It’s Friday Five over at Revgals and today it is all about ‘firsts.’

1. Can you remember the first time you travelled a long way to meet someone special? As an ‘Air Force Brat’ we did a lot of travelling, one set of grandparents and extended family lived in Nova Scotia, the other in Manitoba and my father was posted to a variety of places over the years. So my childhood had a lot of meeting special people. The trip that looms the largest in my mind was the one I took when I was ordained and settled in a small community 1800 kilometers away in Ontario. I set out from Nova Scotia, with my yowling cat in the backseat, leaving behind my young adult son, my siblings,parents and all my friends, to follow God’s call and the church’s wisdom. I spent four years with them, I forged relationships and had experiences that have been foundational to my ministry in ways that I could not have imagined. I am still learning from those experiences. 

2. Share a memory of a first visit to a new country, state or place that was unexpected or unusual. The year we spent in my mother’s hometown when I was 7 or 8. There wasn’t housing available for us at my father’s posting, so my mother and the five children moved in with my maternal grandparents in a small town in southern Manitoba. It was the first time I met other children who had lived in one place all their lives, I could hardly fathom that. By the age of 8, I had lived in 4 different towns and 6 different houses. On Air Force bases there were always families and children coming and going, hospitality and welcome were part of the norm, as was saying good-bye. Friendships were forged quickly. That was not the case in a small town, with a stable population, where the children had known each other all their lives.  

3. What is the first thing you do on waking each day? Is it always the same? I would like to say that I get up and immediately spend some time in prayer… however, what I most often do is pick up my tablet and check my email… then go make coffee. Sometimes I will spend some time in prayer after that. 

4. Have you met up with other RevGals? Maybe at an event? Not yet, but I live in hope! 

5. Is this your first Friday Five? If not, can you remember the first time you played? I couldn’t remember, but my blog does! It was October 2014, so not quite a year ago.