Week Sixteen

Greetings. I am writing this the day before we depart for the Olympics! There is still a lot to be done, like packing, final school work etc. I feel as though there is a spirit of excitement, hesitation, fear and hopefulness shared by everyone. Please be praying for us. This is an incredible opportunity, pray that God would use us in big ways. So we leave early tomorrow morning, to catch the dress rehearsal of the opening ceremonies and then we have training on Thursday then our first shift on Friday! Wow, I am excited and nervous just writing this.

Moving back though, this past week was a week of class with the one and only Jim Paulson, aka the most quotable prof of K7. To fully grasp this, please check out kaleoseven.blogspot.com and read some of his memorable lines. The class was Introduction to Theology. The word theology used to make me cringe. I saw it, and must confess to still somewhat struggle with the need for it and I saw it as old men taking the life out of a relationship with God. Pretty tough preconceptions to go into a course with and still trying to have an open mind eh? The way that I see theology at the end of the week is "faith seeking understanding". We have the faith, and the relationship with the Lord, however, like Colossians 3:10 says, "put on your new nature and be renewed as you learn to know your Creator and become like him" That is very much what I want through this course. I want to know my Creator better through studying doctrines and exploring large questions, but as a result, I want to become more like my Creator through the knowledge that I have gained. I feel that through this course, I have a larger desire to spend more time in God's word as it is our primary authority and it is completely true in all that it says. Sure there are some things about theology that I struggle with like the whole Calvinism/Arminianism question and all that covers. I have no stance on the matter. I believe that I can live as a Christian and follower of Jesus without declaring my position on the spectrum. I am thankful that as I reflect on this past week academically, I am not cringing at the thought of Theology but rather I am welcoming more opportunities to learn more about my Creator and become like him.

On Tuesday, we had chapel and like we normally do in chapel, people share their testimonies. I felt like I needed to share mine. So I shared, mostly talking about the life changing summer I had doing CIT and the years that followed that, especially concerning the area of boldness. It was strange, I have always had trouble with putting into words my testimony, so I feel like I left out large areas of my life that maybe I should have talked about and kinda felt that I didn't do my life justice however I just spoke, and it wasn't anything that I would come up with if I prepared it ahead of time. I pray that it would resonate with people, challenge people and encourage them. To be honest, I don't know what the effect was on people. It was kinda strange. I am glad that I did share, and people encouraged me with words after, but I pray that it was the Spirit leading me and using my words to demonstrate what he wanted to tell people.

Friday at youth was a blast! The night was a "So You Think You Can Dance" event, and so all the Kaleos who go to New Life made an intro dance that we seriously whipped up in about ten minutes. We were all wearing sweet clothes and got everyone pumped up. Then we would go around to the different dance groups and help them come up with dances and then we would judge them at the end. It was so much fun! It was probably the event that I felt most involved. I felt that I was really needed for the success of the night and I enjoyed having this role in the evening. I can recall struggling with feeling involved and needed some nights at youth, and Friday was not one of those nights thankfully. It seems too that our energy and enthusiasm got all the other kids pumped up and even drew us together with some of the kids.

Saturday was an amazing day too. The sun was out and it was warm, which is a once a week type of event here. This resulted in no homework getting done, playing ultimate frisbee barefoot outside and a mudfight. Earlier that day, Justin and I had a great time sharing bible verses and thoughts while on a walk in my favourite place in the woods. I would like to share some of these verses as they really resonated with me, and maybe they will with you too.

Matthew 10:28 - Do not fear those who kill the body but are unable to kill the soul, but rather, fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.

Psalm 78:72 - So he shepherded them according to the integrity of his heart and he guided them with his skillful hands.

Isaiah 30:18 - So the Lord must wait for you to come to him so he can show you his love and compassion. For the Lord is a faithful God, blessed are those who wait on his help.

Sunday night was a great time as always at the homeless ministry. We tried listening more as we prayed. I felt some frustration as I did not hear anything from God about these people or the town of Duncan. I have always been frustrated about my ability to listen to God. I want more than anything to listen to God and not always be speaking and asking him for things, however I have hard times hearing him. I want to be hearing him loudly at the Olympics and being obedient to his call.

That is a quick update. Please don't forget to pray for our ministry trips! Can't wait to fill you all in when I get back.

Week Fiveteen

It is Monday night as I write this. We just came in from playing some pretty intense indoor soccer in Crofton with the Kaleos. This week was a relaxed week. It was the week after snowboarding at Mt. Washington and the week before our Intro to Theology class. We had Jim's camp ministry class for a couple days in there. Altogether, not too much has happened this week, other than doing an extensive amount of reading from our Christian Doctrine textbook. I can't count how many times I drifted into a sleep reading that book.

I just had a thought as I was writing this. I was thinking about on Monday night, a week ago today, where we had a worship night, and it was a time filled with prayer about unity. I had a flash back of first semester and many of the struggles that we had with being disunited. I truly am thankful and blessed by the people that I am in community with, especially the guys. I have a brotherhood with them.

Seriously though, this week was a good week, but not much happened. For me it was a time of reflecting on the events of last week, and I am still thinking about them. It was a week where I saw some answer to prayer, though not in a way that I expected at all. Several mornings this week I tried some lectio divina reading of Scripture, asking the Lord to reveal certain things to me that he wanted me learn. One morning, I felt like the Lord wanted me to realize who I was in relation to who he is. I asked the Lord then to humble me in whatever way possible. At the end of the day, I had been humbled, though, by my own faults. It was if I had humbled myself as a result of my shortcomings to obey the Lord. A strange thought, but wasn't that what I prayed for? The next time I read, I felt that the Lord wanted me to trust him about my future and next year. This is hard for me, but I am trying to do this. Its funny, because I have applied to a couple schools, completely open to anything now. I like this time now, because I have done everything that I can do to prepare for next year, now simply it is up to him to take care of me and reveal to me what his will is. Please be praying for me as I spend time with God, that he will constantly be speaking to me. Pray that he will constantly be humbling me, and that my trust in him will be growing exponentially.

On Friday, we had a youth event for all the youth groups of the Cowachin Valley held here at Qwanoes. This was a sweet event and it was so great to be in community with other kids and other leaders all under the same roof for the same goal. I really do like my youth group. I am becoming good friends with all the leaders, and I have solid friendships with the kids in the youth group, especially the grade eight guys. They are a blast! Several of them are actually going to Vancouver to perform on the streets during the Olympics as part of a drumming troupe. Pray for them and their outreach that they will be doing there. I find that when I go to youth group, I naturally get along with the outgoing kids who are engaging and I can relate to, but recently I have been trying to be more intentional about spending time with kids who do not seem to get any attention.

My favourite part of the week once again would be Sunday nights for our homeless ministry. As we were walking down the traintracks to the place that we normally meet people, we heard three teenage guys yelling at us from quite a distance. We ignored them and kept walking along, until they started cutting across the field over towards us. Finally as they were only a small distance away from us, we stopped and so did they. There was three of them and four of us, me, Justin and two girls. We prayed for a bit, and on the way, I was praying for boldness in our words and actions. Other nights, I have felt such a boldness in what we do, such as approaching loud voices that are coming from behind trees in the dark, or intruding on a private bonfire. I secretly was hoping for these guys to come over to us and we could talk to them. Actually, I wanted to keep walking and go up and meet these guys. But we stood there, and so did they until they went on their way and we kept going. After a while, I started thinking about what is the difference between boldness and foolishness? I appreciate the leadership that Justin displayed in that scenario. Maybe the situation would have been different if it was just me and him, and maybe if I wasn't a student under his care. I don't know. Even still, I don't want to live my life in fear or hesitation of stepping into the dangerous, exciting and challenging life that God calls us to live. Please, if you have any insight to offer me about what the difference is, tell me. I want to live with the spirit of power, love and self-discipline and not of the one of timidity, however, in no way do I want to be foolish in my actions. These are simply developing thoughts.

This week is our Introduction to Theology class. Please pray for me as I have always struggled with the idea of theology. Pray for pure understanding and interest too as I sit through these classes. More than anything, would this class encourage me and enable me to live more like Jesus.

Be praying for preparation for the Olympics for us. We leave on the 10th and want God to be moving, working and preparing us for the work that he has set aside for us long before then. Pray and hope for big things!

I will leave you with a quote that for some reason has been in my mind these past few minutes.

"He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep, to gain what he cannot lose." - Jim Elliot.