The Tenacious Toews!: August 2008

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to be a democrat in a communist country? Or a "bloc Quebecios" member in a western province? Or a non-mennonite in Steinbach? Hah! But seriously, imagine what it would be like to live a completely opposite life to what your "kingdom" was telling you to live. How impossible! I would probably take the next plane out and find people of my own kind! I have visions of everyone around me looking at me like I am a fool for not living how they live. And no one wants to look like a fool!

Well, Kenny and I have recently experienced a bit of that. As you know, we have been very focused on our renos. We've been planning, dreaming and working for months on this house. I have spent all summer painting. Kenny has been planning out then new deck he will be building. I have been scoping out carpet deals (for those of you who don't know, I have flooring issues. I need nice flooring. NEED. I hate our navy blue berber carpet and our white flowery ripped lino). It's been busy but fun. And it's been our world, our kingdom and our focus. Not that doing renos is wrong. Actually, I have felt quite good about the whole thing. Sure beats paying $500,000 for a brand spankin new house! But we came to realize that there was another kingdom at work while our kingdom was carrying on.

We met with some old college friends a few weeks ago. Hadn't seen them in about 12 years. They have been working for YWAM in California and doing missions in Fiji all the while raising 3 kids and raising their own support. And they have seen some really cool miracles (finanical provision, limbs growing, broken bones instantly fixed, and 2 year olds seeing visions)! Their stories were inspiring to say the least. Anyhow, the day after we hung out with them Kenny "coincidentally" (I don't believe in coincidents) spent the day working alone. So he ended up spending the day praying while he worked instead of swimming half naked in the river with his co-workers! Meanwhile I spent the day finishing the painting and thinking about spending the next morning at the carpet stores pricing out new floors. Oh joy!

Then Kenny came home with a quivering lip and red eyes. His words were as follows, "I spent the day with God. He is asking us to give something to Bruce and Natasha". Ok, I'm thinking. That's fine. Then he says, "I think we are supposed to give something fairly substantial". Hmmm, my mind immediately goes to our bank account. I am remembering how much money we have in it and what size of cheque we could write. Then Kenny says, "Ok, I just have to say this: God is asking us to give away our van". SAY WHAT? Not our really nice, fairly new and worth over $10,000 van?? Did someone just punch me in the gut? My eyes got buldgy and his eyes got watery. And yet, as soon as he said it I knew it was what we were supposed to do. I also knew that our new deck, new carpet and new lino would turn into another vehicle purchase for us.

I didn't want another vehicle. I wanted new carpet and lino. I wanted a nice new deck to sip my slushy beverages on. I would have to sacrifice all of these things and spend that money on an older, not as nice vehicle for our family. Ouch. And yet, the ouch feeling also had a huge measure of peace and excitement in it. I was in awe of what God wanted to do. I was humbled that he would choose such self focused people as us. I was excited about such a great family getting such a nice van (they had no vehicle by the way and they were moving to Alberta in a week). So, I looked at Kenny, said "yup this is what we are supposed to do" and then sat on the couch and cried as I looked at my blue carpet. Yes, sacrifice hurts. I could feel it. But that feeling didn't last for long!

The next morning we met Bruce and Natasha at a park. We told them what was going on. They were as shocked to receive as we were to give! We all hugged, cried and laughed. It was so cool! Then we handed them the keys and drove away in our rusty old car. It felt amazing. It felt crazy. And it felt totally right. It was awesome to hear Bruce tell us that they had been praying for a Dodge Caravan (which is what they now own) for YEARS! How amazing!

So now we own a 1998 Chevy Blazer. I never thought I'd own one of those, but in this new kingdom we are discovering the kind of car we drive doesn't really matter. You see, my kingdom tells me that I need bigger and better things all the time. My kingdom tells me that my blue carpet does not match my newly painted walls and that simply is unacceptable! However, this new kingdom that we have tasted tells me that my unmatched house matters nothing in comparison to opening myself up to be a part of these miracles that God wants to do. I am learning that sometimes God likes to take the stuff that is "mine" and give it to someone else instead. Maybe that is money, maybe that is my sacred time, maybe that is my vehicle or my food. And I am learning that it feels amazing to be a part of all that. And it goes completely against any sort of human wisdom I have ever learned!

Now I am no saint. I am just as selfish as the next guy. Just because we did this one thing does not mean we are all of a sudden some sort of heroes. No, we have said "no" to God more times than we have said "yes". But for some reason, we had this moment in time a few weeks ago where we allowed ourselves to see into another kingdom and it was awesome. I just pray that those moments will become more than moments and that I will learn to walk in this new kingdom more and more. Not that I want to keep giving vehicles away or anything! But just that I want to be open to the fact that God may ask some wild things of me in order to bless someone else. And if I'm totally honest, I know there will be many more times when my kingdom wins. But my prayer is that God's kingdom keeps winning more and more battles in my life so that I can be a part of something bigger than myself. Something bigger than this world.

I hope you all know that this blog entry is not meant to glorify our actions. I can't tell you enough that we are just ordinary, selfish people who really want to do our own thing all the time. But I wanted to write this blog to share what we are learning and going through. And hopefully something in this story will inspire you as well! Who knows what amazing things God wants to do through your life!

The DeHoog Family with their new van!

Our new vehicle

And here it is, the blue berber carpet!

Here is our lino. Oh yah, and here are my cupboards in mid-paint!

Is it August already? Where has the time gone? Sorry my blogging skills have been slacking somewhat in the last few months... I have not forgotten, just been insanely busy.

In the last month and a half I have moved our entire family into a new house, I have painted almost 1200 square feet of walls (I had to paint our entrance twice because I hated the colour), I have fed over 24 people besides my own family in more than 20 different meals, I have done piles of laundry after guests leave (think bedding and towels), I have spent 4 days at a doula conference in Vancouver, I have spent 3 days packing and unpacking for our camping holiday, I have spent 6 days camping during the only cold week of the summer (nice), I have hunted for a new vehicle to replace the van (now that's another story), and I am currently taking the kids to swimming lessons every single morning for the next 2 weeks. Who said summer was relaxing? Whew!

In addition to all of that, I spent a month doing that horrid diet. Actually after the first week or two it wasn't really hard. I learned so much about all the crap that is in the food we consume and things that I can do to eat better. If you have never heard of Hemp Hearts you should really get some. They have been the best addition to my diet. So healthy and so filling and so full of energy. I lost 8 lbs on the diet without trying any sort of exercise. I guess I had 8 lbs of sugar, butter, and cheese on my body! Now I am back to eating normally but my last trip to the naturopath proved very interesting.

She tested me for like 100 allergies. She found out some ones that are interesting but not that big of a deal: I'm allergic to evergreens (since when?), and alcohol (I could have told her that one, you should see my neck and face go beet red when I drink!). But the fascinating allergy is the allergy to cortisol. Our bodies produce cortisol when we get stressed. Well, my body is allergic to cortisol and the reaction to that allergy is to get more stressed and to have insomnia. Nice. Oh yah, my final allergy is to Gallic acid. Don't know what it is but the reaction includes insomnia. Nice again. That explains a lot to me about my mystery sleeplessness issues.

So, I am still on herbs and supplements, but she added a few. She "desensitized" my body to the allergies and is hoping that will help. And I am slowly getting off those pills. I am now on only 1/4 of a pill which is fantastic. It has been hard to do all of this with the massive amounts of company that we have had but it's coming along. There is a huge part of me that can't wait to be off the pills and feel so thankful that I am down to such a small dose. But there is another part of me that really doesn't care if I have to take them for the rest of my life. Really, all they do is help me fall asleep... they don't affect me during the day. I guess that attitude keeps me from getting stressed out about the pills but doesn't override the part of me that is determined to sleep without them. Because I am on such a small dose, I wake up many times in the night. But guess what? I can always go back to sleep on my own! YIPEE! Victory is happening!

Besides all of that, we have only one more set of company coming! I have loved all the visits, but I am down right exhausted. And reno work is coming down to finishing painting the kitchen and "crackling" the cupboards (our attempt at making ugly cupboards look cool).

My next post will contain the story behind the van. I will keep you in suspense until then. But while you wait, here are some summer pics to give your eyes a break from all my blabbering!

Margaret Falls with Kenny's parents