THE CANNY CHRONICLES

"A Week on the Farm" w/ the Ellingsons We had a week in Wadena in between our services in Pequot Lakes and Pine River.  Stories from that week are soon to come.  Thanks again for checking in with us.  Blessings,  Bryan & Molly

Riverview Church-Pine River – Nov. 21, 2010 Saturday night was a church game night with about 30-40 in attendance. It was a good time to fellowship and just have fun. Sunday morning we split the sharing time with Aaron Brakefield. I (Bryan) had the privilege to lead the congregation in worship through music. It is always an honor to sing with different groups of God’s children. In his sermon, Aaron Brakefield challenged the Riverview congregation with this statement. “The mission is across the street AND around the world”. He then applauded their efforts in their own community. Quite literally across the street, the Riverview Church is fulfilling God’s mission. “The Warehouse” is one of the best community outreach centers I have seen and it is located just about thirty steps from the church door. This facility gives youth a safe and fun place to go after school and on the weekends. They have a full size gymnasium, a computer lab, a video game room with all the latest technology, and...

Grace United Methodist Church (Pequot Lakes) After a couple weeks of being close to the Minneapolis area, it was time to get back out on the road. We planned to drive the few hours up to Pequot Lakes on Saturday because the weathermen were forecasting just a bit of light snow near the Twin Cities. As we loaded the vehicle last Saturday morning it was easy to see the weathermen had far underestimated. When it was all said and done there were about nine total inches of very wet and heavy snow blanketing the Twin Cities and surrounding suburbs. We drove slowly while listening to the static filled broadcast of the Iowa vs. Northwestern football game and we arrived in Pequot Lakes early Saturday afternoon. Thanks be to God for His continued protection on the roads. With all the traveling on deputation we never want to take God’s protection for granted.  I want to share with you another story of God’s protection and provision. Pastor Diane Ciesluk shared with us a bit of the history...

NEW HORIZONS COMMUNITY CHURCH- Albertville, MN It was a real joy to be led into worship by our good friends   Mike Graff   &   Tim Lemmens . Mike admitted that it seemed a bit early for Christmas music, but felt led to sing  "O Come All Ye Faithful" . As we sang, I thought of the Magi (wise men) mentioned in Matthew 2:7-16. They journeyed to meet young Jesus. They "came to adore Him". Now the scripture doesn't say Jesus' exact age at the time of their visit, but King Herod was led to believe Jesus was around two years old. Can you picture that for a minute? Three wise men, bearing gifts, traveled many miles to bow down and worship a two year old .  Have you been around a two year old lately? In Luke chapter two we see Jesus at age twelve as a young scholar holding His own in the temple discussions. We know His great works in performing numerous miracles and of His sacrifice on the cross to forgive the sins of all mankind. We read about His temptation ...

We all have different experiences in our lives that hit us all across the emotional spectrum. We have good times, bad times, trying times, times of struggle, frustration, times of joy, laughter, peace, times with no answers, and times with all the wrong answers. We can often find ourselves in the place of being "fair weather Christians". We only praise God when times are good. Sometimes I don’t know if I would even give us that much credit. Sometimes when the “sun is shining” in our lives we don’t praise God for it, but rather just take its warmth for granted. Yet when the “rain is pouring” its all to easy to just blame God. This past Sunday, Pastor Bescye Burnett reminded us with the lyrics of a gospel song that no matter what is going on in our lives, “It’s all good”. God is in control and has a purpose for everything even when we cannot see it. We visited both United Methodist churches that Bescye pastors in Elyisan, MN and Janesville, MN. We saw a few smiling faces of ...

LYDIA-ZION We had the privilege of sharing at Lydia-Zion United Methodist Church (LZUMC) in Jordan, MN this past Sunday. I got the chance to see several of the youth from Red Rock Camp where I have served as a senior high boys counselor for the past eight summers. One of the boys I counseled, Mark Boettcher, serves as Sunday School Superintendent LZUMC. Mark might be the youngest Sunday School Superintendent I have known at only age 20 and he knows how to do his job well.  Mark & Bryan circa 2008...? I always enjoyed counseling Mark and his younger brother Alan at Red Rock, but little did I know that my connection would go further. This past year Molly and I both counseled at Red Rock Camp and also served as the Missionary speakers for the week. It had never come up before, but I found out that Mark and Alan are the nephews of Wayne and Cindy Boettcher who were formerly missionaries to Bolivia through World Gospel Mission. The church’s connection with Wayne and Cindy made...

DUBLIN GOSPEL MISSION “Lets run the ball a bit, then stop, drink some water and have a commercial,” he said in his thick South African accent. I never would have thought about meeting a South African family living in rural southeastern Indiana. Yet there I sat across the table from Walter Claussen at the Saturday evening chili potluck supper as we talked about the key differences between American football & rugby. Walter and his family are from Capetown, South Africa and have been attending the Dublin Gospel Mission in Dublin Indiana for the past year. Walter’s job brought him to Indiana and we were meeting them only a week before they returned to Capetown. We felt blessed that the timing worked out for us to cross paths. Hearing Walter speak brought up fond memories of my youth pastor, Ken Paynter, and his family who were also from South Africa near Johannesburg I believe. It is always very interesting to me the connections that we make along our travels. In Canby, Oregon we met...

Brashear, MO Brashear Community Bible Church When Pastor Shannon Perry mentioned an opportunity for us to help with a service project for a woman in his church we were excited to roll up our sleeves and work. Each week we speak to congregations about the story of how God brought us together and the ministry He has for us in Bolivia, but I never want to lose sight of the ministry that God has for us in each step along the way. We arrived in Kirksville, MO on Friday evening October 2 nd . We were really excited to stay with our good friends Chad and Kendra Stearman. Molly and I had chance to connect with the Stearmans and their little boy Chase at Camp Zion. Chad and Kendra will be taking over as the young adult directors at Camp Zion 2011.  Chad and Kendra have great hearts devoted to God, devoted to youth, and devoted to missions. They are also avid board gamers and enjoy Settlers of Catan. We had a lot of fun with them. Saturday morning (October 3) we arrived at the house in B...

It took us a couple days to travel between Canby, OR and Glendive, MT, but we were able to stop too see some friends along the way. We stayed with Dylan and Aubrey Does and got to meet baby Xavier Christian Does who was only about 2 weeks old and incredibly adorable.  We also stopped again in Spokane, WA to stay with the Schmidts. When we traveled west, only a couple weeks before, baby Caleb was just crawling but now he is walking all over the place. We spent one night with each of our friends. The last night before making it to Glendive, we spent with Chad and Emily Jackson and were able to hold baby Ellie Grace one more time. It is amazing to see how God orchestrates life. Each new life is a precious gift. Glendive, MN THE BRIDGE Have you ever been in a building or house and just felt the history in the atmosphere? We had this experience when we visited THE BRIDGE in Glendive, Montana. John and Kristen Marble lead a home church group in a more than 100-year-o...

We were truly blessed in the month of September to have a house provided by the Oregon City Evangelical Church. We used this as our home base as we traveled around the area. Canby Evangelical Church is only about a 10-minute drive from Oregon City so we were afforded a few opportunities to shake hands with the people of this congregation.  CANBY, OR September 26, 2010 Fun Fact: Canby is nicknamed “The Garden Spot”.  Some of you may be familiar with the names Kevin and Lisa Hoffman. Lisa’s dad, Gary Schuknecht, is the pastor at Canby Evangelical Church. Lisa and Kevin served as short-term missionaries in Santa Cruz & Mizque, Bolivia and just recently returned to the states taking on the position of Associate Pastor in Harmony, Oregon. With the Canby E.C. having this connection, they already had some basic knowledge of Bolivia, but it was fun for us to share some of our personal experiences from Bolivia.  We attended prayer meeting on Tuesday night, Bible Study on...

THE GROVE (in North Albany,OR) September 19, 2010 I have to tell a little story and slightly embarrass Molly to explain the title of this post. So we are looking over the schedule with our wonderful hostess Betty Larson as we are gathered around her home computer. Tina DeSimone did an amazing job of making sure we got time with many different groups of people throughout the weekend. She coordinated a great schedule for us for the entire weekend. On the schedule was listed the name of each event and then the host/hostess. One night we were at the Dodd residence. Another night we were with the Rileys. So Molly comments to Betty, "Wow that is really nice. This family is hosting a couple events. Who are the Grovers?" You could see as she verbalized it that it clicked in her brain that "The Grovers" referred to anyone from the church. Betty, Molly, and I got quite a laugh.  Hawkeyes disguised as Beavers As we set down our suitcase in our room at Boyd and Betty ...

YAKIMA, WA. September 12, 2010 It's no great secret that the life of a missionary on deputation is filled with introductions, first impressions, and the blessing of meeting all kinds of new people. As we anticipated our visit to Yakima, WA we knew we would experience a whole different kind of blessing. There is something very comforting about familiar faces.  We spent a few days in the company of Dylan and Aubrey Does and their son Ian. Dylan and Aubrey attended Vennard College with Bryan, but Aubrey and Molly have known each other since their childhood years at Bethel Camp in Minnesota. Aubrey and Molly were also on the same mission trip to Brazil in 2002. One other familiar face that weekend was Shirley Roehl(Aubrey's mom) who Molly and I know quite well as the Evangelical Church Missions Office Manager.  Shirley was in Yakima anxiously anticipating the arrival of her second grandchild. Aubrey was uncomfortably 2 weeks past her due date and we were...

PUYALLUP, WA. September 5, 2010 Growing up in Iowa I am used to different Native American tribe names. I grew up in Oskaloosa and Molly grew up near Sioux City. Both towns named after tribes. Oskaloosa was an indian princess and the daughter of Chief Mahaska. Growing up with this Native American knowledge was no help when trying to pronounce Puyallup, Washington named after the Puyallup tribe. Some say "Pea-y'all-up", while others say, "Puh-wall-op". I don't know if I ever pronounced it right in conversation. The pronunciation I am going with comes from Shelly Fuehrer's dad who lives in Yakima, WA. He told me to remember it this way. "If you aren't sitting in your 'pew' you're gonna get a 'wallop'.".  Our time in Puyallup was warm and welcoming. We had some great experiences and were able to connect with some really wonderful children of God. Like any good homiletics student I have 3 points, or words, to sum up our...

Thursday September 2, 2010 around 5pm (MDT) the citizens of Spokane Washington, if they looked up in the eastern sky may have caught a glimpse of a white, four-seater, Cessna type plane flying overhead at an altitude of about 5,500 ft. The pilot, Tyler Schmidt, is the husband of Molly’s college roommate, Renae. Tyler attended Moody Aviation in Spokane after graduating from Grace University where both Molly and Renae attended college. Tyler now works for the Spokane Turbine Center and is preparing to be a missionary pilot. We were able to stay with Tyler and Renae and their adorable 13-month-old baby boy, Caleb, for a few days. It was really good to spark up another great friendship with people Molly has known and loved for years. Luckily for me the Schmidts are board-gaming people. We played many games as well as having the opportunity to pick a few fresh peaches at an orchard one morning. Our whole time in Spokane was a blast, but the highlight was of course the plane ri...

Hello Canny Followers! We arrived in Oregon City. We are basing out of a house owned by the Oregon City Evangelical Church. We will be here for the rest of September. We will be posting about our adventures in Washington within the next week. This past week has been rather busy. I (Bryan) have been working on questions for my Doctrinal Exam for commissioning through the Evangelical Church. We visited the Starbucks to get some wireless connection and get this short update out.  Thanks you all of you for your support and interest in our ministry.  We Love You,  Bryan and Molly Canny

Recently Molly and I were comparing how many of the 50 United States we have each been to. After this trip out west I am creeping up on her 27 and taking my number to 24. One of the states adding to my number is Montana. Montana's official nickname is "The Treasure State", but it is more commonly known as "Big Sky Country". Both are incredibly fitting nicknames. I have found my fair share of treasure in this state.  Bryan's Top 5 Montana Treasures (in no particular order) 1) "The Bobcat Special":   A delicious turkey & roast beef sandwich at Montana's famous Sandwich Shop "The Pickle Barrel" in Billings, MT. Thanks for the free wifi Pickle Barrel. 2) Ellie Grace Jackson:   This adorable little 6 week old baby girl is the daughter of Chad & Emily Jackson and she captured my heart. Chad is Molly's "honorary big brother" because the Jacksons ministered in Santa Cruz, Bolivia with Molly for a couple years. I...