Life is Lyrical, Bring on the Waves

I am thankful for mud, but also equally thankful for showers. Last night we went mud sliding and had an epic mud fight. Nuff` said.
Almost the entirety of this week was spent in Hermeneutics class. I would say my favorite part of class was making a video for our group project on the book of James. We walked into Crofton and interviewed people about perseverance and their experiences in that. It was very interesting hearing their responses!

On friday our youth group had a Spaghetti Auction Fundraiser for the different activities and things they do. Unfortunately, we had forgotten it was that night and showed up at the normal youth group time. However it turned out alright, and we helped with some kitchen-y things, clean-up, and of course--hanging out with the youth. (end of spaghetti auction)

Also this past weekend was the Juniors retreat here at Qwanoes. I worked in the kitchen for saturday afternoon. I made 29 pitchers of juice and 18 pitchers of ice water-- I am now the juice master! (Can I have a theme song?). After a great worship time in the office that night, I hung out and ate popcorn with Claire`s campers. They were so cute! They thought I was 25 and Australian. I don`t see where they get that idea, but I take it as a compliment. I also loved watching the kids` chapel/Q-town from the back of the room. They get so excited about the songs and about the Bible stories and it makes me excited with them. (creeping at the back)

The church service yesterday was pretty amazing too. Halfway through the service, the power went out, but it worked out perfectly in the sermon. I liked the ``unplugged`` vibe. I get a lot out of Pastor Mark`s speaking and I think next time I`m going to try to bring a notebook to write in so I have a better time remembering all the wonderful insights.
Seems like I can`t stay away from Duncan, BC on a Sunday! After church and an amazing lunch meal in Duncan, I went back again to church for a Praise Night. I really struggled with choosing to go to that or to the young adults group that chat with the homeless on Sundays. I weighed my options and decided to go to the praise night. I felt a little guilty about the choice, but on the way there decided it was for the best and it was too late to change my mind anyway. It was really refreshing for me and now I`m so glad I went! Life is a little more lyrical because I have songs stuck in my head, hehe.
Random thing I am doing--I am learning to crochet! Claire taught our room how, so now we are making toques!
Next stop--Going to Tofino today to go surfing!
Pray for good waves and for less homework stress. Oh boy...

Later dudes,
Jade

God, Goats, and Gollum

Hello everyone in the blogosphere! (as the hardcore bloggers would say)
Well this past week was sure interesting. There has been ups and downs (but mostly ups!).
"Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything."
(James 1:2-4, TNIV)
Through little crawly friends in our rooms-- making us do a lot of laundry and moving of everything we own, missing out on swimming, falling in the cave, and other random things (soccer ball in the face [just kidding, that was not a big deal]); it's totally ok. And life is still good despite that and during that. I have been learning to be joyful in all circumstances and in effort, I'm trying to complain less (so ignore the list of things above, I'm stating, not complaining, haha). God is good. And it sure helps that there is so much awesomeness to do and awesome people too.
So today we had our first class of Hermeneutics with Merrill Dyck. Part of the pre-course work we had to do was read a book of the Bible, everyday for 7 days, then write what we learned from it. I was assigned James and it's funny how much certain verses and ideas come up in daily life (just like in the verse above).
So at the start of the week we went caving (a.k.a. spelunking)! It was crazy how tiny some of the cracks were that we had to fit through. Some people were talking about how you can get very claustrophobic while in the cave (I was reminded of the song 'Claustrospelunker' as well as the story of when Winnie the Pooh gets stuck), but it wasn't bad-- it was uber fun! We hummed the Lord of the Rings song, and Nick did the creepy Gollum voice/cough.
In the depths of the cave, we decided to turn off all of our headlamps and it kind of looked like this..


I also witnessed a spider battle above my head.


After caving, our group headed to Coombs to do some shopping. They had a country market there called "Goats on the Roof" filled with a load of funky things. And just so you know, there were actually goats. On the roof.



I also bought that toque. It is an owl and I love it.
Afterward we went to a mall and had some great fun. Haley and I found ourselves missing our ride (my bad) and being stuck at the mall because of further unfortunate events concerning our ride.

This is our "Jade should check her watch twice or possibly more than that next time so we can get to the pool" pose.

On Thursday we did DTG which meant ditch the guys/girls/genders. First us girls went to Oceanview, an old-folks home, and talked with some ladies there and sang songs. They were so funny and loved the company! I definitely want to visit more in the future! Afterward we went to Chemainus for coffee and sight-seeing. That town was very sweet...especially the candy shop (haha)! For supper we went to Kristie's and had some special sharing time. I feel like I got to know the girls a lot better through this time. Some of us decided to walk home in the rain (I love the rain) and that night 4 of us girls decided to clean the guys' rooms instead of pranking them. Good deal, eh?

In the morning we did a roomie photoshoot, had hot drinks, made posters for our "brother room" (the guys room right below us), wrote a "letter from God", and had brunch in the climbing tower!

This past weekend there was also a women's retreat here at camp. I wasn't signed up for the weekend, but I did get to talk to this amazing woman named Colleen! I stopped to say hi as I was going upstairs to hang out, but felt like I should stay and talk longer. I found myself there for about two hours and even though it was a crazy time at night/in the morning, I'm so glad I did! This lady was a prayer warrior; she told me stories of prayers and her life and they were so inspiring!
Friday consisted of youth group. It was M&M night and we did a bunch of games including one where you had to shoot an m&m out of your nose! I lead a younger connect group with Rivera instead of my normal girls, but it was awesome getting to know more kids that I haven't talked to yet.
Honestly, I love my church! We went to another couple's house for lunch after and I really enjoy the conversation we get to have with the members of the church.
Well I better go and do homework or go to bed! No more soccer nights in Q-town or walks to Crofton with this work! :)
Pray for our class as we tackle our Hermeneutics course!

Thank you for laughter and clear water

Mmm... I love Thanksgiving Dinner. Thinking about Thanks-giving, I am so thankful for this great community I have become a part of and all the sweet things we get to do together. Sweet things such as.. a sailing trip! We spent 5 days at sea aboard the Pacific Grace with the fantastic SALTS (Sail and Life Training Society) crew. It was such an awesome experience as we literally became a part of the crew to help with various things on the boat. Whenever we hoisted the sails or weighed the anchor, it required all hands on deck to get the job done. I even swabbed the deck (which is done in real life and not just the movies). We were also divided up into watches (mine being Port Watch) and when we were on watch we did different jobs such as steering the boat (my favorite!), bow watch, stern watch, and radio. I can also say I am now a certified Junior Sailor with SALTS! We had lessons everyday about emergency situations, chartwork, right-of-way, and knot-tying in which we got tested on afterwards. Most of the time on the boat you would have seen me tying knots in my effort to remember.
Something that was amazing--the food! Everytime we ate a meal we sang a prayer, which was a fun change of pace. We sang songs of Johnny Appleseed, the Superman prayer, thank you for laughter and clear water, and many more. Sometimes we also got a story from our watch-leader, SamIAm! (With that reference, guess one of the stories we read).

My favorite times on the boat would have to be:
Rowing the dories out to the nearby islands-- We became very familiar with the term "Pan-pan" during this time because we were so close to capsizing the "untippable rowboat". The islands were fun to explore-- the first one had a bunch of cool abandoned cabins and starfish all on the beach. The second one had a neat orchard with apple trees.
Night Watch-- first night with Claire, and second with Kristie. Great conversations here.
Climbing up the shrouds to the very top!-- Such a nice view and so peaceful. Plus, I helped take down the topsails!
Our epic rope-swing. Enough said.
The Skits we made for "The reunion of the Disney characters that never made it". I'm not sure if I ever laughed so hard as that night. As well as the other random games we played, such as camouflage.
Mug-up-- Times of singing and sharing (and goodies!). It was interesting singing a blend of worship songs, sailing songs, and classic songs like country roads or cats in the cradle. I enjoyed it very much, especially when Krystle (one of the crewmembers) would sing us one of her songs.
Our Punishment-- Well to sum it up, the guys vs. girls battle of the "tuck n' tidy" ended with the ladies losing. That meant the guys could pick a punishment for us. We had no idea what it would be, but we heard snippets including things such as "walk the plank", "throw slop at them", and "we should just punish the ones listening to us right now". By the time they told us to be up on deck at a certain time wearing clothes that we didn't mind getting wet we were slightly not excited. On deck, after the guys got the slop bucket and made a little speech about us not getting mad at them for what they'll do, came up with dish tubs and ...washed our feet. (And made us tea!) What a surprise! I think this was my top highlight and I really appreciate that humble act of these brothers-in-Christ.

(Port Watch! Photo compliments of Abby)

The trip was over and we headed home, but the day was not over yet. It was a friday, and we all know what happens on fridays. Youth group! I was dead tired, but still excited to go. On this particular friday, the plan was to meet at the Duncan train station and hand out cookies and hot chocolate to the homeless and various people on the streets. The kids were separated into groups and I led a group of eight that were very fun, very crazy, and very very energetic. I'm sure they scared most of the people we met into cookie-taking submission. I asked them afterwards what they got from that experience and other than their witty answers of "cookies", most were really glad we had done this. I really hope it broadened their perspective on the less fortunate people of Duncan.

I was also privileged to do the same type of thing again with my Kaleo buds. Usually the New Life Young Adults meet on Sunday Evenings and do ministry at the train station as well. We took a van-full of Kaleos, but when we arrived there was no other people in sight. Not letting a great opportunity go to waste, we decided to do it anyway with just ourselves. We split into two groups and our group decided to pick up a box of timbits to give away. However, we didn't see anyone except a few kids that didn't talk to us (at least they know not to talk to strangers). As we walked, we prayed and sang a little bit too. The other group talked with a couple of people and when we got back we gave them our timbits! I guess things work out after all, and even more than I might ever know. I hope to do this again sometime.

If you made it through reading all of that, my hope is that you would pray for the homeless and their situation, pray for the kids in youth group--that they will continue to be challenged in perspectives, and pray for my precourse work to get done on time for my next class-- Hermeneutics !

Thank you for laughter and clear water
Thank you for friends sailing on the sea
Thank you that I may know your love will always be with me

(Photo compliments of Abby)

Aint No Mountain High Enough

Hey Everyone! I can't believe so much time has passed already here. So many things have happened!
But before I keep rambling-- I HIKED UP A MOUNTAIN! Legit, I did. It was a three-day adventure and we hiked to different lakes in the area and set up camp for overnight. The picture above is of all of us at the top of Mount Albert-Edward in Strathcona Park. The other one is our team photo for the "All-Blacks".



The view was incredible! Several times during the hike I had to stop so I could take it all in. (Also accounting for the times I had to stop just because I was flat-out tired and out of breath). I felt like Frodo or Samwise on their quest to Mount Doom, except it was much more pretty and joyful. Everyone was such an encouragement and I probably would have been very frustrated and more exhausted if it weren't for them. In that sense I would have to say that everyone was my Samwise! Looking out over the landscape I really got to experience the beauty that God put into the world we live in. I definitely have to say that it looked like it was made purposely and not by accident. On that note, everyone should go climb a mountain!

The weekend after our trip we had the biggest guest group of the year come to Qwanoes--the leadership team from Trinity Western University. All of us Kaleo-ers helped out in one area or another. I was assigned to the kitchen so I got to cut up a lot of veggies, set up tables/food, and clean up, etc. I really appreciate all the work the kitchen staff put into our food (kudos to Laura)!
Another aspect of things I will be doing at Qwanoes is QFX. With this I am helping Joel the marvelous maintenance man with different jobs around camp with John and Trent.

On the academic side, we just finished our Spiritual Formation course with Marv Penner. It was amazing! It has taught me so much about faith-building and I'm hoping I can apply it very well now and forevermore. We got to lead a chapel and regularly we got time to go to our own sanctuary for some time with God minus distractions. The last day I was inspired to write part of a song, which I might share sometime when I finish it. At the very end we had a communion service out at the dock!

The first night of youth group we attended was called "The Hunger"; which is a youth worship night from New Life. It was so fun (especially getting to know the girls in my connect group and dancing in a conga line, hehe ) Every time there is youth, we split off into connect groups by grade so everyone can get to know each other more. I am helping with the Grade 11/12 group, which I was a little nervous about in the beginning because of the closeness of age. After hanging out with the girls though, I am so excited for these times! One thing you can pray for is that I would be able to really connect with these girls and all the other kids that I haven't gotten to know yet. I really find it difficult to initiate a conversation with random people that I don't know, so I'm trying really hard to change that! Church is also quite amazing. After every service, we go to the home of a member of the congregation for lunch. It's so awesome getting to know people in this way and hearing their story and conversation.

Probably my favorite thing of Kaleo so far was our epic dance party! "Kaleo's Best Dance Crew". So much hidden talent-- who knew? I was 1/4 of the new-school hip hop dance crew of Jeremy, Nick, Caroline, and myself. Whoo, we got 1st for our pump it- black eyed peas routine! Honestly though, all the dances were so good and redonkulously sweet. It makes me want to dance all the time now.










We leave for SALTS in about 7 hours! More on that later!