Only in the movies...

So far I am very much enjoying the holidays. It feels like I haven't been at camp now for over a month, but its only been a little over a week. At first I was really grumpy and annoyed and stressed out and socially awkward around people. I am not usually like that so it was not a good scene. A couple of days ago that all changed, I got most of my shopping done, enough rest and I was back to being comfortable with my friends. I have been enjoying nice long bubble baths, reading books because I chose to not because I have too, and eating the food I want when I want it which is more of a privilege than one would think. I have also been able to hang out with Taylor for more than a few hours a week which has greatly improved our relationship although it took him a week to start acting more like himself around me. So what I am saying is life's good and I am glad I have had the opportunity to rest and have rested well. I do miss all the Kaleos and I can't wait to get back to see everybody and hear their stories.
MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYBODY! Last night was the start of an old Christmas tradition revised. You always see Christmas carolers on the television in movies and such but it is something that in reality doesn't really happen or if it does it is rare. We'll we brought caroling back to the Cowichan Valley last night weather the people liked it or not. Last year the men's bible study went caroling and after witnessing one old man's response with tears in his eyes they decided to do it again. However the bible study was small last year probably no more than seven men went. This year there was like over twenty people so by splitting into two groups we were covering more areas and spreading more cheer. Yes it's true when some people find out that there are carolers at the door they slam it in your face. Some were confused and felt the need to somehow repay us weather it be with chocolates and baking or money. We also handed out toys to the kids that came to the door. One of our very first houses we visited there was a hand full of older women and one by one they were drawn to come see the commotion at the door and joined in with us. At the end of the song they told us that they had just finished their dinner and were about to dig into a bible study on the Tower of Babel. My group revisited the home which housed the elderly man from last year and he was so glad to see us and as we sung the chorus of little Town of Bethlehem he was holding back the tears. It was a good night despite how wet it was and I definitely encourage everyone to go caroling once in your life. Merry Christmas once again, I hope its a good one!

Sometimes it's nice to get away...

There really are no words to describe this past week. We had Foundations of Church Ministry class which was super educational which is probably a good thing because that is why we go to school, to get an education. Anyways we learned things like how the church is run and what our role is in the church and probably the most important lesson was to always go to the bible to see what the bible says. It was sweet. However I am still struggling with the academic part and such things like doing homework.
Also last week was Amy's birthday which was sweet to see some friends, and little Connor Head all grown up. It was also very nice to get away from the stress of school and the usual scenery. I feel like such a suck because every weekend I go home without meaning to but I always feel so stranded in Crofton and its such a hassle to get someone to drive you to and from Duncan so I like staying at home so I can walk home and do homework and be alone. Anyways on Thursday for Amy's birthday we went to Dan Mangan concert at the Garage Showroom (its a sweet place to go to see a concert) we also went to White Spot for dinner which was such a blessing because no offence to the kitchen staff but I'm usually not hungry after I walk into the dining hall. I am a starving college student. Although meals are provided here I am just getting picky and I should just be thankful that I am so blessed to even have people make me food.
I spent the majority of Saturday with Tee and I loved it. I always do enjoy spending time with him. We were getting into the spirit of Christmas by beginning to create a gingerbread house and I also made him a Christmas sweater. This season is my favourite. Today the Kaleo's went to Nanimo to wild play to do the obstacle course in the trees and ten people got picked out of a hat and were able to go bungee jumping. After that happened we went and picked out a Christmas tree it's brilliant because now instead of our hall way smelling of a stench that just makes me want to hurl it now smells of delightful Christmas tree because its oder is so strong it fills the whole building. I am especially excited for this weekends activities because it is the Holman family Christmas party and this year it will be much more different than the past six years or so because my uncle Lorne will actually be attending and I am hoping that he will be able to forgive me dad and accept his love. I am so stoked he will also be bringing the rest of his clan! This is going to be a Christmas to remember for sure. Anyways I will keep you posted on that situation. Its time for bed now.

Grace

I think that grace is an art that we have not yet perfected and we need to realize that this year or more like the five months we have left will be hard and not easy but every time we get upset or "hate on" things such as camp qwanoes actually mostly camp qwanoes the more bitter we will become and the harder our hearts will get. This is a year of grace and sometimes we just need to be reminded of that. We need to let go of the things that are causing us to be angry or grumpy or creating a wall between us and Jesus. I know that probably sounds really cheesey but I'm just trying to get my thoughts down in kind of a readable way so that people might understand what I am talking about. These past months in Kaleo have made me so bitter and the past week I could actually feel my heart turn to stone and I wasn't going to let anyone know what was going on in my life and I really just didn't want to talk to anyone and I pretty much just wanted to make a small little fort with room for just one under my desk and fall asleep and I wouldn't even care if I woke up in the morning or not. There was a wall there and I could feel something trying its hardest to break through that wall and I tryed my best to stay strong and not let anything through that barrier. Then Friday night came and my heart melted. Just so you know, that hard up act I was putting on only lasted a week. Jesus was fighting pretty hard for me and that is why I love him. There is no way that I could give people grace without help from Jdawg. Grace is a gift and us Christians are people who enjoy giving. So in conclusion, this is just a reminder for myself that I need to be aware of grace and where it is needed most in my life I guess its a reminder to all who read this too I guess. Chow for now!

p.s. I think its really ironic becasue I am reading "Whats so amazing about grace?" right now by Philip Yancey its got some really sweet stories in it so maybe if your board you could read it.

Emergent?

Since coming to Kaleo I have learnt some crazy new Christian jargon. Really I had never heard the word discernment in my life before coming here and its a word that is used on a regular basis now. I guess that means I'm growing? Haha at least my vocabulary is... Another word that I learnt about recently is emergent. Right now we are preparing for our Foundations in Church Ministry course that will be happening next Monday and we have to read a book called "Why we're not emergent " and some people love it. I however hold a strong grudge towards this book not really the book itself but just one of the book's authors. Because the book is written by two guys I just don't like one of them. The other guy is super boss and makes everything make sense because the one I dislike doesn't ever make sense to me because he uses words that no one understands. I only dream of being as intellectual as that guy. By the way I still don't know what emergent means but its more christian jargon. There is emergent and non-emergent. To me emergent seems like it could be anything under the sun. I'm sure its a good book I just really enjoy reading books without dead lines and taking notes about them. I love reading. I LOVE READING! I really do, I'm actually not lieing to you. I wish I could read what I want to and not the million text books that briercrest gives you to read, although we have been pretty blessed our textbooks are pretty boss. Back onto the topic of words I watched Juno last night with some of the girls and Bleaker says "Wizard" a few times in the movie and the context he uses it in is like he is substituting the word cool for wizard so we were thinking we could take any word of something you think is cool and substitute it for the word cool. For example I happen to believe that pom juice* is cool. So instead of saying cool I would say pom juice. Then after we have that down its our mission now to make other people use it in they way I intended it. I just want you to know that my love for reading has just started this past year so I have quite a few books on my "to read list" and I am hoping to get a lot of reading done during Christmas break unfortunately that is when I have to do my camp ministry readings so I am not super positive I will get around to reading what I want still. Sorry this one is getting long. I could write more but I will let you get on with your real life. Now please go and enjoy the rest of your day!

*I don't actually think pom juice is that cool but it was the coolest thing beside my computer.

Bubbles are too comfortable.

So I had the privilege of helping out with Sunday school at church today but it was more like just sitting in and observing how Sunday school works because in reality, I've never been to Sunday school before so I don't know what goes on in there. It was sweet though it was the older group of kids and they are all super sweet and we learnt about what the bible has to say about demons and evil spirits and witchcraft. And then the nicest couple drove us home and today we had the best lunch! It was grilled cheese sandwiches and eggs benny. Anyways my point of this blog is that I miss those days when I was super involved in the community and I had the choice to go to one or two church services and then I would go to bible study twice a week and go to young life. I loved it and I wish it could always be like that but things change which means its time for us to do a little changing ourselves. Its not all bad but its not always easy. I just feel like while I am at Kaleo I am stuck doing the same things and not really pouring into the community at all. Now the question stands how can I pour into this community, this new place I live in. Scheduled hangouts are good and so is doing homework but sometimes its nice to do something for the community outside of our Qwanoes bubble. Well that's something that I just thought of so now I am going to do homework and ponder the answer to my question.
P.s. pray that I would be able to finish my homework it pretty much always seems impossible.

This is.....

RIDICULOUS! Its snowing for real! I am so excited because I love snow. We can build snow forts and snow men and snow women and pretend like we are Eskimos and miss school because clearly there is too much snow for us to go to school. Unfortunately I can't pull that excuse for not showing up to class. I live at my school. However tomorrow is Saturday so there is no school tomorrow but I am at home right now and at Qwanoes there is such thing as snow watch and you get a phone call in the middle of the night saying that you have to get up and knock all the snow off of the tents around camp. I could possibly be missing my first ever snow watch. I'm sorry team I'm letting you down and not being a very good trooper. But snow is a reminder that Christmas is coming very soon and I love Christmas! Lately I have been very sad because November is my favourite month because you get to start getting ready for Christmas which makes you even more excited for Christmas. Just in case you were wondering, there are 35 days until we celebrate the day of Jesus Christ's birth. Anyways I hope that this snow would stick to make for a fun day tomorrow!

Birthday Bumps

Last week we had a class on interpreting the bible and it was called Hermeneutics. I loved it up until about the second day. I loved it because it was just a really cool way to engage your mind to what you are reading (something I am not familiar with). I'll be honest I don't actually think that much although since coming back to school I am thinking a lot more and I can feel my brain being exercised which is a brilliant feeling and I love it!
I just realized that I have never watched breakfast at Tiffany's and now I feel like I've been deprived of a glorious movie because everyone talks about it. Thanks a lot Amy!
Anyways horrific hermeneutics, I started to not like hermeneutics when the homework took me forever to finish and stressed me out to limits I have not been stressed out to before. Now there is a research paper that I have to do by Friday that I haven't even started so now I am going to be stressed to even grater levels. Lets just take a moment to praise the Lord.
I am also battling this dreadful sickness that makes me grumpy pants. But I am trying to be positive so... lets just take another moment to praise the Lord for all the good things in my life. I know you probably don't care about praising the Lord but its just a reminder for me as I write that I should be grateful.
So it was my birthday on the weekend and I turned the big 19. And it was the best! I have such amazing friends that came and surprised me so bad!! I wasn't even expecting it. It was beautiful. My Anna and I built a fort (it was also Anna's birthday too) and it was so ballin and we slept in it. I also got one hundred roses from the love of my life! It was another great surprise.
This week us Kaleo are embarking on our 24/7 week of prayer which is much needed this week and I look forward to tell you the fruit of this week in my next blog. So until then may you be guided by the mighty hand of God and inspiered to be unpredictable.

We Are The Privileged

Hey there I am back in action from my relaxing reading break and had I was so lucky to have been able to hang out with a couple of my good friends including KELLY AND ERIN! Who I haven't seen in almost half a year so it was good to see them! And also I saw Amy and Victoria and we went frizbeeing with the girls and boys bible study so it was good to see all those people again and to see how God is working and changing thier hearts. Also I got to talk with Sarah Barber for a bit who I love so dearly. I thought she was in the United Kingdom going to school to become an optomitrist but to my surprise she is at home in Victoria taking a gap year because her visa didn't go through. I think that it is a blessing in desguise because she was looking into going on a missions to Africa this summer and this will give me a bit of time to speak into her life and help her prepare for it if that is God's will and my prayer is that she will learn so much about God through this experience. Erin, Kelly and I were also talking about going to Greece next summer and doing a girls trip for a couple of weeks which I think is the best idea! My time away from camp was a much needed get away but not much of a rest and I was also able to get lots of home work done although I still have a lot more to do.

This weekend I was so privileged to have been able to counsel seven girls in grades eight and nine. They were the coolest girls and we had such a blast so it was more like I was just hanging out with my friends. But they taught me a very important lesson that I have herd so many times before but this time it was ment to stick. Its something that God has been teaching me this whole year and it became really real to me this weekend. Never take any situation for granted. God has created these beautiful girls with such amazing hearts and most of them have unfortunatley gone through situations that are beyond thier years faceing many deaths in thier families and parents that don't understand or even appreciate them. We are so privileged to have found Jesus so that we do not have to go through these situations alone and so that we can rely on Him to hold us up when we can't feel the solid ground. Take nothing for granted every day is such a blessing and a gift from God. Know that you are His masterpeice and beutiful in His eyes. I'm not sure if that makes sense, whenever I have thoughts its hard for me to get them down on paper so they actually make sense. That's all for now folks! Enjoy the rest of your week :)

Old Testimate Beauty!

So last Monday we finally had our first real acedemic course and it was AMAZING! I don't know how well I will do on this exam on Friday but I feel so much more knowledgeable about the old testimate I actually understand some things that are going on and why they are important. But I am pretty worried about the exam so please join me in prayer so that I will pass this exam with flying colours currently I am not good at school. And as much as I love hanging out with my friends I feel that this reading break isn't long enough for the amount of homework I need to do. So I will spend all my days cooped up in my room reading Epic of Eden and Spiritual Disciplines. Sorry friends I love you so much and if I don't get to see you this week its because of my obssesion of accumalating homework that should have been done weeks ago.
Halloween was bunk since I'm not in the loop of whats going down around town Taylor and I went to the Forest Discovery Center on the Halloween train which was pretty sweet and then we went to my house and watched a movie. I guess I'm just not much of a Halloween fan. But I am SO STOKED FOR CHRISTMAS!!!!
Also its Tee Baines' s birthday so if you see him around today say HAPPY BIRTHDAY TEE BAINES!!!

Faith Revived

We started out this week with the first half of our camp ministry course. It was a great way to prepare and focus for the weekend to come. Unfortunately I found the test really hard and now find myself wondering if I should really be serving here at camp as a counselor. However by the end of the week I'm pretty sure all the knowledge I had attained from Monday and Tuesday had fled from my brain and I began to doubt that I could do this weekend counseling a cabin full of 9-11 years old. Friday came around and the kids eventually came flooding into Pacific Woods Lodge. There was excitement all around but I was just nervous and tiered. I found out I was counseling by myself which was a new challenge for me and I wasn't sure if I could make it through the weekend. It was Friday night the first night and I was with my cabin of kids sitting at Q-town which is in club coco just for retreats and I was hit with peace and joy. I was excited to see what would be the stories that come out of this retreat. I looked at these girls that God had placed in my life and wondered how I could effect their lives. I had an amazing group of kids, they all got along well together and our favourite activity to do as a cabin was to play grounders in the dark in our room. We had so much fun even though we didn't get good sleeps because of one particular girl who snored as loud as my dad and some of the girls slept in the bathroom to escape the noise. Also I don't particularly like swimming but this weekend I knew I had to because I was counselling by myself and I knew that the swimming pool would be a golden opportunity to have conversation and fun with campers. I was blown away at the results of hanging out and playing in the pool with the kids. I had two girls in my cabin who seemed like they weren't having much fun and didn't smile and at the pool I would see them and sneak up on them and they would crack a smile and the next day when they left on the bus one of the girls actually started to cry. I have never had a camper cry because they don't want to leave. It made me wonder why she didn't want to go home I guess I will have to find out another time but it broke my heart to see her like that and it brought me joy to know she had a good time at camp. It was such a good weekend and I was so blessed by it. I feel like I needed that weekend so God could revive my faith so that I would be so aware of Him and reminded of His work and power.

Taste of Tofino

Hey everybody! So this past week in the adventures of Kaleo we travelled to the land of surf and sand, up north to TOFINO! We were so blessed to once again have the best possible weather. It was sunny and the waves were so big. I've never surfed in waves that big. Cold Water Classic was going on while we were surfing so we got the opertunity to watch surfers from all around the world shred those waves and they made it look so easy! Surfing was so much fun we had such an awsome time of sharing and fellowship. Micheal was the first brave solider of the group to share his story. I love hearing others share about their life and pour out thier hearts. Its amazing to see where the Lord has worked in peoples lives where He is taking them. Also Amanda Rubert came with us on our trip which was such a blessing and she also shared her story which was cool to hear as well.
This last weekend was the womens retreat and although many of the Kaleo's served, I did not becasue I am super over whelmed with too many text books and bible readings that have to be read and I feel like I am drowning in a sea of never ending homework. Don't get me wrong homework is good but I am really slow and bad at reading so it makes it hard when all your homework is reading :( Today was our first class of Camp Ministry with Syd Koop and Scott and Julie Bailey. Our homework is to do more reading. I guess thats something I am learning to love. Well I already love reading but its just a pain becasue I feel like we don't have enough free time to read and when we sit in our rooms and read all the time the boys get mad at us for not hanging out and being anti social. I am trying to be really good at school but I'm so far out of practice I feel like I am the worst at it. This weekend coming up I am excited to anounce that I will be serving the whole weekend counseling junior kids and rumor has it that some of my campers are coming back that I had in the summer! So now that I have updated you on my life it's time to get to that endless stack of reading material.

Ajusting to still ground...

Last week we set sail around the gulf islands on the beautiful Pacific Grace. We were so fortunate to have the most amazing weather for the first three days and it didnt even rain until the last day we were there (and even then it just sprinkled only a little). It was such a cool trip, I loved it! On tuesday morning we took out the dorys and rowed oursleves in to shore on I think it was Saturna Island but I'm not sure. It was georgous! We went for a little hike up to this cool look out thing and droooled over the beauty that God had created. The vast amount of ocean with the little bits of land poking through the surface, endless blue sky and warm sunshine. Pure beauty lives in His creation and its such a blessing to explore. Also on the last evening on the Pacific Grace some of the peeps went off the rope swing on the ship, it seemed like fun but I was catching up on some much needed rest. I wasnt able to get restful sleeps but dont worry I'm catching up this weekend. We also had an oppertunity to get our junior sailing certificate while abord the ship. Unfortunatly I didnt pass but I learnt so much about sailing and it was an awsome way to bond our Kaleo group together through team work and not being able to get away from one another for a solid 5 days. However I'm still getting ajusted to the solid ground and we got home friday evening :s
An update on my last post, Road Tour was such a blast I got to hang out with 4 of my campers from the summer and I was stoked to find out the 2 of them are going to be join the youth group at the church that hosted road tour God is so good!
This weekend its TURKEY TIME! Wich also means a weekend full of friends and family not to mention a good time to catch up on mountains of reading and homework. AND then its surfs up, the team is off to Tofino!

Well, there it was our first week of classes done. It was Spiritual Formations with Cal, not gonna lie I enjoyed the class so much, you would sit down in class and expecting to hear some lecture but it was more like you had sat down at church and you were listening to a sermon and he was talking slow enough for everyone to get down on paper what he was saying. However I bombed the memory verses I don't think I was made to memorize, it's just not my gift. I'm learning to embrace that what we want to be good at isn't always what we are good at.
Tonight we are hitting up road tour in Parksville to hang out with the kids that came to camp this summer. I am really excited about it and to see what campers of mine actually show up or not. Its really such a cool oppertunity to hang out with past campers and get them connected to a youth group. I really miss all my girls. I was so blessed to have such amazing group of gals in my cabins throught the whole summer. I am also super excited to work during retreats to see if they come back so I can hang out with them again and catch up on thier lives. Its amazing what some of these children go through everyday and camp is a way for them to get their minds off their lives at home.
Next week we are heading out to Victoria to leave the harbour on a TALL SHIP! Sweet eh? Yeah I know. I'm stoked not only to be living on a boat cruising the big blue for a week but to see our Kaleo group continue to bond. Oh the life of a Kaleo student!

Bonjourno

HEY THERE! This year I am excited to let all of you know whats going on in my life through this cool new blog I will be posting on. As most of you know I am doing this program called Kaleo. It's an eight month first year bible college program that lets you go on sweet adventures, like on monday we went camping and hiked up Mount Edward Albert. It was a really cool experiance and I encourage all you outdoorsy folk to try it. I am deffinatly feeling the aftermath of the 3 day hiking trip but the view was definatly worth the pain. I would love to put some pictures up but unfortunatley my computer says that all my pictures are currupted :( So thats all for now I should move on to some other homework but I look forward to sharing my thoughts with you on my journey this year and what God will be doing in my life.
-MARY