these are my socks. my sad, sad socks. i don't know if you can tell with the dark shades....but there are 4 holes. why don't i just throw them out? hm, because they're special. they're special because not only do these beautiful warm socks (which i purchased in Finland) have 4 holes in them, they also have 5 patches which lenneke knitted into them for me. lenneke put her heart and her time into these socks for me...spending hours (or was it minutes??) stitching them together for me in Russia. *sigh* i remember those days. but, the day has come. that day is today. today i say goodbye to my beautiful wool socks.

HI HI HI HI HI HI HI HI HI

Armbruster family '07

"where have i been?" you may be asking....well i have been one busy little bee.

• first of all: for the last month i've been working 6 days a week. it's been good....some days it was a little overwhelming!!! a lot of books to be cleaned-ribboned-priced-picked-packed-and then set out! but on thursday we shipped out the last couple (by couple i mean 60) boxes of books and now it's time to rest before i get to do it all over again! :) this week-end my boss gave me a couple of days off and then on Monday we have a holiday! thank God for Thanksgiving!

• Every Thursday my friends char, kyla & I drive 45mins to winnipeg to take part in a little thing i like to call "african dance class". ok, so maybe it's not just something i like to call....it's actually what it is. yes, african dance.....and please don't ask any of us to do it for you....we still look like 3 white girls trying to dance like an african man! it's been a ton of fun....and we're learning! hey borgen dts '07.....have you guys been practicing your african moves?

• For my friday nights i've been involved as a mentor with the senior youth nights (grades 10-12) This is the first year that our youth group split the seniors and the juniors. so it's been something new...but i've really been enjoying it. being in a smaller group just makes it easier to connect and have good discussions with the youth. about half of the youth on friday night went on the missions trip to vancouver that i went on this july...so it's been good to maintain the connection and because we already have a bond, we can be honest and encourage each other through out our weeks. Yesterday we had our first outreach as a team together. man, it was amazing. i so easily forget how much i love/hate being put into situation where i have to rely on God, b/c there is NO way that i can do it with my own strength! then by the end of the evening i LOVE it, b/c God always comes through and teaches me something new! what we did yesterday was we split into 4 different teams. my team had 5 peeps in it, we drove out to winnipeg to an area called osborne village. for anyone who has never been to winnipeg: to sum it all up it's basically an area where there is a lot of culture, and brokenness mixed together. there is a lot of occult that goes down there and ya, it's just a really interesting area of the city where you see a lot of different people. just living their lives. while on osborne we went to a gas station and asked if we could clean up the place for free. the lady at first looked at us sooooo suspiciously! hehe, who would want to clean up a bathroom on osborne...and why? by the end though she was super friendly and said to me "wow, i can't really believe this....you guys came down to osborne to do this? wow, i don't usually say this....but you are really awesome." then on our way back to our vehicle we stopped to talk to a homeless man who was holding a sign asking for money. through our conversation he mentioned that he was waiting for a liver transplant, so we offered to pray for that and he agreed! i can't really say that i've ever imagined myself praying for someone on osborne...nope, but it happened! sweet God! i had an awesome group of kids on my team as well...they were super willing to serve and this was a first for a couple of them, so it was mightily stretching. i can't wait to see what'll happen next through these guys.

hm, it's 1:30am right now...and tomorrow is a day FULL of family gatherings and food! i'll need my rest now! for those of you overseas....tomorrow is the Canadian Thanksgiving! it's a day where we eat lots of turkey, mashed (or you may know it as "smashed") potatoes, and we thank God for all that he's given us. :) it's a pretty sweet holiday if you ask me!
bless you all!!
love, Mel

hmm, so it seems quite a few people are super duper interesting in the gift i received from the netherlands. :) well, let me fill you in then! i got a little notebook with a picture of a really cute little girl on the front...with her finger wedged up her nose! at the bottom it says "life delights in life" it's so perfect, i love it!! i also got a stud muffin bank card! hehe...i haven't tried swiping it yet, so we'll see what comes of that!
when i talked to bex and lenneke on skype on friday (which was a hoot, btw) they requested (or was it demanded??) more photos of me....so here you are ladies!! they're not all of me...but they're a few of my favorite pictures from this summer. most of them are taken by crystal (thanks) because my camera was on the fritz for a little while.

Isaiah, Luke & me

Auntie Steph & Isaiah

Shiloh and Me

Shiloh and Me

E-rock and me

Crystal and me
Pst....we stole those flowers from some one's garden.

Crystal and Lukie (roar!)

and that's all folks....it most definitely feels like summer is coming to an end. fall is coming: people are going to new places, doing new things. i'm sticking to niverville...trying to see what God has to teach me this year.

"Here it is again, the Great Reversal: many of the first ending up last, and the last first."
Matthew 20:16

well, Good God, so be it :)

my day was just made


i received a lovely package from a location called
Nunspeet, the Netherlands
Eeeeeeeeeeee! Thanks Lenneke and Bex! i can't stop smiling :)

random ramblings
warning: this is an insanely boring post...do not read if you are overtired or uninterested in the common life of myself.

well there's 15 minutes left of my friday workday. i'll be out for the week-end and i figured i'd just send out a little hello. my day today has been filled with youtube clips of the office. it's been pretty sweet. last night eric and i went to folklorama, i know that i for sure talked to lenneke about this wonderful winnipeg experience (definitely a plus for coming to visit me in the summer) for all you who don't know what it is, it's a cultural showcase that's up for 2 weeks every august in winnipeg. different cultures have pavilions in different locations to show off their culture. so we went to the mexican one...because it looked really good & eric happened to be wearing his mexican soccer shirt, so you know. and we also went to the scandinavian pavilion....need i say why? ok, it's because i was in scandinavia! the food looked strangely familiar, and although i couldn't understand the language, it made me smile. i love folkorama. i love scandinavia.
ok, i've got to go and close shop. i'm off to the cabin this week-end for a mentor retreat. and then on sunday night jules and i are off to see josh groban :) i finally got some of his music from chantelle....so i'm madly trying to learn some of it before hand. i have to sing along to at least one song, i mean, seriously!

see ya
wouldn't wanna be ya
bahahahaha

ok, i know, it's time. it's past time. it was time like 2 weeks ago. my only excuse is that i've been house sitting an air-conditioned-but-internetless house for the last couple of weeks and coming to my parents non-air-conditioned-internet house was not very appealling in the +40 weather we've been having. today though i'm at home working & thought i'd take a break and update you all....plus it's cooled down today to a lovely +26. you know something is seriously wrong when +26 is cool. but my final push back into updating this blog was the lovely helen wilson :) i feel really bad about not updating all you guys on the other side of the world. but i'm BACK, and i'm going to try SOOOOO hard to keep this puppy up!

so i suppose the major updating goes back to june 30-july 15. that was when i ventured out to vancouver with the Flying V's (the official name of our mission trip group) ok, where do i begin? maybe i'll start by saying i love our group. Mmm! we were all friends before leaving, but spending this much time together, doing the things we did & having this much fun made us tight. i don't have time right now to talk about what we all did, but i'll post some pictures here for your enjoyment :)

introducing: The Flying V's





































































































and this is the point where i turn 21
























p.s. eric made that dessert pizza

hey all,

i don't really have much to update....it's just that i'm craving internet time right now & i can't do anything but update this puppy & check my e-mail. so i guess i'll just babble. on monday i had a fantastic day with a fantastic friend. JULES. *insert three cheers* it was so much fun. we went to a mongolian restraunt and then we went over to winnipeg's pride and joy: the forks! we were walking around the little shops area when i looked into this window of a store & saw this plate that TOTALLY looked like the russian hand-painting. do you guys know what i'm talking about? like the red with the flowers, etc.basically the reason i'm telling you all this is because it was a russian store!!! basically all of the souvenirs that i picked up were in there also!! the lady behind the counter was talking to another person and i hear them say "privet" oh my gosh! i almost had to hold onto julia to make sure i was actually still in canada! :) it was so insane! and then also today i was at my sister, Ruth's house helping her get ready for a garage sale & i was going through this one box and i found a little wooden cross. not just any old wooden cross...but an russian orthodox cross! with the 3 posts (or whatever they're called) i took it home. do any of you guys remember what the 3 lines meant? anyways, so it was 2 trips down a russian memory lane for me this week.
it's been good. so since i can't read anyone else's blogs for another month....what are you all up to?

let's just get one thing straight.

that last post was NOT me. not one bit. hacker-crystal did it.















but while i'm on here...i may as well show you what i did tonight. i was helping my mom make roll kuchen (if you're not mennonite, you may not understand) and i got a little distracted. so i started making letter roll kuchen. normally they are big rectangles or triangles (like the one below) but i defied all laws of nature & formed K (for Kyla, a friend that's over) C (Crystal) and M (for Mel & Marge (or is it Mom?))

in other related news: i've renewed my love for switchfoot. they are just the funniest people & their music makes me smile. if you don't know them....well that's just too bad.

and in another related topic: just so everbody here knows: almost 2 weeks ago i started a 40 day fast with people of my chruch and people of the world. you can find out more info about it at this web page: www.fastandpray.com basically i'm staying away from all internet (except e-mail, updating my blog, and skype), movies, and tv. so i won't be reading anyone's blogs or myspace, etc. just so you guys all know. i'm still checking my e-mail so you can contact me there if you need to.

xoxox