Hmm...

This week was a good week simply because it was. We went surfing on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. I loved it; it was so much fun hanging out with everyone and being able to play in the ocean. I loved swimming and improving my non-existent surfing skills. The pressure of homework wore of slightly as one of the hardest classes was over and behind me, so it enabled me to truly enjoy being around everyone.

Friday when we got back was a bust day, I had a phone interview with Mount Royal University for their Broadcasting Program which I think I botched up but I am not to concerned about it seeing how I do not really want to go there and more. I also had QFX, which I just worked with the maintenance crew to set up a huge tent. After that it was homework time, and then time to work. I was scheduled for a full weekend of work with the junior’s retreat. I work the tuck shop and the All Star Team, which ran games. It was not as bad as I thought it would be, I think if I was able to just help out with games I could work at camp, it was just the right amount of interaction with kids and it was not stressful at all.

Well that is all I have to say for now. I am going into a week of class. I’ll update you on the next week.

Abby

...

I’m still puzzled by this entire blogging thing, it is interesting to me, seeing how I keep a journal but only write in it sporadically, this blog it the only thing that I actually write continuously on. Alas my memories will be caught in never-ending world of ones and zeros. I guess when one blogs there is no need for a journal? But I guess that is only true if one puts up ones most personal inner thoughts and chooses to make oneself completely transparent to the entire World Wide Web.

Monday I wrote the much feared Gospels exam and I must say it was not as terrifying as I thought it would be, however I will let you know how I really feel about it once I get the mark back, who knows it could turn in to some horror show, or it could turn into a something with rainbows and butterflies that one can eat because they are actually made of sugar simply because everything ending up going just the way one planned. Either way I think ‘m fine with it, I learned some good things in that class, and writing the paper for it really helped me along my journey of questions and answers (though it feels like for every question that gets answered two more question pop up in its place).

Tuesday and Wednesday was the DTG (ditch the guys), we went and did some aerobic dance thing, it was interesting to say the least….I don’t think aerobic dance exercises is my first choices when it comes to physical fitness, first of all I am not coordinated enough to do it, and second it was probably the strangest thing I have every done in a gym. It was fun though; I laughed a lot and had a lot of fun with the girlies. After we went to the guesthouse to chill out and talk, once again it was a pretty sweet time.

Thursday we went skiing for the day at Mt. Washington, which was a good day. I love skiing, and I had a lot of fun being in the mountains and being with good friends, it made me sad to think that that was probably the last time I will go skiing this year. Who knows when I will do it again.

Went to youth on Friday, it was the first youth that I went to were the new pastor was running it, he did a good job, I think Phil is a good fit for the youth there, I am sad he did not get there sooner. It is a little strange to think that I only have about three weeks left at the youth group, and I have to be honest, I really do not think I am really making a difference there. It is hard I struggle to have a heart to work with youth and it is something I pray about but it makes it so much harder to feel like I am doing something useful when I it seems like I am not.

Anyways, I need to go and put the final touches on my gospels paper so I have to leave. Hope your next week is filled with the previously mentioned sugar rainbows and butterflies.

ABBY

Rock The Boat.

Picture this; you are sitting in a nice little rowboat. You feel safe as the waves rock you gently back and forth the sun is bathing your skin in warmth and all seems calm and peaceful. You inhale deeply appreciating the warm salty scent of the sea air. You are happy and undisturbed that is until you realize you are laying on the ore, it is uncomfortable but you are fine with it, you think you can ignore it because you are just to comfortable to actually move it even though moving it will move you into the position of greater comfort. So as you sit in the boat relaxing in the sun the ore in you side gets more and more uncomfortable, it starts to irritate you to the point where you can no longer ignore it. It ruins your pleasant time where all seems right, it all fits and is comfortable. That ore is the thing that causes you to look into why maybe you are not as comfortable as you think and you decide to move it. But once you move it you find that the bailing bucket is now a source of discomfort, along with the other ore, in fact the more you move things and try to make them fit in places where you will once again have the blissful feeling of comfort and peace and security the more you come to be angry with the boat for being so small and constricting, the more you do not understand the design of your oh so loved little boat, and the more you try to figure the puzzle out the more the boat becomes cramped and confusing. Soon this little sanctuary becomes a place of anxiety and fear and anger, it has been ruined. As you try to look for the comfort you once had the further it seems to get. In your frustration you panic the boat starts to rock more and more violently on the waves that were so gentle they almost put you to sleep, in the end you end up falling in and you don’t know how deep it is…

So, this week was long week. Thirty-five hours of class, with Wes Olmstead. It was good but it was long. Gospels was really interesting, it got me thinking a little deeper on some things and it got me asking some other questions I think I was avoiding for a while. But here I stand face to face with all the things I wondered and now I am on a journey on figuring it out, heres hoping that it turns out and I come out stronger from wrestling with these thoughts and questions.

I did not go to youth this week because I was working in the kitchen so I have nothing to tell you there.

After church on Sunday Pastor Rob invited us to his house for lunch to tell them about the things we did at the Olympics. I was actually dreading as I wanted to do homework and study for the Gospels exam, but I actually had such a good time. I met the new Youth Pastor his names is Phil Hazzard. He seems pretty cool to me, I’m sure he will be a good fit for the youth.

As I sit here writing this I dawns on me how time is slipping by so quickly, and how I am not sure if I am ready to leave here. I am scared to go back out into the world, and I honestly am not sure if I will be able to stand up on my own, as I explore these new feelings and questions that have arisen over the past few weeks and months I hope that I will able to be rooted in something stronger then what I am now. It is scary exploring things when you think you are in a nice little safe nest with everything figured out.

…You fall into the water and it can be one of two things, deep or shallow. Say you were to fall in and it is deep. You tread water for a little while trying to keep your head a float as you watch your little boat get carried away by the currents and then growing to tired to hold your head up you drown. Or as soon as you fall in you start treading water for fear of drowning but after some time you realize that the water is in fact not that deep, and you stand up and are completely safe but you look and see you’re boat was carried away by the current. But I guess I lied, there is another option that could happen as soon as you fall into the water you realize that the water is not deep and you promptly stand up realizing you are safe and climb back into your little boat appreciating it for it coziness that you once thought was constricting because you now see that that was the thing that was keeping you safe all along. Upon climbing in you realize that there is a little compartment for the ore and buckets, it would seem the little boat is bigger then you thought, with much more places explore.

Sometimes rocking the boat is not the greatest idea because you could drown but then again you could find that the water is only waist deep and will be able to get back in to the boat that you once loved so much.

Thanks for reading.

Abby

Be Still And Know That I Am God.

Hey world,

Well for the first time in weeks I am not feeling stressed. It is kind of funny thought seeing how I have just started Gospels this week and should be stressed with the amount of work that I need to be doing every night, however I am not. This could have something to do with the fact that I have just come off reading break. It was nice go ‘home’ for a few days. I went to Calgary to visit Dale and Galen and relax from the business that was the Olympics; I think I have recovered from the crazy schedule. From Calgary I went to Caronport and met up with Caroline and Kurtis, it was a sweet time seeing them and some other much loved friends. There was a certain peace with going back there, I felt as if I did not belong there anymore and I must confess that it was nice knowing that that chapter of my life is closed (at least for now) God is preparing me for something and I am stoked on seeing what it is and how my time there plays into it.

Well I have not been at youth for the past month as I was at the Olympics and then on reading break so I have nothing to update you on there.

I can update you on my happenings in regards to schools next year though. I had a telephone interview with Mount Royal University in Calgary the other day for the Bachelor of Communications: Public Relations. It was interesting doing that interview; I found that in the interview it was hard not to bring my faith into the questions she was asking me. I think she was rather intrigued about the answers I gave because they all seemed to be based around God and my faith. I mean I do not think that will get me into the school but it was nice being able to share it and see that I am getting bolder about telling people about what I believe. I will not be to heart broken if I do not get in I mean this program is not even my first pick. I will find out in four to five weeks if I have been accepted or not. I am not to stressed about it though, actually I am feeling really relaxed and pretty content being where I am at right now. Though I do look forward to what God has in store for me next year in regards to hockey and school (please pray for me in this as I have recently talked with the Red Deer coach and he informed me that he is only going to be having one returning defensemen so he is looking to fill that gap, please pray for me as I explore this option and that if this is God’s will for me to go there that I will not be scared to act upon it.) I have decided I am young and have time to try out different paths until I find the one that is right. I also just want to soak up this time I have here with everybody, it seems like the harder I try to grip the time I have with them all the quicker it slips through my fingers…but that is life, got to take it as it comes and can not get greedy. Lets hope I don’t get to stressed and this relaxed peacefulness will not leave to soon, and when it does I hope it will not elude me as long as it did before.

The title of this blog really seems to be how I am feeling, being still and knowing that God is God, He is the source of this peacefulness. God is good.

Cheers,

ABBY