Christmas :)

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! I hope that you have all enjoyed your holidays and that God will give many blessings in the coming year!

Coming home for Christmas is something of mixed feelings for me as I look back on everything. I enjoy seeing family and friends again; my grandparents were able to make it out this year from Vancouver and my best friend and her husband were visiting from Australia. It has been two years since I last saw her and so I was glad to hang out with her and even go skiing together I spent a lot of time visiting various peoples including the dentist (a necessary evil lol) and I even got out to the mountains for two beautiful days of snowboarding. I got a new board for Christmas that is somewhat above my current level of skill and so I am being challenged to improve quickly or else spend a lot of time getting back up again

Saturday evening when I arrived back, I went to a Nigerian Christmas party with lots of spicy food and bright clothes. Sunday I attended Uchurch where we talked to David in Afghanistan and then I went to the Clarke’s Christmas party at their home in Bragg Creek. I hung out with my family at dinner time and then Monday I spent shopping for snowboard gear, going to the Dentist and visiting with Nanna and Michelle. Tuesday I visited Ross for coffee, had Robin and Yestyn and Leslie over for lunch, and then went to a potluck in the evening at Anni’s house. I got to play Clue with Ray and Dwayne, and I was even so champion as to make a faulty accusation! maybe I was just trying to show them an example of what not to do :p Wednesday I had Robin and Yestyn over again for dinner and picked up my Grandparents at the airport…it took us so long to park that they had already arrived and gotten their bags by the time we came inside lol. Thursday and Saturday I spent on the ski hills in Sunshine. We had two gorgeous days, sunny and clear without any wind and the snow wasn’t too bad. I just had some issues with wiping out a few times, which I felt more the day after when my whole body was sore But it was worth it.  Saturday night we attended a party at Ike and Courtneys and we played some Dutch Blitz…I got my butt kicked pretty bad lol and Sunday we went to a party at Rosemary’s, a lady from my parents church who is going to Rwanda for 2 months. There I met a lady who recommended numerous books on Morocco and its history, but I have only managed to hunt down one of them. I don’t know if I will have time to read it all before I leave, but I will make an attempt.

We went out to the cabin on Monday for a couple of days and tried out my Mom’s ice rink. I skated pretty well considering that I hadn’t done any skating since last year, and I was glad that John wasn’t there yet to show us who was the hockey master :p Wednesday I came back into town to visit with the Weimers and with Courtney and Ike…I am starting to feel more overwhelmed now by all the packing and organizing still left to be done I know I will survive, but the hope is to get out snowboarding one more time at Lake Louise and that will take up tomorrow.  I have been fighting off a cold the past few days, and I am hoping I will recover before I head back to Montreal on Saturday…I am not sure it would be a great thing to be sick heading into outreach!

It’s become evident to me that there is still a lot of “projects” for God to continue working on in me. Some people noticed a difference in me when I came back and and I think it remained for the first few days before I really started to fall back into old behaviour patterns.  I think there are some thoughts I must really enjoy dwelling on because I tend to go right back to them even if I know it’s not good for me…I really hope that those things will change with our trip overseas! I am really excited for the upcoming missions trip – we leave next Wednesday (January 6th) and we will get back into Canada on February 27th. I won’t have much access to internet during that time, so this may be my last entry for a little while.

Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers! That we can have a safe and amazing experience in Belgium and Morocco, and really put compassion into action

A la prochaine! Que Dieu vous benis!

DTS Week 12

Well, I admit I have been a bit of a slacker but in my defense it has been Christmas so I got distracted by being back in Calgary :p.

This week we didn’t have lectures anymore, instead we had time to prepare for our upcoming outreach and to do a “mini-outreach” in Montreal. On Monday and Tuesday we got up early to drive into Montreal to a church called Nouvelle Vie. We helped to sort through boxes of clothes, shoes, boots,  toys, etc. for an event that would happen the Wednesday where lower income families could come and purchase Christmas gifts and food for very discounted prices. It was a good experience to start acting out on what we’ve been learning and to come together as a DTS. I think most of us especially enjoyed getting the chance to peek into their store with discounted prices on all sorts of items including some snowboard gear(!) Nothing fit me, but it was still fun to look around.

Vawn came to speak to us on Wednesday about story-telling using an example of the story of Naaman. We all got into groups and presented the story of the good Samaritan, and then we chose another Bible story to share on the Friday afternoon.  There was time to brainstorm ideas of kid’s games, crafts and skits, plus we found out about our responsibilities for the upcoming mission trip. I will be in charge of the kitchen along with Nathan, and we get to go shopping for groceries, plan the menu and the food preparation schedule…it should be fun times! In theory I should also be helping Nadia to prepare our email list and weekly updates to send around…if I get myself in gear, I will give my parents a list of email addresses and request that they forward any emails which we send to everyone else. So, if you want to get updates, then let me know!

Friday evening we had our last Agape dinner and the theme was “All that Glitters”. Everyone came dressed in their formal wear and we had a nice ham and potato dinner followed by a talent show. The DTS came out and we presented a nice dance routine with some ballet, hip hop and african…it turned out pretty well if you ask me There were a number of funny skits and I think everyone had a great time.

The rest of the week was spent packing and organizing away…even until the last moment, I was still re-packing and I managed to be overweight by 4 kgs. I didn’t find out until the airport, however, and then I had to pay the extra fees ($78!!!) In future I hope to do my best and not be overweight with Air Canada…that was a little too pricey for my liking.  I was looking forward to coming home and seeing my family for Christmas, so I didn’t make too much of a fuss

Merry Christmas!!

DTS Week 11

Salut mes amies! J’espère que vous allez tous bien C’est la derniere semaine de mon EFD Compassion(!) But I want to talk about last week now

I can’t remember everything that happened last week, other than that it had many ups and downs, and a really good speaker.  We did get some snow (more than just 1 cm) and everything became beautiful and white outside – it certainly adds to the atmosphere of being closer to Christmas.  Lydia and I continued to have our one-on-one outside with a walk. I even finished Level 1 on the Rosetta Stone French course I realize there will always be much to learn, but I shall try to celebrate the baby steps, one at a time haha. We finally were able to do our Morocco presentation and I found that I even learned some aspects from what the others on my team presented ( I didn’t know of it from talking to them before hand).

On Tuesday night our cell groups both met together for an evening of reflection focusing on our visions for the mission trip and God’s call for us, or His role for us on the team.  The most powerful part came at the end where we each made a commitment to one another and to serve together. I know it will take some working out, but I think it was neat to see us take that step together.

Wednesday was a down day for me. From the beginning of the day, I was somewhat off kilter and negative so I couldn’t really enjoy the time of DTS worship and then in class I ended up being quite upset. It made me realize that I often anticipate or assume the thoughts of others about me, and how that can be used against me in the sense that I will assume negatively rather than give the benefit of the doubt. I had a really good conversation with Sarah and with Lydia…it was important to communicate and seek the truth.  I too often believe lies. In the evening, our speaker Dale took us out to dinner at Med Pizza in Cowansville. I enjoyed some chicken brochette and the time of fellowship that we had outside of the Base. I think that everyone appreciated the chance to escape for an evening!

Thursday was our last community service day at the school and we spent some more time sorting through books in the library and placing on little identification stickers. I am glad we had the opportunity to help. In the evening Dale told us about God’s provision and faithfulness in his life, which was encouraging.  We also had rice krispie squares as the dessert = doom for me because I LOVE to eat rice krispie squares…I definitely had several that night

On Friday I played darts for the first time in years and years. Many staff and students are quite thrilled with the recent acquisition of the dart board, and this time was my first exposure. I cannot say that I was a champion, but I only didn’t hit the board once or twice…I imagine that practice will help In the afternoon we had our sports class but this time we did another dance session. I led everyone in doing some african moves and Andreas taught us some hip hop. It was a great time and some people in our DTS want us to do a presentation for the talent show at next Friday’s Agape. We are thinking of doing a piece that combines several different dance styles, and I hope we do it!

After dinner I went to help Eloise look after Caleb and Eloise van Dingen (Andreas and Paulina’s children). We watched some Dora the Explorer and tried to feed Caleb some pablum, but mostly he wasn’t hungry and just wanted to be held. They are two super cute kids and it was nice to spend time with them and with Eloise

Our speaker, Dale Harrison, gave a teaching on Servanthood this week. For me it was a great end to the lecture phase of the DTS because it tied a lot of concepts together and it brought everything back to attitude. I felt challenged in the teaching because I know that God wants to work on my attitude big time to bring me to a place of truth about how I see myself and how I view others. He wants me to be vulnerable so that He can work through me, and He wants me to learn true humility. I felt challenged in my heart attitude and how I view the idea of service and giving  up my rights to serve others…sometimes the self-centredness can be so strong, but I pray that God will help me to become others centred. We had some good discussions with Dale and it was really cool to see how he made us think about our perspective and wanted us to grow.

I tried to be more disciplined in my eating habits this week, but I tend to struggle. I usually make it to dinner time eating a reasonable amount of food so that I am satisfied but not over full; then dinner time rolls around and I enjoy it too much or I enjoy dessert afterward…I know that when I go home I will need to go on an exercise plan! Sometimes I feel like we just have carbs carbs carbs here and I am looking forward to some leafy green vegetables that are not just lettuce. Bring on the chard, the broccoli, the brussel sprouts! Mmm…I did go on a scale to weigh myself this week, which wasn’t the smartest idea because I could see how successful I have been in enjoying my food. It gave me new inspiration to try to be more reasonable, so I guess little by little I will become more disciplined. Maybe in outreach I will lose some of it :p

This week the fire was not heating as efficiently as it should have…in fact, we turned on the electric heaters again in our room to make things warmer again. There were two rooms that stayed heated by fire or electric heater and that was our room and the dining room. So short of the furnace room and the room directly above the furnace, things got pretty chilly and the showers were an adventure we didn’t want to have! I was on fire duty on Saturday afternoon and discovered to my chagrin that the embers of the fire were piled about one foot high inside the furnace, which prevented the logs from getting enough air to burn properly. I spent a lot of the time trying to decrease the amount of embers and by the end it got a bit better (with Stephane’s help!)

On Saturday I took a long walk to Paradis des Fruits and to another vineyard just west of Dunham. I wanted to go buy some apple cider from a cidrerie, but it was about 5+ kilometres away from Dunham and going by foot is a little tricky! Instead I settled for some honey, some apple juice and some wines…I want to bring back something from this region and not just maple syrup I also spent a lot of the weekend watching the second day of the LSUC Immigration Seminar…some of the sessions were quite interesting and others were very detailed-filled so I had trouble concentrating entirely on the sessions. At one point I was having trouble finding a quiet place in the house to listen to the videos and I had a little explosion, which got me in some trouble…I did apologize, but it appears that I need to work again on my communication skills…I tend to suppress rather than express my feelings and because people are not mind readers they cannot easily know how I am doing. So it is another thing to work on. I get the feeling like I am really going around in circles and that the big changing in me will be during outreach. I really hope that God does a work in me, because I get kind of down when I see myself doing the same behaviours over and over again.

Sunday our whole DTS went to church in Granby at Carrefour Chretien. We were responsible for leading the worship, doing a skit and sharing a few testimonies before the pastor did his sermon. I think most people had a good time. I participated in the worship and in the skit, and I did enjoy the experience. It was a bit challenging to sing all the songs in French, but there are some beautiful French worship songs and my current favourite is called ‘Au Siècle de Siècle’.  Maybe later in March I will have to get some French worship music to add to my multi-lingual collection Other than that, I worked on my journal and started to pack for the trip home next weekend. I know I have acquired a great many things and I hope I can fit everything in!

As I said at the beginning, we are now down to the last week of our DTS lecture phase and it is a week of outreach preparation. We will be going to Montreal to help at Église de Nouvelle Vie with Christmas hampers, etc. and then working on ideas for our outreach in Belgium and Morocco.  And so the adventures continue.

Je vous souhaite une bonne semaine! À la prochaine!

DTS Week 10

Snowy JEM Dunham :)

Looking down Rue du Collège

Snowy Fields…makes good mud after it rains ;)

Snowman!

It’s me again, though I am not sure that I write this blog for anyone other than myself anymore.  For me it represents a way to record the highlights and adventures on my DTS experience, so I guess it shouldn’t be that important whether anyone else cares what I have to say…maybe that’s being selfish too

Anyhow, this week was our second last week of teachings, i.e., with speakers. We had two wonderful ladies come from the Turner Valley YWAM Base, Tamara and Sherry, to share with us on the Bible. They were both young and both passionate about the subject, which made everything much more interesting. Our week was also marked by the visit of the Montreal DTS, who came to be with us for one week. There are 6 students staying in Montreal for 9 months and they don’t have an outreach phase per se, they do weekly volunteering and will work on a practicum, which is a project they come up with themselves.  Some were working with kids, others with immigrants, others with prostitutes or homeless…but I am sure they will do valuable work in sharing God’s light and love

Monday we had our first real snowfall of the Fall/Winter here in Dunham. I wanted to take lots of pictures that day…unfortunately, by the time Lydia and I went for our one-on-one walk outside it was already too dark to really take good pictures of how beautiful it looked.  Our group was supposed to present our introduction on Morocco and I had made special Moroccan shortbread cookies to share with the DTS. However, the other half of the class presented on Belgium and ended up taking all the time so we couldn’t go. We all had mixed feelings about it, but it was decided that we would present the next week. That night I had the pleasure of playing Dutch Blitz again with Tamara, Sherry and Nadia…so I definitely have to work on bringing up my speed again and my card shuffling techniques but it was a great bonding moment.

Tuesday night we played sardines together with both DTS…it is not my favourite game, I will admit but it ended up being fun enough and Lydia even hid in plain sight! In our small groups we played a game where we had to listen to someone read a bible verse and then give the citation – sure, it sounds kind of cheesy but it was relevant for our topic of “The Bible” haha. For me this week was a bit more stressful in the kitchen. There were a lot more people to feed, plus we had some girls helping in the kitchen who didn’t really know where things were…I allowed myself to take peoples’ grumblings about our food adventures to heart and so it wasn’t the most pleasant experience for me. I realize that I need to become more like the duck who let’s these things just slide off it’s back…really I can take things so seriously!

Wednesday I went again to the English Bible study after several weeks of not attending. It was nice to see the people again, and we had a good discussion about God’s healing power and why some people aren’t healed instantly…it turned into a conversation about waiting for God and the idea of being connected to your spirit, which is also connected with the Holy Spirit, who will guide you through your daily life and give you a real closeness with the Father. Very intense.

Thursday we found out about the cost of outreach, which was perhaps more than some people wanted. I was anticipating it to be fairly high and I want to trust in God’s provision for each of us on this trip…there is a reason we all came to this DTS and I’m sure when we look back upon it, we will be able to see it. I also had some *excitement* this week with a certain boy expressing certain feelings for me that were more than I wanted…it made me realize that I still need time to let God work on my heart even if my head wants me to be over and done with things. I really value the friendships that I have started to create here at the YWAM Base, and I think that God wants me to discover more about having non-romantic relationships with men…the value of having brothers in Christ. As flattering as it is to me to receive extra attention, I know that I want to allow God to continue healing me on the inside and to be patient for my prince. Yes, that sounds cliché -esque doesn’t it…but it has been confirmed, I am a princess who deserves a prince

On Friday I had an interesting time in sports playing ultimate frisbee. It was enjoyable at first but I soon became unimpressed as things got more aggressive and people started to play tug-of-war with the frisbee. Not my thing…at least, I don’t like how I become and so I try to avoid it. Afterward we had a discussion as a group about the game and I realized my concern…I don’t know if I can trust each person on my DTS yet and I want to know that each person has got my back, as I will have theirs. If we are going on outreach and stepping out into a spiritual battle, then I think it’s important to know that our fellow ’soldiers’ will look out for us…we are stronger if we can work together

Our speakers took us through an inductive bible study for the book of Philemon in the New Testament. It was a pretty intensive look at a very short book (1 page!), but in the end we could take away some good timeless truths to apply into our own lives about forgiveness and reconciliation. We were also challenged to consider our own attitudes and the unity of our group…I think these will be important points and we start to prepare in earnest for outreach. I hope that we can really come together as a team!

There were only 7 people on the Base this weekend because the Staff left for a retreat weekend and some of our DTS left to visit Quebec city or go home. We spent the time fairly relaxed, watching some videos and going for walks outside. I started to watch the LSUC Immigration Seminar videos and over the weekend I manged to make it through Day 1. I still need to listen to 7+ more hours of video for Day 2 of the conference, but hopefully I can be inspired to do so during this coming week. In order to obtain points for attending the conference, I will need to complete a quiz but at the moment I cannot access the membership area of the CSIC website…so I am hoping someone there can advise me how I am supposed to proceed. It seems somewhat contradictory to require that I complete CPD points (continuing professional development) but not allow me access in order to apply for points or complete the program(s). I guess I will see.

It is hard to believe how quickly time has passed! The lecture phase of our DTS is almost finished and soon it will be time to go home for Christmas. I am looking forward to seeing everyone, but at the same time I am sad that this section of the DTS is done. Such is life!

À la prochaine!

DTS Week 9

Bonjour tout le monde! J’espère que vous allez bien, puis moi, je suis fatiguée aujourd’hui et j’ai hâte de vous revoir à Noel

This week we had Yves and Katherine Alarie visiting from Montreal to talk about Relationships. I knew it was going to be a powerful week and it turned out to be just that – plus the speakers were great and they could translate for each other since both were bilingual Definitely a good week for our DTS to have a rest in the translation side of things.

On Tuesday night our small group had a treat because we got to go to Granby to visit Andreas and Paulina at the house they were house-sitting for René Laframboise. Paulina made us Quesidillas with real homemade salsa and guacamole and Flan for dessert. I admit I enjoyed this meal a lot and it was a time of good fellowship…the one adventure was driving because I needed to drive Andreas’ van and he took Carole’s car for the night. Lydia was sick, so that meant I became the driver and in Quebec it can be quite the *exciting* moment…but we survived

Wednesday I had a really hard day emotionally and I was feeling quite down. I went to have a one-on-one with Katherine, which helped to deal with some issues but pretty much the whole day I was in a negative mindset. Fortunately, it doesn’t stick around! I talked with Katherine about my past relationships and about my own views of myself. We spent time praying and received some encouraging words and images…that Jesus sees me in the crowd, He hasn’t forgotten me. He has a special place for me in His heart and He wants me to be free of the prison I created for myself because I haven’t fully accepted His forgiveness and grace for the things I thought I messed up or what I let happen…even that I haven’t forgiven myself for.  It seems to be  a slower process for me to really accept that the price has been paid and I don’t have to live in shame, but little by little I will come to the place God wants me to be.

Thursday was community projects again at the school in the library…I always have a good time with Elisa practicing my numbers :p It’s amazing how tired I get after really concentrating on French, French, French for an hour haha. But I am sure it will get easier. We also had Accendo in the evening and heard some interesting stories about Indonesia and about dealing with the unreached people group, the ‘youmans’. Yes, you can smile

Friday we had a really intense session in the morning with Yves and Katherine. We spent time at the cross g

Speed walker Dan

iving up different things on our hearts and praying together. I was able to ask for forgiveness on some things and forgive others…then we washed each others feet and we celebrated communion together. I think it was pretty powerful for everyone. In the evening we had our second Agape dinn

er, which the DTS students organized. Our theme was the olympic games 2009 of Dunham city and it was AWESOME. I was in the kitchen (of course ;p) and we made chicken kabobs with veggies, rice, salad and cake for dessert. I made the cake myself, four round cakes with regular flour and one with ri

ce flour to make the five olympic rings…turned out quite well if you as

k me haha. We played some fun games together after dinner as well. Each table represented a different country and we participated in various games including cross-country skiing, long jump, boot throwing and figure skating

. Andy (member of staff) and I did the demo for the figure skating and then we also competed for Belgium…I had sooo much fun and we did pretty well in the

scoring. That Friday was one of the highlights of being here in Dunham

The weekend was fairly relaxed. We had brunch

on Saturday and just hung around the Base. There were some

movies to watch including the Princess Bride on Saturday night, which we shared with the Rodriguez family…it is such a great movie but I think it can be funnier in English than in French I also made some Moroccan shortbre

ad cookies with sesame seeds in them called Ghoriba for the presentation on Mo

nday…I made the dough on Saturday afternoon and had to leave them in the fridge to rest overnight. Sunday I actually cooked them

in the oven and they seemed to be a success – I made them with regular flour because I didn’t know how many people would appreciate the particular fl

avour of rice flour. Sunday there were a whole bunch of people who went to the church in Granby, which was neat. I was in the Rodriguez van, but fortunately in a spot where I could stretch out my legs…that is important In the

afternoon we all spent some time together in the worship room working on our journals. It was hard to focus sometimes, but it made me realize tha

t I will miss the YWAM base when all is said and done. God has done some really awesome things in my life since I have come here and while I find some of the rules and the ways of community living a little challenging or trying at times, I will miss the fellowship I had and the great worship, and the chance to practice my French in a welcoming environment. Such are the seasons of lif

e I guess

That is all for now. I cannot believe how quickly time is going by and there are only a few weeks left before Christmas! We shall see what else God wants to bring into my life before I leave

.

À la prochaine!

Team Belgium - Sarah, Andy, Lydia, Angela and Andrae

The Olympic Cake!

Watch out, here comes the doctor!

Cross country skiing challenge

Medal winners - France, Switzerland and Jamaica in First

DTS Week 8

Doing the Funky Chicken

Bonjour mes amis! J’espère que vous avez passé une bonne semaine Pour moi, c’était une semaine merveilleuse et j’ai l’occasion de apprendre beaucoup de choses, mais je suis très fatiguée aujourd’hui :p

This week our speakers, Michael and Laurent, spoke on God’s heart for families and children. We met both of them during our time on the NIKO camp, so it was cool to be able to see them again in another context. They are also responsible for King’s Kids  in Quebec and doing family ministries in Lanaudiere. So we spent time talking about how God sees children and His purpose for families. We took some time to pray for each other to ask God about His original design for us when we were just a thought in His mind. It was really powerful to receive those images and to know that God sees each of us with all our potential, not just as the little child who has barely begun the journey towards his or her calling. The images that people received for me were that I am a princess, very elegant and graceful, I was dancing around in a big open space then suddenly I did a kung-fu type kick into a brick wall, breaking a hole in the wall…it didn’t bother me at all, I  just kept on dancing as gracefully as before. It was quite the picture!

Obstacle Course – Yanick leads Stephane

Obstacle course

Art work

Singing for our dinner

Playing hand tap game

Making a big line

Lyriel, Othnielle, Naomi, Myriam and Megane show off their creations

Dan, Yanick and Benjamin make cards for Morocco project

Doing the Funky Chicken

We also talked about how the enemy seeks to destroy children, and how we can build up and support children to grow into the roles they are called to be in. It can seem quite daunting but fortunately, we are not alone and God has the strength to protect and love these children in a way we cannot.

During the week, I spent a lot of time preparing for the upcoming King’s Kids Camp. I was responsible for the Family Life aspect of the camp, which meant coming up with activities for the time spent together with your ‘family’, creating games to play during meals, deciding on rules, and establishing guidelines for how we as the team running the camp would make the children feel welcome.  So Monday night I didn’t do the French course but worked on the preparations, and also Wednesday night and part of Thursday  night. Tuesday evening we watched a movie in our cell groups called The Ultimate Gift. It was about a young man, whose Grandfather passed away and he divided up his fortune amongst all his children and grandchildren. The biggest portion was left to this young man, but he had to go through a series of stages to get his inheritance. Through the movie he was given a series of gifts by his grandfather and most of them were not concrete things but learning to appreciate hard work, love, etc. It was a good movie even if it was cheesy sometimes.

This week we got to choose our next book for the last book report. I discover a book which discusses and life of Corrie ten Boom, who together with her family, hid some Jews in their home during the Second World War. She ended up going to prison and spending time in a concentration camp when she was already 50 years old. I am fascinated by the book and I suspect I will finish reading with lots of time to spare before the book report is due

Friday we had the whole day pretty much to prepare for the Camp 5. We were going to have sports time, but we managed to convince Eloise and Andreas that we could use the extra time to get everything ready for the kid’s arrival that evening. I really have a whole new appreciation for the work done at a kids camp!

On the weekend we had the chance to put all we learned into practice. We had almost 35 kids come Friday evening after dinner and they stayed until Sunday afternoon. We spent time playing lots of games, listening to stories and doing activities for the children in Morocco. Saturday and Sunday there was a time of teaching on God/Jesus and the Holy Spirit. We did an obstacle course, a relay, games in the gym and in the dark outside…there were challenges at meal times to come up with a song or to solve a riddle. And lots of food. I think the kids had a good time together, but we were all pretty exhausted by the end of the weekend. After the kids left, we had to do some clean-up and then had a brief debriefing meeting, where we encouraged everyone about the awesome job they did and if there was something we noticed that we hadn’t known about them before.

That night we all pretty much collapsed and Barbara and I watched a film together called “Take the Lead”. It’s about a man who goes to a high school in New York and teaches Ballroom dancing to the kids in detention. I love dance and this movie was fabulous! The storyline was pretty interesting but the dancing itself made the movie

Today we had the day off and I took the time to sleep in – yay! I’ve worked on my journal and looked at pictures from the weekend. Barbara and I also visited Marie-Noelle at her new place. We lost track of time and were almost late for dinner! At her house she had a scale and I had to see…not surprising that I’ve gained weight haha…I need to seriously be more disciplined with my eating or I’m going to roll into the airplane at Christmas

Anyhow, I think that’s enough for now. Tonight we might play some soccer in the gym and I fully intend to go to bed early Je souhaite une bonne semaine! A la prochaine!

DTS Week 7

Mmm ice cream!

These ladies are hungry!

Lydia, Nadia and Elisee at Mike’s

Message from my Angel :)

Blessed by my Angel

Bonjour mes amies! J’espere que vous allez bien maintenant…je pense souvent a vous

Nothing like the start of a new week, especially if things have been going well and you claim the victory in Christ…it pretty much seems to mean that the enemy is going to come at you twice as hard to get you back down again.  Fortunately, even if you are pulled back down the victory has still been won

This week was fairly intense in several ways. We had many activities going on, several different assignments due in the next week, and an intense speaker.  Monday morning we all discussed how we enjoyed last week and had learned some powerful things about God’s purpose for our lives…by the afternoon, we needed a session to de-stress with our DTS staff and talk about all the different projects and the homework for the week’s lectures. The atmosphere went from calm and positive to stressful, but we didn’t stay that way. It required a mid-week prayer session at the beginning of the class on Wednesday to really change the atmosphere in our classroom and afterward we were much more receptive to the speaker’s message.

We played a game this week at the base called Angels and Mortals. Each person drew a name out of the hat, so that we all had a mortal to bless and would receive blessings from an Angel. The goal was to bless the mortal three times/day from Tuesday lunch time until Thursday lunch time, and to not spend more than $5. Some people were very creative in what they did! I chose Claudia, who is the wife of one of the leaders at the base who does our accounting and at first I wasn’t sure what to do. In the end I gave her several notes of encouragement, I left her chocolates at break time, I got someone to lead a round of applause at lunch, organized a swing dance performance for her and a bath. Thursday lunch we had to guess who our angels were and she guessed right away…I got some of my roommates to help me with the writing in French but she still figured it out At the beginning I didn’t have anyone blessing me because the person who drew my name didn’t want to participate, but then the organizers re-shuffled things around.  One day my angel added some extra pillows and blankets to my bed, and so artistically I had to take a picture ;P She also left me a note in the bathroom the next morning that said I was a princess…so now I’ve taped it to my bedroom wall. It’s important to have positive messages around

Because of all these other activities going around, I didn’t really have time to work on my French course and that had me somewhat frustrated. So I decided that I would write a sign and start speaking French as much as possible. And I did It was sometimes quite challenging but I really felt encouraged to see that I could express myself to some extent and that people would humour me. I want to continue because I think it will really help my French to improve more than spending time on the computer.

Our teaching this week was on the Holy Spirit and how important it is for us to recognize our need for Him. We need to consider the traditions and religious practices that have been used since the beginning of Christianity and the ideas we have taken from Greek or Roman thinking.  We need to consider how God originally intended our faith to be and take away all the layers of distractions or deviations to find the true spiritual disciplines. Many churches face troubles because they are not taking from a pure source but from something polluted or destroyed, so the churches aren’t growing or the people are not changing. It is time for us to reflect on where we find our source and to go back to the original four spiritual disciplines of Acts 2:42: the Apostles’ teaching, the fellowship, the breaking of bread, and prayer. Many churches have done away or not continued with at least one of these areas, and Christian was encouraging us to really go back to practicing them.  Pretty heavy stuff… but I agree with Christian when he said he believes that the Holy Spirit will move in powerful ways like the Spirit did in the Book of Acts if we are true to the original disciplines of the early church.

Monday night we had a meeting about the creative prayer room that YWAM was organizing for the upcoming Global Missions Conference in Montreal. Sarah and Dan were in charge and had some great ideas, and each of us was involved in a shift in the prayer room and at the YWAM booth.

Tuesday evening we left to get our vaccinations for our trip to Belgium and Morocco. Since we had to leave Dunham to drive to Granby at 4:15, I didn’t have a break after lunch…I had lunch, dish duty and then we made the dinner meal for everyone. But we survived and we survived the shots too I was even able to go around the Jean Couteau store and purchase some items for my mortal. I had a great time walking around with Andreas and picking out things that would make horrible gifts while looking for something more appropriate. Wednesday was Remembrance Day and I was glad that we took time for a moment of silence together as a Base. I’ve been wearing a poppy all week and I felt it was important for us to recognize/consider the price of freedom and how God has blessed us with peace in Canada. That morning I led DTS worship time with Barbara but creative style. We listened to music and had people sketch drawings…I was excited because I used the time to practice my French to explain what we were doing

It was also hard for me because I was struggling with memories from last year when things had seemed so hopeful and I got my first exposure to being more adventurous…but there were people at the base who really encouraged me.  There are things that I thought were healed but the hurt still remains and I realize that I need to walk through each hurt with Jesus and give Him the pain so that the memories can remain but without the same hurt.  I know it will be an ongoing process, but He is faithful and will be beside me the whole time.

Thursday evening was Accendo and Christian shared a powerful story with us about God resurrecting him from a place where he was dead on the inside. He had started to rebel, to reject God and reject himself to the point where he became crazy and this continued for quite some time. Then when he came to find help at a retreat here at YWAM Dunham, God was able to completely heal him within a moment. Now he is a powerful speaker and is very passionate about the Holy Spirit and what he feels God is saying about the church.

Friday we left the base at lunch time to drive to Montreal for Global Missions. We spent the afternoon at YWAM Montreal’s office learning about YWAM and the mission of the office in Montreal. We hung out with the DTS students there and took a prayer walk around the neighbourhood before driving to College Jean Brebeuf for Global Missions. The booth and prayer room were set up and some of us girls went out to look for a cafe. It was Nadia’s birthday so we decided to celebrate with some dessert, which proved quite tasty. We also checked out the Youth night activities. That night we arrived late late at our host, a family from Venezeula. Some of the girls stayed at another house and because the family didn’t answer their phone we had to drive altogether to make sure they had a place to stay before we could go to our host. That took a while and I was cramped up in the back of the van :S I ended up sticking my legs around the sides of the seat in front to try and be more comfortable…but I was quite glad to finally arrive for the night.

The next day we left our host family a bit late and arrived about half an hour after we were supposed to at the conference (whoops!).  I spent my time at the booth and the prayer room talking to people as they came in. There was one couple from the USA originally who I spoke with and who gave me their contact information if I wanted to go to a church in Montreal. It was cool to have a connection.  On a side note, I met un gar on Friday night, Sam, who knows Gabriel here at the base, but he is a swing dancer…I was asking him about Cat’s Corner since I wanted to go swing dancing some time in Montreal…he was an interesting character whom we kept meeting in the school and who would stop to chat. Oh my. Anyhow, Saturday we left  the conference at 2pm and drove back to Dunham. I was in Carole’s car and we had a good chat together…and we stopped in Cowansville to do some grocery shopping, which included a stop for some wine That night after dinner I visited Carole in her room and we enjoyed some Porto from Portugal…the whole bottle with 20% alcohol…I could feel it in my head a bit at the end but we were both quite relaxed and had a good time. Even with all the things left to work on, it was nice to have some time to connect and relax together.

Sunday I worked on my journal, cleaned my room and went for a walk. I saw an amazing sunset with bright colours pink, orange, purple and red, then I was responsible for cooking the lasagna for dinner. Nadia and I worked on a presentation for Monday and then we discovered that another team was doing the exact topic, so we had to redo it. It was kind of frustrating but we were able to put something together.

The coming week we are talking about God’s heart for children and families, and we are preparing for a King’s Kids Camp on the weekend. It will be busy and yet I think we can all anticipate great things for the kids

* Gold stars for all those of you who survived my LOOOOONG blog entry * Thanks for reading! I hope you all have a great week…a la prochaine!

DTS Week 6

Wow, pretty much half way through the DTS lecture phase and I find it hard to believe that time has gone by this quickly. Certainly we are getting to the “meat and potatoes” of what God wants me to learn – that is not to say that the lessons from before were not as important, I think it just gets deeper!

The topic of our week was Destiny by Design and made use of our dreams,  experiences, giftings, personalities, identities and networks to help us discover the call that God has placed in each of our lives.  There were some intense discussions and moments to consider each area. For me it was hard at the beginning because I wasn’t really sure about my dreams or what to expect…it’s easy enough to say you will find some answers, but to find them inside yourself and recognize them, that’s hard! We did an exercise where we drew a picture of our dream and I really didn’t know what to do…so I drew several smaller pictures together. But as the week went on, I was able to consider things more closely and have a better picture.

Monday night we had a meeting with Laurent and Michael about the upcoming King’s Kids Camp we will have in two weekends. It was quite exciting that everyone from our DTS came out to this optional brainstorming session and we all want to be part of the preparation of this camp.  I volunteered for the position of coordinator for the “Family Life” times in the camp, as well as making sure that the schedule is followed, and who goes in what group, etc.  It will be a challenge to prepare everything, and at the same time I know that I love to organize As I think more about the role, I see how important it will be for me to ask God how He wants the times to be constructed. The time the kids have in their small groups (or “families”) will be very important for their feeling welcome, accepted and loved in this camp. So I hope I can put my gift to use wisely!

Tuesday night in our small group we discussed more about our experiences and how they influence us and our discernment of God’s calling on our lives. I was blessed to listen to the others in our small group and to challenge them in their thinking…especially Ben because I see potential in him and I find it easier to call into the lives of others than into my own (funny how it works :p) On Wednesday I had the opportunity to meet with Diane (our speaker along with Andreas) and to talk about my gifts and pray together. I was really encouraged by this session to receive confirmation that I’ve been aptly named (Anne = full of grace), that I have a gift of mercy and grace, and the call to be a counsellor and intercessor.  I started to get more of the feeling that I have a special part to play for God’s Kingdom and I am not any less than anyone else. My gifts are also valuable and I shouldn’t be ashamed to use them. That night I stayed home from the Bible study to get some rest and I ended up speaking with Marie, who we met a few weeks earlier at the Angels of Dunham. We had a great discussion about relationships and about God’s will for them, and I got invited to come and visit along with Barbara the coming weekend.

In our lectures this week, we continued working towards God’s calling in our lives. We did an exercise to destroy the “stars” and “dots” that have placed pressure on our lives, and we made a figure out of play-dough to show how God actually sees us.  The stars and dots were to represent the expectations of society in terms of our accomplishments or how we should be, and also the negative messages we have heard or have told ourselves.  Out of the play-dough, I made a flower to represent that God sees me as beautiful and precious, but also that I should not be ashamed to just be a flower, just be me. I am exactly as He wants me to be and I can open up my petals and bloom. Yay for being abstract-ish. We also took the time to pray against character issues such as pride, laziness, unforgiveness, disbelief and fear, which prevent us from moving forward. There was an opportunity to determine which area of society we feel called towards, whether it be religion/church, business/science & technology, education, arts & entertainment, family, etc. and to pray for same. At the very end, we got to write a postcard introducing ourselves in 10 years time (as if we had a  10 year reunion) and everyone had big dreams! I found the dreams quite ambitious and yet, each person had the skills, personalities, etc. that could enable them to reach their goal. Even Diane shared with us that her dream from 10 years ago had been realized now in that the Destiny by Design course continued and was offered in several languages. Very cool!

Thursday night was Accendo, and I can’t remember if there was anything exciting that happened that evening I think I mostly tried to relax and I was concerned about the coming day…it was busy busy! Friday we played volleyball in our sports session and I found it somewhat frustrating. I have a competitive spirit inside of me but I don’t like how it turns me into someone who can be very cat-like. I prefer to play for “fun” so that it won’t become a struggle in me, but we played for points and so I found myself getting frustrated and not enjoying things as much…there are still things I’m learning lol!

Andreas blessed Barbara and I by giving us a ride on Friday  night to Granby where we caught the bus to Montreal. Marie came to pick us up and we had a little tour of some of the old city before driving into Rigaud. We had such a good time on the weekend! Marie was incredibly hospitable and we were able to be there for her in a particularly difficult time in her life.  I got to have a relaxing bath on Friday night and take a shower under the “rain faucet”…it is lovely to not have to bend backwards to fit under the shower hear We went horseback riding in the afternoon on Saturday…Marie’s daughter’s each had a friend and Barbara and I were there as well, so the horse, Aragorn, was very popular. In the evening we went to Marie’s friend’s house to look after their baby boy, Ethan. Actually, Zoe looked after Ethan and the three of us (Marie, Barbara and I) just relaxed more. Christine had made some pumpkin pie, which was very tasty! I received confirmation that night about something Barbara had written to me in the letter from God to me, that there is something I don’t know about myself/in my heart that God wants to show me. Some kind of capacity or gifting…it’s scary but exciting at the same time!

Sunday we had time to work on our journals and we went for a walk with Marie on some horse trails near the horse stables. It was a beautiful Indian Summer day (hard to believe for November) and by the end of the walk, I didn’t need a jacket or scarf – yay! We were blessed again by Marie who insisted on driving us back to Dunham that afternoon, so we could go back more relaxed to prepare for the upcoming week. I think it was important for us to be there with Marie this weekend to comfort her and pray for her, but it was also important for me to step out into my callings.  I was encouraged, and looking with anticipation to the week ahead.

It’s always dangerous to declare yourself to the enemy because he likes to come back at you and steal what you thought you found.  Fortunately,  we have the victory in Jesus

Anyhow, I think it’s time for me to get started on my French course…I have started taking my French acquisition more seriously and I’m trying to speak French everyday as much as I can. Languages are fun times

Merci pour votre attention! A la prochaine!

Marie’s house

Barbara and Veronique harness Aragorn

Barbara and Aragorn

With Marie and Aragorn

Such skills :p

Marie and Barbara

DTS Week 5

Salut tout le monde! Oui, c’est vraiment pas tout le monde, c’est peut-etre seulment quelque personnes mais c’est correct

The problem with me writing a blog about the previous week is that I feel like I’ve forgotten already most of what’s happened. At the same time I’m hoping that sudden inspiration will strike and I will remember haha.

Some really cool things happened last week though and some challenging things. Monday I had my one on one with Lydia, and I really felt a difference this time in how it went. She told me that she felt she was called more to listen than to speak into my problems without me asking for her advice, and I was able to explain my concerns about not being able to trust her with all that was on my heart to talk about. I shared how I wanted to feel more included in activities, and that night there were so many things to do I didn’t know where to start! I had worship practice, watched part of a movie with some DTS staff, and worked out with Andrae. It was great to see how God worked through some of those concerns and how I felt much more supported by the one-on-one time.  One morning Lydia came into the bathroom and just gave me a hug, which was what I needed then – that was cool

Tuesday we had cell group and again there was lots of snack food and ginger ale(!) mmm…we took the time to write notes of encouragement to each person by each writing a few sentences and then passing the papers around. Ben wrote down that “you are very reserved but enjoy small adventures” – I just laughed because it sounded much like a fortune cookie to me :p We also wrote a story together that was incredibly random, but I think the laughter did us all some good.

Wednesday morning I helped with the DTS worship time with Elisa and Sarah. I was learning this week to appreciate my voice in it’s own uniqueness rather than feel badly for not being able to keep up with certain songs. Singing in French can be a challenge because the timing is different than for the same song sung in English, but when I try to sing the alto line it can be even more *interesting*.  I shouldn’t be ashamed of my voice, I just need to know how to change the key for the song or to hear the harmony. So I may not be a professional but I think God cares more about the heart At night we went to Bible study at the Schartners again…I like going for the fellowship and I think that God definitely wants to teach me things each place I go, I just need to be open to the lessons. On the way home we stopped at the drug store to get some vitamins. With all the people getting sick at the Base and with the concerns about the H1N1, I’m happy to have my Vitamin C, Vitamin D and hot drinks. We have the option to get the vaccine along with Carole since we could be considered her household, but I have decided to forgo the shot for the time being. I trust that God has a plan for my life and He is still showing me how He wants to use me, so I think it will all be okay.

During Thursday’s community project, Stephane, Elisa and I went back to the school and cleaned the food storage room. It was nice to be back in that environment, even with all the Halloween “spider” webs hanging all over the place.  That morning at intercession time, we prayed for churches, for children during the Halloween time and about worship. It was cool to see that each group got the sense we should do something on Halloween and have a time of worship together to counteract the celebration of darkness. Not that children go out to do evil practices, but the origins of this holiday are pagan and some aspects quite dark.  Barbara, Lydia and I volunteered to organize some activities, and we decided upon doing some games, a time of worship and a time of prayer.

Friday we spent our sports time raking up the leaves outside – there were so many! When all the trees have lost their leaves and the sky is cloudy and gray, it’s rather depressing to be outside in all honesty. That’s one thing about Calgary; it may not have beautiful fall colours but we do get lots of sunshine even when it’s -30 degrees. I spent a lot of time in the kitchen on the weekend. I was responsible for heating up the leftovers for staff/students who live here on the weekends, and for preparing the brunch Saturday morning. I did rather enjoy the brunch making experience and with my fabulous team of helpers it turned out pretty well. We made blueberry muffins (including some gluten free ones for me ), fruit salad, bacon and granola with yogurt…so good! Then of course there was lots to clean up and to organize for the evening event. We decided on a game of hiding the candy in the dark, then bible trivia and a game with costumes. Each team received a bag with random clothing items inside and with one person as the model, they had to create a superhero. They had to give the superhero a name and explain why the person was wearing the clothing and “equipment” they were. Carole took pictures and I think I need to ask her to send them to me because the costumes were awesome! We had cucupido, relaxoman, activeman, invisible lava water man, and rainbow man. I was laughing very hard for that portion of the evening Afterwords we had a good time of worship complete with kids songs and crayons for drawing pictures, then Melanie, Barbara and I met for a time of prayer. It was a bit disappointing that other people didn’t want to join us for the prayer time, but at the end we really got the sense that Jesus had won the victory so we didn’t need to be concerned.

Our teaching this week was on evangelism with Michel Martin from Sherbrooke. He is Moroccan and Jewish in origin, which brought an interesting perspective and gave us some insight into the culture we will visit when we go on outreach in January. We spoke some time about the reality of hell and how there is an urgency to share the good news with others, when we consider the gravity of it. Michel spoke of 5 points to share the good news and how it’s very important to consider the way in which we present our message. We need to be in tune with the Holy Spirit’s promptings to let us know what to say and where/with whom we might need to speak. We are also called to be the hands, feet, eyes, ears, heart, etc. of Jesus particularly in how we handle other people. That can be challenging…Michel told us a story of a pastor in New York who as interrupted in the middle of the service by a homeless man entering into the building. This man stunk and he appeared not to have washed himself for a long time; he proceeded to head down the main aisle and the pastor came to meet him because none of the ushers were around. The pastor was filled with compassion for this man and took him into his arms, and the man began to weep.  Michel told another story about another pastor who was driving home one day and felt prompted by the Holy Spirit to turn off onto another road in a more sketchy neighbourhood. He felt prompted to buy milk when he never did and then he was led to a particular house. A huge man opened the door to ask him what he wanted, and he told him that God told him to buy some milk and bring it to that house. The man called for his wife, who appeared with a baby that was hungry and hadn’t eaten because they couldn’t afford to buy any milk for him. So God provided…pretty cool.  We also talked about spiritual warfare and the arms that God provides to us. It’s comforting to know that we are never alone and that God has given us tools to protect us.

I also got have a great conversation with my friend Kathleen over the phone…we talked pretty late into the night but I felt blessed to connect with her and share about what I’d been learning Thanks miss!

Well, this week we talk about Destiny by Design. God has much in store I know and so it will be good to see how things develop. But I should get going now…I’ve promised Andrae that we’ll at least do some sit-ups tonight.  I’m sure doing enough eating to warrant the need for lots of them

A la prochaine!

 

DTS Week 4

It’s pretty poor form for a blogger to decide they don’t feel like blogging isn’t it? ;p There is lots that is going on, books to read and homework to finish…but the journey still continues on.

I can’t say there were exciting moments all the time, but we still had a lot of activities and lots of tasty food I don’t remember much about last Monday…in our talks time we discussed God as the Creator and all drew pictures of our impressions of God’s creation. I had my one-on-one time with Lydia in which we spent a lot of time talking about Lydia’s elbow, which she injured about 8 months ago and it has still not entirely healed. Her physiotherapist had warned her to be very careful and it was a bit of a “sore” point with her. She asked that we pray about it last week during the prayer time, and some of us were encouraging her to believe in God’s ability to fully heal her elbow rather than just settling. We don’t know God’s plan but we thought that the full healing of her elbow would provide such a testimony to her physiotherapist. Tuesday night was cell group again and this time we met at Andrea’s apartment. Lydia had made these interesting “recycled” cookies, which despite her description of them turned out to be tasty, and Derek joined us for the evening. We played a game where one person drew the name of a famous person out of a hat and the other members on the team had to ask yes or no questions to guess who it was.  Each team had two minutes to try ad get through as many of the names as possible.  It was quite funny.

On Wednesday it was Barbara’s birthday and I sat at her table with her. At the Base, the birthday person gets to choose 5-7 people (depending on the size of the table) to join them at their “specially” decorated table and who get to enjoy their cake and birthday celebration. I made Barbara an Apple Cheese Cake for the occasion and I hope that she enjoyed it Thursday’s excitement involved snow(!) It was very much but I did walk outside and take some pictures…I am looking forward to seeing how it will be once the winter season truly begins.  That day I also spoke more with our speaker about hearing the voice of God.  In our community project time Stephane, Elisa and I didn’t go to the school like we were hoping to. Instead we were sent out into the street of Dunham to see where God was prompting us to go and help  the people. When I heard we were to do this, I got kind of upset because I really wasn’t sure that I would be any good at this kind of activity. I want to listen to what God says to me but I am still learning how to recognize His voice as opposed to my own conscious or my own thoughts.  I’ve still got to work on overcoming my fear of looking silly or fear of what I’ll be asked to do!

Friday afternoon I taught some swing dance in our sports time. I asked a girl, Adrienne, who’s arrived to staff the Arts & Music DTS in January, to help me teach the lesson and we all squished into the little dance studio downstairs.  We learned Jigs and I think that most people enjoyed it…some of the girls would be interested in doing more dancing, but I think the few boys we have at our DTS would prefer to stick to sports It’s not the first time that someone has commented that I did a good job teaching and should teach again. Partly it makes me wonder about whether I would still be able to become a teacher, maybe just with a group of students whom I haven’t considered before.

Friday night was an Agape dinner with a western theme. We all dressed up in costumes and enjoyed some salisbury steaks with fries, gravy and greek salad. For dessert there was apple crisp and ice cream, and then we did the “Cotton Eyed Joe” line dance and played some games. I had a good time even if I did eat A LOT. Stephane and I were helping to prepare the meal and we found it a bit crowded because of the extra people in the kitchen who were preparing for an event on the Saturday evening. I preferred the more relaxed atmosphere when there were less of us in the kitchen and when we could be more flexible in how we did things rather than follow a very very specific order for doing things. Funny to hear me say that hey? :p

That night we also watched a movie called “August Rush” about an 11 year old boy who was put up for adoption when he was a baby but who always believe that his parents wanted him. He heard music in his head everywhere he went and he proved to be a very talented musician. His parents were both musicians and in the end they end up finding each other because of the music. I really enjoyed the movie and would recommend it.

Saturday I slept in, had some brunch, did some dancing and worked on my journal. In the afternoon we drove to Montreal for a YWAM event called VIVA Familia, basically an opportunity for former YWAMers to get together and have fellowship. We helped with setting up the event and providing some of the desserts. I found the evening was okay, we did get to meet the DTS students from Montreal, but otherwise it wasn’t so interesting. It seemed to be an event more relevant for those people who hadn’t been involved with YWAM for a number of years and who were being reunited with each other.  Afterward we drove back to Dunham and collapsed into bed around midnight.

I also learned on Saturday that my ex-boyfriend’s grandfather died the Friday before. I had met him earlier this summer when I was visiting and so I was saddened to hear the news. At the same time it confused me a bit more. I am coming to realize more and more that those things which I thought were healed, were not entirely and I think God wants to take me down the path again so that I have to fully live out and fully give up the experiences, not just part way. I’m not entirely  looking forward to the journey but I realize that it is necessary for me to complete.

Sunday I was on fire duty to heat the big wood furnace that provides heat to the house and for our domestic water. I woke up before 6 AM to start the fire and continued to check it throughout the day. Barbara was very kind and joined me in the morning, but nominally Andrae was supposed to help…he got left behind in Montreal by some unfortunate criss-crossing of paths and so I was on fire duty alone for most of the day. I was blessed that I had a few people to offer me some relief in the afternoon/evening…checking the fire every two hours from 6 AM to 10-11PM is quite intensive! I also went to the Anglican Church service here in Dunham. It took about 1 hour for a communion service and there were about 10 people in the congregation, three in the choir, plus the organist and priest.  Everyone was at least 40+ so I spent must of the time smiling to myself and thinking, yes, this is the Anglican church.  It was still good to go once I think.

This past week our speaker was Derek Schoenhoff from Hawaii on Compassion. He was born in Edmonton and his parents worked as counselors all over the world, so he grew up in Switzerland, Israel, Canada, etc. and he now lives in Hawaii with his wife from South Korea. I found Derek’s style of teaching to be the most engaging thus far and his use of humour/irony and stories from his personal experiences made for an interesting week. He challenged us to become active in our faith and in compassion with Jesus as our example. We needed to stop being like Cinderella, who knew of her royal heritage and knew that the prince was looking for her, but chose to remain silent and instead go out as children of God to share His love with others.  For me I realized that I still hold on to the lies and to my feelings of insecurity and inferiority rather than accepting my place as a daughter of God who is valuable and has things to offer. I need to uproot all the lies that I have believed for many years and replace them with truth, and allow God to restore me to the person He calls me to be. It’s pretty cool but also scary! One thing that Derek said, which I really liked, was that God is with us in our sufferings and He grieves with us but at the same time He is already working out a plan for our restoration/resurrection – He will make life out of a bad situation. That brings hope

So we’ll see where God is taking me. This week our speaker will talk on evangelism and Andrae wants to become more hardcore in our fitness training. My hope is not to be hobbling about the Base ;p But I’ll talk about that later.

A la prochaine!

Looking down Rue du College

Fields in snow

At Viva Familia