BEAUVAL, SK

Mark and I are about to embark on a new adventure. We had only just arrived home after a month long road trip to Vancouver and back, when we got a phone call from a family friend. That friend gave us the number of their friends, who gave us the number of their son-in-law. You follow? It’s a little confusing. This son-in-law, let’s call him “A”, is a teacher in Northern Saskatchewan and was in Ontario for the summer with his wife and kids. During a visit, “A” had mentioned to our mutual family friend that the school he worked at was looking to fill some full-time positions. Our family friend immediately thought of Mark. She looked up M. Westman in the phonebook, and left a message. However, that wasn’t us because we don’t even have a landline. When she didn’t hear back, she instead called my mother-in-law and left another message. Unfortunately, my in-laws were in BC visiting Mark’s Grandma. So when she didn’t hear back again, I guess God decided to speed things up. The very first day that my in-laws arrived home from BC, they went to Costco and ran into our family friends whom they hadn’t seen in months. When my in-laws heard the story, they knew God was at work.

So last Wednesday when we came over to our in-laws (the very day of the Costco event), we heard the whole story. Mark called our family friend right away, got the number of their friends, who gave us the number of their son-in-law, “A”. Mark and “A” seemed to hit it off right away. “A” told Mark about the job opportunities in Beauval, SK, and after some prayers, we decided to apply. You see, as I’ve said before, Beauval is in northern SK (about 4 hours North of Saskatoon), and is a small town of 800 people. That deserves some goooood prayer time.

(click the map for more info on Beauval).

The position Mark applied for is the full-time itinerant supply teacher. Because Beauval is so far North, they need a supply teacher who lives in town, and will cover any class that needs it. The school, Valley View, is a K-12 school. So the position covers all the grades and all the subjects. If there is no classroom that needs covering, the itinerant supply will work with kids one on one, in the resource centre, or wherever the principal needs them to be. The position is full-time and takes home the regular teacher salary.

So Mark applied position on Thursday morning, and everything started happening really fast. He received a call back from the principal late that evening, and had a phone interview on Friday morning.  We had a wedding on Saturday, and Mark was reading some scripture, an of course during the ceremony we see that his phone is ringing! The superintendent of the Northern Lights School District left a message, but unfortunately left the wrong phone number! We tried calling back all day with no luck of reaching her. At about 1:30am when we got home from the wedding, Mark sent her an email. She emailed back the next morning with the correct phone number, and Mark called her right away. And yes, she offered him the job!

The next few days consisted of a lot of phone calls, a lot of paper work, a lot of excitement, a few tears, and a lot of packing. We had to be out of our place by the end of the month, so that meant packing up our place in 4 days. It was pretty exhausting, but felt amazing to be done.  It’s amazing though how much stuff we have collected over the past 2 years, and even more amazing that it all fit into our small basement suite. But we purged and boxed and stored and tossed and boxed some more, and we were out by Friday. We had some amazing helpers along the way, and we couldn’t have done it without them. We will always have those memories of moving out of our first home, and all the friends and family who were there to help us. So now we are living with my in-laws for the week, and all the stuff we are taking with us is sitting in their dining room.

So now some more details about our move. Well you already know we’re moving for the full-time itinerant supply position at a K-12 school, but is it really worth moving o far up North? Well we sure think so! First an foremost, Mark will be getting full-time (salary!) teaching experience with every grade and subject. On top of that, they provide us a moving allowance, so it won’t cost us anything to move up there. We are getting a hitch put on our car, and towing a small U-Haul trailer. It’ll be a 3 day drive, and we’ll stay in hotels on the way (a little more luxurious than all the camping we just did on our trip out West!). The school also supplies us with subsidised housing, and we are in a two-bedroom duplex with a basement and all appliances. Our next door neighbours are, guess who! “A” and his wife and family, who by the way, are also Christians. Have I mentioned how good our God is?! Rent is incredibly low, and we also get a Northern allowance that almost cancels out our rent. We do pay our own utilities and internet, however. We make the big move early in the morning on Sunday, September 9th.

I feel like there is so much more to say, but I think I will stop here. If you missed it, you can click the map for more info on Beauval. I just want to conclude by saying how thankful we are for this opportunity, and how excited we are. We are stepping out in faith here, as we believe that this is where God wants us to be. And we find peace in that. (2Corinthians 5:7) We would appreciate all your prayers as we embark together on this new chapter of our lives. Keep checking back for lots of updates and regular blog stuff!