It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas

As sad as it is, semester one of Kaleo is coming to a close. Christmas is in the air (so soon, I know)-- flights are booked, carols have started to be sung, and we are hunting for a K-tree tomorrow and having a Christmas supper. Oh goody! Tonight I was also informed about interesting things about the Christmas story from Jim. The story we hear each holiday season isn't quite the story it really is; interesting I must say.
This week, like all others recently, has flown by very quickly. We had Church Ministry class, which I did enjoy muchly. For post-class homework, we are writing an essay about Women in the Church. This is a widely opinionated matter, but very interesting, and I hope to get a lot done in the small time we have.
One thing that makes Kaleo classes awesome-- being able to end them at a drop of a hat to do a service to those in need. As I mentioned before, Duncan was flooding from all the rain. We quickly piled into the vans and helped fill sandbags.
Here is a photo I shot of a shocked young child in the midst of it all.

Ok, just kidding, it's Caroline.

So with all the church ministry class going on, it seems I have been at a lack of actual church ministry this week. But....it was replaced with the duty of camp ministry! On the weekend was the men's retreat, so I worked in the kitchen and did belaying stuff at the challenge course. Talking with these guys at the challenge course was so fun! And it was so funny to watch them scream with glee (or fear?) on the zipline. I got to talk about Kaleo quite a bit and it really helped me to think of all the effects from beginning to present. They found our Kaleo group very intriguing. Perhaps that could also be attributed to our birthday surprise for Josh and the crazy pillow fight and sleeping bag/worm wars in the lounge. (I also did something to my ankle during that pillow fight that made it hurt REALLY BAD. But it's currently feeling a lot better than before and all good and taped up now.) Another positive of the men's retreat-- we got the hot tub back! YEAH! Haha, ok not such a big deal, but I can still be excited about it ok?

What else happened this week?...Hmm.. Oh! Open dorms! I have now learned our room is quite the party/chill out room, although not the top cleanest. Kudos to 212 and 312. The messiest room had to run a pudding gauntlet in which we (you guessed it) threw pudding at them. If you are thinking "Jade why would you throw pudding at such 'undeserving of getting pudding thrown on them' people?". Well it's just plain funny and I ate half of mine first anyways. Yummy.

We also went to the Ladysmith Lightup, where they light up a whole bunch of Christmas lights at the same time. Ironically, Katie, Kaitlyn, Nicole, and I missed the lightup by about 10 seconds because we were in a building. Oh well. Later we joined Jer, Nate, and James to watch the parade. We decided to risk joining the parade, and we put our arms on each others shoulders and sang Christmas carols as we marched the last half. Then we proceeded to watch THE MOST AMAZING FIREWORKS I HAVE EVER SEEN!

So that's the dealio of my life at the moment. I really feel like I need to practice the skill of slowing down in the business lately. And even though studying the Bible is part of course work here, I really want to be able to dig into it personally a lot more than I have been. Pray for me to do that and to be motivated to get a lot of homework done! Talent show tomorrow too, whoo!

(Queue Lion King Music) He Lives In You

Hello there. This week was very eventful for so much "unscheduledness". From the guy's fight night; to our attempt at watching the sunrise which led to hiding in the tent in the dining hall in hopes to scare someone; to making cookies at the Badke's with all my wonderful friends. Most importantly, it was 24/7 prayer week! We had a special prayer room set up where we had pictures of all of us Kaleos. By the end of the week the entire room was covered with papers of requests, hopes, prayers, and encouragements. A lot of people poured out their heart in that room and were changed so much from this week. I think this week was so significant for me as well, but I'm only realizing the outcome slowly as the days go by. I'm so glad we do it again next semester!

In contrast, part of the week was really stressful for me because of all the homework that had to get done. I had an OT essay, books to read, and papers on those books as well. I really let them get the best of me and worried about them way too much. Just at breaking point, Kristie reminded me of the things that really matter in life. Jesus is all I need.

With that being said, there are secondary things in life we need too. This Sunday, Pastor Mark talked about our need for friends and mentors. He used the description of Rafiki in the Lion King to show how friends need to come alongside to encourage and build each other up (Remember when he cleverly encouraged Simba to go back to the Pridelands to take back the kingdom?). You would be surprised to find out what "Rafiki" means in Swahili. I'm not telling, but google will. Of course that night wouldn't have been complete without watching The Lion King back at camp.

At youth group we got to hang out with kids in Big D's (The youth room/building). The plan for the night was to play mission impossible, but it didn't work out so instead we all just chilled and played cranuim and twister and such. It was a sweet hang-out time and turned out to be a really good night. Also on Sunday for lunchtime we went to the home of a lady named Faith. We had been there once before with a bunch of the young adults from New Life on Halloween. She really practices hospitality, as she opens her house for people to stay and builds into their lives as a mentor (hmm sound familiar?). Before we rushed back to the camp to finish homework, we played the game Killer Bunnies (now in my "list" of top fav. board and card games).

Finally got to do QFX this week! John, Trent, and I got to use our maintenance skills and rake leaves, dig trenches (because of all the rain), and clean bathrooms-- all in the rain...well except bathrooms. At first I wasn't too stoked to do this, but it turned out to be a lot of fun hanging out with the maintenance crew and Joel our fearless leader. Oh, and mentioning the rain, it's been raining like crazy. Duncan is flooded so please pray for the work-effort there.

So speaking of academics (nice segue, I know), we started Foundations of Church Ministry today. It looks promising and I like it so far, so we'll see how it goes.

So until next time, Hakuna Matata my friends!

Coming This Monday To A Blog Near You

Wait a moment. Before I start about my week, I would like to say how much I'm enjoying tonight. Listening to the new Switchfoot album, hanging out with all my peeps; it's a great night. Another thing on the blog agenda-- swine flu shot. I got it tonight, wasn't really planning on it, but it's a good idea for the olympics coming up. And people in close proximity might have the actual swine flu. So all in all, I hope it's all for the good; plus my arm isn't that sore anyway...

So last week. Hmm. Well almost the entirety of last week was spent in class-- Old Testament Literature! Oh man, I really liked this class. I'm glad we get to take it in modular style. Even though a whole bunch of information gets crammed into your head at once, it's so much easier to see the bigger picture. The highlight of the week was definitely the movie we made. It is all about movie trailers for the OT. Plus it's on the Kaleo Blog! http://www.kaleoseven.blogspot.com/. It was so fun to make and there were many late late late nights to get it done. If you haven't seen it yet, watch it now. Seriously. Epic. Go now.

Not a whole lot happened this week other than the class and movie-making. Youth group was a movie night and we watched "UP", so it was a pretty relaxed night. The Sr. High Retreat was this past weekend, but I wasn't scheduled to work. I had a whole lot of homework to do and I loved when Marissa came by on her time off and a bunch of us just sat in our room, worked and chatted. Later a few of us tagged along to go to the pool, which was really fun too. I was also really excited for church this sunday since I missed it previously (because I was counselling for the Jr. High Retreat). So I made it! And enjoyed it! I love my New Life crew. I'm excited for next youth and church happenings. 

Right now it's prayer week. A few K5's came to hang out when we had the "kick-off" and it was fun hanging out and talking with them. I signed up for 12:00 a.m.-1:00 a.m. for most of the days and I could just stay in that room forever. I hope we can all grow closer as we all pray for the things on our hearts together. If you would like, you can pray too. You know that MC Hammer song--Pray? A line in the song is "We got to pray just to make it today." That should be our attitude as we consider God as our day to day strength and hope.

So other than all that, just thinking about the future. Where to go, what to do. I'm considering Briercrest, travelling, working, staying in BC, and pretty much anything else. What do you think?

Here is the group picture from the Jr. High Retreat. I'm in the back/middle if you can see me!

Until later, ciao!

Here am I. Send me! -- Isaiah 6:8

"I will go, I will go
I will go, Lord send me
To the world, To the lost
To the poor and hungry
Take everything I am
I'm clay within your hands
I will go, I will go, send me"
-Starfield, I Will Go

So if you remember me telling you that I hoped I could help more with homeless ministry in my last post, well it turned out I did...the very next day! We went on a trip to Victoria and a group of us had a plan to take out random people on the street for lunch. First we met two buskers named Julian and Don. We invited them for lunch and then all split ways. Emma, Matt, Nicole, and myself found ourselves in a few shops and a toy store, but as we continued walking we stumbled upon a man sitting on the sidewalk asking for money. He was quite disoriented, but he said he would come with us for lunch. We helped him to his feet and asked him his name. He answered, "Willy." But apparently that is his street name; his real name is James (the buskers also said that he told them his name was Frank). Anyways, you get the picture. We walked to the harbour and asked him where he was from and he answered, "My mom." We asked where she was from and he said, "Her mom." It was quite entertaining. Once at the harbour, Matt and Nicole went to see if the buskers were around. Emma and I bought Willy some fish and chips at a stand. He told us about himself (he made woodcarvings) and how that day was the best ever and how he felt so special. He reached in his pocket and gave us some Halloween candy he had (Don't take candy from strangers, I know, bla bla. Don't worry, it's sitting here on my desk). We took a couple of pictures. This is one:
Our big group met up again and the buskers came, as well as Willy, for lunch. We shared stories and it turned out Julian was a pastor's kid. We hung out with them more and they jammed on guitar. We also met Julian's brother, Micah, who was also busking on another street. It was so sweet just getting to know those guys and talking about our college life and God-life with them as well. To end the day off, we stopped at a beautiful waterfall. What a great day.

The rest of reading break was great! It was pretty busy, but on Thursday I went to the Matthew Good/Mother Mother concert in Nanaimo with Abby! The marvelous Haley drove us and we stopped at a farmer's market, walked in a park with petroglyphs, checked out some stores, and ate Thai food. I also tried bubble tea for the first time-- I like it.
Yesterday, I finally got to go to the New Life Young Adults group that meet to hang out with the homeless! I was pretty stoked, since I had to miss it twice before because of homework deadlines. We prayer-walked around the town and at the very end we were praying in a circle and a man named Samuel joined us. He was out of it, but kept repeating how he liked what we were doing and he wanted to be filled with hope just like we were. We invited him back for next time. I wonder if he will come.

I was a little sad that I had to miss youth group and church this past weekend. I was counselling for the Jr. High retreat, but it really was rewarding. At the start, I was not excited and really tired and really wanted sleep and had homework on my mind. However, I had awesome girls and the whole weekend was filled with great talks, fun games, a scavenger hunt, q-town, a fun game of keep-away at the pool, hot chocolate, the smartie game, and THE GAME (If you don't know what I'm talking about, good, because it's impossible to win and know it at the same time).

Today I had my first class of OT and I am loving it. I am definitely getting a lot more out of the stories that I thought I knew pretty well. We will be making a movie summarizing the OT this week, which is really exciting.

That's all I have to say. Pray for group unity as we tackle this video project and for the people we met in Vic-- that we made an impression on their lives.

P.S. Are there any Manitou people that read this? The junior high retreat reminded me of my love for camp and that there is a certain staff retreat this weekend. Say hi to everyone for me!

A couple videos regarding my post if you're interested.
Julian and Don (sorry it's really short)

Matthew Good in concert

Haiku of the Day

Coffee on the Moon
Caramel Macchiatos
Are very tasty

IT'S READING BREAK!

Just to be redundant...IT'S READING BREAK!
I like to think of it as a break, but in all honesty it is called Reading Break for a reason. I sure have a lot of reading to do....but Gym night tonight was grand-- we played floor hockey.
Yesterday was a mad rush to finish my Heart paper for Spir Form. The crazy thing was that at church, Pastor Mark talked about the exact same things that I was writing about... I like God's humour.
For other random things:
I saw the Olympic Torch! It went through Crofton; imagine that.
Last night we went to the Badke's and made bannock, which we roasted at the beach. It reminded me so much of camp and also reminded me of the goodness of bannock. Mmmm.
On Saturday was "Trunk-or-Treat" at church (Where people decorate the trunks of their vehicles and give out candy). After rushing to find a costume-y thing to wear, I ended up going as a gypsy/pirate/evil character from Narnia (Yeah, I don't really know either). We attempted to make the van into the wardrobe to Narnia but it turned out someone had used the same idea and ours was really sketchy looking anyways. Instead we helped out in other ways and hung out with the kids. I ran the "sucker pull" most of the night and got to meet a lot of kids and see a lot of crazy costumes.
For Sunday, church day, we kept tradition of going to lunch at a church-member's place. This time we went to the Unrau's. It was a great time of food, would-you-rathers, and talk about the future for the church and their heart in the homeless ministry. That is something I am hearing a lot of lately and I really hope I can help more with this in different situations, even if it just be prayer.

I think one of my highlights from the year so far would be the surf trip. We all packed in vans and headed to the other side of the island. On the way there we stopped again at Coombs and stopped at this gorgeous place called Cathedral Grove. There were massive trees there and I felt like I was in Jurassic Park. We also stopped to eat lunch at this place with huge rapids that could snap logs in half. We stayed at a church in Ucluelet and surfed in Tofino. Sidenote- That was my first time surfing and I loved it! Four K5 guys came along all the way from Bridalquest, whoops I mean Briercrest, to hang out which was so awesome. We watched the Cold Water Classic, which was a pro surf competition going on at the time. I have new respect for surfing; not only the actually surfing part, but the carrying the board part, haha. One day some of us went on a hike to a place called "The Blowhole". Everytime the waves came in, it would send a huge spray of water into the air! I could watch it for hours, it was so amazing. After each day was done and we were tired and content, we had chapel. I love the honesty everyone has in our group and I have gotten so much encouragement from their stories.So, I've been thinking lately about how the ocean relates to fearing God. It is the same as fearing the expanse that stretches out before me, but in a sense of awe and wonder. Talking in every perspective you can see, but realizing it is only a tiny piece of the greater puzzle.

That's all I have to say for now. Hope to see you here again soon. Thank you come again.