November Newsletter

Sorry it has taken so long to get the latest family update posted... I updated my facebook status yesterday saying, "I'm really tired and yet thanking God for so many blessings: Sarah, Caleb and baby#2, the continuing ministries of the Prairie Tabernacle congregation and Prairie Christian Academy." I had a number of congratulatory replies... and thus I was reminded that I've been negligent to communicate regularly with my friends and family. So... finally... here it is...

In case you had not heard, baby#2 is due December 20. Sarah's pregnancy has gone quite smoothly. Caleb is now 20 months old and is a growing boy, happy (most of the time!), and enjoys playing with cars, trucks, tractors, and watching movies about those things... or about Winnie-the-Pooh or VeggieTales. He's developing new words each week. We're not sure what he thinks about baby coming, though he does like to give kisses to baby (Sarah's belly) after we read our devotion book and say our prayers each night.

After a restful summer, school resumed for Steve at Prairie Christian Academy (PCA) at the end of August. Although student enrollment was down a bit this year, these are exciting times at PCA as we anticipate a new school being built, with construction possibly beginning in Spring 2010. Meanwhile, the day-to-day events of a regular school year continue. Steve has responsibility for co-ordinating both the elementary (K-6) and secondary (G7-12) chapels. It is a real joy to see the students respond to the message of a particular chapel or to hear how God is at work in another part of His world through a chapel speaker. In addition, Steve tries to connect with the various local churches through the Three Hills Ministerial, advise individual students, and oversee the two cross-cultural teams who will be going out from PCA soon: one to Bogota, Colombia in February and one to Greece in April.

While Steve's "at the office," Sarah keeps very busy with Caleb, as well a full-time mom. Sarah continues to participate in the Mom's Time Out group with our church, though this fall, she has switched to the Tuesday group (and not because her mother-in-law is the facilitator of that group!) In fact, the real reason is so that Caleb can experience the child care provided by... Grandma Dorothy! Sarah has stayed a bit connected with the Wednesday morning MTO group by helping with childcare for that group... and thus Caleb gets to enjoy the nursery Tuesday, Wednesday and Sunday! We continue to be blessed by our local church, the Prairie Tabernacle, and host/lead a small group with four other couples who also all have children 3 years old and younger. Steve continues to serve on the elders board, as well as serving on the local Three Hills Area Food Bank board and the Three Hills Thrashers Jr B Hockey team board.

We are so blessed to have our immediate families in Three Hills, grandparents as well as cousins and uncles/aunts.

Hope to hear from many of you before Christmas, though all I will promise is that after baby arrives, we will post updated photos on the blog. May His Joy be yours today and throughout the new year.

Steve (for Sarah, Caleb and ?)

Preventing your leadership from being "DeRailed"

As a Thomas-Nelson book review blogger, I checked in to Michael Hyatt's blog and found info on a new book by Tim Irwin titled DeRailed. Although I did not qualify for a free copy of the book, after reading Hyatt's summary it looks like an interesting read. Even more interesting was the link to an online self-assessment tool which was easily completed (user-friendly and takes 5 minutes as indicated).

Even more "interesting" that I should read just a few hours before seven of our nine Prairie Tabernacle Congregation elders plus two pastors head to Salem Acres for a 24-hour "elders retreat." Pray for us! Have a good weekend!

"How to make a bad mistake worse" brought to you by AHS

Not that the last week in Alberta didn't already give us a lesson on how to mismanage fear, but now Alberta Health Services has just given us a wonderful example of how to make a bad mistake worse.

First, the H1N1 vaccine roll-out in Alberta was poorly thought through. The plan was "if you want the shot, line up and get it." So that's what people did. The plan didn't consider "we need to get the at-risk people first. It didn't consider the seemingly obvious fact that at risk people - children, pregnant women, and people with underlying respiratory conditions - are probably not the best populations to have standing and waiting in lines for a couple hours (or more), especially outside in Alberta in late October.

Thus, the action plan for getting the shot to the people was poorly administered causing great frustration for all, and those who were most at risk were not given any preferential treatment to get the shot. However, my beloved Calgary Flames apparently did get "preferential treatment." I was privileged to watch the Flames versus Detroit on Saturday, Oct 31. To know now that they received the H1N1 shot on Friday makes sense... their arms must have been sore from the shot because their hockey shots on goal were pretty flimsy most of the night! (Okay and Detroit's defensive system really is quite good.)

But now, AHS decides to "fire the senior staff member who approved giving the Flames players and their families the flu shot." Perhaps it was an error in judgment and it does make AHS look bad to give a group of professional athletes the ability to "jump the line." But really... is this what made AHS look bad? Is this their key mistake/flaw?

There's plenty of other organizational, communication and administrative problems for AHS to deal with... firing the guy who arranged for the Flames and their families to get the shot is not the real issue. The guy made a mistake. He should have thought through the implications of how his decision made the Flames and AHS look. Ask him to apologize for his mistake and when Mr Duckett wants to cut health care administrator's bonuses, then here is one guy who doesn't get one next year. But to single out this administrator for termination amidst all the others who seem to be bumbling about?