Tour Blog – Day 6
2026-07-23 — Alberta/Edmonton leg.
Ok guys, before we get into the blog for today, I have to tell you this thing that happened. Kanda Sampson — if you haven’t met her, she’s about the sweetest little eighth grader there is — was talking to Emily and me in Jersey Mike’s the other day, and mid-conversation this confused look came over her face. “Hey, wait,” she said, “are you guys married???” Emily laughed out a very reassuring, very puzzled “Well, yeah…” About that time Cailey Carlson walked up — you could just see the lightbulbs coming on — and Kanda said, “Are ALL the sponsors married???” Cailey just responded, “What did you think we were all doing here together?” To which Kanda, in the most innocent, completely earnest way, said: “I thought you were all just really good friends!”
Well, I guess we are good friends, Kanda. But I have so many questions…
Borders provoke a lot of emotion in people, for some reason. Walking into a post like this, talking about being in Canada, and borders, feels a little like I have to walk a tightrope. I’m sure there are plenty of you with strong opinions about what borders mean and how strictly, or loosely, they should be enforced. Love ’em or hate ’em, they’re there, but they’re weird.
We’ve been in Canada for two days now, tonight in Edmonton, and the people are the same. Mostly. There are differences, sure — road signs, spelling, money, accents, fuel priced in cents for some reason. But you know where there’s no difference at all? The border itself. It’s like someone drew an arbitrary line somewhere in Montana and just started calling the other side Canada. Both sides, exactly the same. Not bad. Just weird.
The differences between all of us were never really about the land, even though the land is what we fight over and protect the hardest. What’s actually different — what I think we’re really protecting — is the culture. Canada has real cultural and political differences of its own, even though on the surface it looks a lot like the United States. It isn’t. Like all of us, they want something to call their own, something to pass down to their kids, something bigger than themselves to belong to. I just wish we could let each other have that without so many guns involved.
So this is theirs, and we’re the guests. Even if the surface reads a lot like Cold-Kansas out here where they really, really love canola; there are fields of yellow blooms as far as you can see in every direction. It’s a real privilege to get to represent you, our country, and our faith while we’re passing through.
Unfortunately, the singing plans for the last couple of days have fallen through. Alberta Children’s Hospital couldn’t fit all of our singers into the space they’d offered — something about fire code, probably. And the retirement community we were supposed to sing at today had their venue flood out entirely. So instead of performing, we cut the kids loose in groups of four inside West Edmonton Mall — 5 million square feet of ziplines, roller coasters, and a hockey rink with actual youth teams practicing on it. All in all, a pretty good day anyway.
But the next few days are looking up. It’s all Banff from here. Lake Louise tomorrow, the Columbia Icefields on Saturday, then Golden, BC on Sunday before we cross back into the US. We’re now 1,682 miles from Saint Joseph — the farthest we’ll get from home this whole trip, edging out Golden by just seven miles. So if your kid has never left home before, it doesn’t get much more left than this. But every day from here on out we are a little close to home.
It’s about to get REALLY pretty.
See you in a few days,
Joseph
