Pari is with us! Well after many, many prayers- Pari is finally in Canada. Yahoo! A joyous greeting party met her as she landed at the Vancouver Airport. The greeting party included TWU's Amy Alexander, current TWU nursing student Sureyah Tach (Cambodian student graduated from Logos International School a couple of years ago), Sureyah's homestay Mom- Michelle Regehr, and us- the Weiss pack. After waiting over 2 hours+ for her to get out of the Vancouver Terminal (and we seriously started to think
she may have missed the flight) SoPari finally came out. As an aside, every time we thought it might be Pari, we started to wave the mini Canadian flags and cheer- only to be disappointed over and over. We were starting to lose hope and the energy to wave those very heavy mini flags but we perked up after we finally saw her come out of the private glass doors to the public meeting area. She looked happy to see us but fatigued. After some relief and hugs, the whole group all headed back to Abbotsford
for dinner to a home we are house sitting. Pari did great to stay up to 9 pm but she probably started to glaze over about 3 hours earlier. I got the hint when I realized she was sipping her food and eating her drink! Kidding. The next day Pari helped us move to a different location of Abbotsford and where we will now be house sitting for the next couple of weeks.This upcoming week we are heading into Trinity to figure out Pari's school schedule and all those many International student details to work out with her. At this time I think it is probably good for Pari that we are her homestay connection. She knows who we are and that must give her an easier feeling about coming to 'The Great White North' (haven't shown her those old Bob and Doug clips yet but plan to). We can also understand a bit of the culture she comes from. For example, as we buy Cambodian rice (apparently Pari says this rice that Les has bought is 'very good') and serve it for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
Some final thoughts and prayers for you all to consider. Please pray that Pari will adjust well to TWU life and Canadian culture. Continue to pray for her health and wellness as she is away from Cambodia for such a long time. Please pray that we can find some kind of car pool to TWU from our place. Please pray she will acclimatize to the Great Canadian Blizzards of Abbotsford (OK that last one was a bit of a joke). Ha Ha!
(By the way- we have found a place to live in East Abbotsford- about 30 minutes drive from TWU). We also don't move into that place until Sept long weekend. However, we thank God for helping us find a place that can work for us and has the room we needed for Pari. To the many of you who have been a part of Pari's getting here so far- I want to extend a large thank you. Although it has been a great accomplishment to get here, I also know that many of you are committed to continue to pray and support Pari's 5 year journey as she studies and lives in Canada.
Now although this posting has been a large Pari segment- please continue to pray for our other Cambodian student Sureyah Tach as he enters year three at TWU. He is one awesome guy who has been blessed with an awesome homestay family in the Regehr family. On top of working in the nursing program, Sureyah is also working at the "Globe" dorm (this is the international students' dorm -which I am told according to Mindy Kozloff- "this gig is a great honor"). Way to go Sureyah!
Blessings,
Dean
