Merry Christmas...

With less than 200 days to go before we leave, we are faced with many "lasts" in our life.  As a pastor, Christmas Eve services have always been pretty special in my world.  Unfortunately, mother nature, along with some questionable, politically motivated choices, leaves my churches without and power or running water or heat this Christmas Eve.

Here in southwestern Ontario we were hit with a CRAZY ice storm last weekend.  trees were down and power was out in many places.  3 days later we discover that out in the country there is a noticeable shortage of HYDRO 1 trucks (the provincial utility).   It turns out, that most (or maybe all) of their assets were sent to Toronto (our closest MAJOR city) to get folks there re-connected, leaving thousands of rural customers with no heat or power or water for days... A sad way to run things...

At the end of the day, for the first time in more than twenty years, I will not be leading Christmas Eve services...

That said, I hope that everyone has an awesome Christmas time with friends and family and we can't wait for next Christmas when we have promised our great friends, Mike & Margaret in Cozumel, Mexico that we will be with them!

Our plan is to leave home on July 1st and make our way slowly down the eastern seaboard until the end of hurricane season next November 1st. The first weather window after the end of hurricane season will hopefully get us to Cuba where we will make our way east along their north cast before we head to Cozumel in time for the beginning of December.

Sometime after Christmas we will head toward the windward islands and hopefully end up in Grenada in time for the 2015 hurricane season...  Lets all hope things go as we plan...

Again, Merry Christmas to all!