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!