Seventh Day Off in Ontario - 5th of July 2015

When we visited Fort George on Tuesday, we saw an advertisement for a reenactment of the Battle of Chippewa. Since we so much enjoyed the reenactment that we saw last year on the East Coast we decided to 'check' this one out as well. Since this was on a Saturday, we again switched our days off. Last week was very busy and so we used Friday to clean the house and get everything back in order again. I also did some baking etc to take on Saturday and for Sunday.

I'm not going to give you a history lesson about the Battle of Chippawa but here or here is the history should you like to read about it. It was very 'bloody' and it occurred on that exact day. Again the reenactors had set up camps. It was VERY well organised with us parking in a nearby golf course and being transported by bus to the actual battleground. There were quite a few formalities since it had beeAmN

anadians to the day which we didn't all listen too but we enjoyed the action very much. The firing of the cannons was impressive as well as the firing of the soldiers. I just read a book the other day about the civil war in the USA and one of the criteria of being a soldier was that you needed to have your four front teeth. I wondered why but otherwise you can't tear open your pouch of ammunition to put it down your barrel! Interesting stuff! The reason that they fought in lines were that the guns were so inaccurate that there was a better chance in defending your 'plot' in lines than there was in single file! The war strategies have changed so much in the last 100 years, it is quite remarkable. Not that there is anything remarkable about war of course, it's terrible regardless of when in history it occurs!

Since we had had such a busy schedule we decided to go home 'early' and have an early night which we all needed. On Sunday we were going to Toronto and listen to Tim Challies from www.challies.com. We enjoy some of his writings and blog and thought that since we are in the area it would be nice to have the opportunity to listen to him.

Kate with her favorite horse

Grace

Go the English! (Grace)

Kate

American's getting ready for war

English/Canadians marching to war

English Cannons

American Cannons

Spectators :)

Out numbered

oh here they are, a bit late but better late than never

Apparently in the real battle the smoke was so bad that
you couldn't see your enemy hence the flags

English returning from battle

Native Canadians

American's returning

Albert and girls with the American Generals

Debriefing in style

Monument on site

The re-enactors campsites

Sunday 6th of July
We enjoyed meeting Tim and enjoyed his sermon on the 'demon possessed man'. The church was very multicultural which was very nice to see. On the way back home in the car, it was interesting to talk with Albert about some of the good, the bad and the differences between Tim's church and our denomination. One factor I hadn't thought off is that when you as a church are 'non denominational' there is no accountability and I'm sure in some instances, you are reinventing the wheel with regard to policies/procedures etc. This made me look with different eyes to our denominations. (ie URC. RCNZ, OPC). While there are frustrating things about a denomination, there is also much much to be thankful and comforting to belong to one!

I'm just so grateful that we are able to experience all these different churches, preachers, cultures and denominations (or non) which we don't/can't experience in NZ, this experience in my mind is just priceless. So THANK YOU to our supporters both in NZ, US and CA for giving us/me this experience, it is truly eyeopening and encouraging! We are looking forward to coming back with this rich experience and serving the Lord in NZ!