I write to you as I sit in the Victoria airport eagerly anticipating my flight home for Christmas. Brace yourself dear readers as this is going to be a long one seeing how it has been almost two weeks since my last entry; it will also be my last until the New Year.
The first week of December was not a very eventful one I cannot say I even really remember what I did from Monday up to Thursday night. I wrote an exam for Church Ministry and I think that went rather swimmingly. I also did much research on two papers that were due the following week. One was for my Field Education Course for Kristi Voth (Kaleo Student Life Leader) it was on reconciliation. The research on that one was fairly easy, I am very certain that it will be my poor grammar and other writing skills that will be my down fall, but I finished and handed it on time (Dec 9). I had resolved not to stress to much about it because I had bigger fish to fry (no offense Kristie), my paper for Church Ministry happened to be due a mere after the first, yeah, yeah if you do the math it is due today. I had the final copy e-mailed to David last night so I am all clear and I no longer have any papers to worry about until the second of January (when I get back to camp). Thus I think that it is safe to conclude that December 1-3 was all about research, expanding ones knowledge on what it means to be reconciled with Christ, as well as shaping my view on women in the church.
Ok, lets move on to a little bit more of the exciting things that went on in my life over the weekend. Thursday afternoon quite a few of us loaded up the vans and headed over to Vancouver. There was a youth specialties conference that was being put on by that dear prince of a man Mr. Marv Penner. This conference started Thursday night and went until Sunday evening. It was a very excellent weekend; I learned so much and have a newfound respect for Youth Pastors. There were some excellent speakers there.
One of the things I found that God was teaching me throughout this weekend was to “Be still and know that I am God.” It blew me away. I so often find that I try to put God into a little box, I cram him in and try to make sense of him, but as as I sat in these seminars I realized there is no possible way for me to make sense of God, I will never be able to make him fit into the neat little box I want him to; He is God and I need to stop trying to make sense of the things that He does, instead I need to remind myself that God is God and I am me. I need to be still and know that He is God.
While at the conference I got a chance to explore Vancouver, it is truly a lovely city, possibly one of my favorites (how wonderful it would be to live there one day). As most know I LOVE cities, I love the bustle and buildings and the people. All the people were running around in a rush seeming to forget to breath and take in the fact they that they are alive and able to walk, and not only that but they are in one on the most beautiful major cities in Canada! It was this that was so shocking to me, seeing how worldly these people are. I like to people watch and walking in the streets of cities is a good place to do this, to see just how ‘of’ the world many of the people were was amazing, I only hope that I am able to be in the world and not of it. This is a very daunting challenge but I think that the end result worth it, I can take comfort knowing that there are others out there trying to do the same thing and also that I have God to empower me to do this.
Through all its concrete beauty there is also some very natural beauty, like the ocean, the mountains that surround the city and cute little (though not so little) Stanley Park. However amidst the wonders of man-made structures and God’s creation there was poverty, as it is with any city, there were many homeless people. They were sleeping on church steps and on the sidewalks. I was amazed by some of my classmates and how big of a heart that they have for those who are living in the streets, they show love, compassion and a genuine interested in getting to know these people. It is truly a life changing this to be able to go to school with the people.
Alas the conference had to come to an end, it was nice to see some familiar faces and catch up with friends but unfortunately I had to leave the big city and head back to tiny Crofton.
Back at camp the week flew by fast. Monday we went bungee jumping it was so fun. Though I did not go bungee jumping (it cost $100) I did go on a giant swing which was scarier then bungee jumping (I got my name pulled out of a draw so I got to go for free) it was exhilarating!! It was a like 125ft drop before you could even feel the rope of the swing catch you and then you continued to swing back and forth. I love the rush!!
Other then that nothing really happened until Thursday morning where we celebrated Christmas with each other, it was titled Kaleo Christmas Morning. We all drew names out of a hat a few weeks earlier and that was the person that we would have in the gift exchange. It was so fun seeing how creative people are and the joy on the faces of them as they opened gifts was so rewarding. Matt Myles had my name and he got me gum, a journal and a poster with guitar chords. I was so happy about all these things as they are some of my favorites! I pulled Haley out of the draw and I was so excited to find her a gift, I wanted it to be prefect because she had blessed me in so many ways this past semester. I found her two mugs and three different types of hot chocolate. I was so excited when I bought it I wanted to tell her right away, and unfortunately it was that day where she decided she wanted me to teach her to crochet so keeping the secret was very hard.
This morning after some short good-byes we all headed our separate ways for the next three weeks of life, into the world we are sent and out of the little green house of Kaleo…so the test begins….
Hope all is well wherever you are.
Thanks for reading,
ABBY
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