Mt. Tzouhalen

Week Ten

Its hard to see that the end of this semester is quickly coming. Three months come and gone so quickly! The weeks are going by faster and faster as the year progresses. This week was no exception. We had our church ministry class with David Ernst and as my friend Nate said, it is the professor that makes a class, and David definitely made this class. It was a cool class because we talked about a lot of things in the church that I had never even thought about before, like the purpose of the church, the process of choosing and the role of leadership, denomonations and other grey areas that are pretty controversial. The thing that I really liked about this class is that he relied on class participation and conversation to teach us the course. It was really great. Several things that I really got out of this course was:

-Grace. The most important thing that the church has to offer others is grace. That is the only thing that sets Christians apart from other religions and the church, the place where grace needs to be in excess is often the place where grace is no where to be found.

-Grey areas, such as women in church leadership, which we studied, God probably cares more about how we treat those who hold different views than us, than our position on a certain issue. After all, if we have not love, we are nothing more than a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.

-Another thing that I knew already but was really emphasized again was the we are the church. This came out more and more in every lesson that we learned, that the church is the people.

On Thursday night, most of Kaleo attended "Light Up Ladysmith" which was the kickoff of winter pretty much in a town called Ladysmith. There was INCREDIBLE fireworks and a great winter parade, which me and six others actually joined. We walked in a sang Christmas carols arm in arm for about 20 minutes. People loved it. It was slightly ironic that we were singing song welcoming Jesus' coming as we were walking behind the "Ladysmith Shriners Club". A lot of this week I was, and still am working on a paper about women in leadership in the church. It is interesting because before I had absolutely no opinion about this matter and didn't really think anything about it. But since I had to write a paper on it, I did a whole bunch of research and developed my own ideas and opinion based on how I interpret scripture and what non-topical sources say about this issue. It is so fun! I love developing my own thoughts on controversial issues. I want to do this assignment for many other issues out there that I do not really hold an opinion to. This week there was some pretty intense flooding in the city of Duncan, so we got a chance to go and fill sandbags for the flooding. It was a lot of fun and we were all working in the rain, and we actually got out of class a bit early because of it. At the end of the week, Friday, around 8 of us went and hiked Mt. Tzouhalen, a mountain on the edge of Duncan. It was a beautiful sunny day and felt so good to get out after a week of class. I realized the love that I have for God's creation. I want to experience it all the time! We were up so high it was incredible. This weekend I was working in the dishpit for the men's retreat that was here at Camp Qwanoes. This meant that I didn't get a chance to go to youth group on Friday night, but I was serving at camp in the meantime. Believe it or not, it was pretty fun working with a bunch of friends in dishpit. I loved seeing around 100 men come together to worship and learn together in a camp environment. It was kinda weird, like they were campers and everything, but it encouraged me to see older men who clearly love the Lord. On Sunday, I managed to get out of dishpit in order to go to church. Man was it incredible! It was the greatest service I had been to since I've been here. I really felt like I was worshiping God and praising only Him. The worship team was the youth team and consisted of a tap dancer, a dance team, and a drum team, like the little drummer boys. It was an excellent kick off to advent and we talked about hope. I realize how much hope that we as Christians have. Later that night, I went to the homeless ministry in Duncan. Justin and I walked down the traintracks to see James, and we found two others who were having a bonfire. We joined them and heard some incredible stories from a man named Roy. He had actually beaten up someone so bad that he killed him. After spending three years in jail, he knew Jesus as the creator and lord and he really knew Jesus' teachings. He learned to turn the other cheek when people would beat him up. He told us that he knew that he was walking away from Jesus and wanted help giving up his life of sin. Such an amazing man who earnestly wanted to walk with Jesus. We prayed with him and the lady he was with named Jackie. She was halarious! Very drunk, but halarious. I love this homeless ministry. Today, we wrote our Church ministry exam and as soon as that was done, me and four others went rock climbing in Naniamo. This was soo good to get back climbing again. I had been itching to get out and go and we had a blast all bouldering together. I have been feeling badly because I haven't really been doing my devotions like I had hoped too. I haven't woken up early in a while and I miss that. I am sometimes worried that I am not getting all that I could be out of this year because of my lack of committment to getting up and spending time with God.

Things have gotten incredibly busy here, and I don't want to put a higher priority on studying God, than walking with Him.

I am starting to get excited for Christmas! As much as I don't want to leave this place, and the people here, I can't wait to spend Christmas with the family and be in Orangeville again. Please pray for Kaleo this week as we will be going to Vancouver for four days for a youth conference. It will be a lot of fun, but I want to learn a lot too, and not feel much pressure to do homework. Pray too that as we get ready to go home for Christmas, we would all be ready to go and that home would be a good place for all of us to go home to. Some people here are not as fortunate as I am to have a healthy family to go home to. Prepare our hearts to leave this place for a while. Please pray that this week would be a time of real consolidation for me. A time to realize all that I've experienced this semester and let that motivate me even further. Most importantly, please pray that my love for Jesus and my dependence on Him would grow exponentially every day.

Hard to believe that this is the second last week.

See you all soon.

Week Nine

This past week was our 24/7 week of prayer. How it worked was we had a specific room where everyone would pray in, and at least one person would always be praying for 168 hours. I signed up every other day at 3 in the afternoon, then every other day at 3 in the morning. I chose this time because in one of the sermons that I heard at New Life, Mark talked about the "3 am factor", where God would wake up people in the night to talk and meet with them - completely out of the blue. The example he used was God waking Solomon up around the third hour to talk to him. So I decided to try the 3 am factor. In this room, all our pictures were up on the walls with paper under our names, a cross in the room, dim lighting, and a bible there. It was so peaceful and every time I walked into the room, I could definitely feel that the Lord was there too. Over the course of the week, the walls filled up with prayers, the papers filled with encouragement and the windows were covered with faces to pray for. In that room is was so much pain, so much hurt and many many troubles. A lot of bitterness and brokenness and huge questions that were expressed in that room and that troubled me, but made me super thankful for the grace that I have experienced in my life. I loved what that room brought out in us. So many times I had incredible times of prayer with good brothers, either just two of us, or one night we had all the guys praying together. Even this morning, my brother was clinging to the cross today and weeping over his family, and we were able to share that time with him. I love the openness and vulnerability that occured in the room, and even though most times I was in there by myself, I felt like I became closer to others through praying for them and reading their prayers on the walls. This week I had to do a lot of homework. I wrote a paper on the dwelling place of God over time, focusing on the Tabernacle, the Temple and finally our bodies. So cool that now, God lives WITHIN us and we do not need a priest to meet with God for us! I learned so much from this paper and was one of my favourites to write. I had to do some power reading as well. I read What's so Amazing About Grace, and The Emerging Church for my Church Ministry class. Unfortunately, I missed going to the homeless ministry on Sunday because I had to do the homework. Church on Sunday was great, as Mark talked about having spiritual friends and how important they are. I am so blessed to be in a place where most of my friends here are "spiritual friends" or "Rafiki", as Mark called them. Here we are not only good friends, but we are encouraging each other, challenging each other and holding each other accountable. On Friday night at youth it was Fear Factor night, and even though I did not feel particularly useful, I had fun cheering on kids eating blended Big Mac combos, and other gross feats. My favourite thing about youth however was after it was done and me and Jon, another Kaleo, wrestled some of the guys. They loved it! And it was a great bonding time for me and them I felt. The guys here at Kaleo did a "UFC Kaleo - Friendships Collide" night. We all were wrestling downstairs and was so much fun. Another cool thing we did was play indoor soccer again with Edgar and some others from Duncan. This was great to continue this interaction with the community of Duncan. This week is our Church Ministry class, and it will be a great class and a great week. Please pray for me this week as I want to learn as much as I can about how I can be the church, and what that really implies. Please pray for continued friendships that go deep, pray that this place would really bring about healing to those who truly need it. Would love to hear from all of you! Look forward to Christmas.

Week Eight

Hey, hard to believe its already been eight weeks. This past week was our Old Testament class taught by Don Taylor. Don is such an awesome guy, so humble and easy going. Really knowledgeable too. So I enjoyed this class very much, actually it is my favourite class so far, mind you we've only had three. This class covered a lot of ground and moved very fast. We had to cover the entire OT in 5 days! I have never spent much time in the OT because I find it intimidating, boring and irrelevant. Don said that if we wanted to read the New Testament well, then we need to first understand and read the OT well. I learned so much about the OT! I now do not see it as irrelevant, intimidating or boring, just because of what I was taught this week. I really see the need to understand certain things before reading them, such as context, like when is this being written, what is happening in the big picture and things like that. So many times in the class I just wanted to get up and just go read the OT for hours. Part of our OT class was to create a movie involving the entire class. It was quite a project. Check out the K7 blog because it will be up there soon. www.kaleoseven.blogspot.com Some of us were actors, some of us were directors, some of us were editors, and all of us were writers. Mark and I were the writers for the Gideon scene, so check it out if you get a chance! Several late nights considering we had to make a movie on the entire OT in pretty much 3 days, so some of us didn't get any sleep the last two nights. That pretty much consisted of the entire week since all hours of the day were spent making this movie. Friday night we watched UP with youth group and that was fun, and its awesome when kids come up to you and just want to hang out with you, and when kids who were originally shy around you really start opening up and having a lot of fun with you. I have seen and experienced both of these things on Friday night and it is an encouragement knowing that what we are doing here is not in vain, and we are indeed being part of what is happening at the church. One cool thing that happened this week was Edgar, a man who we went to his house for lunch two weeks ago, invited some of us to play indoor soccer on Thursday night and so Justin and I went to play. It was sweet, it wasn't a church thing but a community event and so we got to meet other people from Duncan not from the church and play some super intense indoor soccer with them. Such a blast, I think we will go again this week. I am learning how to enter into a brand new community such as Duncan, and I see how crucial the church is in becoming part of a new community.

This week coming up is the 24/7 week of prayer, so there will always be someone praying throughout this entire week. Pray for this time that we will "learn how to pray" and that it will be very two-sided, not just us talking to God, but God talking to us and we are listening. Also, I haven't been feeling very well the past couple of days and H1N1 has breached Kaleo, so healing from sickness would be great to pray for too. Please pray for opprotunites for conversation to go really deep as well. This past week has been great for that and it has definitely been allowing this community to grow tighter together.

A good week behind me once again.

Cheerio

Week Seven

This week was reading break. A time where I really enjoyed having no schedule, no agenda and just a time to do the things that need to be done. A big focus for me this week was to finish my hermeneutics assignment. Mission accomplished! I was surprised at how much I actually enjoyed that assignment. I have never dug so deeply into such a small amount of Scripture before. It was great. I did it on Galatians 2:19-21 and I feel like I have such an understanding now for the context in which that was written and what those verses actually mean now. Though I find that very difficult to do outside of school, and just for personal study. Still something I need to learn how to do.

On Tuesday we went to Victoria for the day, which started off as a sweet day of longboarding the oh so perfect spiraling parking garages of the city and turned into a time of ministry to the homeless and poor. Before leaving the van in the morning, Kristie, one of our leaders encourages us that we are salt, and we are light, and Victoria needs us. We went into that day with a much better perspective of “Who can we bless?” Nate and I met a blind homeless man named Ken who we bought lunch for and he was very thankful. We also met two travelers who were broke and I guess became very comfortable in the culture of drug dealing. They were hungry too, so we bought them food as well. It was cool since later in the day we actually ran into them again and they smiled and waved at us. We met an incredible man named Willy too. He actually joined us for lunch thanks to the invitation that Emma gave to him, along with two buskers who were super friendly and cool. The three of them joined about 8 of us Kaleos in a fish and chips restaurant right on the Victoria harbor and we shared many good stories, especially Willy who was full of them, telling us about his childhood on a native reserve and going moose hunting, to falling through the ice when playing hockey. The two musicians became friends to us and they walked around the city with us after playing a couple songs and talking with us for a while. Really enjoyed this trip as I went into this city with a new perspective, seeing people in need of grace and love, and not so much as a time of having of caring for myself and what I want to do.

Wednesday and Thursday were big paper days for me as I had to do my hermeneutics assignment. However, Thursday was incredible for me. Justin and I were walking out to the point ( a 40 minute hike to a cool piece of land that sticks out into the ocean) and we were having great conversation. I remember almost “venting” to him about how I never really hear God speak to me, and that more than anything I wanted to be able to identify the voice of my shepherd. Well after that time, we got to the point and we spent some times in silence. And the coolest thing happened, I heard God speak to me. He said “Why do you come to meet me with these expectations? Look around (as I was looking at incredible creation). What makes you worthy of anything? Do not come to me with these expectations, but instead, just enjoy spending time in my presence.” It was sweet. It spoke to me there, exactly where I was. I had wondered why God had not just given me whatever I asked for, but really, I deserve nothing, I don’t know why I think that I do. My perspective needed to change as to why I came to spend time with God. I am learning to just enjoy soaking in his presence. Justin asked me a question that I cannot seem to get out of my head. He asked me “When do you feel most alive, when is it then you feel as though this is what you were created for?” At first I said that it is when I am doing something epic, like being up very high holding onto just a tiny ledge or piece of rope or flying through the air, or something like that. But then after I gave it some more thought, I realized that I feel like I am doing what I was created for when I am sharing the gospel with people. To be honest, I was pretty hesitant to say that, since I was scared that it might lock me into something. But saying that, with no expectations or preconceived ideas about what that means, I think that I feel most alive when I am sharing the gospel with people. I love it and want more opportunities to do that.

The next day, with a good friend Mark, I went to the point again. It started raining as we were about to read our Bibles, and we decided to wait it out. Then it rained harder. So we decided to camp out under a tree, and I thought, how cool is it that wherever we come to meet with our God, whether with a beautiful view in the sun, or in the pouring rain under a tree with branches uncomfortably poking into our sides, God will be there with us too. I went to the pool later that night with our youth group and I actually had a hard time with my kids. Maybe it was the change in venue, but I didn’t really feel very needed as a leader there, and I know that I could have easily just spent the night selfishly and enjoyed the waterslides and hottubs to myself, however I really wanted to spend my night with the kids. I did not really enjoy the night at youth since I couldn’t find my kids for most of the night, but I did find some guys that I had met the week before and were new, so for the last bit of the night I spent some time racing them down the water slides. One thing that came up in a conversation that I had with Justin was that some of the kids that go to the New Life youth group are actually really hungry for Jesus and his gospel, yet it is frustrating because I feel that New Life does not provide time for it to be discussed or taught. There are kids who go there for years who do not know Jesus and don’t even know what he says, and I feel that New Life doesn’t even really allow the time for kids to come and be filled with him. Just an observation, though. They do have a good heart for the kids that come out.

Saturday the thing that stands out most is the time that Justin and I shared in the morning before lunch. We went down to the dock and read the passage in Acts 5 where all the believers sell their possessions, shared everything and gave money to those in need. We had a great time of asking questions and wondering what the church’s responsibility is today for something like this. We both have a huge passion to see the church be reconciled and reunited again with all believers. To see the body of Christ behaving like the body of Christ. He told me of a homeless man who was getting kicked out of a church parking lot by some police officers on Friday night, right here in Duncan. That really got us thinking. We want so much more for the church and want God to invite us into this movement. We want to be radical in our love for Jesus, and what that requires of us. I’ve been thinking of this for a while and am still thinking about this, but its cool because I feel like we are getting invited into this. On Sunday night our New Life Young adult group went down to where we normally meet with homeless people and we prayer walked. We prayed over some of our meeting spots and parks and such. As we were praying along some rail road tracks, we saw this man in a ditch with a very sketchy tent fly strung up in the trees above his head. We asked if we could come and talk with him and he generously welcomed us into his home. Gave us chairs and greeted us with warm handshakes. His name was James, and is 69! Living like that for a while now, likes to drink but he seemed very sober when we were with him. He was definitely all there. He has had an incredibly tough life, as his son, a great guy he tells us, hung himself when we was in his thirties. He never sees his kids, and has colon cancer and barely eats. Broke my heart. Such a friendly man with a huge heart for us even. He said that he didn’t want to talk to anybody and then all of a sudden, we came along, and he wanted to talk to us, and he said that he felt great! We are getting invited into what God is doing here in Duncan, and I get to be part of it! Our love for Jesus should have no confines of age or economic status. In fact, God says that he has a special place in his heart for the poor and I am hoping that I am developing a spot for them in my heart too. This is my favorite thing about New Life by far.

This week is my Old Testament class. Lots of work to be done. Lots of learning to be had, and I’m really excited about it. I have to understand the OT before I can understand fully the NT. Sometimes I feel though like I am not learning anything. Pray that I would be able to see things in a new light, with a new approach to them so that I can really learn as much as possible. Pray with thanksgiving about what God is letting me be part of, and ask him that I would experience more of that, and that in all of this, I would be able to see God’s guidance in my life for after Kaleo. Clearly this is something that I feel passionate about and am excited to see where God will take me with this. Pray that God would help me listen to him, and that I will soon be able to identify my shepherd’s voice.

This has been such a great week. So many thoughts and ideas running through my head, but sometimes I feel bogged down in work. I had to stop reading my Old Testament assigned reading since I was reading it like a textbook, not even reading it more like eyes skimming over words, and I did not take the time to carefully and lovingly respect the words enough to care what they said, so I stopped and handed in my reading assignment incomplete, which was hard for me. But I’d rather not read it that it to become a textbook for me. Besides if I had taken the time to actually do it, I would have missed out on meeting James. Totally worth it.

This was a great week, sorry for the long post, once again.....

Week Six Pictures

James, Matt, Me and Justin

View from lunch spot

Joel shreddin the gnar

Group huddle

Cathedral Grove

Lunch spot

Long Beach, Tofino

Roadside stop

Week Six

Well this has probably been the best week yet. We started off on Monday morning going to Tofino to go on our surfing trip. We stopped a couple times on the way up to see some cool sites. The first stop was in Cathedral Grove, which is a beautiful park containing trees up to 800 years old! It felt like I was an ant walking around in there, and am still blown away by the massive trees that I saw. Then we had a lunch stop by a cool waterfall where we all just threw logs over and took pictures and ate lunch. Finally we were on the road again and we made it to our destination, Ucluelet, where we would be staying for the meals and nights in a church. Once there, we all went down to a lighthouse on a point where I experienced the strongest winds I have ever felt before. You could actually lean a decent amount into the wind and you would be held up by it. The town itself was a pleasant place to stay, but that night was pretty low key since we weren't going surfing till the next day. Then on Tuesday and Wednesday we went surfing in Tofino! And it just so happened, that the O'Neil Coldwater Classic surf competition took place in the same spot and time that we were there. It was awesome watching some pros surf and then be able to surf the same beach that they did. I am totally hooked on surfing though. It was hard, harder than what I thought, but I got the hang of it and was riding some 6 foot waves. Can't wait to go back. The water didn't feel cold at all, since we were wearing full body wetsuits. As awesome as the surfing was, some of the best parts of this trip were the chapels that we had afterwards. Other Christians from the community of Ucluelet who had been part of this trip for the Kaleos almost every year came to worship with us and share with us. The chapels were again a time of crazy vulnerability and honesty and it really united us, to hear some really painful stories, and some really joyful stories. Ever week we get to know each other better and every week is just incredible. This week was no exception. Almost the whole week we had four guys who did Kaleo with us. Three of them did K5 and one of them did K3. They all went on to go to Briercrest after and it was great getting to know them and have them part of such an awesome week. This Kaleo community is really a family, not just for those in one year, but to everyone who has gone through this program. So the surfing was great fun, but also great time of growth.

Friday was my birthday, and it was one like no other. Around midnight on Thursday (going on to Friday) I was hanging out downstairs when my roomate Matthew asked me for a hand up in our room moving something. I went up, slightly suspicious, however no one was in the room when we entered it so I relaxed. Then when my back was turned, Trent and John, my other roomates jumped me and tied me up with my hands and feet tied together to my neck, then a pillow case was put on me and I was carried away. At this point I was just loosing it, laughing so hard and loving every minute of it. They carried me into the basement where my pillowcase was pulled off and everyone is around me with pillows and Nerf swords. Then in the midst of being pummelled by everyone, pirates of the carribean music starts pumping and someone tosses me a sword, which resulted in an epic sword duel between me and about twenty other people. One of the best birthdays that I've had and it was a blast. Later that day I had actually planned on sharing my testimony when as soon as chapel started, I knew that I shouldn't go. Another girl shared her story which was totally inspiring for me to not just be a Christian, but to fall in love with Jesus. I find myself asking myself, how is it that I have known God my entire life, but don't have a love for him quite like the one that was shared that day, where as she has only been a Christian for several months and is so deeply in love with Jesus, and everyone can see that. It challenged me and inspires me to really love Him more. That night at youth, we had our monthly worship night and it was pretty good. I met some kids who have never been there before and I hung out with them for the night, trying to make them feel welcome. I love the kids that I get to hang out with and I'm surprised at how other youth, like the sr. highs, who I don't really have very much contact with, are getting to know me and vice versa. On Saturday, Halloween, we went back to our church for their "trunk r treat" night, where people decorate the trunks of their cars and dress up and hand out candy out of the back of their cars in the church parking lot. We all dressed up, not very well as we got ready to go in less than 5 minutes since we were running a little late, but we tried to look like Narnia characters. We brought foam swords and had battles with little kids dressed as knights, Jedis, even doctors. It was a blast. I really like the church that I'm at! So many cool opportunites and ways to get involved. On Sunday, I tried something new at church. As many of you know, I have a bad habit of falling asleep in church. It's really not because I'm tired, who knows, maybe the same voice for 45 minutes just knocks me right out. Being sick of missing every sermon, I stood at the back for it, and it was great. I didn't fall asleep at all and I listened to and learned from the sermon. I will be doing this weekly. After church we went to an awesome house for lunch where I had one of the best meals that I've had in a long time, but not only was the food great, but the company was even better. It was a fairly young family, with two super energetic sons who were "all boy". We got along great. The dad, Edgar really had some great ideas about church, and his dreams of what it should be. He was hoping one day for a church, maybe through him maybe not through him, that represented every believer. Young, old, white, black, poor, homeless, middle class, rich, single, married, everything! This idea for me was cool because he pointed out that church that I know are pretty much middle class people and wealthier. This is so true. If we were able to have a church where all parts of the body were there, it would look a lot different, and would be a lot different.

Later Sunday night I joined New Life's young adults ministry in their homeless ministry. This was an incredible time, though its not what it may seem. Incredible meaning challenging and hard and frustrating and rewarding and good all at the same time. Starting off, Justin and I and two other girls not from Kaleo but New Life, went out on a prayer walk. Very early in we heard some people and decided to go over to them. From the start I could sense hostility from one man named Pete. The only other person there was a woman named Vivian. Pete asked us if we were Christians, and said that he could smell us coming, we had that odour about us. I have never seen and experienced anyone with so much hatred within him. It is so evident that Satan rules his life, and he even admitted to being best friends with Satan. He openly mocked Jesus and ridiculed us and the God that we believe in. I know that we experienced some spiritual warfare firsthand there. He was trying to interrupt and stop the good things that Vivian was saying, such as wanting to stop her alcohol addiction and the he tried to stop the girls from praying with her. It really makes it hard for me to love him. The verse that stuck out in my head the whole time was 1 Peter 4:14 and 16. "So be happy when you are insulted for being a Christian, for then the glorious Spirit of God rests upon you.... But it is no shame to suffer for being a Christian. Praise God for the privilege of being called by his name!"

Please pray for this week ahead, as it's reading break and I'm just chilling out here at camp. Most people are here, only about 5 people or so have left, so I don't feel at loose ends or anything, but I do have a lot of work that has to be done this week and I'm kinda feeling pressure to get them done. Pray for deepened friendships that surprise me. Pray that I would totally fall in love with Jesus, and that God would really wake up my love for him. Pray for Pete too as he really needs Jesus. Pray that God would show my how to be effective in this homeless ministry as I so love it. Pray that as I am using the bible as my textbook it would not just become meaningless theology and doctrines but I would learn huge things, and the things that I learn would only enable me to love my God even more.

Thanks for checking in. See you next week.