Brink of Christmas

Twas the week before Christmas and all through Kaleo the excitement was stirring. I can barely recall anything I've done in the last week, not that it hasn't been busy, but I just can't believe it's almost December! The past week was our 24/7 week of prayer which is something that I have never been a part of before. I was a definately intimidated at the possibility of spending an entire hour in prayer, but at the same time excited to spend that time with God in prayer. I can admit I often found it hard to focus, but walking into that prayer room each time was so powerful praying through the prayers on the wall, getting to know the hearts of my fellow students. Friday night was youth group, which was a night of playing wii and watching Princess Bride. Only two youth ended up showing up, but it worked out really cool because the one girl and I that came got to spend a lot of time talking and I got to know her so much better! Saturday morning our mission trip team to New York headed into Vancouver to hear pastor Billy speak and to meet him. It was a hugely eye opening experience to me. I realized the very real danger I will be in while in New York, as well as the horrible conditions these people live their entire lives in. This week we've started our Church Ministry Class and I'm really excited about!

Jingle Bells

November is absolutely flying back! Last week was reading break. Sunday a lot of people headed out and it was so weird being here without them, it felt so empty! Monday Matt, Jordan and I took a ferry over to Vancouver. When we got to Vancouver we found our hostel we were staying at and checked in. I was excited to finally get back to Camp Qwanoes Thurday night and see my Kaleo family once again! Friday night we had youth at Warmland. This Friday we did a bit of a scavenger hunt going through the alphabet to find items that start with each letter. We had a good turn out of at least 15 kids. It's cool to finally feel like I'm building relationships with the girls in my youth group. It was one of our girl's 16th birthday so we got to share that with her as well as her cake :D We watched a clip of Evan Ulmighty and then discussed it in groups with the guys and girls seperate. Jess and I got to lead the girls discussion and it's neat looking back now how much they've opened up to us since the begining of the year. When we went to close at the end and asked for prayer requests and each one of them had a prayer request was pretty awesome! This Sunday at Warmland I was able to serve downstairs with the kids which I love. One of the girls made me a book with pictures of her and I together. After this week I feel really encouraged with the relationships within my new church that I'm making and I'm really excited for the rest of the year!

Break-fast

Hey again! Starting today I am officially on my reading break! Last week Monday and Tuesday the girls and guys went on respective overnight trips. Us girls got to travel to Victoria, where we went shopping, ate lots of food and bonded. Monday night we also had "blessings", where we had picked names and blessed each other. It was awesome to see how God had truly had a hand in picking who had each names, some of the girls had blessed each other in ways I simply never would have thought to. Tuesday on the way home we surprised the boys and met them paintballing. Saturday afternoon Alex and I went to visit patients with alzheimers in Crofton, which was a hugely new experience for me. I had read books about how alzheimer's affects people but I had never seen it first hand. When I first walked in I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to stay because it broke my heart. One woman wanted to call the police because she beleived we were all spies out to get her. I don't understand how God could allow people to live their lives and then have their minds leave them in a sense. It is definately a continually a learning experience at Kaleo, weather it be out of books, on a mountain or life lessons. God has been teaching me mainly about loving people, not with my love but with God's love.

A New Day

Hey! It's getting repetitive but I can't believe how insanely fast time is going, November of my first year of college is here! This past week we finished up the class time of hermeneutics which I found really interesting. Tuesday night we presented our group projects on the book of the bible we read. My group had read Colossians. We decided to create a facebook account for Paul, with the letters he wrote to Colossae on his "wall". This past week was also Halloween. For Halloween a few of us students helped out at various events in Crofton. I ended up at the community center serving hot chocolate and checking up on the school to make sure there was no vandalism. A family from Warmland Community Church had turned their home into a haunted house and we got to tour that which was awesome! Sunday at Warmland I was able to help out with the pre school age children. This was my first time with the pre school and it was so fun just seeing their zest for life as well as innocent love for Jesus. Warmland is definitely slowly starting to feel like home, although it was definitely a huge change from my home church.