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!

What a Week!

This past week was our 24/7 week of prayer. What an amazing experience! We started last Saturday morning and I was the first one to spend an hour in there. Kelsey joined me, and we just sat in silence. We had our Bibles and we were writing out a couple verses, but we were both nervous to be the first ones to put anything up on the walls. So, we just left our pages on the desk. Someone came to relief us, and I wanted to stay. There was something about that room that made me want to be in there all the time. Slowly, people became less hesitant to put posts on the wall and the next time I was in that room, the walls were covered. As the week went, the paint on the walls slowly disappeared behind everyone's prayer requests and praises. As I read more and more of the posts, I realized how many scared and broken people there are in this community. There were many people asking for prayer for themselves. They wanted to feel Christ close to them, they wanted to be healed, they feel broken, they are scared to let the rest of us in. It made me realize how little I actually know the people that I live with. I wish that some of the posts had names at the bottom so I could run to them and hug them and love them. But, my time spent in that room was very significant in my personal walk with God. I prayed over every single post in that room and every person that is in this program. As the week progressed it was great to see that prayers were being answered. This past week itself was an answer to prayer for me. The week before, I had been thinking a lot about how I am at Bible college, but I am not reading my Bible or spending time with God. My God-time had become something that I did for homework. I was really struggling with the lack of God-time in my life. Being able to have a place and a time designated for prayer and time with God really helped me with seeing the importance and the difference that it makes in my day. I am really needing to make a conscience effort to sit down and spend time with God. Because of the prayer week, I was unable to go to youth group on Wednesday or Friday because of the times that I had to pray. I really missed the kids and prayed for them the whole time that I was supposed to be with them. It was a really sweet experience! Also during this past week on Tuesday and Wednesday we broke into two groups. One group went to Victoria on Tuesday while the other group went to Oceanview (an old folks home) and then on Wednesday we switched. I went to Oceanview on Tuesday and I loved it! The ladies in that place are phenomenal! They tell stories over and over again, but it is so fun to just be with them. They like to do puzzles and play with the ball. I really enjoy spending time with the ladies and just loving them and I am hoping to go every Saturday to visit with them. And then on Wednesday, a small group of us went into Victoria to visit and talk with some homeless people. I'm not going to lie, I was terrified! I had asked Jon, the night before if he would go with me and I expressed my fear to him and he was so good about it! He totally comforted me about it and he said that I could hold his hand if I was ever really scared! And I came close to reaching for his hand when we were talking to these three homeless men who were drinking alcohol on the street. Walking around the streets really opened up my eyes to the kind of world that is really out there. I think the part that scared me the most was having to communicate with them. The world puts such a label on homeless people and I am so used to walking by quickly and avoiding eye contact, but this time I was forced to make eye contact and make conversation. It was a good experience and I enjoyed listening to their stories, but I don't know if I could do it again. I was so thankful to have Jon there with me and I wouldn't do it without him. The week was just a good week. I spent a lot of time with God in prayer and in His word and I put myself out into the world and became a servant. It was a very powerful week!