Daddy stayed home cause we don't have a phone yet so they didn't call us, and Daddy enjoyed watching the helicopters fly over our house (said the water had dripped on him while they flew overhead, lol) as well as how they scooped up the water out of the river near our house (we live very close to the Sacramento River).

We have friendly neighbors. Some of them have already come over to meet us and bring us cookies and offer if we need anything to just let em know. Nice people here!

I've been to one youth doing already, on Wednesday. It was really good, had great worship time and message. And I met three girls that could potentially become good friends of mine (there were like about 50 people there). One girl asked "So where are you from?" I said "canada" and she just kinda kinda screamed "woohoo!!! no way you're kidding!!" She hi fived me. "I love you now! I LOVE Canada!!!!!" she said. heheh so not every american dislikes canadians lol.

We've also been to church here already, on Friday evening (yesterday). I LOVE the church here! It's so alive and FILLED with God's Spirit.....miracles happen as a normal part of their life! it's incredible!!! You have to experience it to know what i mean....it's just great....

Well anyway... that's i think about it for updates. Oh, well, besides that my sisters started school and are taking ballet classes.... and my parents' school begins Sept. 16. Dylana and I began our schooling on thursday.

Right now it's 95.0 F outside now (about 34 C or so i think... not as warm as usual).

Well then please write me!!! If you want phone numbers or address please email me. I love yoU! And I miss you!

Love,
Crystal...

Friday September 19, 2008 4:58 PM
Hey everyone,

I think it's been a while since I've last written you, so here we go again.

It's still warm and we would not think of wearing jackets outside, but it's not hot anymore. Or maybe it's just this week that it's been cooler. But the temperatures have dropped to 77 deg. F (25 C)... that's what it is today. Probably mainly because it's very cloudy now. Rainy season for us is supposed to be in December... but who knows what it will do between now and then.

Before this week though, I remember saying to Dylana "It's amazing how steady the weather is here. Day after day, you know it will be hot and cloudless, basically without exception - whereas in Canada, you could never know from one day or week to the next whether it would be sunny, rainy, cold, or blistering hot."

Dylana, Andrea, and I have been going to youth doings on Wednesday nights. It's good there... but it's hard to get to know people there cause there's 50+ people there. Andrea, however, has school friends there and immediately joins them every time.

I would like to give you all a testimony of God's love and faithfulness in my life. As some of you know, my first few weeks here were difficult because I'd left all my friends at home and had no friends to come to out here. Now, I know that it's to be expected not to have new friends before you've been at a new place for a while. But I'm the type of people person I need friends, I love being with friends and having people to talk to and socialize with.

Well, on my third week here on a Sunday evening, I met a Canadian couple at church. She offered to pray for me. I accepted. She prayed as God revealed to her what my needs were and what it was He was promising me. She prayed that I would make lots of friends and not feel left behind because of my homeschooling and not having so much chance to connect with people. Then she specifically said, "And God, I ask that within the next one week Crystal will meet and connect with people, and she will KNOW that it is you who set her up with them to have lasting friendships!"

I wholeheartedly agreed that friends in the next week would be awesome, but little did I know how to the dot exactly God would OVERFLOWING-LY answer her prayer for me! Oh my God thank you!

Let me tell you, that very night I connected with two girls, and the connections just kept being made through the rest of the week....

EXACTLY one week after that evening, I counted all my friends. TWELVE. Yes you heard me, TWELVE friends! I was so astounded! And so touched I just wanted to dance and sing! My heart just overflowed and late at night I ran to my parent's room to tell them the good news!

Now obviously, I'm closer to some of them than others. I think at least 6-8 of those twelve will be lasting friendships. I am so grateful to God for answering the cry of my heart and blessing me with such special favour as to give me so many friends in our first few weeks here.

Mommy and Daddy's school started on Tuesday. They enjoy it! Of course they haven't gone long enough for me to know very much to write about it yet.... Cameron loves school too! It's actually a Preschool thing similar to daycare. Me and Dylana stay alone at home and home school with A Beka curriculum as usual, while the other girls go to Bethel Christian School. Andrea, Jocelyn, and Terrilee are loving their ballet classes. Andrea was at her first volleyball practice yesterday (apparently this team is a travelling team!) Andrea is also a vocalist in the grade 7-8 worship team.

I will go to the Bethel Missions Language school, taking the Spanish Intermediate. This starts on Sept. 24, which teaches Spanish for ministry. I'm really looking forward to that! I am also getting involved in Core Groups, which is a tiny gender specific group with three people under the leader. It's basically for spiritual training/growth together as a group.... And for me, it's partly also to get to know a couple more girls!

Today the girls have Minimum Day, which means school's out at noon. So Jocelyn has her best friend Marissa over. They're having fun!

Oh yeah, you may find this interesting: As you know, there's like 800 or so people from all over the world here now for first and second year training at the Bethel School of Supernatural Ministries same as my parents. Well, obviously, that means that not everyone has room in the sanctuary all at once. So all the first year students (making up about 700 out of the 800 people) are rotated on schedules as to which services they can go to. My parents will be able to go to Sunday 8:30 AM morning services and the Friday night 7:00 PM services until January. Now, because the church gets so full, being there half an hour early is NOT early at all! That's when the doors open after people have lined up in front of the closed doors like people waiting for a concert. Obviously though the early morning service is not as full as the later morning service at 10:45 AM. But my parents' Revival Group has to always sit in the overflow room, affectionately known as the Bethel iMax. After that, in January, my parents are scheduled to go to the Simpson church services (9:30 AM) and Sunday night services (6:00 PM). You see, Bethel sends a team to Simpson University 1 mile from Bethel to have services there, starting I think this Sunday or something. Clarice, I thought you would be interested in hearing that.

I am still debating whether I want to go the same ministry school as my parents are going to or if I want to go to Simpson next year. One of my friends here go to Simpson..... We'll see where God leads me.

Okay well that's all I can think of right now... So until later... God bless you all!

Missing you,
~Crystal~

Sunday October 12, 2008 2:34 PM
Hey everyone,

I hope this email finds you all warm and joyful! :) I must admit, here in Northern California it is very Canadian-like in weather - today it is 17.7 deg. C ! Cold wind... brr... But the sun is shining and it's not snowing... hehe. In spite of how cold it is today, Terrilee and her friend Amy from New Zealand went swimming in the pool today (only for 5 minutes, I might add!). Nobeody's gone swimming for like at least two weeks. I always wear my hoodie when going anywhere. Not a winter jacket, no; but a hoodie, just enough to keep warm.

I am sorry to miss Canadian thanksgiving. Me and Dylana are certain that we will definitely have our own Thanksgiving Dinner on Monday! Guess we'll have to wait for November to celebrate with the Americans.

Today after church we took some pictures at church to send to friends and family. I'll put those on Facebook. We took family pictures by the Alabaster House, which is basically a prayer house that is open 24/7 so anyone can go inside for quiet time with God. Outside the Alabaster House are lovely trails and gardens, with benches and even a foutain/pool (on which is inscribed Pool of Bethesda) It's really peaceful and beautiful, and I love going there. I took some pictures of the Canadian flag along the driveway up to church! You see, all along the LONG road up to church are flags of many different countries - they call that road The Avenue of the Nations.

Our backyard is completely fenced in, so we do not have Chomperz in a leash. But he's always desperate to come out. He's escaped three or four times already. The first time he escaped, he ALMOST got hit by a semi. That's when Daddy hurt his leg from running against the curb while running after our dog. The times Chomperz ran away after that were easier to catch him though.

I am taking Intermediate Spanish at the Bethel Missions Language School. It's basically learning Spanish with the goal of being able to go out on the streets and minister to the Spanish speaking people. I really enjoy it.

My parents are enjoying their first year of BSSM (Bethel School of Supernatural Ministry). As part of their training, they have to choose an outreach. Mommy is doing Community Outreach, and Daddy is doing Treasure Hunts/Pastor on Call.

For community outreach, they make food in Bethel's kitchen for the poor. Mommy's group takes that food and goes out to the city and goes to motels where the poor live and give it to them, pray with them, and build relationships with them. As for the Treasure Hunts. That's a special missions, where Daddy's group will gather to pray to God for guidance, and then go out to wherever the Lord leads them, and there they'll find people and pray for them. It's really amazing the things that God does during those times! The other part of Daddy's outreach is Pastor on Call, which is basically a ministry to the public schools. As a pastor on call, Daddy will be there to talk and pray with junior high students in public schools.

I went to my first Core Group last Tuesday, and I'm really excited about that. A Core Group is a small group of 4 to 8 people (in my case, just girls) and we get together every week and get to know each other. We make connections and grow in the Lord together and hold each other accountable and pray for each other. Actually, today I'm going out with one of the girls in my group. Her name's Britney and she's 18. I'm thinking we'll become good friends... I hope so. God is good for providing me with people from week to week with whom I can be with and talk to.

Okay well, I hope you have a great weekend! I love replies, just so you know! Let's me know you actually read my email appreciate the update! I wonder what would happen if I said I'd only keep those on my mailing list that replied? hehehe. I won't do that, but... think about it.

I love you!!!!! And I miss you!!!!

~Crystal~

PS: The photo I attached of myself is one we took today at the Alabaster House.

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