It’s been a while since I’ve written.  All our weeks in Moose Jaw have been vastly the same.  We slept without an alarm, which is glorious.  We spent 20ish hours a week at Joe’s Place prepping for Voltage as I was given the title of costume coordinator, which included coordinating costumes, hair and make-up for 35 characters.  Eddie was the designated shopper and prize patrol and all around problem-solver extraordinaire .  We caught up with many, many old friends and even reconciled some strained relationships.

We had the opportunity to help a friend house sit which was wonderful and provided some order and consistency to our life.  Moving around continuously has been by far the most difficult thing with traveling. Having our own space has been huge for us.  

Being in Moose Jaw has been a mixture of emotions for us… me especially.  The pace of life, as I talked about in my last post, is so very different than what I’ve become accustom to.  Product availability here is also not what we’re accustomed to.  My organizational OCD has been “deprogramed” to the chaos that is youth ministry.  When we headed up to Edmonton for Christmas we really felt that our experiences confirmed over and over again that this is probably not the place we’d want to end up permanently.

And then everything changed. Allan Buchanan was my pastor at Hillcrest Church and therefore my boss for the 8 years I spent at Hillcrest.  Allan passed away while we were away for Christmas, which really began this switch to nostalgia.  Our first day back in Moose Jaw from Christmas in Edmonton we attended Allan’s funeral. We spent the day celebrating the life of the Godliest man I have ever known all while being surrounded by people who have been loving and nurturing me since 2003.  It was sad because he is no longer with us, but Allan leaving an incredible legacy and now being in the glory of Jesus is something to be celebrated! We then jumped right into prepping for and then rocking Voltage the very next day. It’s like “Cheers,” it feels so comfortable.  Everyone knows us.  There is a lot of history.  I’ve walked around that church literally a thousand times… I could do it in my sleep. Though the thing about Voltage is that it’s surreal… it is a high like no other, but it’s not real day-to-day life.  The other thing about Voltage is that staying up for 24 hours when you’re 30 is different than when you’re 19.  This was my 9th Voltage and my recovery this time was by far the worst. I managed to stay away from all my usual Voltage vices (Slurpees, pop, chocolate, burgers), but even so, my body is telling me that it’s not so happy about that little stunt.  Haha

We have one more day of recovery before we make our way to Montana and start the epic road trip that will be the next few months and I am feeling as warm and fuzzy about Voltage/Joe’s Place and Moose Jaw as ever.  It was really really good to be here.  We’ve learned a lot.  The thing that I keep learning is that you can get further by not knowing all the answers. Exploration and innovation is more important than the answers.

Here is the Voltage Highlight Video!  Check Eddie out as Superman!

This is the final scene in the skit in the main session.

Skit group photo.  The 35+ costumed characters were my responsibility.  I even got the chance to do the joker make up personally!

Here is the costume crew (Sean Gurnsey, Emily Karn, myself and my wonderful Husband) with the most complicated costume, the 9′ Groot!

And last but not least is a video that Eddie made of Groot which he put all of the finishing touches on (moss and paint).  Eddie was also on Groot duty during the night for touch ups as well as getting the actor in and out of the costume and assisting him in moving around the building as needed. I am Groot!