Reading Break!

So, I realize that I haven't given you guys an update in a while, but that's because this past week I was in Saskatchewan! Last Thursday around 4 am, we all piled into the vans and headed for the ferry. That was just the beginning of our 27 hour bus ride to Briercrest. I slept the majority of the time spent on the bus and we watched movies and played some games. When we finally arrived at Briercrest, I was very overwhelmed. I had just spent 2 days shut up on a bus and then I was being flung into the craziness of what is YQ! To say the least, the weekend was soooo fun! Amanda Falk led worship, which was incredible! The speaker was really good as well, he could connect with all the high school students, and he was funny so it wasn't hard to pay attention. An illusionist was there, and he was SO good. I was so confused the whole time about how he did any of the things that he did! It was mind-boggling! The theme for the weekend was freedom, and I'm sure that it was great for some people. But it wasn't particularly for me. The main reason for me going, was to see Brianne and Peter, which I did! It was so incredible to visit with them where they live and just hang out with them! My Kaleo friends got a chance to meet some of my friends from home, and I loved that. Overall, the weekend was really good, and I had a lot of fun. I didn't get much sleep, but that was ok because I had the 27 hour bus ride back home to sleep. We got home Monday night and then there were still 2 days left of reading break! So, I just hung out here with a few other people, watched some movies, went on adventures. It was a sweet 2 days. Other than that, there has just been a lot of school work and boring stuff! haha...oh! I had my interview for Camp Qwanoes the other day. I don't know if I got the job yet, but I am really hoping so! But if I get the job then I start April 30th which means that I won't get to go home at all this summer. But we will see how things pan out! Here is a pic from YQ!

Gospels Week

What can I say about this past week except that it was stinking busy! We had class every day from 9-5:15...on a good day! Classes were sooo long, but they were so good. I think what made this week so hard was how much information was being thrown at us in such a short period of time. We wrote our exam today for Gospels and it wasn't too bad, but I do wish that I had more time to sit and think about everything that I have learned, but I'm already hard at work on Theology assignments. School seems to be ruling my life right now! But I don't mind because I am learning so much about God and how to relate to him and it's just incredible.
Team Vancouver was hard at work this past Saturday! Steve made an announcement at his church telling them that there were 5 students who were available for hire! And one lady approached him after the service and we cleaned her house from top to bottom on Saturday afternoon! We had so much fun doing it too! Who would have thought that housework would be so entertaining. We now have enough money to buy a BBQ and we are well on our way for buying the deep freeze as well. It is getting so exciting to think about how soon the missions trip is.
Youth group on Wednesday was interesting. All the boys were nuts! They kept fighting each other and beating each other up and it was really frustrating. I would try to stop one fight and another one would break out. It was so ridiculous. I came home and I honestly had to just go to bed because I was so emotionally drained. I can't even explain the chaos or the frustration that I felt when I got home.
On Saturday night we went curling with the Qwanoes staff and that was soooo fun! I had never been curling before so I was really excited about trying it. After the first game though, everyone I was playing with quit. The other team, my team, everyone! So, I was sitting on the rocks or balancing on the rocks with my arms when no one would push me and I would slide down the ice on the rocks. It was so much fun and I think I had more fun riding the rocks then actually curling! It was an experience that I will never forget!
The highlight of my week though had to be Tuesday night! I went and I saw the Watoto children's choir. Watoto is an organization in Uganda that helps kids who have lost their parents to AIDS or war. There are so many kids living there. The kids are put into homes with a new mother and new brothers and sisters and they get to go to school and have a life. It is incredible work that is happening in Uganda right now and I have such a heart for it all. I love them and I want to be their mom. I honestly have never seen such precious little children in my whole life!
I love those kids so much, and I want nothing more then to be with them! That's me with two of the boys from the choir! They were soo cute! and they loved having their picture taken!!!

A Week of Study and Fun!

As I sit here, I struggle with what I want to write about. This past week was a pretty straight forward week. The majority of my time was spent reading a rather large text book about the Gospels while reading the Gospels alongside it. When I wasn't reading, I was either at youth group or thinking about how I should be reading the textbook.

Youth group on Wednesday night was soooo sweet! We did a scavenger hunt around Crofton for things that were red. There were like 50 things on the list that we had to find. My group was made up of the 8 of the most rowdy boys at youth. So, we were running through town and raiding people's houses for red things. It was a lot of fun and I had some sweet conversations and I got to know the kids better too! I have had a strong desire to be more involved with my church lately as well. Last night, I helped out at their deeper service by watching the kids. I just played games with them for an hour and a half. I loved it!

On Saturday, Team Vancouver did a bottle drive to raise money for our missions trip. It was so much fun and we doubled the money that we already had. I really love our team because we have so much fun fundraising and having meetings! I have to admit that when I was first put on the Vancouver team I wasn't very happy, but the group and I have been making the most of it and I can't even imagine being on any other team!! Here is a photo after our bottle drive, having a meeting at WhiteSpot with milkshakes!!

Missions Fest!!

Well, we all just got home last night from a busy and very overwhelming weekend on the mainland! We left Thursday morning for Vancouver because we were going to go to Missions Fest. I have been to Missions Fest before and I was super exited about looking around at all the booths and talking to as many people as I could! It was really great because we slept in a church that wasn't too far from Missions Fest, but before we went to Missions Fest on Friday, we went to visit a Mosque and a Hindu Temple. To say the least, it was interesting. I learned a lot about the culture and religion, but I don't know how comfortable I am with it. I guess I'm not supposed to be comfortable with it because it's not what I believe and it's wrong, but there were some similarities that could be found between Muslim and Christianity. But there were HUGE and jarring differences between both Muslim and Hindu compared to Christianity. It was a good experience but I don't think that I would ever do it again. I liked learning about it, and I don't think that I will stop learning about other religions, I am just not comfortable sitting in their place of worship, knowing that they are wrong and so lost, and not being able to do anything or to tell them the truth about Jesus. It was an exhausting morning! Then that afternoon and all day Saturday, we were at Missions Fest. I went to many seminars and talked to many people and I am still not clear at all about where I want to go or what I want to do. And surprisingly, I didn't talk to any schools. I don't know what to think about that, and I don't regret my decision about not talking to them. I talked mostly with one lady who has a mission in Haiti, called God's Littlest Angels. It's a volunteer position nursing sick Haitian babies and children back to health. I think it would be absolutely incredible to nurse and save these children who can be used for God's Kingdom! I would love it sooo much, so I am definitely looking more into that. And I may have found a job for the summer, and I am super pumped about that. I could potentially be Child Care Supervisor from the end of April to the end of August. But we will have to see about that! There are many things that I need to just sit down with God with and talk it all out and listen to His voice. So, there's an update for you from me!!! Talk to you later!!

Relaxing Week Up Mt. Washington

So, last week we went up to Mt. Washington! That was a blast! We were there for the whole week and we stayed in the sweetest lodge ever! There were two sides and three hot tubs and we were right on the mountain so we could easily go back and forth from the mountain all day. I was learning how to snowboard the first two days that we were there, then on Wedneday we went snowhoeing and it was incredible! The view was absolutely gorgeous and we could see Mt. Albert Edward, the mountain that we climbed at the beginning of the year. Words can't even describe the beauty that was bestowed upon us that day! The next day, we went to get our rental snowboards and we were back out on the mountain snowboarding. My very first run of the day, I go to sit on the chair lift and I am with Downey. Keep in mind it is first thing in the morning and everything was covered in a thin layer of frost before you judge me. So I go to sit down and I feel right away that I am not completely on the seat and we start to get higher and I slip right out of the seat and fall about 10 ft. It was not one of the best experiences ever. Needless to say, I didn't go boarding again after that. But I did have a glorious time napping and hanging out in the hot tub! The whole trip was amazing regardless of the pain that was inflicted! And since we have been back here at school, it has been a mad rush to get papers done and getting ready for the class that we have tomorrow. Tomorrow we have our first Intro. to Christian Theology class....I am super pumped about it! Here are some pics from the best trip ever!!!

I'm Back!

I am finally back at school! I have been here for about a week and a half now, and I have been having soooo much fun! Getting here though was quite the adventure. I flew back with Jon, but our first flight was delayed a looonnngg time! By the time we caught our flight, we had already missed our transfer flight in Calgary. So Westjet, gave us both food and hotel vouchers. That was pretty sweet. So Jon and I finally arrived in Calgary and we got into our hotel room at 2 am and we were sooo exhausted that we just crashed! Then we had to catch an early flight the next morning. It was a fun adventure, but as soon as we got here we had class. We were late for class by a couple of hours, but it was totally ok. So, as soon as we got here we had classes for a week! The class was the Pentateuch and it was sooo sweet. I learned so much and I loved it a lot! And I am really excited about doing my final paper for it because I love it so much! The past week and a half have been super busy with classes just school work. But we do get a nice little break this week. We are heading out tomorrow morning for Mt. Washington. We are there for the whole week snowboarding! It is going to be so amazing and I am so excited about staying in the chalets! Oh, our Vancouver team has also been meeting! We have determined that our team is the best team and we are going to have the most fun for sure! I am so pumped about the mission trip to Vancouver. I honestly didn't think that I would be this excited about it, but the more we plan and the more we talk about it the more excited I get! And youth group was sooo good last Friday. We just played games and hung out with the kids and it was incredible! I love just connecting with the kids and hanging out once a week with them. I really enjoy it a lot! Anyways, I have to go to bed because we are leaving so early tomorrow and I need lots of sleep! haha...Bye!!!

It Snowed!

IT SNOWED SOOOOO MUCH!!! The snow just fell one day and it kept going for two days! It was the greatest snow ever too! We had snowball fights and made snowmen and forts and we attempted to make an igloo, but it turned into a giant snowball fight!!! The weather was so bad that we could hear trees falling down in the forest, so we weren't allowed to play over there, we could only play in the open field! It was such a bad storm though because the power went out! I hate it when the power goes out...I get so freaked out especially if it happens at night time and the emergency lights even went out. I was terrified, but when I came down the stairs Joel was playing the guitar and singing and that made me feel so much better! Even after dinner, I asked if he would keep playing and he did. So, we sat in the dark and sang songs together until finally the power came back on.

Anyways, last week we had class! Yuck, I know! It was Foundations for Church Ministry, and believe it or not I actually learned a lot that week. On Wednesday, we were to have taken a spiritual gift inventory already and be ready to discuss it in smaller groups. God has been showing me so much just through that little test that I have taken a million times before! And on Thursday night there was a festival of lights in Ladysmith, so Kaleo got to go on the float and sing Christmas carols! That was a lot of fun, but the best part was the fireworks!! They were so pretty! Overall the week was pretty sweet; I learned lots in class, it snowed, I played and sang and saw sweet fireworks! I am so blessed to be here experiencing all this and learning so much at the same time! God is sooooo good!