Happy New Year 2023

As we begin a New Year I like to look back over the past year... Last New Year's eve Shirley slipped on the driveway, fell and broke a tiny bone in her hand, the metacarpus... it's the bone just below the little finger.

It took her most of the year to recover from that fall. In addition to the hand mending, her back was damaged. Nothing broken, just painful bruising. Much better now. 

We also started the New Year without water. We found there was a hole in the well pipe. So we ended up replacing the submersible pump along with 560 feet of well piping. 

You know how things happen in three's? Not that long after I heard a different sound in the tractor... so thought I should have it checked out. The tractor was 20 years old, so it was time for a new one anyway! 

This broken chair, which we inherited from my father years ago, reminded me of the way life seemed to be going. It was beyond repair, so I cut it up for firewood. Fortunately, God has blessed us this year despite the broken things. I was encouraged by this verse in Ezekiel 34:16 where He said,

“I will seek the lost, bring back the scattered, bind up the broken and strengthen the sick; but the fat and the strong I will destroy. I will feed them with judgment."

In August we got delivery of our repaired tractor along with the new one. It only took a day to sell once Shirley posted it on Marketplace. Amazing!

Our neighbours, Russell and David agreed to go 50/50 on the purchase of a log splitter.  Before we even picked it up we had three more neighbours who were interested, so the cost of the splitter looked really good split by five.

You can see by the size of this tree how difficult it would have been to split these huge blocks by hand.

I had so much split wood on this load with my bucket extension the tractor could hardly move this to the woodshed!

We like to celebrate our anniversary with my sister Rose and husband Morian at Butchart Gardens. We were married five years and one day after them.

Our grandson Seth brought his soon-to-be bride, Barbara, to visit us, and we did the Edith Point hike together. They are now officially engaged.

Our family all gathered together at Cannon Beach for several days for Thanksgiving. How lovely to walk on the beach and see the sunsets.

This blue heron was walking with a purpose! We never had a day there when we didn't walk on the beach.

As we all left to return to our homes, we stopped for breakfast at Camp 18.  They call pancakes "Flatcars." They are huge! ...and be warned. Three is too many! Especially after we shared 2-12" cinnamon rolls.

For us to get about 15" of snow overnight is nothing like Buffalo, New York... but some years we don't even get snow. The good news it didn't stay too long, and once it warmed up and started to rain it disappeared in a day.

The most "Life Changing" thing for us this year was a decision we made in June to begin writing out the Bible. Before Gutenburg invented the printing press in 1492, the only way that the Bible was available to people was that portions of scriptures were hand written and shared. "What a great job," we thought, "to spend your life writing out God's Word!" 

So I Googled it up and was surprised to find there are people today who love writing out the Bible. It is a beautiful way to spend time with God and grow closer to Him. We decided that we would like to do it too. As soon as we wake up we start the day with prayer and writing scripture. We cannot believe how much we have learned. 

We are looking forward to the New Year with great faith that our Lord will continue to lead us to accomplish His plan. 

"The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make His face shine upon you and be gracious to you; and give you peace."  Numbers 6:24-26

Sherwin & Shirley Goerlitz

778-922-6750.   778-922-6751