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!