Week Twenty

I am writing this post on my bed at the end of a very full week. It is incredible to see how fast time has gone this year! There is only three weeks left of K7! What a blessing this has been, and what a ride. This has been a great week, filled with a trip, random events, service and homework. Pretty classic Kaleo if you ask me. I'll break it down a bit for you.

Monday was the day our gospels assignment was due. I was proud and ready to hand in my Cost of Discipleship paper, but needed a way to unwind after a long assignment. So, we rented the rink and played some hockey. Followed later that night by a dodgeball/basketball night then to loose all of what we gained through extensive exercise that day, we made apple pies and ate them over at Kristie's house. Good times! Tuesday to Thursday was our second surf trip in Tofino. Once again we experienced the hospitality of the church in Ucluelet. Like our last surf trip, I would say that the best part of this trip was the chapels each night. I am learning so much about community this year, and about fellowship as believers. Community must be inclusive. That is what our community was like this week. Each night, we had locals come and join us for our worship times. We met an amazing family called the Livingstones and then another night a youth group came up from Tofino to join us. It's so cool that as believers, we have a common bond already, and we are indeed brothers and sisters. I feel that fellowship with other believers is something done not as often as it should. I greatly respect Jim for arranging this, as it has shown me that wherever we go, like Paul in Acts 18:10, there many people in this city that belong to the Lord. This will be something that I will take with me out of Kaleo, striving for greater fellowship with believers. The surfing was cool too, I love the super chill west coast feel that I could live in, even for just three days. It is something that I can picture myself in somewhere in the future.

On Friday, we had representatives from Briercrest come here and give us interviews about next year. Though that was their main purpose, they also wanted to come out and just check out what was going on at Kaleo. Like a guy named Cal who came with us on our surf trip, these people hear about Kaleo, and see the fruits of it and are intrigued with this program, they want to see what it's all about. To be honest, it kinda reminded me of the Olympics where people had heard all about us before even meeting us. This encouraged me, and I couldn't help but think about the truths of developing a good name for yourself, and that will take you very far. Kaleo has definitely earned a good name over all these years, and it's cool to see that people recognize that. It makes me even more thankful that I could be part of this. Anyways, these interviews sorted out who is going to Briercrest next year and who isn't. I still don't know which category I am in. I am so utterly clueless about next year, and much time and thought has been spent in this decision. This leads me to my next line of thought, trust. One morning, feeling particularly lost about my next year decision, I was reading through some Psalms about trusting in God. I found myself even questioning that God would indeed tell me my direction and when he would, it would be too late. This lead me to read Job 38-41 where the Lord questions Job and says things like, "Were you there when I laid the foundations of the earth?" and "Can you direct the movement of the stars - binding the cluster of the Pleiades?" I realize then that the one who holds all of the universe in existence, and loves to do so, will not forget me and my future. It's funny that I would even doubt that the one who puts boundaries on the ocean cannot reveal his will for me in time. This gave me a renewed sense of trust and I will wait for him to lead me ahead. Its so funny too, because on Sunday morning before church, I spent some time writing down in depth all these thoughts and Isaiah 50:11 stood out to me. It says, "Watch out, you who live in your own light and warm yourselves by your own fires. This is the reward you will receive from me: You will soon fall down in great torment." Later on Sunday night at the homeless ministry, I had an incredible conversation with a lady named Vicki, and she offered her whole life story to me. So much pain, so much hurt and so many troubles. Trust in God came up and all of my thoughts that I wrote down that morning, were pretty much my exact words to all of her questions. It was so weird, but amazing. I was so ready for that conversation. It seems as though God may have been preparing me that morning for that conversation. At the end of the day though, she said that she would rather trust herself and pay the consequences than take a risk "like scratching a lottery ticket" and trust God and reap the rewards. Pray for her please.

Going to youth on Friday was strange. I have been away for so long. Every weekend I am unable to go as we are either away or I have to work here at camp. Therefore, it was hard to be back there. Normally I find it very easy to be with the kids and conversation comes easily. This was not the case. It took all that was within me to start and keep a conversation going, and I found that the kids and I were not naturally drawn to each other. That was hard, but I realize the importance of being consistent in ministry now, especially with youth. I wish that our youth group went deeper with these kids. I find that the teaching is so watered down and so....weak. There is not much teaching in the youth group, and therefore, when there is teaching, it should be bold and powerful. I can tell that these kids are hungry for it, and I feel a bit frustrated because feel that youth group does not feed them like it should.

This week is our Christian Worldview class, and it is our last class. It should be good. I am really excited to learn. I am excited for these next few weeks as well. Continue to pray that I would be sprinting this last stage of the race. This is my training for the world, and I want to be strengthened and challenged and stretched as much as possible before I leave this place. Pray that God would be bringing to mind the things he has been teaching me and showing me. This is technically the end of my blog assignment, however I have found these posts to help me understand all that I have taken in each week, and will be a great reminder to me in years to come of what each week looked like, so most likely I will continue these posts.

Most of all, pray that God would be building up his grand finale for Kaleo 7. I'm looking forward to seeing what that is like.

Week Nineteen

This week has been a good week of consolidation for me. Throughout this week, has been one that has been filled with thoughts about the cost of discipleship. On Monday, we wrote our gospels exam, and as stressful as it was, it was a joy to write. Much time was spent in preparation for the exam and the lessons that I learned during the class were very much sealed in my studying. A major thing that I have learned through the gospels class is the idea of obedience, as this is a huge theme in Matthew. I am so used and comfortable with the idea that faith is all that is needed for salvation, while good works are further conformation of this faith. Something that I have learned in Matthew is the importance of our works. This in no was diminishes the importance of faith and the grace that God has given to us, but we will be judged based on our deeds, as stated numerous times throughout the New Testament. This is a new reality for me. Reading Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s book, The Cost of Discipleship, has shed some more light on this for me, that only those who are obedient believe, and only those who believe are obedient. Something else that I have been learning in Matthew and that Bonhoeffer echos is that suffering is the way of discipleship. That is only natural if we are following Jesus. I do not want to suffer, but I welcome it at the same time, since it is my badge of discipleship, it shows that I am sharing in the life of Christ. This week has been a week where I have been constantly surrendering to God. I have found myself many times praying and telling him to take every part of me. I am still not too sure what this looks like, however maybe surrender is simpler that what I imagine it to be. I feel that God will be continuing to show me more and more things to surrender, however I just want to get rid of everything now. Surely this is possible, to put an end to absolutely everything that is holding me back from following Jesus and being obedient. One of my friends here was talking about this and he said that Jesus grew in wisdom and favour with God and men, and this thought excites me and gives me hope that I too will be growing in wisdom and favour with God and men. This life of surrender will evolve, I want it all right now, but I feel that as time goes on, I will be living more and more of my life fully surrendered to God.

Apart from studying and writing papers, this week was a lot of fun. We had another Ditch the Girls night, and was spent running around camp doing tasks kinda like the amazing race, eating massive slabs of steak, jumping over couches into piles of mattresses, building forts, eating ice cream, massive game of contact sardines in the dark, a great chapel in the “tabernacle” or our fort, all topped off with a couple hours at an indoor rock climbing gym. It was a great time. The chapel was great because it forced us to focus on how to run this last part of the race well. Full of admonishment, I felt challenged and convicted on my speech, and came away feeling the need to surrender my mouth to God and to only speak and think upon things that are true, right, good, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent and praiseworthy. So far, it has been pretty good. The next day we all went up to Mount Washington for another day of snowboarding. Such a fun time and was really glad that I went. This past weekend, although I could not go to youth group or church, was a great serving weekend. There was six of us working in dishpit and we had a blast! I have never had more fun doing dishes. I did miss going to youth though, I feel like I have not gone in a long time, and of course I missed going to church and to someone’s house afterward for lunch.

This week I have had some great times alone with God. I have been brought to tears with powerful worship songs sitting on massive pieces of driftwood, and have also felt completely empty of his spirit and just needed to go and walk out in low-tide and express my frustration to him. He is merciful though. And as I have also experienced this week, his mercies are new every morning. Yesterday as I was sitting in the woods, needing to be filled and be fed, his word revealed to me what I must do to finish this race well, as I was struggling with doing this I felt. Taken right from 1 Corinthians 9, Hebrews 12 and Isaiah 40 I came up with this list:

-run with purpose in every step

-throw off the sin that weighs down and entangles

-keep my eyes fixed on Jesus

-run with perseverance

-give up what is entitled to me that will not help me to live out the gospel

-take a new grip

-wait for the Lord to renew our strength.

Please pray that I would be running this last stage of my Kaleo race well through all those ways on the list. I pray that God would be working up in us his grand finale, that the rest of the year would pale in comparison to the things that he would show us and teach us and do for us in these next four weeks. This has been quite a journey, thank you all for sharing in it with me. I will leave you with a verse that has given me encouragement to run this race well, right to the end.

So take a new grip with your tired hands and strengthen your weak knees. Mark out a straight path for your feet so that those who are weak and lame will not fall but become strong - Hebrews 12:12-13

Week Eighteen Pictures

Mystic Beach

Beach Soccer

Huge boulder

Week Eighteen

This past week was our gospels class. This has been hands down the best class that I have ever taken. Led by Dr. Wes Olmstead, we dove headfirst into the book of Matthew and ripped it to shreds...not literally. I truly have never dug deeper into a book in the bible than what we did this week. Reading Matthew with new eyes now has such a richness to it that I have never had before as I read the bible. I am definitely so thankful for the solid teaching that I experienced this week.

There are so many things that I have taken from this class and from listening to the knowledge of a scholar. To be honest, I am still digesting all that I have taken in. It's a lot! Matthew has really challenged me by my need for righteousness greater than that of the Pharisees, pure on the inside and the outside. Forgiveness is another large theme in Matthew that I am still chewing on to follow this digestive analogy.

To be honest, other than class for seven hours each day, there is not too much to report on. Apart from the many lessons learned in class, the greatest part of each day would be the mornings. Every morning, Justin and I and James would spend some quality time getting our daily bread, times of listening, prayer, worship and encouragement. I don't think I realize how much this truth in the mornings sustains me. The past two days I did not take any time to read my bible since I was studying it in school, and I have already noticed my own life peeking through and taking hold of me again. I need to get connected with the vine again.

This must be the shortest blog that I have ever written! It seems as though right now I am filled with many thoughts but very few words.

I will look forward to sharing with you more of what I have been digesting next week.

Week Seventeen

It has been a while since I have last been on this blog. Reason being, is that we were away in Vancouver volunteering at the Olympics (well at Whistler) for three weeks. I first off need to share with you all about that experience.

Well, praise God for what he is doing. Praise him for where he is at work. Going into the Olympics, no one knew what we were getting ourselves into, as we had nothing to compare it too. I even have a hard time writing this, as I am not too sure where to start. I (along with about 20 others) was working at the Whistler Olympic Park, home of ski jumping, cross country skiing and biathlon. While it was incredible being part of the Olympic hype, talking to people all over the world and watching very talented athletes compete in these games, that was not our purpose. As you know, we were there to be God's ambassadors. I originally thought that our first "objective" or "mission" was with the spectators. While there were some occasions where good conversation occurred with the spectators, God put us with the workforce, and that was primarily who we would speak to, work beside, walk with and eat with. I don't know how I can even begin to unpack with you all the things that happened over the Olympics, but bear with me as I try with very unorganized thoughts.

On the first day, I assumed that this would be a very individual missions trip. I thought that "success", however that was measured, would consist on how much effort I put in, and what I did. Well, that attitude only lasted a day. At our first debrief, I realized how crucial it was that there was a group of us there. We got to work with many similar people each day, be it other volunteers or our group leaders that we would work for. We would be moved around each day and as a result got to meet many new people. Kaleo was known there! It seemed like wherever we would go and whoever we would speak to, they would say, "You're one of the Kaleo kids!", even before we would introduce ourselves. I saw firsthand what it looks like to do missions as a church. We were the church there. As opposed to my first day working there, we really relied on each other. We would start the day with prayer, share verses of encouragement and admonishment on the bus rides up, pray for each other when we would see each other (and even when we wouldn't) sometimes even work together. The best part of doing this trip with a group was that where one person would leave off, another would come in and continue our work. Volunteers and staff got to work and meet and talk to practically each member of our group. It was also cool to see all the different parts of one body working together for one common goal with all of our unique gifts. I definitely saw that on this trip, that people could see and experience many different Christians with different personalities and qualities, but all with the same joy and hope. The core of who we all are is the exact same.

Kaleo had a presence there. We asked that the Spirit would be seen in us, that it would leak out of us. Numerous times that had been affirmed. Some said that there was something different about us, some asked us what set us apart, some told us that we just had this spirit about us. All the team leaders loved us, and wanted to work with us every day. One of them, I don't think he was a believer, told us that we were being excellent ambassadors and missionaries. I love that he was able to see us a representatives of someone greater. The key here is that it was us as a group and not us as individuals. Many great relationships were established between other volunteers and us as well. Although we kinda had an agenda, as this was our missions trip, we were there to simply love others for who they were, and to share with them the love of Jesus through our own lives.

You may ask what we accomplished. To be honest, I don't know. Jim said that we were doing the hard part. We were planting seeds, and we trust that someone else out there will be reap what we have sown. But was at work though, there is no doubt about that. I believe that God put us there for many reasons. We were there to sow seeds. Being around people all day, there were endless opportunities, and I do not even know how much we affected others through our conversations and actions, though this had been affirmed and acknowledged multiple times. Jim also said that a reason we were there was to present Christians in a new light. In our conversations, a lot of people had pretty bad views on Christianity and the church, however they seemed to love us, and noticed something different in us that was attractive. Another reason I believe that we were there was to offer truth to people. Multiple times, the gospel was spoken to people, verses of Scripture was spoken to individuals, I had the chance to give a bible away, and questions were answered by people interested in the Christianity that we lived.

On behalf of all of us here at Kaleo, I thank you for your prayers. I had such peace knowing that hundreds of people were praying for us all around the world. God was at work here. He is the God of the Olympics in Vancouver, BC, and the God of the universe. I remember some lyrics that said, "Greater things have yet to come and greater things have still to be done in the city." God did incredible things, and we were simply people that he invited in on what he was already doing. Thanks for partnering with us in prayer.

This past week was reading week. A week of a lot of homework, along with some good times. One night, five of us went out, bought some steak, goat cheese, peppers and made some bannac (a bread dough) then went out hiking at night, made a fire on some rocks above the ocean and ate gourmet steak and melted cheese and bread with grilled peppers under the stars one night, then continued our hike and went out to the point and slept under the starts in our sleeping bags. It was a great time, real lighthearted and enjoyed spending time with good friends, unwinding after a pretty spiritual draining three weeks at the olympics. The next day we went to Mystic Beach, a real west coast beach with huge boulders and massive pieces of driftwood and cliffs. It was a great break and was so incredibly beautiful. I love seeing the beauty of creation in this place.

It was good to get back to church this past week. God is moving and bringing about revival I sense in New Life. Mark is really challenging the congregation to go to places that they've never been to before and is trying very hard to be walking in the fullness of the Holy Spirit in all that they do. I enjoyed going to a First Nations worship night at New Life on Sunday, seeing and hearing native worshippers who love the Lord. They are working towards reconciliation and restoration between First Nations and white relations.

This week we are in our Gospels class. It is incredible so far. I get to study Jesus! Pray that this class will profoundly affect me and my own relationship with Jesus.

Time is flying! Hard to believe that I only have about a month and a half left here. Pray that I would have the ears to hear what God is trying to speak to me in this last stage of Kaleo.

Thanks again. I'm looking forward to tell you all about Gospels.