Jamie Fehr

Well, it really won’t be the last edition and L.A.S.T. is not some clever acronym that I came up with to illustrate a specific point, it is titled as such because this edition focuses on the closing of distinct chapter of my life. A chapter that was both long and short, exciting and dull, bitter and sweet but above now above all other things over. Life can never be the same again.

I am already what feels like an eternity into the long journey back home and in a what shall be a trying 20 hours, Lord willing, I will land in Edmonton International Airport. I wish that that were the last stop but even after four hours in train, 16 hours in planes, and way to much time spent waiting around for these things to get going I will still have a grueling eight hour drive back to my home town of La Crete. It would seem as though I come from an area as isolated as some jungle tribe in Guinea. And to make things all the more trying, In the last two consecutive nights I have only been able to get five hours of sleep each. A number of things came into play both nights but the fact of the matter is that even if I had wanted to sleep more it was beyond my control.

So what is it that I want to say? I am not sure, it’s entitled musings for a reason, I get to follow whatever format that I would like and make as many or as few points as I want to, so right now I think I shall try to put my thoughts and this last year into a short or maybe long list.

• On Traveling …
  I have visited 11 different countries in the last year (Spain, France, Belgium, Holland, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Italy, Malta, Sweden and Morocco), 12 if you count an overnight layover in London Gatwick Airport, but I really don’t feel I can do that despite getting a stamp for the country.

  Traveling so much has been a real eye opening experience for me, I now have friends and contacts from all over the globe and after seeing so many perspectives on the world my own has changed and I am know able to see things from a more international perspective. I highly recommend the expanding ones horizons through travel.

• On Saying Goodbye …
  In the last year I have made a multitude of friends and had to say goodbye to every single one of them. It’s been a lot harder leaving Europe then what it was to leave Canada. Leaving Canada I could always say that I’ll see you in a year but now I am leaving Spain with no real plans to return. I haven’t the slightest clue when I might see these people again, like I’ve said it’s been hard.

• On Language …
  I will come back to Canada more or less bilingual, there are words in spanish that I don’t know, yes, but if you were to drop me off in some middle of nowhere pueblo I would get along just fine with anyone that I might encounter. And I must say, being able to speak more then one language has enhanced my life experience tremendously. It’s really neat to be talk to people with very different backgrounds and learn how they see things.

• On Missions …
  I have noticed that there really aren’t enough missionaries, especially single guys, we’re a small and scattered group. I know that some people need to be there to provide finances for missions, but every time a great ministry opportunity came up we were always left wondering who is going to do it? We were all already so overwhelmed with the work that was at hand that a number of things are just sitting set aside for one miraculous day when someone might come around to do it. To put it less then subtly, Ok?