Hey!
Today was pretty great.
I didn't sleep in all that much. At 9:30 I woke up and went with the day.
Emails, Ezekiel 5-8, Proverbs 31, then off for an awesome adventure!
I set out for a prayer walk down the main road towards the airport. I ran into a few kids and I got to try a radio control car. It was pretty sweet. The little boy kept crashing it into things though. lol. Then I continued on my way. It took me a really long time to get to the airport. It was only (as I have heard) one kilometer down the road, but I guess I stopped a lot. There were wild pea plants and raspberries. The berries were delicious. I don't think I will actually eat the peas though.
I took a different road back after. Going that way to the airport I expected to find the water treatment plant because the other day one of the kid's parents came to talk to us the day we went swimming. She advised us to go up a way to get past the treatment plant that puts water in the river and that on the other side would be a safer place to swim, upstream. I never saw a treatment plant, but way off in the distance I may have seen it. It's nowhere near the river... There's only one road left that I haven't fully explored, so I'll go that way next weekend.
On the way home I ran into one of the kids from camp. He was going to the playground, so I went with him and played with him for a while.
When I got back there were three other kids at the girl's house eating apples on their stairs. They were apparently going to go swimming soon. There was only one thing I had really planned on doing today, baking. I had tried to borrow some ingredients earlier, but the girls weren't awake, but now they were, so I borrowed some eggs, flour and margarine. The recipe called for more eggs than the girls would give me, so I ran over to the store (closed on Sundays) and ran back.
So, we went to go swimming. There was a secret dirt road I didn't know about that went along the river between the main road and the river. So I have one more road to fully explore. The place we went swimming was pretty nice. Very shallow. The tide was out a bit when we got there though. We walked along the beach to get to where we were, but on the way back there was no beach to walk on.
Finally. Baking time! They turned out really well. Egg Tarts! first time I have made them. So good. I actually had to evaporate some milk though, and I'm pretty sure that I didn't do it enough or properly. Next time I'll just buy some, or just not use any water. Everyone really liked them. I made 9 muffin sized tarts. I probably could have made 12, but I didn't make enough dough.
The door was locked when we went to church. >.> I think they went off to a retreat.
I have been writing out some songs from online so that I can play them on guitar in my free time. Today I wrote out 'One Voice', 'Power of Your Love' and 'Lift Us Up to Fall'.
So, MF has been using my laptop to charge his mp3 player a couple times, so he let me borrow some of his music. I now have a Tenth Avenue North CD. So good. The following is the song that was stuck in my head for an hour or so earlier. Lift us up to Fall:
We watched another movie and the girls made some apple crisp.
That's pretty much it for the day.
I washed my sheets and blanket.
My nose hurts.
Ttyl.
D.Fa
31.7.11
Not Much
Hey.
I slept in.
I really didn't do much.
I have been fasting this week and praying for the children, adults and all people in this town. Praying for their salvation and that God would really be at work in the hearts of the people here. That they would see what they are missing. That the brokeness and broken families would be replaced by a knowledge of who they are in Jesus and families that stay together and love each other. That the real house churches here would flourish and replace the empty religion. Praying that our presence here would be used by God and really used in the lives of those around us.
The only thing is that it seems that when I am fasting I fall into temptation much more easily. It's upsetting, but it happened this morning. >.> Satan tries harder when you are doing good things for God. He will try everything in his power to stop you from doing what God would have you do.
You have to rely on the Spirit to pick you up again, repair the damage and keep going strong again.
Tomorrow is the last day of my fast and then I will go in to real ministry work and step it up for the last two weeks. Pray that I would be effective in what God calls me to do. Pray that I rely on the Spirit. Pray that I flee from temptation and run to God.
I was invited to play soccer basebal with some kids. That was not fun. Stacked teams. Changing rules. Inconsistent teams. >.>
Playing guitar is awesome.
'Body of Lies' was really boring. I guess it's because I'm not American and don't care about Politics? The only thing I kept thinking is that that Ed guy is so corrupt and power hungry and impatient. >.>
'Shaolin Soccer' is so good. lol. I watched it a long time ago with my brother, but really, I didn't remember too much of it. Good movie. I'm pretty sure most of it was Cantonese..? At one point the main guy said the sweet buns were tasty. 'Hosekk'. lol. (I don't know how to spell that) Last year in the VBS in Brooklyn before meals the kids would say 'grace' "yummy yummy thank you God" in English and Cantonese. lol.
Ttyl.
D.Fa
I slept in.
I really didn't do much.
I have been fasting this week and praying for the children, adults and all people in this town. Praying for their salvation and that God would really be at work in the hearts of the people here. That they would see what they are missing. That the brokeness and broken families would be replaced by a knowledge of who they are in Jesus and families that stay together and love each other. That the real house churches here would flourish and replace the empty religion. Praying that our presence here would be used by God and really used in the lives of those around us.
The only thing is that it seems that when I am fasting I fall into temptation much more easily. It's upsetting, but it happened this morning. >.> Satan tries harder when you are doing good things for God. He will try everything in his power to stop you from doing what God would have you do.
You have to rely on the Spirit to pick you up again, repair the damage and keep going strong again.
Tomorrow is the last day of my fast and then I will go in to real ministry work and step it up for the last two weeks. Pray that I would be effective in what God calls me to do. Pray that I rely on the Spirit. Pray that I flee from temptation and run to God.
I was invited to play soccer basebal with some kids. That was not fun. Stacked teams. Changing rules. Inconsistent teams. >.>
Playing guitar is awesome.
'Body of Lies' was really boring. I guess it's because I'm not American and don't care about Politics? The only thing I kept thinking is that that Ed guy is so corrupt and power hungry and impatient. >.>
'Shaolin Soccer' is so good. lol. I watched it a long time ago with my brother, but really, I didn't remember too much of it. Good movie. I'm pretty sure most of it was Cantonese..? At one point the main guy said the sweet buns were tasty. 'Hosekk'. lol. (I don't know how to spell that) Last year in the VBS in Brooklyn before meals the kids would say 'grace' "yummy yummy thank you God" in English and Cantonese. lol.
Ttyl.
D.Fa
30.7.11
Why Am I still Awake Again?
Yo. Long day.
Woke up 7:45. Rain. Back to sleep.
8:38. Wake up. Change. go.
Stand around for what seemed like hours in the cold windy weather with WCF. Actually less than 15 minutes. >.>
Go home. Read more of 2 Kings. Write out lyrics and chords for 'Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing'.
Camp time. M(?) was there again and hyper. "it's pizzapockets that make me silly again." G(?) is the cutest 3 year old. Nah nah ne boo boo! *cute little dance*
Naruto and shower.
Wedding reception. Pretty sweet. Invite the whole town. A plate of meat and potatoes. Moose and Goose. Check those off the list of animals to try once.
Go home. Play guitar. Go back for 'dancing'.
Sit around for literally 5 hours watching other people dance. But it was fun. Just a little boring after so long. A once in a lifetime experience. Well, not quite, but rare to people in Ottawa. I hear there will be a pow-wow this weekend.
Pretty tired. lol
Night.
D.Fa
Woke up 7:45. Rain. Back to sleep.
8:38. Wake up. Change. go.
Stand around for what seemed like hours in the cold windy weather with WCF. Actually less than 15 minutes. >.>
Go home. Read more of 2 Kings. Write out lyrics and chords for 'Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing'.
Camp time. M(?) was there again and hyper. "it's pizzapockets that make me silly again." G(?) is the cutest 3 year old. Nah nah ne boo boo! *cute little dance*
Naruto and shower.
Wedding reception. Pretty sweet. Invite the whole town. A plate of meat and potatoes. Moose and Goose. Check those off the list of animals to try once.
Go home. Play guitar. Go back for 'dancing'.
Sit around for literally 5 hours watching other people dance. But it was fun. Just a little boring after so long. A once in a lifetime experience. Well, not quite, but rare to people in Ottawa. I hear there will be a pow-wow this weekend.
Pretty tired. lol
Night.
D.Fa
28.7.11
Is this Reality?
Yo.
I just watched 'Inception' again with the guys and two of the three girls.
Such a good movie. It's so funny watching people react to the movie's depth and intricacy. It's like the movie itself is a maze dreamed up by some psychotic mad scientist person. lol.
About today:
-Today was the second day outside. The weather forcast called for rain with a sever thunderstorm in the afternoon. For the first hour or so it was just two kids. The younger (M(?)) I have blogged breifly about before as being one of my favourites. He was being really hyper today so I inquired about whether he had got a lot of sleep. He didn't. I asked him if he had a big breakfast, he said no. I asked what he had for breakfast. "Cornpops. That's what make me silly. and funny." lol. He's the best. He really Really REALLY enjoys swinging and with him being the only kid there that would allow me to push him (I have a reputation as being the 'best' pusher, although some less brave children refuse to be pushed. lol) so he got a lot of pushes. xP He also said another couple things that I managed to scrawl on my hand in blue ink and copy to a blog post draft during the lunch break "If you see too much rain coming down it's the afternoon, but it's still morning." this was when it breifly started dripping. He then said "If it's tomorrow, it's Friday." Thank you for that.
-We also started playing this game between me and these three boys where they, basically, had to tackle or climb on me or do whatever they could to get me onto the ground. One on one I could take them, but when they started teaming up. lol. Tickling them worked to separate them for the most part except for the larger kid who was also very determined. The other two eventually switched sides, but he never did. It took a long time, but I eventually won.
-Lunch break.
-Afternoon. Started slowly, but then there were a lot of children for the small playground enclosure. Time passes really slowly when there is no change of scenery or activity. Nothing really substantial happened. Just a little fight between two of the kids that I ended up in the middle trying to stop. This, although it (for the most part) stopped the fight, ended up aiming the anger at me. Whatever. Everything will be good tomorrow. She seems to like me normally, so she'll get over it.
-Done.
-I watched some Fairy Tail and Bleach, but it was loading really slowly, so I was also reading 2 Kings while it was loading. xP.
I can't wait for the feast tomorrow night. Mmmmmmmm. Dinner is the best meal ever.
yo. I'm super hyped up right now. I'm hot and sweaty and my heart is going, but my eyes want to close. I'm typing faster then normal as well. >.>
Ttyl.
D.Fa
I just watched 'Inception' again with the guys and two of the three girls.
Such a good movie. It's so funny watching people react to the movie's depth and intricacy. It's like the movie itself is a maze dreamed up by some psychotic mad scientist person. lol.
About today:
-Today was the second day outside. The weather forcast called for rain with a sever thunderstorm in the afternoon. For the first hour or so it was just two kids. The younger (M(?)) I have blogged breifly about before as being one of my favourites. He was being really hyper today so I inquired about whether he had got a lot of sleep. He didn't. I asked him if he had a big breakfast, he said no. I asked what he had for breakfast. "Cornpops. That's what make me silly. and funny." lol. He's the best. He really Really REALLY enjoys swinging and with him being the only kid there that would allow me to push him (I have a reputation as being the 'best' pusher, although some less brave children refuse to be pushed. lol) so he got a lot of pushes. xP He also said another couple things that I managed to scrawl on my hand in blue ink and copy to a blog post draft during the lunch break "If you see too much rain coming down it's the afternoon, but it's still morning." this was when it breifly started dripping. He then said "If it's tomorrow, it's Friday." Thank you for that.
-We also started playing this game between me and these three boys where they, basically, had to tackle or climb on me or do whatever they could to get me onto the ground. One on one I could take them, but when they started teaming up. lol. Tickling them worked to separate them for the most part except for the larger kid who was also very determined. The other two eventually switched sides, but he never did. It took a long time, but I eventually won.
-Lunch break.
-Afternoon. Started slowly, but then there were a lot of children for the small playground enclosure. Time passes really slowly when there is no change of scenery or activity. Nothing really substantial happened. Just a little fight between two of the kids that I ended up in the middle trying to stop. This, although it (for the most part) stopped the fight, ended up aiming the anger at me. Whatever. Everything will be good tomorrow. She seems to like me normally, so she'll get over it.
-Done.
-I watched some Fairy Tail and Bleach, but it was loading really slowly, so I was also reading 2 Kings while it was loading. xP.
I can't wait for the feast tomorrow night. Mmmmmmmm. Dinner is the best meal ever.
yo. I'm super hyped up right now. I'm hot and sweaty and my heart is going, but my eyes want to close. I'm typing faster then normal as well. >.>
Ttyl.
D.Fa
27.7.11
Have You Ever X???
Have you ever swam in a river of sewage? Ever been up to your knees in sewage? Ever put your head under at water of sewage?
No?
Me either, but that is what the rumours are and what you could easily imagine.
Yo! Today was day 1 of our week and a half of outdoor only camps! It is seriously a step harder. Before we could keep them inside throwing around the ball doing nothing for a while and then go to the playground, but now we start where the fun is at and have no where else to go really. xP
I got another layer of burn today, everywhere. Even on my eyelids. >.>
It's really hard to tell time here since the sun barely moves with the hours. Inside there was a big clock on the wall, but outside only one or two of us have a watch.
After camp we went swimming in the river. My swimshorts are huge. lol. AF and KC keep telling me to stop wearing my Transformers t-shirt because I haven't seen or want to see any of the movies. The rumours surrounding the river circulate around the water treatment plant. A number of years back there was a leak and it was getting into the river. Since then, most people avoid it unless you are up stream. In any case, it has been fixed and that was years ago, but people still believe that the river is sewage. The problem is that the river is so shallow that it looks muddy all the time and also, the mud feels disgustingly like sewage. >.>
All that aside, it was a lot of fun swimming for a change of pace.
It's really weird having a really full stomach sometimes and having it empty most of the other time. >.> It should just always be empty. Not that I'm complaining. lol
Ttyl
D.Fa
PS. I got an update email from a friend who is working with the CEF this summer running Vacation Bible Schools around Toronto. It was sweet to get to hear some of what is happening and get an update. Children all over Canada get to hear about Jesus this summer, pray for them all. =D
No?
Me either, but that is what the rumours are and what you could easily imagine.
Yo! Today was day 1 of our week and a half of outdoor only camps! It is seriously a step harder. Before we could keep them inside throwing around the ball doing nothing for a while and then go to the playground, but now we start where the fun is at and have no where else to go really. xP
I got another layer of burn today, everywhere. Even on my eyelids. >.>
It's really hard to tell time here since the sun barely moves with the hours. Inside there was a big clock on the wall, but outside only one or two of us have a watch.
After camp we went swimming in the river. My swimshorts are huge. lol. AF and KC keep telling me to stop wearing my Transformers t-shirt because I haven't seen or want to see any of the movies. The rumours surrounding the river circulate around the water treatment plant. A number of years back there was a leak and it was getting into the river. Since then, most people avoid it unless you are up stream. In any case, it has been fixed and that was years ago, but people still believe that the river is sewage. The problem is that the river is so shallow that it looks muddy all the time and also, the mud feels disgustingly like sewage. >.>
All that aside, it was a lot of fun swimming for a change of pace.
It's really weird having a really full stomach sometimes and having it empty most of the other time. >.> It should just always be empty. Not that I'm complaining. lol
Ttyl
D.Fa
PS. I got an update email from a friend who is working with the CEF this summer running Vacation Bible Schools around Toronto. It was sweet to get to hear some of what is happening and get an update. Children all over Canada get to hear about Jesus this summer, pray for them all. =D
26.7.11
Nutri-Grain (with a French accent)
We were outside most of the day today. Which is great because it was so sunny and awesome!
I cooked the last of our eggs again. The only problem is that we will be running out this time. There were no eggs in this week's food delivery (which arrived a day early). I really don't know what we will be eating for breakfast from now on. >.> I have to get creative tomorrow morning and think of something.
I burned the top half of my arms today! =D >.> It's the most embarrasing thing ever when you are standing there with half tanned arms and extremely white top half as (excuse me) the darkest black guy walks by. Now they should become at least semi-tanned. However, we will be primarily outside for the next week and a half because of a wedding feast and a conference in town.
Yep. Today was our last cooking class. T.T We made delicious oatmeal raisin cookies. *drool*
We went to the gym today for a bit.
I played guitar at the baseball diamond and some girls came and listened and touched the guitar and chose some songs and were a little disruptive, but whatever.
Mosquitos love me. >.<
Spagetti for dinner. Best thing ever.
I've been feeling a lot like I have become better friends with ER this week. I don't really know why, but it's cool. She and WCF had a thing today over some milk. They were in Tetra-packs, you know? She said that the milk didn't need to be refrigerated and he kinda thought she was joking around, like milk always needs to be refrigerated, right? ER kinda jokes around in a certain tone and it's usually kinda accusatory, but she's just joking, but then WCF is kinda literalist and semi-naive and I guess they haven't bonded all that much, so it grew into a big thing kinda. lol Or, at least they both talked to me about it. >.<
Ya. I've been reading John all day. Truly truly I tell you that I am circling truly statements and underlining things about Jesus or things I think stick out to me.
Anyways, nothing substantial today.
Ttyl.
D.Fa
PS. 2kg bag of yogurt.
I cooked the last of our eggs again. The only problem is that we will be running out this time. There were no eggs in this week's food delivery (which arrived a day early). I really don't know what we will be eating for breakfast from now on. >.> I have to get creative tomorrow morning and think of something.
I burned the top half of my arms today! =D >.> It's the most embarrasing thing ever when you are standing there with half tanned arms and extremely white top half as (excuse me) the darkest black guy walks by. Now they should become at least semi-tanned. However, we will be primarily outside for the next week and a half because of a wedding feast and a conference in town.
Yep. Today was our last cooking class. T.T We made delicious oatmeal raisin cookies. *drool*
We went to the gym today for a bit.
I played guitar at the baseball diamond and some girls came and listened and touched the guitar and chose some songs and were a little disruptive, but whatever.
Mosquitos love me. >.<
Spagetti for dinner. Best thing ever.
I've been feeling a lot like I have become better friends with ER this week. I don't really know why, but it's cool. She and WCF had a thing today over some milk. They were in Tetra-packs, you know? She said that the milk didn't need to be refrigerated and he kinda thought she was joking around, like milk always needs to be refrigerated, right? ER kinda jokes around in a certain tone and it's usually kinda accusatory, but she's just joking, but then WCF is kinda literalist and semi-naive and I guess they haven't bonded all that much, so it grew into a big thing kinda. lol Or, at least they both talked to me about it. >.<
Ya. I've been reading John all day. Truly truly I tell you that I am circling truly statements and underlining things about Jesus or things I think stick out to me.
Anyways, nothing substantial today.
Ttyl.
D.Fa
PS. 2kg bag of yogurt.
25.7.11
Paris in a new light.
Yo. I'm just really pumped right now. You know when you watch a movie and are still in the movie mindset that has developed. You think you are still in the movie to a degree or that the movie is all that matters? Well, I'm not there, I'm a step back into reality, but the problem is that reality is worse, in a way.
(Nothing big about my day. it was good and all that. I like being on time. Hiphop abs family bonding. Margarine saturated potatoes. Oh, and watching the stars for half an hour at 1am. I saw three real shooting stars (I also thought there would be no airplanes so far North at that time. >.>))
So, we just watched a movie. The title, 'Taken'. Main actor, Liam Neeson. He's pretty much awesome. We watched another one of his movies just last week. Anyways the movie is about a father who used to work for the government in a crazy 'spy-like skill set, but for good not evil' kinda way. Anyways, he is divorced and he has given up quite a lot to be where his daughter is because he missed out on a lot of her life while he had that job. Daughter goes to Paris and yatta yatta yatta she is kidnapped and sold into the human sex trafficking 'business'. Liam Neeson, of course, would not stand by and let this happen, however, so a lot of explosions, awesome action scenes, detective work, cunning, skill and dead Albanians later and it's a bitter sweet ending. She's fine (as far as we can see), but the reality hits us.
This is a real problem in the world, yo.
People treated as property.
People stolen, controlled, drugged, bought, sold, used.
People losing their humanity.
In the movie the French government turns a blind eye to this, for a price.
It's terrible.
I don't know very much right now, but believe me in a few months I will. It's been planned for a while. In January Campus for Christ at Carleton and uOttawa (and probably other campuses) in conjunction with other campus clubs and activist groups, will be raising awareness about these issues, asking questions to students and just bringing the reality closer to home.
I mean, when it doesn't affect you, it's less of a thought in your head and more of a concept on paper.
What does it mean to be human? What does it mean to have freedom? What does it mean that there are people out there participating in this? How can there be more slaves now then there ever have been?
I'm very thankful to be where I am. Safe, sheltered, provided for, loved, free, with an income, with an education, etc. But should we sit here and do nothing about these injustices?
Some Verses:
"Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one you obey—whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness? ... But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." Rom 6:16, 22-23
"In most solemn truth I tell you," replied Jesus, "that every one who commits sin is the slave of sin." John 8:34
"God demonstrates his love for us in this: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." Rom 5:8
"Were you a slave when God called you? Let not that weigh on your mind. And yet if you can get your freedom, take advantage of the opportunity." 1 Cor 7:21
"For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life." John 3:16
"Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent." John 17:3
"Yet to all that received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God." John 1:12
"Therefore you are no longer a slave, but a son; and if a son, then an heir also through God's own act." Gal 4:7
"Now a slave does not remain permanently in his master's house, but a son does." John 8:35
Ya. We were all slaves to our sin, but God set us free and adopted us as children into his household through the blood of his son into the freedom of eternal life with Him, if we choose to accept it.
Talk to you later!
D.Fa
PS. Concordance FTW.
(Nothing big about my day. it was good and all that. I like being on time. Hiphop abs family bonding. Margarine saturated potatoes. Oh, and watching the stars for half an hour at 1am. I saw three real shooting stars (I also thought there would be no airplanes so far North at that time. >.>))
So, we just watched a movie. The title, 'Taken'. Main actor, Liam Neeson. He's pretty much awesome. We watched another one of his movies just last week. Anyways the movie is about a father who used to work for the government in a crazy 'spy-like skill set, but for good not evil' kinda way. Anyways, he is divorced and he has given up quite a lot to be where his daughter is because he missed out on a lot of her life while he had that job. Daughter goes to Paris and yatta yatta yatta she is kidnapped and sold into the human sex trafficking 'business'. Liam Neeson, of course, would not stand by and let this happen, however, so a lot of explosions, awesome action scenes, detective work, cunning, skill and dead Albanians later and it's a bitter sweet ending. She's fine (as far as we can see), but the reality hits us.
This is a real problem in the world, yo.
People treated as property.
People stolen, controlled, drugged, bought, sold, used.
People losing their humanity.
In the movie the French government turns a blind eye to this, for a price.
It's terrible.
I don't know very much right now, but believe me in a few months I will. It's been planned for a while. In January Campus for Christ at Carleton and uOttawa (and probably other campuses) in conjunction with other campus clubs and activist groups, will be raising awareness about these issues, asking questions to students and just bringing the reality closer to home.
I mean, when it doesn't affect you, it's less of a thought in your head and more of a concept on paper.
What does it mean to be human? What does it mean to have freedom? What does it mean that there are people out there participating in this? How can there be more slaves now then there ever have been?
I'm very thankful to be where I am. Safe, sheltered, provided for, loved, free, with an income, with an education, etc. But should we sit here and do nothing about these injustices?
Some Verses:
"Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one you obey—whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness? ... But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." Rom 6:16, 22-23
"In most solemn truth I tell you," replied Jesus, "that every one who commits sin is the slave of sin." John 8:34
"God demonstrates his love for us in this: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." Rom 5:8
"Were you a slave when God called you? Let not that weigh on your mind. And yet if you can get your freedom, take advantage of the opportunity." 1 Cor 7:21
"For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life." John 3:16
"Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent." John 17:3
"Yet to all that received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God." John 1:12
"Therefore you are no longer a slave, but a son; and if a son, then an heir also through God's own act." Gal 4:7
"Now a slave does not remain permanently in his master's house, but a son does." John 8:35
Ya. We were all slaves to our sin, but God set us free and adopted us as children into his household through the blood of his son into the freedom of eternal life with Him, if we choose to accept it.
Talk to you later!
D.Fa
PS. Concordance FTW.
24.7.11
星はどこですか？
So, there weren't really any visible stars last night... Why? Because the clouds rolled in suddenly while we were watching a movie.
We watched 'The Other Guys'. It was pretty funny, but really stupid, you know? Anyways, MF, WCF, AF and KC discovered my laugh yesterday. I know what you are thinking, 'what..? it's three weeks in. They should have discovered that weeks ago, like, the first day?' Well, they may have seen bits and pieces, but not a full on 2 minutes. lol. And they definitely haven't seen it much. This is not because I am hiding it, it is because we don't know each other well enough. >.>
Anyways, I really really hope the sky stays clear tonight. >.>
On another topic: Do you remember how I signed up for that World Bible School lessons? Well I have been doing some every once in a while. When I went to Asia I didn't do any, but when I got back I did one. Anyways, with all this free time, I have been doing a bunch. Last week I messaged my teacher to send me some more because of my extra free time. He is really great and if I ever have any questions he can point me to some good sites.
With this whole deuterocanon and apocrypha thing, I asked him for some information on the subject (because wikipedia is not a reliable source. You need other sources.) and he sent me a whole power point series on how we got the Bible and he sent me a link to a great website.
http://www.apologeticspress.org/APContent.aspx?category=13&article=968
It is an article by the Apologetic Press titled 'The Canon and Extra-Canonical Writings'
It talks about how the 66 books of the Bible came to be in the Bible and how many other books were not placed in the Bible. I don't know why I was suddenly questioning the Bible and it's contents. I had never really second guessed it before. The Bible is the Bible right?
But what about those extra books that Catholics have? Why aren't they in the Bible?
That's kinda where it started for me.
There is a lot of stuff in that article and in the slide shows I saw, but I will share some of the really cool parts that stuck out to me or some things I have learned.
The books in the Bible were inspired by God, but written down by men. 2 Tim 3:16 "All scripture is God-Breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness."
The Prodestant Old Testament and the Hebrew Scriptures are the same. Although the divisions of books are a little different, the content is identical.
Jesus accepted the Hebrew Scriptures as Holy and quoted from them while teaching. Luke 24:44 describes him mentioning the Law, the Prophets, and Psalms (which is part of the Writings section of the Hebrew Scriptures) "He said to them, "This is what I told you while I was still with you: Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms."
Also in Matthew 23:35 he mentions Abel and Zechariah while rebuking the Pharisees. He refers to the people killing the prophets and ones sent to them, all the righteous ones from Abel to Zechariah. Abel being the son of Adam in Gen 4:1-9 and Zechariah being the last martyr mentioned in the Hebrew Scriptures in 2Chr24:17-22 (The Hebrew Scriptures were in a different order starting with Genesis and going to Chronicles (1Chr and 2Chr are one book)). Jesus didn't mention martyrs from the Maccabean revolt or anything else since then. Clearly He thought that only the books between Gen and Chr were Scripture.
"While these early men, early versions, and the Roman Catholic councils show the progression of the canon’s acceptance, they did not establish the canon. God established the canon for the New Testament through the inspired writers of the New Testament."
Peter placed Paul's writings at the same level as the OT scriptures. 2Pet3:15-16. "Bear in mind that our Lord’s patience means salvation, just as our dear brother Paul also wrote you with the wisdom that God gave him. He writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in them of these matters. His letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction."
Paul writes in Eph 2:19-20 that the writings of the apostles are as important as those of the prophets. "Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God's people and members of God's household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone." So Matthew, John, and Peter's writings are canonical too. He also quotes both Deuteronomy and Luke in 1 Tim 5:18 saying "For the Scripture says, "Do not muzzle the ox while it is treading out the grain," and "The worker deserves his wages."" So Luke is also Scripture by this internal canonization.
As Geisler and Nix said, “Canonicity is determined or established authoritatively by God; it is merely discovered by man.”
"There are a vast number of false and spurious writings that deserve mention at this point; not because anyone would seriously contend for their authority, but because they do represent the religious lore of the Hebrews in the inter-testamental period. The New Testament writers make use of a number of these books… Of course, it should be remembered that the New Testament also quotes from the heathen poets Aratus (Acts 17:28); Menander (1 Cor.15:33); and Epimenides (Titus 1:12). Truth is truth no matter where it is found, whether uttered by a heathen poet, a pagan prophet (Num 24:17), or even a dumb animal (22:28). Nevertheless, it should be noted that no such formula as “it is written” or “the Scriptures say” is connected with these citations. It should also be noted that neither the New Testament writers nor the Fathers have considered these writings canonical."
The Scriptures say that there will be a period of silence when God won't send any inspiration or prophets. Micah 3:6 "Therefore night will come over you, without visions, and darkness, without divination. The sun will set for the prophets, and the day will go dark for them." Malachi was the last of the prophets and he said in Mal 3:1 "“I will send my messenger, who will prepare the way before me. Then suddenly the Lord you are seeking will come to his temple; the messenger of the covenant, whom you desire, will come,” says the LORD Almighty." Also Mal 4:4-5 "“Remember the law of my servant Moses, the decrees and laws I gave him at Horeb for all Israel. “See, I will send the prophet Elijah to you before that great and dreadful day of the LORD comes."" These predict of John the Baptist being the only one left to come before Jesus. Any books written between Malachi and Jesus coming couldn't have come from God.
Although some are historically accurate that doesn't mean that it should be in the Bible by that merit alone.
Some of the 'accepted' apocrypha are pretty legendary.
You cannot add to or remove from God's words. Read: divine punishment.
Anyways, I was pretty excited after reading the things he sent me and the fact is that the books in my Bible are universally accepted, so they were never under question anyway.
In other news: I played guitar for a bit today. I went to church. Only 7 people. Their songs are all filled with the gospel. So good. xP Despite the country feel because the worship leader used to play in a "fiddlin' band" with his brothers. C(?) is just filled with testimonies. Honestly you could sit there for hours and listen to how he has seen possesions and heard stories of people who have seen hell and returned or all these amazing stories of how the Spirit led him to someone and with tear-filled eyes they prayed to recieve Christ.
Ya. There are a couple clouds, but that's okay. Also, I think I see a fire. o.0
Goodnight!
=D.Fa
We watched 'The Other Guys'. It was pretty funny, but really stupid, you know? Anyways, MF, WCF, AF and KC discovered my laugh yesterday. I know what you are thinking, 'what..? it's three weeks in. They should have discovered that weeks ago, like, the first day?' Well, they may have seen bits and pieces, but not a full on 2 minutes. lol. And they definitely haven't seen it much. This is not because I am hiding it, it is because we don't know each other well enough. >.>
Anyways, I really really hope the sky stays clear tonight. >.>
On another topic: Do you remember how I signed up for that World Bible School lessons? Well I have been doing some every once in a while. When I went to Asia I didn't do any, but when I got back I did one. Anyways, with all this free time, I have been doing a bunch. Last week I messaged my teacher to send me some more because of my extra free time. He is really great and if I ever have any questions he can point me to some good sites.
With this whole deuterocanon and apocrypha thing, I asked him for some information on the subject (because wikipedia is not a reliable source. You need other sources.) and he sent me a whole power point series on how we got the Bible and he sent me a link to a great website.
http://www.apologeticspress.org/APContent.aspx?category=13&article=968
It is an article by the Apologetic Press titled 'The Canon and Extra-Canonical Writings'
It talks about how the 66 books of the Bible came to be in the Bible and how many other books were not placed in the Bible. I don't know why I was suddenly questioning the Bible and it's contents. I had never really second guessed it before. The Bible is the Bible right?
But what about those extra books that Catholics have? Why aren't they in the Bible?
That's kinda where it started for me.
There is a lot of stuff in that article and in the slide shows I saw, but I will share some of the really cool parts that stuck out to me or some things I have learned.
The books in the Bible were inspired by God, but written down by men. 2 Tim 3:16 "All scripture is God-Breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness."
The Prodestant Old Testament and the Hebrew Scriptures are the same. Although the divisions of books are a little different, the content is identical.
Jesus accepted the Hebrew Scriptures as Holy and quoted from them while teaching. Luke 24:44 describes him mentioning the Law, the Prophets, and Psalms (which is part of the Writings section of the Hebrew Scriptures) "He said to them, "This is what I told you while I was still with you: Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms."
Also in Matthew 23:35 he mentions Abel and Zechariah while rebuking the Pharisees. He refers to the people killing the prophets and ones sent to them, all the righteous ones from Abel to Zechariah. Abel being the son of Adam in Gen 4:1-9 and Zechariah being the last martyr mentioned in the Hebrew Scriptures in 2Chr24:17-22 (The Hebrew Scriptures were in a different order starting with Genesis and going to Chronicles (1Chr and 2Chr are one book)). Jesus didn't mention martyrs from the Maccabean revolt or anything else since then. Clearly He thought that only the books between Gen and Chr were Scripture.
"While these early men, early versions, and the Roman Catholic councils show the progression of the canon’s acceptance, they did not establish the canon. God established the canon for the New Testament through the inspired writers of the New Testament."
Peter placed Paul's writings at the same level as the OT scriptures. 2Pet3:15-16. "Bear in mind that our Lord’s patience means salvation, just as our dear brother Paul also wrote you with the wisdom that God gave him. He writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in them of these matters. His letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction."
Paul writes in Eph 2:19-20 that the writings of the apostles are as important as those of the prophets. "Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God's people and members of God's household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone." So Matthew, John, and Peter's writings are canonical too. He also quotes both Deuteronomy and Luke in 1 Tim 5:18 saying "For the Scripture says, "Do not muzzle the ox while it is treading out the grain," and "The worker deserves his wages."" So Luke is also Scripture by this internal canonization.
As Geisler and Nix said, “Canonicity is determined or established authoritatively by God; it is merely discovered by man.”
"There are a vast number of false and spurious writings that deserve mention at this point; not because anyone would seriously contend for their authority, but because they do represent the religious lore of the Hebrews in the inter-testamental period. The New Testament writers make use of a number of these books… Of course, it should be remembered that the New Testament also quotes from the heathen poets Aratus (Acts 17:28); Menander (1 Cor.15:33); and Epimenides (Titus 1:12). Truth is truth no matter where it is found, whether uttered by a heathen poet, a pagan prophet (Num 24:17), or even a dumb animal (22:28). Nevertheless, it should be noted that no such formula as “it is written” or “the Scriptures say” is connected with these citations. It should also be noted that neither the New Testament writers nor the Fathers have considered these writings canonical."
The Scriptures say that there will be a period of silence when God won't send any inspiration or prophets. Micah 3:6 "Therefore night will come over you, without visions, and darkness, without divination. The sun will set for the prophets, and the day will go dark for them." Malachi was the last of the prophets and he said in Mal 3:1 "“I will send my messenger, who will prepare the way before me. Then suddenly the Lord you are seeking will come to his temple; the messenger of the covenant, whom you desire, will come,” says the LORD Almighty." Also Mal 4:4-5 "“Remember the law of my servant Moses, the decrees and laws I gave him at Horeb for all Israel. “See, I will send the prophet Elijah to you before that great and dreadful day of the LORD comes."" These predict of John the Baptist being the only one left to come before Jesus. Any books written between Malachi and Jesus coming couldn't have come from God.
Although some are historically accurate that doesn't mean that it should be in the Bible by that merit alone.
Some of the 'accepted' apocrypha are pretty legendary.
You cannot add to or remove from God's words. Read: divine punishment.
Anyways, I was pretty excited after reading the things he sent me and the fact is that the books in my Bible are universally accepted, so they were never under question anyway.
In other news: I played guitar for a bit today. I went to church. Only 7 people. Their songs are all filled with the gospel. So good. xP Despite the country feel because the worship leader used to play in a "fiddlin' band" with his brothers. C(?) is just filled with testimonies. Honestly you could sit there for hours and listen to how he has seen possesions and heard stories of people who have seen hell and returned or all these amazing stories of how the Spirit led him to someone and with tear-filled eyes they prayed to recieve Christ.
Ya. There are a couple clouds, but that's okay. Also, I think I see a fire. o.0
Goodnight!
=D.Fa
23.7.11
Assuming Today is Long
Hey! Right now I am super psyched about tonight!!!!!!!! Yesterday night was cloudy, but right now it is 100% clear!!! I can't wait until midnight!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Anyways, today, so far:
Sleep in until 10:30.
Wake up and eat the usual.
Talk to some of my East Asian friends.
Start planning the day ahead.
End up watching 4 or 5 episodes of 30Rock. (Which although I hated yesterday, today I'm addicted. >.> I have been over hearing bits and pieces of episodes for a couple days and it always sounded ridiculous, but I didn't know what it was. Then I found out it was 30Rock. I had never actually watched it, but I recall some people liking it and it being popular in general. Then I see that it is produced or created (or whatever it is) by Tina Fey and think 'ahhh. That explains it.' [lol] Anyways, you can only ignore it so long. Now I'm addicted. I don't think the name of the show really matches the subject matter though.)
Shave.
Finally set out on an adventure!!!
So, we are beside the river and there's this path that goes along it. I assumed it went all the way along in both directions. Not at all. lol. At the one end I found KC and AF sitting on a log with the same problem as I. It stopped there. Also, it was really really really windy. lol (I had planned to go out and find a nice quiet place to read along the river.) so we walked back and I went in the other direction. I had heard there was a beach in that other direction.
There is a beach, but it is pretty far away. The path along the river ended by the Northern and so I walked along the road. I took a bunch of pictures and looked at a bunch of plants and stuff. I was pretty excited. Just the smell in the air was amazing. The sun was shining and it was a cool day. I really like fall weather.
Anyways, exploring all the little beach-like things which were really too rocky to be a 'beach' I thought I might never find it.
I drew some footprints on the ground on the road. #EAPDebreif.
I found some 'wild' pea plants. flash back to bio class.
The beach was pretty cool. It was at the end of the road. lol. It was at a fork in the river. There were canoes scattered all along the river. The one on the beach had two anchors though. The sand is pretty cool. It's kinda got a layer of clay-like stuff under the surface. I almost slipped. The river really isn't that deep. I didn't go in it today (too cold), but you can see the brown muddy water near the coasts and there's only a little dark part in the middle of the river.
Goal: Cross the river by foot.
Anyways, it's almost night time!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Looking forward to it!
Breifly scanning the subheadings in my Bible the other day I thought 'why does David stay alive for 2 books while Soloman gets 12 chapters..? I don't understand.'
Ya. xP Ttyl after I see ALLLLLLLL The Stars!
=D.Fa
Anyways, today, so far:
Sleep in until 10:30.
Wake up and eat the usual.
Talk to some of my East Asian friends.
Start planning the day ahead.
End up watching 4 or 5 episodes of 30Rock. (Which although I hated yesterday, today I'm addicted. >.> I have been over hearing bits and pieces of episodes for a couple days and it always sounded ridiculous, but I didn't know what it was. Then I found out it was 30Rock. I had never actually watched it, but I recall some people liking it and it being popular in general. Then I see that it is produced or created (or whatever it is) by Tina Fey and think 'ahhh. That explains it.' [lol] Anyways, you can only ignore it so long. Now I'm addicted. I don't think the name of the show really matches the subject matter though.)
Shave.
Finally set out on an adventure!!!
So, we are beside the river and there's this path that goes along it. I assumed it went all the way along in both directions. Not at all. lol. At the one end I found KC and AF sitting on a log with the same problem as I. It stopped there. Also, it was really really really windy. lol (I had planned to go out and find a nice quiet place to read along the river.) so we walked back and I went in the other direction. I had heard there was a beach in that other direction.
There is a beach, but it is pretty far away. The path along the river ended by the Northern and so I walked along the road. I took a bunch of pictures and looked at a bunch of plants and stuff. I was pretty excited. Just the smell in the air was amazing. The sun was shining and it was a cool day. I really like fall weather.
Anyways, exploring all the little beach-like things which were really too rocky to be a 'beach' I thought I might never find it.
I drew some footprints on the ground on the road. #EAPDebreif.
I found some 'wild' pea plants. flash back to bio class.
The beach was pretty cool. It was at the end of the road. lol. It was at a fork in the river. There were canoes scattered all along the river. The one on the beach had two anchors though. The sand is pretty cool. It's kinda got a layer of clay-like stuff under the surface. I almost slipped. The river really isn't that deep. I didn't go in it today (too cold), but you can see the brown muddy water near the coasts and there's only a little dark part in the middle of the river.
Goal: Cross the river by foot.
Anyways, it's almost night time!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Looking forward to it!
Breifly scanning the subheadings in my Bible the other day I thought 'why does David stay alive for 2 books while Soloman gets 12 chapters..? I don't understand.'
Ya. xP Ttyl after I see ALLLLLLLL The Stars!
=D.Fa
22.7.11
Inexplicable Wonders
Hey guys!
Today to say the least, was hard. I'm a little burnt out and not as connected to God as I should be. I'm down, but now that it's the weekend I can really take time to rest in God's word and in time alone with Him. I am really hoping that it is warm and that there are no clouds tomorrow night. That would be the best.
I'm being really tempted and honestly, my coworkers here aren't really as much of a family as I wish they were, so I'm more on my own then I was in Asia or Ottawa. So, today when I got to Skype with MC and read her blog it was encouraging. Just seeing God's timing. 'No temptation has seized you except that which is comman to man. And God is faithful; He will not be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, He will provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.' 1 Cor 10:13
This was kinda my first real Skype. It was great to see her again after so long and just see her smile and happy attitude that she exudes. lol. I also got to read her blog and it's pretty great even though there are only a couple posts. They really are good posts. MC's awesome blog: Inexplicable.wonders!!!
I was really encouraged by her today.
One day last week, (lol), I thought the sentence 'girls are more hy-gene-ic' and I thought of her saying it. She may or may not have actually said it, but I can imagine her saying it in a hilarious semi-sarcastic tone with that smile on her face.
I miss my family.
Ttyl.
D.Fa
PS, my forehead, nose and ears are flaking. XP Sunburns are beautiful. (sarc)
Today to say the least, was hard. I'm a little burnt out and not as connected to God as I should be. I'm down, but now that it's the weekend I can really take time to rest in God's word and in time alone with Him. I am really hoping that it is warm and that there are no clouds tomorrow night. That would be the best.
I'm being really tempted and honestly, my coworkers here aren't really as much of a family as I wish they were, so I'm more on my own then I was in Asia or Ottawa. So, today when I got to Skype with MC and read her blog it was encouraging. Just seeing God's timing. 'No temptation has seized you except that which is comman to man. And God is faithful; He will not be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, He will provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.' 1 Cor 10:13
This was kinda my first real Skype. It was great to see her again after so long and just see her smile and happy attitude that she exudes. lol. I also got to read her blog and it's pretty great even though there are only a couple posts. They really are good posts. MC's awesome blog: Inexplicable.wonders!!!
I was really encouraged by her today.
One day last week, (lol), I thought the sentence 'girls are more hy-gene-ic' and I thought of her saying it. She may or may not have actually said it, but I can imagine her saying it in a hilarious semi-sarcastic tone with that smile on her face.
I miss my family.
Ttyl.
D.Fa
PS, my forehead, nose and ears are flaking. XP Sunburns are beautiful. (sarc)
21.7.11
I'm the 9th Strongest!
Hey!
How is everything? Today was long.
First, last night just after midnight as I was going to bed I glanced out my window and saw stars, so I went out briefly. It was pretty cold and there was a half moon, but you could see so many stars. I went back to go to sleep. I'm waiting for the new moon! =D
Then this morning at 5am. I glanced outside and the sky was on fire! Sunrises are pretty awesome sometimes! So, I went outside and took some pictures, came back and went to sleep.
I woke up at 8:12 after having a weird dream about Carleton and Algonquin College and a weird dollar store. I ended up praying for all the strangers walking into this building for like five minutes. Then I woke up. I am kinda taking this (in retrospect) as a message that I should be praying more. I am not praying much these last two days and it sucks. lol.
Then breakfast, morning camp with a couple fun nutritionally educative games (always the best! Tomorrow we are making pizzas!!!!! Can't wait!), lunch.
Then the afternoon's Summer Games! Today was the Strongest Person competition. It was a course with a weighted sled, medicine balls, tire flipping, weighted run, and wheel barrow pushing. All of which had varying levels of weight. The kids went one by one and me and MF went at the end. He beat me by 3 seconds. I joking said that we should have a rematch.
Fastforward through two boring hours.
Adult Summer Games time! Me and MF went to compete in the Summer Games! It was the same course, except on a larger scale. No sled, it was an ATV. No medicine balls, 5 gallon jugs of sand. The tires were HUGE. The weights were larger. The wheelbarrow was full. Looking at it I thought it looked hard. The person running it said that last year's best time was 2 minutes. >.< As if. Maybe 5 or 6 minutes for me. 4 minutes and 31 seconds later, I was done. Sweet! I beat my goal. Next was MF. 5 minutes 21 seconds. I was still in first place!! 4:03, 6:08, 3:47, 4:11, 4:22, 3:44, 3:34, 3:49, 3:36. Ninth place for me. Not bad considering I was the youngest. XP
The nutritionist tried for the strongest woman competition (a slightly scaled down version of the same thing). She did pretty well. She's kinda small and thin, so... lol. It was her birthday and we had a cake. It was so good. lol
I really haven't had dinner, but whatever. One more day and week three is done.
Gotta sleep.
Ttyl.
D.Fa
How is everything? Today was long.
First, last night just after midnight as I was going to bed I glanced out my window and saw stars, so I went out briefly. It was pretty cold and there was a half moon, but you could see so many stars. I went back to go to sleep. I'm waiting for the new moon! =D
Then this morning at 5am. I glanced outside and the sky was on fire! Sunrises are pretty awesome sometimes! So, I went outside and took some pictures, came back and went to sleep.
I woke up at 8:12 after having a weird dream about Carleton and Algonquin College and a weird dollar store. I ended up praying for all the strangers walking into this building for like five minutes. Then I woke up. I am kinda taking this (in retrospect) as a message that I should be praying more. I am not praying much these last two days and it sucks. lol.
Then breakfast, morning camp with a couple fun nutritionally educative games (always the best! Tomorrow we are making pizzas!!!!! Can't wait!), lunch.
Then the afternoon's Summer Games! Today was the Strongest Person competition. It was a course with a weighted sled, medicine balls, tire flipping, weighted run, and wheel barrow pushing. All of which had varying levels of weight. The kids went one by one and me and MF went at the end. He beat me by 3 seconds. I joking said that we should have a rematch.
Fastforward through two boring hours.
Adult Summer Games time! Me and MF went to compete in the Summer Games! It was the same course, except on a larger scale. No sled, it was an ATV. No medicine balls, 5 gallon jugs of sand. The tires were HUGE. The weights were larger. The wheelbarrow was full. Looking at it I thought it looked hard. The person running it said that last year's best time was 2 minutes. >.< As if. Maybe 5 or 6 minutes for me. 4 minutes and 31 seconds later, I was done. Sweet! I beat my goal. Next was MF. 5 minutes 21 seconds. I was still in first place!! 4:03, 6:08, 3:47, 4:11, 4:22, 3:44, 3:34, 3:49, 3:36. Ninth place for me. Not bad considering I was the youngest. XP
The nutritionist tried for the strongest woman competition (a slightly scaled down version of the same thing). She did pretty well. She's kinda small and thin, so... lol. It was her birthday and we had a cake. It was so good. lol
I really haven't had dinner, but whatever. One more day and week three is done.
Gotta sleep.
Ttyl.
D.Fa
20.7.11
The Gospel of John
Yo. Today was pretty interesting.
It started off slowly. Slept in until 8:05, but no problem. Got there on time. AS came a few minutes later. No kids as usual at 9, so me, M(?) and AS were talking outside for a while. Sharing the gospel and just talking with him. I gace him a New Testament because he didn't have one with him and he started reading a few chapters of John already. Sweet. We talked about my bracelet and then we got to the Knowing God Personally booklet. We got a couple points in and C(?) showed up and (he's pretty intense, I have learned today) shared a few testimonies and went through the sinner's prayer with him. It kinda felt forced though, so although C(?) was super psyched about AS accepting Jesus into his life, I'm not quite as sure. C(?) doesn't even know AS's name... >.> And he kept talking. A lot of really cool things, but we were kinda not done talking about the gospel and stuff... Either way, we ended up going inside with some kids.
Camp in the morning was pretty lax.
Lunch time! Time to finish up the booklet! Jesus died and on the third day rose again. AS didn't know about the ressurection, so we went to Luke! He thought it was pretty cool. =D It's pretty amazing, yo. Then GP popped in. lol. Talking about tattoos and stuff..? Time to go back to camp.
Summer games! Arm wrestling, leg wrestling and tug of war! Tournament style, double ellimination! I had the four twelve year-olds. Simple. They all won! As opposed to AC winning everything yesterday. >.> AS and GP came to say goodbye to us. They were just in town for a few days to teach First-Aid to some people in the town. Now they are off to Waskaganish to do the same. I gave AS the booklet. I also added him on facebook so we can stay in contact.
I really wish I had more time to talk with AS and help him come to know more fully about Jesus and what has been done for each of us. I wish I had more time to finish going through the booklet and pray with him. I wish I could do more in AS's life. I need more faith in what God has already done through me, through M(?), through GP, through his parents, through the word in his heart already and in all that God has planned for his future. Whether or not I am the one to help disciple him via facebook or skype or whatever, I know God is watching over him, God loves him, Jesus has died for him and made a personal relationship with God possible. I'm praying for him.
Anyways, camp ended a little early. Guess what? Porcupine #2 sighting!!! Kids like chucking rocks at slow moving animals. >.>
After we split and I was (with the original intention of researching Lamentations) reading about the deuterocanon on wikipedia. lol.
Later, me and M(?) went to a house church meeting. C(?) had told us about it and it was pretty cool. It was in English for the most part. They sang songs, had testimony time, took offering, had a scripture and a sermon type thingee. The thing that stuck out is the constant praying and 'Hallelujah's and 'Thank you Jesus's and 'Amen's. There were a total of 9 people in that room. Church is also on Sunday at 7pm. So, I'm looking forward to that. =D
Yep.
Ttyl.
D.Fa
PS. Chris Tomlin is everywhere!!!!! (Not him, his music.)
It started off slowly. Slept in until 8:05, but no problem. Got there on time. AS came a few minutes later. No kids as usual at 9, so me, M(?) and AS were talking outside for a while. Sharing the gospel and just talking with him. I gace him a New Testament because he didn't have one with him and he started reading a few chapters of John already. Sweet. We talked about my bracelet and then we got to the Knowing God Personally booklet. We got a couple points in and C(?) showed up and (he's pretty intense, I have learned today) shared a few testimonies and went through the sinner's prayer with him. It kinda felt forced though, so although C(?) was super psyched about AS accepting Jesus into his life, I'm not quite as sure. C(?) doesn't even know AS's name... >.> And he kept talking. A lot of really cool things, but we were kinda not done talking about the gospel and stuff... Either way, we ended up going inside with some kids.
Camp in the morning was pretty lax.
Lunch time! Time to finish up the booklet! Jesus died and on the third day rose again. AS didn't know about the ressurection, so we went to Luke! He thought it was pretty cool. =D It's pretty amazing, yo. Then GP popped in. lol. Talking about tattoos and stuff..? Time to go back to camp.
Summer games! Arm wrestling, leg wrestling and tug of war! Tournament style, double ellimination! I had the four twelve year-olds. Simple. They all won! As opposed to AC winning everything yesterday. >.> AS and GP came to say goodbye to us. They were just in town for a few days to teach First-Aid to some people in the town. Now they are off to Waskaganish to do the same. I gave AS the booklet. I also added him on facebook so we can stay in contact.
I really wish I had more time to talk with AS and help him come to know more fully about Jesus and what has been done for each of us. I wish I had more time to finish going through the booklet and pray with him. I wish I could do more in AS's life. I need more faith in what God has already done through me, through M(?), through GP, through his parents, through the word in his heart already and in all that God has planned for his future. Whether or not I am the one to help disciple him via facebook or skype or whatever, I know God is watching over him, God loves him, Jesus has died for him and made a personal relationship with God possible. I'm praying for him.
Anyways, camp ended a little early. Guess what? Porcupine #2 sighting!!! Kids like chucking rocks at slow moving animals. >.>
After we split and I was (with the original intention of researching Lamentations) reading about the deuterocanon on wikipedia. lol.
Later, me and M(?) went to a house church meeting. C(?) had told us about it and it was pretty cool. It was in English for the most part. They sang songs, had testimony time, took offering, had a scripture and a sermon type thingee. The thing that stuck out is the constant praying and 'Hallelujah's and 'Thank you Jesus's and 'Amen's. There were a total of 9 people in that room. Church is also on Sunday at 7pm. So, I'm looking forward to that. =D
Yep.
Ttyl.
D.Fa
PS. Chris Tomlin is everywhere!!!!! (Not him, his music.)
19.7.11
Long Days
It was another really long one. I just can't seem to wake up before 7:30 though... >.>
I have been saving time on breakfast recently by cooking the same thing every morning! =D lol. The same pot of oatmeal, pan of scrambled eggs with assorted veggies and toast with or without jam! The best part is that I only make a bowl of veggies every other day, so tomorrow I can wake up and start cooking immediately with no veggie prep work! =D
Us guys are actually running our of food though. lol. The girls eat so much less apparently. Or maybe they just eat different things..? Hmmm......
Anyways, slow morning. An hour of just sitting waiting for people. Then at 10 we started playing with the 6 or 7 kids that were there so far. Today we had some colouring for the nutritionist's time. We learned about healthy breakfases (protien, grains and fruit) and we coloured on what would become place mats with a picture of a plate with portions of veggies, starch, and protien in good ratios.
Lunch!
After was more of the Summer Games! Today was bike races and ball throwing! For ball throw it was just throwing a softball as far as you could. Then there was 200m bike race, biathalon (200m bike and 100m running) and triathalon (400m bike, 100m run, 200m bike). I was in charge of the six 12 year olds. This one guy won all four events. There are actually prizes for people winning. 20$ 1st, 10$ 2nd and 5$ for 3rd. So that one kid in a couple hours won 80$ for just biking, running and throwing competing only against 5 other kids.
After that was the big event: Moving! We had to move all the food and supplies and water jugs and all the stuff in te house that is of any use (I took the muffin tin for egg tarts!!!!) and move it three houses down. The movers moved a pile of furniture (all new) and then made it in the new house. Their new house is right beside ours, but its kinda smelly and weird. lol. I love my house now that we have furniture. I like moving. xP. Today I took it as training. Weight trainign with the water jugs and soup cans. Cardio running back and forth. Balance with the bag of glasses (kinda joking). You know, I want really ripped fore arms. lol. and abs.
Anyways, I came back for supper after cleaning the old house (the reason they only moved into the house today was because it was a mess, so I didn't want to have the same thing happen, plus I think it's rude to leave a house messy). Then I went out to the playground. The evening program has been cancelled because we'll (eventually) be playing softball with the youth anyways, but I don't really care. I'm here to speak to the children and I never really get a good one-on-one time, so the evenings are awesome.
Tonight when I got to the playground there were six girls and they were swinging (I'm sick of swinging) then we played monster tag, more swinging, then I quit. lol. In that time a bunch of other kids had shown up too. This time is also good for introducing yourself to new kids and getting them to come out to camp too! I ended up talking to a few of them about Jesus, Heaven, Hell, God, Prayer and stuff for a good while. Apparently they learn a bit about Jesus in grade one, on girl has 'The Passion of the Christ' at home, and ya, I love talking to these kids about Jesus. It's not even me telling them all that much that directly. It's me asking if they know some stuff and they know enough to let the conversation guide itself into more spirtual topics.
I was there for two and a half hours. Good times.
I had heard something like tomorrow (Wednesday) there is a sweat lodge thing and that there is a house church meeting..? Let's see what happens.
God I thank you for this evening even with the bugs. I pray that the things you had me say are really resonating in the hearts of the kids that heard them and that you are watching over them always. Lord, water the seeds already planted and grow these kids up into great people that know you and all you have done for them.
Word.
D.Fa
I have been saving time on breakfast recently by cooking the same thing every morning! =D lol. The same pot of oatmeal, pan of scrambled eggs with assorted veggies and toast with or without jam! The best part is that I only make a bowl of veggies every other day, so tomorrow I can wake up and start cooking immediately with no veggie prep work! =D
Us guys are actually running our of food though. lol. The girls eat so much less apparently. Or maybe they just eat different things..? Hmmm......
Anyways, slow morning. An hour of just sitting waiting for people. Then at 10 we started playing with the 6 or 7 kids that were there so far. Today we had some colouring for the nutritionist's time. We learned about healthy breakfases (protien, grains and fruit) and we coloured on what would become place mats with a picture of a plate with portions of veggies, starch, and protien in good ratios.
Lunch!
After was more of the Summer Games! Today was bike races and ball throwing! For ball throw it was just throwing a softball as far as you could. Then there was 200m bike race, biathalon (200m bike and 100m running) and triathalon (400m bike, 100m run, 200m bike). I was in charge of the six 12 year olds. This one guy won all four events. There are actually prizes for people winning. 20$ 1st, 10$ 2nd and 5$ for 3rd. So that one kid in a couple hours won 80$ for just biking, running and throwing competing only against 5 other kids.
After that was the big event: Moving! We had to move all the food and supplies and water jugs and all the stuff in te house that is of any use (I took the muffin tin for egg tarts!!!!) and move it three houses down. The movers moved a pile of furniture (all new) and then made it in the new house. Their new house is right beside ours, but its kinda smelly and weird. lol. I love my house now that we have furniture. I like moving. xP. Today I took it as training. Weight trainign with the water jugs and soup cans. Cardio running back and forth. Balance with the bag of glasses (kinda joking). You know, I want really ripped fore arms. lol. and abs.
Anyways, I came back for supper after cleaning the old house (the reason they only moved into the house today was because it was a mess, so I didn't want to have the same thing happen, plus I think it's rude to leave a house messy). Then I went out to the playground. The evening program has been cancelled because we'll (eventually) be playing softball with the youth anyways, but I don't really care. I'm here to speak to the children and I never really get a good one-on-one time, so the evenings are awesome.
Tonight when I got to the playground there were six girls and they were swinging (I'm sick of swinging) then we played monster tag, more swinging, then I quit. lol. In that time a bunch of other kids had shown up too. This time is also good for introducing yourself to new kids and getting them to come out to camp too! I ended up talking to a few of them about Jesus, Heaven, Hell, God, Prayer and stuff for a good while. Apparently they learn a bit about Jesus in grade one, on girl has 'The Passion of the Christ' at home, and ya, I love talking to these kids about Jesus. It's not even me telling them all that much that directly. It's me asking if they know some stuff and they know enough to let the conversation guide itself into more spirtual topics.
I was there for two and a half hours. Good times.
I had heard something like tomorrow (Wednesday) there is a sweat lodge thing and that there is a house church meeting..? Let's see what happens.
God I thank you for this evening even with the bugs. I pray that the things you had me say are really resonating in the hearts of the kids that heard them and that you are watching over them always. Lord, water the seeds already planted and grow these kids up into great people that know you and all you have done for them.
Word.
D.Fa
18.7.11
A Day of Running
Yo!
This week is the East Main Summer Games! Exciting!!!! Not too much. lol. We get to help out with the children's events which is from 1-5pm, so basically camp hours with every kid and a couple extra. Today was track and feild events, so 50, 100, 200, 400, 800m and long jump. lol. So much fun. (sarc) lol. Just them running around the baseball diamond for 3 hours..? >.> A lot of yelling and encouraging them. M(?)'s voice is lower now.
Anyways, they all ran for a while, then we were done. On another day I had picked up all the garbage around the diamond and players' benches and audience stands and put it in the garbage can. It was all still in the can when we got there, but there was also a lot more... So I emptied it and picked it all up. Another full can. >.> So I emptied it after the games and I ended up picking up some garbage around our trailers with a few kids. It's so much easier when you have 6 extra hands.
So that was fun. Then there was the wasted number of hours waiting for this softball game that never happened because of scheduling..? I watched a lot of Bleach and played pokemon. I also washed the girls' dishes for them. They were supposed to move today, but it has been moved to tomorrow. I wanted to help however I could.
Also, this guy that we saw at church the other day who also lives in a trailer just a couple over from ours came over to talk with us, see if we needed anything, just introduce ourselves, you know. He's pretty awesome. He works with the traping association or something and has been in Northern Quebec for almost 40 years. He hopes to retire within a year and is trying to tie up loose ends. He apparently has a bit of a library in his house and offered it's usage to us as well as some sugar or whatever we needed. Nice guy.
Umm. We were so pumped for softball. xP... My butt and back hurt from hiphop abs yesterday. >.> The rest of the counselors haven't really played very much before. Whatever, it's for fun and we have AC the 12 year old MVP on our team! =D
It'll be good.
Ttyl.
D.Fa
Also, I was looking for something the other day in my blog archives and started labeling some posts again. It's good to look back on what has happened. I stopped labeling around January, so, lol, it's far enough away that I've forgotten a bunch. It's sweet. I just read a post about my wanting to go to East Asia.
Also also, we had our first cooking class today! Parfaits! Cut up some bananas and peaches. Crushed some cereal in a bag and put it together with yogurt in a cup. lol. Delish.
This week is the East Main Summer Games! Exciting!!!! Not too much. lol. We get to help out with the children's events which is from 1-5pm, so basically camp hours with every kid and a couple extra. Today was track and feild events, so 50, 100, 200, 400, 800m and long jump. lol. So much fun. (sarc) lol. Just them running around the baseball diamond for 3 hours..? >.> A lot of yelling and encouraging them. M(?)'s voice is lower now.
Anyways, they all ran for a while, then we were done. On another day I had picked up all the garbage around the diamond and players' benches and audience stands and put it in the garbage can. It was all still in the can when we got there, but there was also a lot more... So I emptied it and picked it all up. Another full can. >.> So I emptied it after the games and I ended up picking up some garbage around our trailers with a few kids. It's so much easier when you have 6 extra hands.
So that was fun. Then there was the wasted number of hours waiting for this softball game that never happened because of scheduling..? I watched a lot of Bleach and played pokemon. I also washed the girls' dishes for them. They were supposed to move today, but it has been moved to tomorrow. I wanted to help however I could.
Also, this guy that we saw at church the other day who also lives in a trailer just a couple over from ours came over to talk with us, see if we needed anything, just introduce ourselves, you know. He's pretty awesome. He works with the traping association or something and has been in Northern Quebec for almost 40 years. He hopes to retire within a year and is trying to tie up loose ends. He apparently has a bit of a library in his house and offered it's usage to us as well as some sugar or whatever we needed. Nice guy.
Umm. We were so pumped for softball. xP... My butt and back hurt from hiphop abs yesterday. >.> The rest of the counselors haven't really played very much before. Whatever, it's for fun and we have AC the 12 year old MVP on our team! =D
It'll be good.
Ttyl.
D.Fa
Also, I was looking for something the other day in my blog archives and started labeling some posts again. It's good to look back on what has happened. I stopped labeling around January, so, lol, it's far enough away that I've forgotten a bunch. It's sweet. I just read a post about my wanting to go to East Asia.
Also also, we had our first cooking class today! Parfaits! Cut up some bananas and peaches. Crushed some cereal in a bag and put it together with yogurt in a cup. lol. Delish.
17.7.11
Some Sundays
Hey!
So, another Sunday has passed and little has been accomplished again. However, it seems like this weekend was really long. Our house has become a home. lol. I am sitting at the kitchen table after having cleaned the kitchen with M(?). It's nice.
Today was mainly church, but other then that me and M(?) did another work out, I read Lamentations, I played pokemon, the guys (mostly me, although WCF helped cut some potatoes and M(?) cooked the guys' steaks) cooked a meal for the girls and invited them over (I love cooking. lol)(we had steaks with a mushroom sauce and mashed potatoes (although our masher broke. lol))(I love brackets, eh?), and we watched 'Unknown' together at the girls' house (they are moving tomorrow, so they will be in the house right beside ours.(They were just temporarily in another one because the previous owners of the one they will be staying in kinda trashed the place. >.>)).
My hands smell like onions. =D
Anyways, the bulk of this post is about my musings while reading the Bible today.
This morning I was reading Proverbs 29 and a few verses stuck out to me as pertaining to my current dilemma of having to discipline the children when they misbehave. I don't like being the bad guy. >.> But sometimes they just don't listen to reason. They squirm and won't calm down and see the problem for what it is. Anyways, verses 15, 17, 19, and 21: "The rod of correction imparts wisdom, but a child left to himself disgraces his mother. ... Discipline your son, and he will give you peace; he will bring delight to your soul. ... A servant cannot be corrected by words; though he understands he will not respond. ... If a man pampers his servant from youth, he will bring greif in the end." Not that they are our kids, or servants, but I assume these all apply. lol.
Correction is necessary and doing it sooner rather than later is obviously the better way for it to be done rather than letting it grow into a habit that is much harder to change. If they are corrected now and actually get it, it will pay off so much in the next four weeks, in the rest of their childhood, in the rest of their lives.
Secondly, while reading Lamentations I thought 'man, this is depressing. >.>' Then there were a few hopeful verses. lol.
Lam 3:22-25, 31-32
"Because of the Lord's great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. I say to myself, "the Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for him." The Lord is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him. ... For men are not cast off by the Lord forever. Though he brings greif, he will show compassion, so great is his unfailing love."
I hope to in the near future look online for something that will help me understand Lamentations a bit more. I figure it is a short book, so it won't take that long to at least gain some insight as to what it means because all I got from it was a lot of depressing imagery. The one sentence summary in the back of my Bible says "All Jeremiah's warnings about Jerusalem come true, and Lamentations records five poems of sorrow for the fallen city." Everything in the Bible was put there for a reason and was inspired by God, so there must be something more then just sad imagery. >.>
Anyways, I look forward to the week ahead.
Ttyl.
D.Fa
PS, I haven't told you about the three crows yet have I? There are three crows in the town and they have the worst sounding 'Caw's. They sound so fake, as if someone is trying to impersonate a crow... They fly around (especially at morning) near my house and they drive me insane. Also they are all very large birds. >.>
So, another Sunday has passed and little has been accomplished again. However, it seems like this weekend was really long. Our house has become a home. lol. I am sitting at the kitchen table after having cleaned the kitchen with M(?). It's nice.
Today was mainly church, but other then that me and M(?) did another work out, I read Lamentations, I played pokemon, the guys (mostly me, although WCF helped cut some potatoes and M(?) cooked the guys' steaks) cooked a meal for the girls and invited them over (I love cooking. lol)(we had steaks with a mushroom sauce and mashed potatoes (although our masher broke. lol))(I love brackets, eh?), and we watched 'Unknown' together at the girls' house (they are moving tomorrow, so they will be in the house right beside ours.(They were just temporarily in another one because the previous owners of the one they will be staying in kinda trashed the place. >.>)).
My hands smell like onions. =D
Anyways, the bulk of this post is about my musings while reading the Bible today.
This morning I was reading Proverbs 29 and a few verses stuck out to me as pertaining to my current dilemma of having to discipline the children when they misbehave. I don't like being the bad guy. >.> But sometimes they just don't listen to reason. They squirm and won't calm down and see the problem for what it is. Anyways, verses 15, 17, 19, and 21: "The rod of correction imparts wisdom, but a child left to himself disgraces his mother. ... Discipline your son, and he will give you peace; he will bring delight to your soul. ... A servant cannot be corrected by words; though he understands he will not respond. ... If a man pampers his servant from youth, he will bring greif in the end." Not that they are our kids, or servants, but I assume these all apply. lol.
Correction is necessary and doing it sooner rather than later is obviously the better way for it to be done rather than letting it grow into a habit that is much harder to change. If they are corrected now and actually get it, it will pay off so much in the next four weeks, in the rest of their childhood, in the rest of their lives.
Secondly, while reading Lamentations I thought 'man, this is depressing. >.>' Then there were a few hopeful verses. lol.
Lam 3:22-25, 31-32
"Because of the Lord's great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. I say to myself, "the Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for him." The Lord is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him. ... For men are not cast off by the Lord forever. Though he brings greif, he will show compassion, so great is his unfailing love."
I hope to in the near future look online for something that will help me understand Lamentations a bit more. I figure it is a short book, so it won't take that long to at least gain some insight as to what it means because all I got from it was a lot of depressing imagery. The one sentence summary in the back of my Bible says "All Jeremiah's warnings about Jerusalem come true, and Lamentations records five poems of sorrow for the fallen city." Everything in the Bible was put there for a reason and was inspired by God, so there must be something more then just sad imagery. >.>
Anyways, I look forward to the week ahead.
Ttyl.
D.Fa
PS, I haven't told you about the three crows yet have I? There are three crows in the town and they have the worst sounding 'Caw's. They sound so fake, as if someone is trying to impersonate a crow... They fly around (especially at morning) near my house and they drive me insane. Also they are all very large birds. >.>
My Second** Church Service
Hey!
So, my first time in a Church service was at OCBC and I have been going there ever since, so I actually haven't been to any other congregations to worship with them. I've been to other youth fellowships and I've been to other churches, but never for a service.
Today me and M(?) went to the church building here in East Main. It's called St. Mark and it's a bit bigger then our house. There are pews and everything. There arre children's drawings on the walls. There's a stained glass of the last supper. The congregation was kinda small and kinda old, but that doesn't really matter. The only real problem was that it was 98% in Cree. So I didn't get much of it. >.> It also seems that they are kinda religious in their worship. They seem kinda Catholic. There wasn't really a sermon. They read a bunch of prayers from a book. They sang a few songs (one of them was 'Jesus Paid IT All'). They had communion with real wine.
It was interesting. I payed attention in case there ever was enough English that I could follow along, but really, I didn't understand. They read Eph 2:11-22 and Mark 6:30-34. I don't really know why though.
They never really greeted each other or us. When everyone left they shook hands with the three pastor people (there were three people that talked at the front and wore robes).
A service is just a service. In itself going to church services isn't that important. What is important is fellowship and communion with God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit and other brothers and sisters in Christ; being always in close relationship with God.
So, M(?) said he'd ask this other guy if there were any house churches or anything because I'm pretty sure we won't be going back there because we didn't understand and couldn't really participate. So, I hope we can find and encourage another church.
Ttyl.
D.Fa
[Edit: **I forgot that I have been to one other church service before at the First Evangelical Free Church in Brooklyn, but it was very very similar to OCBC. There was some American topics in the sermon. A white pastor. The same songs we sing. Food and fellowship afterwards. Very similar. Eerily similar. =D]
So, my first time in a Church service was at OCBC and I have been going there ever since, so I actually haven't been to any other congregations to worship with them. I've been to other youth fellowships and I've been to other churches, but never for a service.
Today me and M(?) went to the church building here in East Main. It's called St. Mark and it's a bit bigger then our house. There are pews and everything. There arre children's drawings on the walls. There's a stained glass of the last supper. The congregation was kinda small and kinda old, but that doesn't really matter. The only real problem was that it was 98% in Cree. So I didn't get much of it. >.> It also seems that they are kinda religious in their worship. They seem kinda Catholic. There wasn't really a sermon. They read a bunch of prayers from a book. They sang a few songs (one of them was 'Jesus Paid IT All'). They had communion with real wine.
It was interesting. I payed attention in case there ever was enough English that I could follow along, but really, I didn't understand. They read Eph 2:11-22 and Mark 6:30-34. I don't really know why though.
They never really greeted each other or us. When everyone left they shook hands with the three pastor people (there were three people that talked at the front and wore robes).
A service is just a service. In itself going to church services isn't that important. What is important is fellowship and communion with God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit and other brothers and sisters in Christ; being always in close relationship with God.
So, M(?) said he'd ask this other guy if there were any house churches or anything because I'm pretty sure we won't be going back there because we didn't understand and couldn't really participate. So, I hope we can find and encourage another church.
Ttyl.
D.Fa
[Edit: **I forgot that I have been to one other church service before at the First Evangelical Free Church in Brooklyn, but it was very very similar to OCBC. There was some American topics in the sermon. A white pastor. The same songs we sing. Food and fellowship afterwards. Very similar. Eerily similar. =D]
16.7.11
The carpenter, the chef and the leader.
Heyo!
What's up? I stayed up until almost 3 last night. Around 12 I started talking to one of my East Asian friends and I ended up proofreading a speech, listening to one of his covers of English pop songs, and just talking about some stuff. While waiting for his responses I was also playing Pokemon. lol.
After that I was getting really tired, but I went outside instead and looked at the stars. It was a nice night but it was a little cloudy and there was a full moon (kinda bad stargazing conditions) but it was really nice. There were only a few bugs and it was pretty warm. I walked over to the river and there's this seat. I sat there and prayed for like half an hour. I could hear howling. I prayed for my family and the kids and for that night. Among other things I prayed that one day there would be a night with no clouds, a new moon and Northern lights. So that I can see the northern lights, and so I can see all the stars and God's amazing creation again.
When I went to bed there was this one mosquito that kept flying by my ear. It drove me insane. lol. I woke up at 6... The light from my window kept waking me up. It's a Saturday I can sleep in right? >.> Grudgingly I woke up at 10. I had already played Pokemon for the day, so there was nothing to do. I watched some Bleach. I answered some emails. I was bored. So, looking at the pile of boxes in the kitchen that were to become our furniture, I decided to open up the boxes.
Three hours later we have 6 chairs, a massive table (made in Malaysia), and two new dressers. That sounds pretty bad... >.> I watched an episode of bleach while making them. There were no instructions in the first box of chairs. Also, no screw driver. >.>
Just as I'm finishing the last two chairs and we move the boxes we get two guests at our door. They are here for a few days to do First Aid courses with the towns people. We met back in the training. He gave us our first aid training. The other person was his assistant, a fourteen year old boy. They apparently live together. He's a little bit weird. lol, but I like him. He really likes dance music, has Dr. Dre beats, a blackberry, an iPod touch, a Mohawk that is bigger than mine, a laptop, and he's kinda got a 'girlfriend'..? I didn't hear it all but apparently she has a kid or two and at a camp she was flirting with him and they fooled around, but didn't do it..? I was a little shocked, at both of them. He's a bit young and she's a bit committed and flirting with a fourteen year-old..? He apparently used to go to church and thought it was cool, but doesn't now. I'll be praying for him.
Ya, we had dinner with our guests on our new table.
Today I read most of another chapter in the Parables book. Today's chapter was about 'trouble for the establishment'. There was the parable about the rich man and Lazarus Luke 16:19-31. Lazarus was a poor man who lay at the gate of the rich man. He had sores and longed to eat the scraps that fell from the rich man's table. The rich man never did anything for Lazarus and lived in luxury everyday. They both died. Lazarus was carried by angels to Abraham's side while the rich man went to hell. In this parable the rich man tries to reason with Abraham and allow Lazarus to dip his finger in water and bring it to him, but there was a great chasm between them so that no one could cross over from one side to the other. So the rich man asks for Lazarus to be revived and go warn the rich man's brothers to save them from the same fate. "They have Moses and the Prophets; let them listen to them". The rich man insists that if Lazarus returned from the dead they would repent. "if they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead."
The Pharisees had the Old Testament and all the prophesies pointing to Jesus' coming, but they still didn't accept Him.
I remember my mom telling me that the Old Testament is important too when I was focusing on the New Testament too much. Now that I've read a lot of it, I see how great it is as a whole. All the prophets and Psalms pointing to Jesus, all the great figures as types with their own failures that also point to Jesus in their parallels. Even Jonah pointing to the death and resurrection. Matthew 12:40 'For as Jonah three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the Earth.'
Then when I read Luke 24:27 'And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself'. I read that and was like 'man, I wish I was those guys. Jesus explained EVERY single reference to himself in the Old Testament. That's insane. If I even saw half of it when I read I'd be in awe.
The New Testament means so much more with an Old Testament background.
Ya. I'm looking forward to church tomorrow morning. Hopefully we get the right time this time around.
Ttyl.
=D.Fa
What's up? I stayed up until almost 3 last night. Around 12 I started talking to one of my East Asian friends and I ended up proofreading a speech, listening to one of his covers of English pop songs, and just talking about some stuff. While waiting for his responses I was also playing Pokemon. lol.
After that I was getting really tired, but I went outside instead and looked at the stars. It was a nice night but it was a little cloudy and there was a full moon (kinda bad stargazing conditions) but it was really nice. There were only a few bugs and it was pretty warm. I walked over to the river and there's this seat. I sat there and prayed for like half an hour. I could hear howling. I prayed for my family and the kids and for that night. Among other things I prayed that one day there would be a night with no clouds, a new moon and Northern lights. So that I can see the northern lights, and so I can see all the stars and God's amazing creation again.
When I went to bed there was this one mosquito that kept flying by my ear. It drove me insane. lol. I woke up at 6... The light from my window kept waking me up. It's a Saturday I can sleep in right? >.> Grudgingly I woke up at 10. I had already played Pokemon for the day, so there was nothing to do. I watched some Bleach. I answered some emails. I was bored. So, looking at the pile of boxes in the kitchen that were to become our furniture, I decided to open up the boxes.
Three hours later we have 6 chairs, a massive table (made in Malaysia), and two new dressers. That sounds pretty bad... >.> I watched an episode of bleach while making them. There were no instructions in the first box of chairs. Also, no screw driver. >.>
Just as I'm finishing the last two chairs and we move the boxes we get two guests at our door. They are here for a few days to do First Aid courses with the towns people. We met back in the training. He gave us our first aid training. The other person was his assistant, a fourteen year old boy. They apparently live together. He's a little bit weird. lol, but I like him. He really likes dance music, has Dr. Dre beats, a blackberry, an iPod touch, a Mohawk that is bigger than mine, a laptop, and he's kinda got a 'girlfriend'..? I didn't hear it all but apparently she has a kid or two and at a camp she was flirting with him and they fooled around, but didn't do it..? I was a little shocked, at both of them. He's a bit young and she's a bit committed and flirting with a fourteen year-old..? He apparently used to go to church and thought it was cool, but doesn't now. I'll be praying for him.
Ya, we had dinner with our guests on our new table.
Today I read most of another chapter in the Parables book. Today's chapter was about 'trouble for the establishment'. There was the parable about the rich man and Lazarus Luke 16:19-31. Lazarus was a poor man who lay at the gate of the rich man. He had sores and longed to eat the scraps that fell from the rich man's table. The rich man never did anything for Lazarus and lived in luxury everyday. They both died. Lazarus was carried by angels to Abraham's side while the rich man went to hell. In this parable the rich man tries to reason with Abraham and allow Lazarus to dip his finger in water and bring it to him, but there was a great chasm between them so that no one could cross over from one side to the other. So the rich man asks for Lazarus to be revived and go warn the rich man's brothers to save them from the same fate. "They have Moses and the Prophets; let them listen to them". The rich man insists that if Lazarus returned from the dead they would repent. "if they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead."
The Pharisees had the Old Testament and all the prophesies pointing to Jesus' coming, but they still didn't accept Him.
I remember my mom telling me that the Old Testament is important too when I was focusing on the New Testament too much. Now that I've read a lot of it, I see how great it is as a whole. All the prophets and Psalms pointing to Jesus, all the great figures as types with their own failures that also point to Jesus in their parallels. Even Jonah pointing to the death and resurrection. Matthew 12:40 'For as Jonah three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the Earth.'
Then when I read Luke 24:27 'And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself'. I read that and was like 'man, I wish I was those guys. Jesus explained EVERY single reference to himself in the Old Testament. That's insane. If I even saw half of it when I read I'd be in awe.
The New Testament means so much more with an Old Testament background.
Ya. I'm looking forward to church tomorrow morning. Hopefully we get the right time this time around.
Ttyl.
=D.Fa
15.7.11
Week Two, Finished.
Hey! What's happening? Not much. Another slow night relaxing on our own in our rooms (which of course for me does not mean in my room. lol. I just noticed that I have taken over the living room.) on our laptops or whatever.
Today was good for the most part. The wedding in Val D'or was today so we only had about 15 kids in both the morning and the afternoon. We also have seven of us now that 'the nutritionist' has joined us. We don't know how to spell her name. lol. She's French. It's probably J(?), but maybe G(?)..? She's here for two weeks to teach the kids about nutrition and cooking or something like that. It should be good. Today we played a game where you had to sort the pictures of food into the four food groups. But it wasn't that simple it was a team relay race! Whoa! My team didn't end up with any Dairy products. lol...
It's weird having an extra member suddenly. Even the kids didn't get it. Like when we said there were seven of us, they were like 'No, there's six!' and CMS said she looked like ER (basically because they are both white girls. lol AF and K(B?) keep getting mixed up too because they are both black girls. lol.). Also today when she was wearing a red shirt like the rest of us it threw me off too. lol.
Anyways, today was good. I realized it was sinful to be treating the kids differently if they are a little bit more annoying consistently. lol... I went and apoligized to him. He likes teasing people (for no reason during a game), he's a bit more physical then some people, he's always climbing on something, he is loud, he doesn't like to be the zombie so he makes up new rules so only I am the zombie (which is really boring if you are the only zombie). Ya, I have been giving him less pushes and trying to get him to come to the morning program instead because he should be, but chose the afternoon instead because we kept saying 5-8 and 8-12 instead of 9-12, but we did say only one of the two times, not both, so... he chose the afternoon. I've also been making up rules so that he can't ride my back or anything.
I've been playing favourites a bit. I really like D(?) and M(?) and M(?) and any three year-old and C(?). They are all very nice kids that are a bit quieter, a bit more outside the group, very cute, awesome kids, but all the other kids are all awesome too and I kinda have been spoiling M(?) and M(?) and D(?)... lol.... All the kids are special in God's sight. He loves them unconditionally.
I tried giving a kid a time-out and he would not calm down. WCF took over for me. I went and prayed about it because I felt I should and because I didn't want to go outside to where everyone else was. My burn is pretty bad. lol... I kinda have a rash so I've been avoiding the sun a bit. After I prayed for the kid on time-out and WCF who was dealing with him I went through the 'Satisfied?' booklet. It's basically the Birdy booklet about the Holy Spirit. I've been carrying it and the Knowing God Personally booklet around in my pocket because I haven't been bringing my backpack with me anywhere. (The other day when I was playing fast pitch softball and was emptying my pockets I said I carried a lot. M(?) asked if I carried 'a win'. I laughed thinking that the KGP booklet is kinda a win waiting to be won.)
Ya. Other then that one thing today was awesome.
I just spent a lot of time chopping up oats. Did I ever tell you I love oats now. lol. I also just realized that if I wanted to I could just go buy some flour... >.>
I wonder what the weekend will hold?
Ttyl.
D.Fa
Today was good for the most part. The wedding in Val D'or was today so we only had about 15 kids in both the morning and the afternoon. We also have seven of us now that 'the nutritionist' has joined us. We don't know how to spell her name. lol. She's French. It's probably J(?), but maybe G(?)..? She's here for two weeks to teach the kids about nutrition and cooking or something like that. It should be good. Today we played a game where you had to sort the pictures of food into the four food groups. But it wasn't that simple it was a team relay race! Whoa! My team didn't end up with any Dairy products. lol...
It's weird having an extra member suddenly. Even the kids didn't get it. Like when we said there were seven of us, they were like 'No, there's six!' and CMS said she looked like ER (basically because they are both white girls. lol AF and K(B?) keep getting mixed up too because they are both black girls. lol.). Also today when she was wearing a red shirt like the rest of us it threw me off too. lol.
Anyways, today was good. I realized it was sinful to be treating the kids differently if they are a little bit more annoying consistently. lol... I went and apoligized to him. He likes teasing people (for no reason during a game), he's a bit more physical then some people, he's always climbing on something, he is loud, he doesn't like to be the zombie so he makes up new rules so only I am the zombie (which is really boring if you are the only zombie). Ya, I have been giving him less pushes and trying to get him to come to the morning program instead because he should be, but chose the afternoon instead because we kept saying 5-8 and 8-12 instead of 9-12, but we did say only one of the two times, not both, so... he chose the afternoon. I've also been making up rules so that he can't ride my back or anything.
I've been playing favourites a bit. I really like D(?) and M(?) and M(?) and any three year-old and C(?). They are all very nice kids that are a bit quieter, a bit more outside the group, very cute, awesome kids, but all the other kids are all awesome too and I kinda have been spoiling M(?) and M(?) and D(?)... lol.... All the kids are special in God's sight. He loves them unconditionally.
I tried giving a kid a time-out and he would not calm down. WCF took over for me. I went and prayed about it because I felt I should and because I didn't want to go outside to where everyone else was. My burn is pretty bad. lol... I kinda have a rash so I've been avoiding the sun a bit. After I prayed for the kid on time-out and WCF who was dealing with him I went through the 'Satisfied?' booklet. It's basically the Birdy booklet about the Holy Spirit. I've been carrying it and the Knowing God Personally booklet around in my pocket because I haven't been bringing my backpack with me anywhere. (The other day when I was playing fast pitch softball and was emptying my pockets I said I carried a lot. M(?) asked if I carried 'a win'. I laughed thinking that the KGP booklet is kinda a win waiting to be won.)
Ya. Other then that one thing today was awesome.
I just spent a lot of time chopping up oats. Did I ever tell you I love oats now. lol. I also just realized that if I wanted to I could just go buy some flour... >.>
I wonder what the weekend will hold?
Ttyl.
D.Fa
14.7.11
Cold Oatmeal.
These days are so long,
yet this week is already gone.
Three-year-olds sure are cute,
but their words really don't compute.
I've found three is the youngest you can be to high-five,
but there is no maximum age, as long as you're alive.
My lunch went late because of a friend,
in Taiwan? Whatever, Google chat til the end!
All the kids really enjoy my tan,
they make me like a farming man.
Grilled cheese is delicious,
is tomato soup nutritious?
I'm not a very good poet.
Especially when I'm trying really hard. lol
I heard that there was a heat wave coming this weekend. Also, there is a wedding in Val D'Or (the best place in the world apparently because there is a Walmart and a McDonalds and a pool) tomorrow, so a lot of kids were gone today.
I've been thinking of things I can cook with the ingredients I have here and I keep thinking about Asian things I've eaten. I just thought, 'what next? Kung Pow Chicken?' LOL... Not happening. The fact that we don't have flour right now is kind of annoying. >.> I can't make egg tarts or noodles or cakes... >.>
Whatever. lol.
I talked breifly to a bunch of kids about Jesus today. Tomorrow let's step it up again!
M(?) has a bracelet too. His says 'Keep Believing. keepbelieving.com'
Ttyl.
D.Fa
yet this week is already gone.
Three-year-olds sure are cute,
but their words really don't compute.
I've found three is the youngest you can be to high-five,
but there is no maximum age, as long as you're alive.
My lunch went late because of a friend,
in Taiwan? Whatever, Google chat til the end!
All the kids really enjoy my tan,
they make me like a farming man.
Grilled cheese is delicious,
is tomato soup nutritious?
I'm not a very good poet.
Especially when I'm trying really hard. lol
I heard that there was a heat wave coming this weekend. Also, there is a wedding in Val D'Or (the best place in the world apparently because there is a Walmart and a McDonalds and a pool) tomorrow, so a lot of kids were gone today.
I've been thinking of things I can cook with the ingredients I have here and I keep thinking about Asian things I've eaten. I just thought, 'what next? Kung Pow Chicken?' LOL... Not happening. The fact that we don't have flour right now is kind of annoying. >.> I can't make egg tarts or noodles or cakes... >.>
Whatever. lol.
I talked breifly to a bunch of kids about Jesus today. Tomorrow let's step it up again!
M(?) has a bracelet too. His says 'Keep Believing. keepbelieving.com'
Ttyl.
D.Fa
13.7.11
A Solid Line
Hey! Another day in the sun. lol. I have pretty solid tan lines. Well, right now they are solid burn lines. Actually both. It goes white, red, orange. Although the line between red and orange isn't really a line...
Anyways, today was pretty sweet. Kids do not wake up early. I woke up at 7:15 and went out for half an hour. There was a really funny sign trying to make people choose their destiny, but also telling them that their destiny is to have a clean comunity, so choose that destiny.
The kids found our house. Oh no!
We got a new member of our team for two weeks. A nutritionist came to town (because there wasn't one here already) and will be doing some fun, educational, interactive games and cooking with them. She should take a bit of pressure away from our planning. Hopefully. lol.
M(?) is so much like TL. We just had an hour long workout to a DVD of his. Hiphop abs or something. It was ridiculous (especially because we don't have weights M(?) was using water bottles and I had cans of soup) and the funny thing is that a bunch of things near the end were things me and TL did when we worked out back in Asia. I wonder how TL likes his steaks cooked... M(?) has them 'blue'. I just asked and he has never seen Vampire Diaries. lol.
Registering for courses is terrible. lol. I didn't realize STAT 2507 was available in the fall until now and that BIOC2300 would mean a lot less work then CHEM2103, but things are kinda set for the most part, so I may be able to switch the STAT classes, but it may be a night course. >.> Grrrr. FILM. Grrrr. But this means I can take microbio in the winter!!! =D Thank God for giving me awesome time tickets for registering even though I didn't fully take advantage of it aapparently. lol
There are a bunch of small flowers around our houses and even though they are so small, there are so many of them that a couple days ago I stepped outside and breathed in and it was magical. lol. So many small flowers that it smelled like a whole field of fully in bloom flowers. Also, a couple years ago SB was worrying about what I remember to be a large white flowering plant that could cause some bad things to happen that might look like another flowering plant but HUGE. I think there are a bunch of them around here. I've seen small ones and HUGE ones that look a bit different.
Ya. I'll ttyl. I feel like I had something really important or something that I thought I should really share with you guys, but after the last few hours of pulling hair and trying to cram all these classes in I am fried. lol. Why does the winter semester always look better..? >.>
Ttyl.
D.Fa
PS!!!!! Most Awesome thing today!!!! The little girl I shared my bracelet with asked me to tell her again!! =DDDDDD So good! Praying for her!
Anyways, today was pretty sweet. Kids do not wake up early. I woke up at 7:15 and went out for half an hour. There was a really funny sign trying to make people choose their destiny, but also telling them that their destiny is to have a clean comunity, so choose that destiny.
The kids found our house. Oh no!
We got a new member of our team for two weeks. A nutritionist came to town (because there wasn't one here already) and will be doing some fun, educational, interactive games and cooking with them. She should take a bit of pressure away from our planning. Hopefully. lol.
M(?) is so much like TL. We just had an hour long workout to a DVD of his. Hiphop abs or something. It was ridiculous (especially because we don't have weights M(?) was using water bottles and I had cans of soup) and the funny thing is that a bunch of things near the end were things me and TL did when we worked out back in Asia. I wonder how TL likes his steaks cooked... M(?) has them 'blue'. I just asked and he has never seen Vampire Diaries. lol.
Registering for courses is terrible. lol. I didn't realize STAT 2507 was available in the fall until now and that BIOC2300 would mean a lot less work then CHEM2103, but things are kinda set for the most part, so I may be able to switch the STAT classes, but it may be a night course. >.> Grrrr. FILM. Grrrr. But this means I can take microbio in the winter!!! =D Thank God for giving me awesome time tickets for registering even though I didn't fully take advantage of it aapparently. lol
There are a bunch of small flowers around our houses and even though they are so small, there are so many of them that a couple days ago I stepped outside and breathed in and it was magical. lol. So many small flowers that it smelled like a whole field of fully in bloom flowers. Also, a couple years ago SB was worrying about what I remember to be a large white flowering plant that could cause some bad things to happen that might look like another flowering plant but HUGE. I think there are a bunch of them around here. I've seen small ones and HUGE ones that look a bit different.
Ya. I'll ttyl. I feel like I had something really important or something that I thought I should really share with you guys, but after the last few hours of pulling hair and trying to cram all these classes in I am fried. lol. Why does the winter semester always look better..? >.>
Ttyl.
D.Fa
PS!!!!! Most Awesome thing today!!!! The little girl I shared my bracelet with asked me to tell her again!! =DDDDDD So good! Praying for her!
12.7.11
私は野球が大好きですよ。
Hey! Today's prayer walk? fail. lol... I kinda slept past my alarm... At 7:45 I jumped up and went to start breakfast. I prayed for my team (family!) while in the kitchen. I figure that counts as praying for the town by praying for increased service from us and jsut doing more for the people of the town.
I cooked breakfast for them again, except this time I cooked eggs too. Yesterday they took what I cooked and then made eggs. >.> I made like a delicious failed frittata with mushrooms, green pepper, onions, ham, and brocoli. Also oatmeal and toast. There was a lot of stuff for the eggs, so, we will have more tomorrow! Yay! Less prep time for tomorrow's breakfast. lol.
Another slow morning.
The rest of our delivery..? Bread and real meat!!!
Another crazy afternoon.
Yesterday the girls cooked an awesome dinner for us (scalloped potatoes and veggie stirfry. delish!), so today was our turn. We kinda cheated because we had new dinner food. lol. So, we had dinner rolls with baked chicken legs and mashed potatoes.
Then we raced of grudgingly to the evening program which so far had no turn out. I see this as an awesome oppourtunity to meet with the kids more one on one with a different dynamic. Meeting them as who we are not just camp counselor and camper. There were two people and a fast pitch softball game. They needed a couple players. I wanted to play so badly. I got to play!!!! Yuss!
This was actually the second game I've played here. Yesterday a kid invited us to a game at 5:30, which we kinda thought we were going to watch, but it turned out we were supposed to play with them, so I did, kinda as a captain shouting what play we should do. That day there were no outfeilders because there were only ten of us or so... so a lot of homeruns for 9-12 year olds. lol.
But I digress. Today's fast pitch game was completely different. Although there were a lot of good hits, they were always cut down to a double or triple with only a couple homeruns and one grandslam over the fence what?!? lol. I came home twice! but how I got to base isn't the best story. lol. A dropped third strike and a 4 ball walk... Boring. I like hitting the ball. xP
Yep. I'm even more burned. lol.
Ttyl.
D.Fa
I cooked breakfast for them again, except this time I cooked eggs too. Yesterday they took what I cooked and then made eggs. >.> I made like a delicious failed frittata with mushrooms, green pepper, onions, ham, and brocoli. Also oatmeal and toast. There was a lot of stuff for the eggs, so, we will have more tomorrow! Yay! Less prep time for tomorrow's breakfast. lol.
Another slow morning.
The rest of our delivery..? Bread and real meat!!!
Another crazy afternoon.
Yesterday the girls cooked an awesome dinner for us (scalloped potatoes and veggie stirfry. delish!), so today was our turn. We kinda cheated because we had new dinner food. lol. So, we had dinner rolls with baked chicken legs and mashed potatoes.
Then we raced of grudgingly to the evening program which so far had no turn out. I see this as an awesome oppourtunity to meet with the kids more one on one with a different dynamic. Meeting them as who we are not just camp counselor and camper. There were two people and a fast pitch softball game. They needed a couple players. I wanted to play so badly. I got to play!!!! Yuss!
This was actually the second game I've played here. Yesterday a kid invited us to a game at 5:30, which we kinda thought we were going to watch, but it turned out we were supposed to play with them, so I did, kinda as a captain shouting what play we should do. That day there were no outfeilders because there were only ten of us or so... so a lot of homeruns for 9-12 year olds. lol.
But I digress. Today's fast pitch game was completely different. Although there were a lot of good hits, they were always cut down to a double or triple with only a couple homeruns and one grandslam over the fence what?!? lol. I came home twice! but how I got to base isn't the best story. lol. A dropped third strike and a 4 ball walk... Boring. I like hitting the ball. xP
Yep. I'm even more burned. lol.
Ttyl.
D.Fa
Juillet 11
23 heure 17 minutes
Hey. Day 1 of week 2 complete.
Today was another hard one, I guess you could say. Rocks were the prop of the day. Rocks for the dog to chase after rocks for the war on the playground, ... I like using three examples, but I guess there were only two.
Anyways, ya, I just couldn't stop the rock war. Kids were throwing, kids were retaliating, kids were teasing and taunting, kids were crying and screaming, kids were on the swing, not giving a care and kids were not listening when I asked them to drop the stones and walk away.
Aside from the rocks today was okay I guess. I just don't feel satisfied with what we are doing. Right now we let them do whatever for about half an hour until everyone is there. Then we pray and 'warm up' with a lot of running games. Then we kinda drop the kids off in the playground and let them amuse themselves for the last 2.5 hours. Swinging, seesaw, tag, frandom stuff. Then we go back, pray, leave. We need a bit more. On the schedule we've been given there is 'music time' and 'story time' and 'arts and craft time' (which is tending to be used as an alternative to doing sports or playground activities, and is only actually drawing on a long piece of paper...)
Ya, the prayer walk this morning was good. It really set the day off on the right foot. I was awake, I cooked breakfast, we got there in time (the girls slept in by accident), I got to see half of the town that I hadn't seen before. Tomorrow I'll finish scoping out the other half of the town.
My real need right now is that although I'm good in the off hours, is relying on God during the chaos, just taking that second and praying, just doing it all for Him. Not just going in with that attitude and thenm (seven hours later) looking back on not having done so.
Ya.
Ttyl.
D.Fa
Hey. Day 1 of week 2 complete.
Today was another hard one, I guess you could say. Rocks were the prop of the day. Rocks for the dog to chase after rocks for the war on the playground, ... I like using three examples, but I guess there were only two.
Anyways, ya, I just couldn't stop the rock war. Kids were throwing, kids were retaliating, kids were teasing and taunting, kids were crying and screaming, kids were on the swing, not giving a care and kids were not listening when I asked them to drop the stones and walk away.
Aside from the rocks today was okay I guess. I just don't feel satisfied with what we are doing. Right now we let them do whatever for about half an hour until everyone is there. Then we pray and 'warm up' with a lot of running games. Then we kinda drop the kids off in the playground and let them amuse themselves for the last 2.5 hours. Swinging, seesaw, tag, frandom stuff. Then we go back, pray, leave. We need a bit more. On the schedule we've been given there is 'music time' and 'story time' and 'arts and craft time' (which is tending to be used as an alternative to doing sports or playground activities, and is only actually drawing on a long piece of paper...)
Ya, the prayer walk this morning was good. It really set the day off on the right foot. I was awake, I cooked breakfast, we got there in time (the girls slept in by accident), I got to see half of the town that I hadn't seen before. Tomorrow I'll finish scoping out the other half of the town.
My real need right now is that although I'm good in the off hours, is relying on God during the chaos, just taking that second and praying, just doing it all for Him. Not just going in with that attitude and thenm (seven hours later) looking back on not having done so.
Ya.
Ttyl.
D.Fa
Juillet 10
22 heure 44 minutes
Hey. You should always try to listen to what a child tells you. However, you should probably ask an adult if it's somethingimportant.
Today we planned to go to church at 3:30. M(?) heard this from a 9 or 10 year old girl who lives across the street from the church building. It turns out there is only one service. It is in English, but it is at 11am, so we kinda missed it. They are really nice girls though and I got to share my bracelet with them although there were a couple distractions. They have Bibles, but they didn't know about Jesus and know that he died on the cross to pay for our sins, our mistakes, our bad things we all do. He came to bear our sins and pay the price for them, death. They have three dogs. Snowflake likes sitting on shoes.
The rest of the day was pretty lax. A couple failed [I just about typed appointments. lol] omelettes, a pot of oatmeal, a container of yogurt, a lot of the Bible (the last four chapters of Jeremiah are very long, but there are a few awesome verses [that stood out to me this time reading them] Jer 49:12 reminded me of Jesus when he prayed that the cup might be taken from him. He didn't deserve death. [Jer 49:12 This is what the LORD says: "If those who do not deserve to drink the cup must drink it, why should you go unpunished? You will not go unpunished, but must drink it.] Jer 50-6-7 more sheep imagery [Jer 50:6-7 My people have been lost sheep; their shepherds have led them astray and caused them to roam on the mountains. They wandered over mountain and hill and forgot their own resting place. Whoever found them devoured them; their enemies said, 'We are not guilty, for they sinned against the LORD, their true pasture, the LORD, the hope of their fathers.'"]) a lot of singing Japanese songs loudly, also some English, Pokemon, a movie with the girls, not much.
We still have 5 weeks left though and ministry is already starting! =D So, ya.
Some of the kids have found the girls' house. lol.
This week I'm gonna try to have a prayer walk each morning. Let's see how this goes. I pray that God would really give me a heart for these people and children and open my eyes to their needs.
D.Fa
Hey. You should always try to listen to what a child tells you. However, you should probably ask an adult if it's somethingimportant.
Today we planned to go to church at 3:30. M(?) heard this from a 9 or 10 year old girl who lives across the street from the church building. It turns out there is only one service. It is in English, but it is at 11am, so we kinda missed it. They are really nice girls though and I got to share my bracelet with them although there were a couple distractions. They have Bibles, but they didn't know about Jesus and know that he died on the cross to pay for our sins, our mistakes, our bad things we all do. He came to bear our sins and pay the price for them, death. They have three dogs. Snowflake likes sitting on shoes.
The rest of the day was pretty lax. A couple failed [I just about typed appointments. lol] omelettes, a pot of oatmeal, a container of yogurt, a lot of the Bible (the last four chapters of Jeremiah are very long, but there are a few awesome verses [that stood out to me this time reading them] Jer 49:12 reminded me of Jesus when he prayed that the cup might be taken from him. He didn't deserve death. [Jer 49:12 This is what the LORD says: "If those who do not deserve to drink the cup must drink it, why should you go unpunished? You will not go unpunished, but must drink it.] Jer 50-6-7 more sheep imagery [Jer 50:6-7 My people have been lost sheep; their shepherds have led them astray and caused them to roam on the mountains. They wandered over mountain and hill and forgot their own resting place. Whoever found them devoured them; their enemies said, 'We are not guilty, for they sinned against the LORD, their true pasture, the LORD, the hope of their fathers.'"]) a lot of singing Japanese songs loudly, also some English, Pokemon, a movie with the girls, not much.
We still have 5 weeks left though and ministry is already starting! =D So, ya.
Some of the kids have found the girls' house. lol.
This week I'm gonna try to have a prayer walk each morning. Let's see how this goes. I pray that God would really give me a heart for these people and children and open my eyes to their needs.
D.Fa
9.7.11
Stolen from an email.
Hey! Today was pretty boring. lol.
Saturday. The first really weekend since we got here. We all wanted to sleep in, so I did. I woke up at 10:30ish. It was really sunny outside.
First I threw together a meal. Oatmeal, yogurt, nurtigrain bars, milk? I actually don't remember. lol. I read some more of the Parables book. Today was a chapter on 'Good news for the needy' about how Jesus came to heal the sick, to seek the lost, to save those who really need it. The main parables in this chapter were from Luke 15, the lost sheep, lost coin and prodigal son. Jesus and God put in every effort to look for the lost one and rejoice when a sinner repents. Jesus wasn't hanging out with sinners instead of Pharisees because He didn't care about sin, but that He saw the need of the people and came to pay their debts and bring them back. It seemed a lot of the time that Jesus was enemies with the Pharisees always talking back, but really, they were kind of building up religion as an idol and relying on their own righteousness not admitting they need to be forgiven, when 'all have fallen short of the glory of God'.
Anyways, I also read a bunch of stuff in the Bible while reading that book, as well as a few Psalms. Psalm 78 is pretty awesome. lol. I keep seeing that any reference to the Old Testament in the New Testament is awesome, but even a 'summary chapter' like Psalm 78 was really awesome.
Isaiah 53:6 'We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way: and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.'
In one sentence most of the four laws.
lol. With the food we have been given I have been cooking things that I never cook. Actually, so far I have only cooked things I never have. lol. Grilled cheese (I actually haven't cooked a grilled cheese until yesterday), fried potatoes and onions (which I saw my dad make with hotdogs many times), oatmeal (real oatmeal not instant (Also, we don't have a microwave in our house, the girls do, but not us)), an interesting dish that is basically scrambled eggs, but with mushrooms and onions (I saw M(?) make it with bacon for breakfast). Mmmmmm. So, it's basically an all day breakfast around here. We can have sandwiches or soup as a lunch-type meal, but with 360 eggs and 11 pounds of potatoes, it's mainly breakfast. Mmmmmm Egg Tarts. I wanna find out if I can make them somehow.
Yesterday I was trying to send an email, but the internet died on me. You see I had internet and was writing it. I lost internet. A few paragraphs later I found out. I tried getting internet over and over, but it wouldn't send. It also wouldn't save. lol. I saved the email in a word doc and put it on my USB. A few hours later I was able to borrow someone's laptop. It's a mac. lol. I can't use macs apparently. Anyways, after asking how to get to the USB I finally got to it. and it was a docx file. Not compatible. Had to get a doc converter. It didn't send me the file quickly enough. Semi-Pro (Bad movie). Sleep. Sleep-in. Do everything in my power without internet. What the..? Internet!?!? Send!
So, I'm taking today as a rest day. I'll do some ministry work tomorrow. We get to go to church! Sweet.
Yep.
Ttyl.
D.Fa
Saturday. The first really weekend since we got here. We all wanted to sleep in, so I did. I woke up at 10:30ish. It was really sunny outside.
First I threw together a meal. Oatmeal, yogurt, nurtigrain bars, milk? I actually don't remember. lol. I read some more of the Parables book. Today was a chapter on 'Good news for the needy' about how Jesus came to heal the sick, to seek the lost, to save those who really need it. The main parables in this chapter were from Luke 15, the lost sheep, lost coin and prodigal son. Jesus and God put in every effort to look for the lost one and rejoice when a sinner repents. Jesus wasn't hanging out with sinners instead of Pharisees because He didn't care about sin, but that He saw the need of the people and came to pay their debts and bring them back. It seemed a lot of the time that Jesus was enemies with the Pharisees always talking back, but really, they were kind of building up religion as an idol and relying on their own righteousness not admitting they need to be forgiven, when 'all have fallen short of the glory of God'.
Anyways, I also read a bunch of stuff in the Bible while reading that book, as well as a few Psalms. Psalm 78 is pretty awesome. lol. I keep seeing that any reference to the Old Testament in the New Testament is awesome, but even a 'summary chapter' like Psalm 78 was really awesome.
Isaiah 53:6 'We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way: and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.'
In one sentence most of the four laws.
lol. With the food we have been given I have been cooking things that I never cook. Actually, so far I have only cooked things I never have. lol. Grilled cheese (I actually haven't cooked a grilled cheese until yesterday), fried potatoes and onions (which I saw my dad make with hotdogs many times), oatmeal (real oatmeal not instant (Also, we don't have a microwave in our house, the girls do, but not us)), an interesting dish that is basically scrambled eggs, but with mushrooms and onions (I saw M(?) make it with bacon for breakfast). Mmmmmm. So, it's basically an all day breakfast around here. We can have sandwiches or soup as a lunch-type meal, but with 360 eggs and 11 pounds of potatoes, it's mainly breakfast. Mmmmmm Egg Tarts. I wanna find out if I can make them somehow.
Yesterday I was trying to send an email, but the internet died on me. You see I had internet and was writing it. I lost internet. A few paragraphs later I found out. I tried getting internet over and over, but it wouldn't send. It also wouldn't save. lol. I saved the email in a word doc and put it on my USB. A few hours later I was able to borrow someone's laptop. It's a mac. lol. I can't use macs apparently. Anyways, after asking how to get to the USB I finally got to it. and it was a docx file. Not compatible. Had to get a doc converter. It didn't send me the file quickly enough. Semi-Pro (Bad movie). Sleep. Sleep-in. Do everything in my power without internet. What the..? Internet!?!? Send!
So, I'm taking today as a rest day. I'll do some ministry work tomorrow. We get to go to church! Sweet.
Yep.
Ttyl.
D.Fa
Juillet 8
23 heure 38 minutes
It's too late. lol. I need sleep. I really need to stop writing / typing that. lol
Today was interesting. It was really just falling apart. lol. Last day of the week, I guess we all just checked out? This morning only three kids showed up in the first half hour. During that time I picked up a lot of garbage and waved to a bunch of people in their trucks as they went by (just like in Asia! You can just wave or yell hello at everybody!) I also like taking that time to pray for the kids and anything that comes to mind and sing some songs that are on my cell phone.
Ya, kids trickled in. Then the afternoon hit.
Suddenly we were three vs thirty. The girls disappeared without telling us. That was a darn stressful half hour.
Apparently our food had finally arrived. It's a really weird assortment of things.
-8L of 'DORA Syrup'
-2 Rutabegas
-6 Zuchini
-4.5 kg of Olymel Mock-Chicken
-1000 Crackers [in 2 cracker packages]
-25 lbs of Margarine [disgusting]
-4 Crowns of Brocoli
-100 lbs of Potatoes
-ham
-balogna
-sachets of coffee
-200 small packets of peanut butter, jam and miracle whip
-360 large eggs (that's 30 eggs each per week)
-a lot of yogurt
-some pappers, onions, oranges
-12kg of oatmeal
-10kg of yellow sugar
-24 boxes of nutrigrain bars
-20L of milk
-enough drink crystals to make about 130L of juice
-a lot of water, like 300L
-65L of soup
-6 packs of bacon
-ketchup and mustard packets
We got home and I guess we were kinda joking about how much food we have for two weeks, but we don't have bread, pancakes or a water machine, so it's kinda random. lol. The Isrealites didn't like the manna either.
Also, no chicken. It's all pork products. Why?
D.Fa
It's too late. lol. I need sleep. I really need to stop writing / typing that. lol
Today was interesting. It was really just falling apart. lol. Last day of the week, I guess we all just checked out? This morning only three kids showed up in the first half hour. During that time I picked up a lot of garbage and waved to a bunch of people in their trucks as they went by (just like in Asia! You can just wave or yell hello at everybody!) I also like taking that time to pray for the kids and anything that comes to mind and sing some songs that are on my cell phone.
Ya, kids trickled in. Then the afternoon hit.
Suddenly we were three vs thirty. The girls disappeared without telling us. That was a darn stressful half hour.
Apparently our food had finally arrived. It's a really weird assortment of things.
-8L of 'DORA Syrup'
-2 Rutabegas
-6 Zuchini
-4.5 kg of Olymel Mock-Chicken
-1000 Crackers [in 2 cracker packages]
-25 lbs of Margarine [disgusting]
-4 Crowns of Brocoli
-100 lbs of Potatoes
-ham
-balogna
-sachets of coffee
-200 small packets of peanut butter, jam and miracle whip
-360 large eggs (that's 30 eggs each per week)
-a lot of yogurt
-some pappers, onions, oranges
-12kg of oatmeal
-10kg of yellow sugar
-24 boxes of nutrigrain bars
-20L of milk
-enough drink crystals to make about 130L of juice
-a lot of water, like 300L
-65L of soup
-6 packs of bacon
-ketchup and mustard packets
We got home and I guess we were kinda joking about how much food we have for two weeks, but we don't have bread, pancakes or a water machine, so it's kinda random. lol. The Isrealites didn't like the manna either.
Also, no chicken. It's all pork products. Why?
D.Fa
Juillet 6
22 heure 34 minutes
So, today was day three of the summer camp and our team leader was a bit sick and couldn't really yell or anything, so A(?) was mostly in charge. She's really awesome with the kids. She's enthusiastic, loud, positive, phrases things well for children and keeps them entertained very well, but she wouldn't pray to start the day [she's muslim and it's kinda, but not reall, but kinda a Christian camp, so at the start and end we pray], so I did. Sweet. lol.
Today got pretty chaotic after lunch though. A couple 'bored' kids, a couple fights, a couple age groups in one room. About 50 kids from age 4-13. I tend to be playing with the younger kids most of the time. This means I am a horse and a swing pushing machine a lot... I'm trying to be fair to everyone by limiting my recreational help to them in those manners though. Today after I gave everyone their pushes and they still wanted more I taught them how to swing by themselves. "Legs IN. Legs OUT. Legs IN. ..." 'Now you don't need me to push you.' They really don't care, they wanted me to push them.
Camp ended early for some reason. Not a good I dea.
anyways, I was reading a bunch from KL's book 'The Parables of Jesus' and the whole sowing the word of God then waiting as the seed mysteriously grows. Even Jesus didn't force the word to grow or shove it down anyone's throat. He sowed broadly and had mixed reactions, but the seed that was sown was not destroyed, it just lay asleep sometimes. Spreading the word doesn't get immediate responses, you need faith in God growing the seeds in their lives. I'm praying for A(?), SC, RL, KC, KFA, JC, S(?) that God is really planting seeds and helping them grow, whether they realize it or not.
D.Fa
PS. No Food til Friday!
PPS. Drawing time with the kids is awesome, but you end up dying so many different ways. lol.
So, today was day three of the summer camp and our team leader was a bit sick and couldn't really yell or anything, so A(?) was mostly in charge. She's really awesome with the kids. She's enthusiastic, loud, positive, phrases things well for children and keeps them entertained very well, but she wouldn't pray to start the day [she's muslim and it's kinda, but not reall, but kinda a Christian camp, so at the start and end we pray], so I did. Sweet. lol.
Today got pretty chaotic after lunch though. A couple 'bored' kids, a couple fights, a couple age groups in one room. About 50 kids from age 4-13. I tend to be playing with the younger kids most of the time. This means I am a horse and a swing pushing machine a lot... I'm trying to be fair to everyone by limiting my recreational help to them in those manners though. Today after I gave everyone their pushes and they still wanted more I taught them how to swing by themselves. "Legs IN. Legs OUT. Legs IN. ..." 'Now you don't need me to push you.' They really don't care, they wanted me to push them.
Camp ended early for some reason. Not a good I dea.
anyways, I was reading a bunch from KL's book 'The Parables of Jesus' and the whole sowing the word of God then waiting as the seed mysteriously grows. Even Jesus didn't force the word to grow or shove it down anyone's throat. He sowed broadly and had mixed reactions, but the seed that was sown was not destroyed, it just lay asleep sometimes. Spreading the word doesn't get immediate responses, you need faith in God growing the seeds in their lives. I'm praying for A(?), SC, RL, KC, KFA, JC, S(?) that God is really planting seeds and helping them grow, whether they realize it or not.
D.Fa
PS. No Food til Friday!
PPS. Drawing time with the kids is awesome, but you end up dying so many different ways. lol.
Juillet 5 de post
22 heure 24 minutes
What's up? The sun... >.> I want to see the stars. There is no light polution here [well, a lot less anyways]. I mean, I'm beside a river and there's like 600 people here, how bad can it be? It's nowhere near the size of Ottawa, or even Nepean for that matter and we are surrounded by forest, sot other small towns. Yet, I am far too tired to stay up past sunset and that seems to be pretty late around here...
Guess what? M(?) is Asian. lol But he's a really dark Asian, he doesn't have an 'Asian nose', he speaks French [he has no Asian accent] mainly, I could mistake him for being Cree easily, but apparently he's Lao/Thai. And he acts like TL. He did some karate, he's always doing something funny/random, he dances for no reason, he watches terrible TV dramas (In this case True Blood not Vampire Diaries)(I should ask him about Vampire Diaries.) he likes children, [he is fine with openly discussing bathroom topics], etc... I miss TL and our long text conversations.
Today was another fun day. Names are kinda hard when you get 20 new ones in 10 minutes and have to know them all despite not spending time with them. I was playing with the young kids all day. Our days are split, mornings (9-12) for kids 5-8, afternoons (1-4) for older kids 9-12 and some evenings (7-9:30?) for 13+.
I met two kids today and yesterday that remind me of some people. CMS reminds me of JW, but actually is probably more like a mix of JW and her friend G(?). [I am talking about the athletic high school girl and her friend that go to YF, not the other JWs I know. lol] There was also this super awesome roller hockey playing three year old who reminded me of youth pastor JW's one year old.
Our food isn't getting here until tomorrow.
I'm gonna go shave.
I've mainly been praying for my family members today.
Me and the guys watched some more Modern Family. I hope we become more of a family. I know we are.
When two four year olds run to kick a soccer ball. Cute.
D.Fa
What's up? The sun... >.> I want to see the stars. There is no light polution here [well, a lot less anyways]. I mean, I'm beside a river and there's like 600 people here, how bad can it be? It's nowhere near the size of Ottawa, or even Nepean for that matter and we are surrounded by forest, sot other small towns. Yet, I am far too tired to stay up past sunset and that seems to be pretty late around here...
Guess what? M(?) is Asian. lol But he's a really dark Asian, he doesn't have an 'Asian nose', he speaks French [he has no Asian accent] mainly, I could mistake him for being Cree easily, but apparently he's Lao/Thai. And he acts like TL. He did some karate, he's always doing something funny/random, he dances for no reason, he watches terrible TV dramas (In this case True Blood not Vampire Diaries)(I should ask him about Vampire Diaries.) he likes children, [he is fine with openly discussing bathroom topics], etc... I miss TL and our long text conversations.
Today was another fun day. Names are kinda hard when you get 20 new ones in 10 minutes and have to know them all despite not spending time with them. I was playing with the young kids all day. Our days are split, mornings (9-12) for kids 5-8, afternoons (1-4) for older kids 9-12 and some evenings (7-9:30?) for 13+.
I met two kids today and yesterday that remind me of some people. CMS reminds me of JW, but actually is probably more like a mix of JW and her friend G(?). [I am talking about the athletic high school girl and her friend that go to YF, not the other JWs I know. lol] There was also this super awesome roller hockey playing three year old who reminded me of youth pastor JW's one year old.
Our food isn't getting here until tomorrow.
I'm gonna go shave.
I've mainly been praying for my family members today.
Me and the guys watched some more Modern Family. I hope we become more of a family. I know we are.
When two four year olds run to kick a soccer ball. Cute.
D.Fa
Entry for Juillet 4
23 heure 4 minutes
Hey! Happy 4th of July! (I only just realized it was.)
Anyways, today was the first day of the camp and it was pretty awesome. So many amazing kids all different and unique and made just the way God has made them. God loves them all and I really want to be able to share that with them this summer.
I'm being way more OCD about cleaning things than I usually am. lol. I mean I swept the whole skating rink in the arena/complex thingee. (That is where we are doing the camp for now. There is a playground and outdoor hockey rink / basketball court, a baseball diamond, lots of construction and a gym, restaurant and arena.)
So, today I was having a lot of fun with the young kids. I met a bunch. At first there weren't so many, but there were more later. I cleaned pretty much the whole arena. Later the older kids (two who look pretty asian, not only because of their dark eyes and skin color, but also because of their dyed [with blond naturally dark brown/black] hair [Also, one of them has the same name as one guy I know who is asian.]) I ended up mainly doing more cleaning. There were about 25 or 30 kids in the afternoon ranging from the age of 6 to 12. They mainly took care of themselves, so I thought cleaning up and making things safer was a good idea. We went to the playground bor a bit (did I mention today was frigid? like 9'C...) and we swung a lot. I pushed.
And (It's been raining a lot) a girl asked me "You know what Jesus is doing when it rains? He's cleaning the Earth." Cute. I'm, so glad that I got to talk about Jesus today. Honestly.
WCF is working really hard.
Still no food or furniture.
A(?) is really aweosme with kids.
D.Fa
My boogers are black due to the dust from sweeping.
Hey! Happy 4th of July! (I only just realized it was.)
Anyways, today was the first day of the camp and it was pretty awesome. So many amazing kids all different and unique and made just the way God has made them. God loves them all and I really want to be able to share that with them this summer.
I'm being way more OCD about cleaning things than I usually am. lol. I mean I swept the whole skating rink in the arena/complex thingee. (That is where we are doing the camp for now. There is a playground and outdoor hockey rink / basketball court, a baseball diamond, lots of construction and a gym, restaurant and arena.)
So, today I was having a lot of fun with the young kids. I met a bunch. At first there weren't so many, but there were more later. I cleaned pretty much the whole arena. Later the older kids (two who look pretty asian, not only because of their dark eyes and skin color, but also because of their dyed [with blond naturally dark brown/black] hair [Also, one of them has the same name as one guy I know who is asian.]) I ended up mainly doing more cleaning. There were about 25 or 30 kids in the afternoon ranging from the age of 6 to 12. They mainly took care of themselves, so I thought cleaning up and making things safer was a good idea. We went to the playground bor a bit (did I mention today was frigid? like 9'C...) and we swung a lot. I pushed.
And (It's been raining a lot) a girl asked me "You know what Jesus is doing when it rains? He's cleaning the Earth." Cute. I'm, so glad that I got to talk about Jesus today. Honestly.
WCF is working really hard.
Still no food or furniture.
A(?) is really aweosme with kids.
D.Fa
My boogers are black due to the dust from sweeping.
B-Log entry Juillet 3
23 heures, 12 minutes.
Hey! I guess we are back to the 'Log B', but whatever. I may end up able to type this up tomorrow on someone else's computer or something, but anyway it really doesn't matter.
I'm really really restless and having real culture shock. This is not Ottawa vs Quebec. This is East Asia vs Northern Quebec. It's also me having unreasonable expectations. It's also a completely different situation. Like, I really want everyone on my team to be bonding and sharing and praying for each other and working hard for the Lord and being on fire for Him, but honestly I want now (Day 2) to have the exact same team dynamic as the last day in East Asia. [A little unreasonable...]
Anytime anyone goes off alone, I follow. Stick together at all times! (I almost never broke that rule [in East Asia] and it always felt strange when I did [people stare more when the white guy is alone. lol]) I also feel really weird about the lack of God in all of this. I mean in Asia, even though it didn't sound the same, we still prayed together, we shared in the joys, we worked together through the hard times. We were always in close comunity. We had each other, God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit. No internet, facebook, email, nothing. I miss the community we had then. I miss how open it was, but I guess it was a process, so maybe, I should be the one starting the conversations, asking questions [I really miss the questions. lol], sharing about what happened in East Asia and just sparking the fire, yo.
Pray for me that even in the differences, I can hold onto God and follow Him always.
Step out in fire yo.
D.Fa
Today we mainly got out there, looked at what we were working with, checked out the town a bit and walked around to see some folks and meet some kids. The dogs and the kids travel in one pack. It's kinda odd. lol. I feel even in the rest days that we should be doing something more than naps, laptops, Modern Family (although that's how me and my house mates bonded) and 'Shawshank Redemption'. >.>
Hey! I guess we are back to the 'Log B', but whatever. I may end up able to type this up tomorrow on someone else's computer or something, but anyway it really doesn't matter.
I'm really really restless and having real culture shock. This is not Ottawa vs Quebec. This is East Asia vs Northern Quebec. It's also me having unreasonable expectations. It's also a completely different situation. Like, I really want everyone on my team to be bonding and sharing and praying for each other and working hard for the Lord and being on fire for Him, but honestly I want now (Day 2) to have the exact same team dynamic as the last day in East Asia. [A little unreasonable...]
Anytime anyone goes off alone, I follow. Stick together at all times! (I almost never broke that rule [in East Asia] and it always felt strange when I did [people stare more when the white guy is alone. lol]) I also feel really weird about the lack of God in all of this. I mean in Asia, even though it didn't sound the same, we still prayed together, we shared in the joys, we worked together through the hard times. We were always in close comunity. We had each other, God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit. No internet, facebook, email, nothing. I miss the community we had then. I miss how open it was, but I guess it was a process, so maybe, I should be the one starting the conversations, asking questions [I really miss the questions. lol], sharing about what happened in East Asia and just sparking the fire, yo.
Pray for me that even in the differences, I can hold onto God and follow Him always.
Step out in fire yo.
D.Fa
Today we mainly got out there, looked at what we were working with, checked out the town a bit and walked around to see some folks and meet some kids. The dogs and the kids travel in one pack. It's kinda odd. lol. I feel even in the rest days that we should be doing something more than naps, laptops, Modern Family (although that's how me and my house mates bonded) and 'Shawshank Redemption'. >.>
7.7.11
From the NQ
Forget what I said earlier. I have internet again, but don't expect much. lol.
Today was hard. lol. I'm dying... I have pushed far too many swings.
Today someone found someone else's dog on the way to camp and so we had a dog (named Beiber) who was the cutest thing ever at the camp, but not inside. He was tied up for a while, but when we went outside to the playground we brought him with us. He's only a month and a half old husky puppy. I love him.
Yo. There are so many dogs around the town and I'm an animal person, so I keep petting them and they keep following me. The kids too. They are trying very hard to follow us. This one girl is trying very hard to figure out where we live. The good thing is that I actually don't know how to describe where we live. It's a trailer..? It's at the edge of the town by the teepee..?
I got burned again today. By my arch enemy, the sun.
The kids are all hilarious. Today we had a three-year-old and he was a bundle of joy when he was happy, but he kida threw a couple tantrums and could not tell me anything because he was three. >.>
Seriously though, the river is awesome and amazing. So beautiful. There was a chair on the beach which I thought was cool. I hope my cell phone is a good enough camera.
Ttyl.
D.Fa
Today was hard. lol. I'm dying... I have pushed far too many swings.
Today someone found someone else's dog on the way to camp and so we had a dog (named Beiber) who was the cutest thing ever at the camp, but not inside. He was tied up for a while, but when we went outside to the playground we brought him with us. He's only a month and a half old husky puppy. I love him.
Yo. There are so many dogs around the town and I'm an animal person, so I keep petting them and they keep following me. The kids too. They are trying very hard to follow us. This one girl is trying very hard to figure out where we live. The good thing is that I actually don't know how to describe where we live. It's a trailer..? It's at the edge of the town by the teepee..?
I got burned again today. By my arch enemy, the sun.
The kids are all hilarious. Today we had a three-year-old and he was a bundle of joy when he was happy, but he kida threw a couple tantrums and could not tell me anything because he was three. >.>
Seriously though, the river is awesome and amazing. So beautiful. There was a chair on the beach which I thought was cool. I hope my cell phone is a good enough camera.
Ttyl.
D.Fa
5.7.11
Weekly Update #1
Hey guys! My laptop refuses to connect consistently with the internet and so I will have less than I thought after the first day, but still way way more then I planned there to be. Anyways, I will try to keep in touch at least on a weekly basis (this is both my telling you why I haven't been updating and also telling you that I won't be. lol. Although I will be keeping daily entries in my Log B to type up when I get home).
I've been playing a lot of guitar and watching a lot of movies. Tonight is our first 13+ evening event.
Anyways, the kids here (4-12) are all awesome (lol), but it's like an all day full body workout or daycare sometimes. lol. Carrying kids all over the place, running and chasing them, doing pushups with them, playing the games with them, trying to get them to do what we want. It's sometimes a challenge and after the first two days I'm kinda feeling it. lol A realy awesome thing though is that today (we are trying to get organized, but yesterday we just had a full day free for all) we prayed with the kids a quick prayer right at the beginning and ending. Sweet.
Pray that we can continue strong and not burn out. Pray that we take time to rest and that we are able to become a family. (I have definitely been speaking as if we are a family and they keep laughing at me... lol.) Pray for the kids that through our service here and through conversations (although we haven't been told to do anything or not) that Christ would be proclaimed and that everything is for his glory.
Today we finally had an awesome blue sky and sunny day. It's been rainy everyday since we got here. Today was great though. The clouds were awesome. The temperature was amazing and we had a lot of fun with the kids. Yesterday was really cold.
Ya, we are having a bunch of food shipped in for us. We thought it would have come yesterday, but it's coming tomorrow apparently, so the money they gave us for 'just in case' won't all be gone.
Ya.
Ttyl.
D.Fa
I've been playing a lot of guitar and watching a lot of movies. Tonight is our first 13+ evening event.
Anyways, the kids here (4-12) are all awesome (lol), but it's like an all day full body workout or daycare sometimes. lol. Carrying kids all over the place, running and chasing them, doing pushups with them, playing the games with them, trying to get them to do what we want. It's sometimes a challenge and after the first two days I'm kinda feeling it. lol A realy awesome thing though is that today (we are trying to get organized, but yesterday we just had a full day free for all) we prayed with the kids a quick prayer right at the beginning and ending. Sweet.
Pray that we can continue strong and not burn out. Pray that we take time to rest and that we are able to become a family. (I have definitely been speaking as if we are a family and they keep laughing at me... lol.) Pray for the kids that through our service here and through conversations (although we haven't been told to do anything or not) that Christ would be proclaimed and that everything is for his glory.
Today we finally had an awesome blue sky and sunny day. It's been rainy everyday since we got here. Today was great though. The clouds were awesome. The temperature was amazing and we had a lot of fun with the kids. Yesterday was really cold.
Ya, we are having a bunch of food shipped in for us. We thought it would have come yesterday, but it's coming tomorrow apparently, so the money they gave us for 'just in case' won't all be gone.
Ya.
Ttyl.
D.Fa
2.7.11
I stand in awe of You.
So, you know how I don't care where I brush my teeth?
You know how I like photography?
You know how landscapes and stills are my favourite type of photography?
You know how creation and it's beauty is one of the best things ever?
You know how at sunset the lighting is perfect and the orangy warm colour is just the best?
You know how computers make people less social and more glued to their laptops?
You know how I love weather?
You know where I am going with this?
Well, I was brushing my teeth when I see this orange glow on the cabinet in the kitchen. OMG! Amazing sunset!!!! Go go go!!!!
So I ran out the door with my toothbrush, cellphone (which is a camera for the next 6 weeks), my shoes and my pajamas. Needless to say there will be many photos uploaded when I return to Ottawa (because I can't get them off my phone, because the mini SD card adapter is at home and I can't text/email them to myself because I have no service here).
It was so awesome. I could see the clouds rolling in. Then I went back to finish brushing my teeth. Then my team leader says he's going for a walk. I figure, why not? It's so nice and I'm feeling awesome about who God is and how great He is for creating all this. So, I go.
Outside my window is a teepee and a river. This is like the best thing ever. lol.
So I go out to the river and see lightning in the cloud way off to my left. Why not go closer for a better view? So, I go. I put on the song from my cellphone "I Stand in Awe of You". About halfway into the first verse the rain starts coming down. Pouring almost. So I bolt it.
Running back to my house just before the teepee *CRASH!!!!!!* lightning right above my head. What!?!?!?!?! I almost died it was so scary.
It's been pouring on and off with lightning and thunder and it is so awesome!
Creation is so complicated and majestic and awe-inspiring and out of our control despite how we try to predict it.
The stars.
A thunderstorm.
A sunset.
A field of flowers.
An extremely friendly giant wolf-like husky.
Creation is all around us and God created it and I'm in awe. I feel so blessed to be in this room right now. Way better than the rooms with bigger beds. lol. I have an awesome window view!
Ttyl.
D.Fa
You know how I like photography?
You know how landscapes and stills are my favourite type of photography?
You know how creation and it's beauty is one of the best things ever?
You know how at sunset the lighting is perfect and the orangy warm colour is just the best?
You know how computers make people less social and more glued to their laptops?
You know how I love weather?
You know where I am going with this?
Well, I was brushing my teeth when I see this orange glow on the cabinet in the kitchen. OMG! Amazing sunset!!!! Go go go!!!!
So I ran out the door with my toothbrush, cellphone (which is a camera for the next 6 weeks), my shoes and my pajamas. Needless to say there will be many photos uploaded when I return to Ottawa (because I can't get them off my phone, because the mini SD card adapter is at home and I can't text/email them to myself because I have no service here).
It was so awesome. I could see the clouds rolling in. Then I went back to finish brushing my teeth. Then my team leader says he's going for a walk. I figure, why not? It's so nice and I'm feeling awesome about who God is and how great He is for creating all this. So, I go.
Outside my window is a teepee and a river. This is like the best thing ever. lol.
So I go out to the river and see lightning in the cloud way off to my left. Why not go closer for a better view? So, I go. I put on the song from my cellphone "I Stand in Awe of You". About halfway into the first verse the rain starts coming down. Pouring almost. So I bolt it.
Running back to my house just before the teepee *CRASH!!!!!!* lightning right above my head. What!?!?!?!?! I almost died it was so scary.
It's been pouring on and off with lightning and thunder and it is so awesome!
Creation is so complicated and majestic and awe-inspiring and out of our control despite how we try to predict it.
The stars.
A thunderstorm.
A sunset.
A field of flowers.
An extremely friendly giant wolf-like husky.
Creation is all around us and God created it and I'm in awe. I feel so blessed to be in this room right now. Way better than the rooms with bigger beds. lol. I have an awesome window view!
Ttyl.
D.Fa
From Northern Quebec!
Hey guys!
We arrived safely this morning around noon and are getting set up in our houses. Apparently yesterday was a huge storm, so we just missed that. lol. It's still a bit rainy, but nothing too big. Kinda on and off showers. We are all really tried because we had to leave Ottawa so early. Ya, we had to buy groceries for today and tomorrow and it was like 120$. Like a 2lb bag of onions is 3.29 or something which compared to a 3lb back in Ottawa for 1.79 is pretty ridic. A big bottle of Fruite juice drink that is almost always on sale for a dollar back in Ottawa was selling for 5.49. >.> All the prices here are ridic expensive. lol. Not important.
We have internet in our houses although its not the best because it's wifi and we are a little far from the source, but it should be good enough. I should be able to blog instead of logging it in a notebook and transcripting it when I get back (which took forever, so I am glad about that).
Our team leader brought a guitar and I brought all my wow music that I have printed off (in the past for other reasons) from the praise team website for my church, so I hope to be praising God here musically where as in Asia I could not sing anything. xP
A team that was on the same plane we were, but going further north, had to come back. I don't know why at this moment, but they're gonna stay here a day. We're gonna be pretty tight here. lol. There are seven of us here and nine of them. There are seven beds, but I think that most of them brought sleeping bags, so we should be okay.
Stats on demographics:
724 people in the community (including 3 new borns from this week)
391 children
So, we will be working with (hopefully all of them, meaning a representative) 54% of the community directly, not to mention all their parents and some other locals that we will be talking to regularly, such as the people who helped us find housing.
So, ya pray for us. This is an update to say everything is sweet. lol.
Talk to you later. I'm gonna have a shower I think.
=D.Fa
We arrived safely this morning around noon and are getting set up in our houses. Apparently yesterday was a huge storm, so we just missed that. lol. It's still a bit rainy, but nothing too big. Kinda on and off showers. We are all really tried because we had to leave Ottawa so early. Ya, we had to buy groceries for today and tomorrow and it was like 120$. Like a 2lb bag of onions is 3.29 or something which compared to a 3lb back in Ottawa for 1.79 is pretty ridic. A big bottle of Fruite juice drink that is almost always on sale for a dollar back in Ottawa was selling for 5.49. >.> All the prices here are ridic expensive. lol. Not important.
We have internet in our houses although its not the best because it's wifi and we are a little far from the source, but it should be good enough. I should be able to blog instead of logging it in a notebook and transcripting it when I get back (which took forever, so I am glad about that).
Our team leader brought a guitar and I brought all my wow music that I have printed off (in the past for other reasons) from the praise team website for my church, so I hope to be praising God here musically where as in Asia I could not sing anything. xP
A team that was on the same plane we were, but going further north, had to come back. I don't know why at this moment, but they're gonna stay here a day. We're gonna be pretty tight here. lol. There are seven of us here and nine of them. There are seven beds, but I think that most of them brought sleeping bags, so we should be okay.
Stats on demographics:
724 people in the community (including 3 new borns from this week)
391 children
So, we will be working with (hopefully all of them, meaning a representative) 54% of the community directly, not to mention all their parents and some other locals that we will be talking to regularly, such as the people who helped us find housing.
So, ya pray for us. This is an update to say everything is sweet. lol.
Talk to you later. I'm gonna have a shower I think.
=D.Fa
Log B --> Blog
Okay. I am finished typing up my posts from East Asia. It has been a good thing looking over how God has used those six weeks and I probably still could learn more from that time. I plan to read over the notes I took in Orientation and BTs and Debreif and stuff.
Anyways, I wanted to finish posting it before I posted my Report that I sent to my supporters because of obvious spoilers. lol. But you guys have been praying for me too, so I want to give you the update too. The following is the (very long) email that took me a long time to type. lol It basically summarizes the six weeks.
"Hey!
It has just finished. I got back to Ottawa Friday night after a really long day of travelling and one of the very first things I wanted to do was to just thank all of you for the hours of prayer and supporting me so that I could go on this trip and help change lives in East Asia.
There is so much I could say and I'd be more then happy to tell you more at some point, but for the sake of time and to keep this short-ish I will mainly give generalizations and one or two specific stories. [It ended up being really long... xP but there's still so much more that happened.] Also, all names will be changed and all places either not mentioned specifically or changed. The pictures show a bit of what life was like in East Asia.
So, first was the flight from Ottawa to Vancouver. My first flight ever. It was pretty good, I watched a movie, ate, slept, read, etc. Then arrival. I get greeted by a couple other super excited people! "Welcome to Vancouver! EAP 2011!" or something like that and immediately get to meet like 15 or 20 people, get on a bus and drive away and continue meeting the rest of the students from across Canada that felt called to East Asia. We went to a Bible College a couple hours from Vancouver and there we got to spend four days getting to know everyone, getting amazing training from C4C staff, worshiped, prayed a lot for everything that would happen including the goals for this year's project, got to find out where we were going and who was on our 'family' for the project (the people we would be spending a large amount of time with in the city we went to), had Bible studies, had a lot of stuff happen. It was really awesome.
Then the day came. We all went to the airport and said our goodbyes on the bus. The 50 or so people going were split into 5 different families and for the same reasons of prolonging the ministry in Asia and protecting the students we had to ignore the other families while in the airport and on the plane. It was a long flight 11 hours or something. We flew around by Alaska and crossed the Ocean there. Russia has some crazy mountains.
We landed in the capital. Got our bags, had Burger King for lunch (much to my dismay. I wanted Asian food. xP), met a Long Term staff member who is working there now, got on a bus and drove away. Our city was about an hour or two away, so it wasn't that bad, but because of time changes and stuff we all slept a bit on the bus. There were eight students, one intern and two staff couples and their two babies in our family. I really got to bond with them over family diners, fun time, just hanging out after a long day, playing Frisbee, etc. and I really feel like they are my brothers and sisters now, which we are in Jesus.
Ya, so, we were actually in a city where the ministry hadn't been established yet. For us this meant that we were starting with very little background information and nothing permanent had been set up yet. We actually didn't even have signed contracts with a school when we arrived. Without a contract we didn't have classes on campus and we didn't live in student dorms. We actually lived in a hotel placed in the center of the city. It was nice (especially now that I realize that if we were in dorms we'd end up at only one end of the city). About class: we still had it. God placed a Christian teacher in this city and the long term staff had already connected with her. She agreed to help us out by teaching us for a couple hours 3 or 4 times each week, until we got a contract signed. We met at McDonald's each day and she connected some of us with her students. She really had a heart for the great commission and reaching her students with the gospel. We never ended up getting a contract, but she stayed with us the whole time and we were really thankful for her and everything she did for us. She was a great encouragement to us. Seeing how on fire she was for following Jesus even in Asia.
So for the first part of our ministry work because it was a new city we were also scoping out the area, gathering information and getting adjusted. At the same time we started with the ministry by walking up to students to find out if they could speak some English, learn a bit about them and get their contact information so that we could call them back later. This was Phase 1 ministry.
For me personally, Phase 1 was a slow start. I was going out by my own strength and not making much or any progress. I was also having bad attitudes towards doing ministry work and I wasn't really connecting with God by having solid quiet times of prayer and listening to Him. Nearing the end of Phase 1, one of my brothers really helped me out. He told me more about quiet time, his own personal struggles in ministry and how relying on the Holy Spirit for everything really is the only way we can do anything. The last day before we were going to move onto Phase 2 I was feeling really bad again. I felt that I had not done enough and at the same time felt useless. After class that day was quiet time. I ended up looking over John 14. While on project we had Inductive Bible studies of John 13-17, one chapter each week. So I started to analyze the chapter, looking for repeating words, seeing key ideas, just looking for what God had placed in this chapter. While doing this my attitude really changed. God's word really pumped me up for going out and doing His work.
So we went to a cafeteria, me and one other guy. I was at about 14 contacts of the 25 we 'should have made.' Well, my partner said that he would not be doing any of the talking unless I was completely speechless. He basically made me go alone. However, I prayed for the spirit to fill me and to guide us to a bunch of English speaking students. What happened? God led us to 8 students in an hour and a half. Even though I couldn't do it, God could. There is no way I actually expected to get all those contacts in the two hours before Phase 2 started. Praise the Lord. By stepping out in faith and relying on the Spirit, God provided and got the job done.
So, we met back at the hotel and had 'business time', a time where we plan the next couple days, have a training lesson, pray, good stuff like that. Then Phase 2 started. We didn't have phone cards or anything, but we had 5 cell phones for the staff and intern, so we used those phones to make appointments for the day ahead. We would do this each day and if they were busy when we called (although they would pick up even if they had class) we could schedule them later that week. We would often have between 3 to 5 meetings with our national friends each day. Usually we would eat a meal, go to a coffee shop, walk around or just hang out for about an hour or so. Generally we'd get to know them better and get into some spiritual topics. I don't think this ever stopped us, but the point of phase two was to gauge how spiritually interested they were and (just in case) see if they had any connections to the government before really sharing the gospel.
We got to know a bunch of the students and really become friends. We'd always encourage our friends to bring their friends to the meetings and God really used that a number of times to bring people into contact with us. By the second meeting with a student, we'd try to get a transition to a gospel presentation. This often went through the topic of holidays, or books, or weekends, sometimes just "I was wondering, do you believe in God?", but in any case the gospel was spread and many students were very interested and prayed to receive Christ. After ever single spiritual conversation I'd just be so happy. Seeing their eyes light up as the truth is told to ears who have never heard it. Seeing people genuinely interested in talking more about God. Seeing lives transformed.
One time though, me and one of the staff members on our family met up with this second year student, who I will call Tall. His English wasn't the best, but after meeting with him, we went to his dorm to talk. We ended up on the topic of difficulties in the world. He said he believed in himself and that people can solve the problems in the world. The problem is that humans make mistakes, people fall short of perfection. *Gospel presentation*. We used a booklet that had both an English and 'East Asian' translation of various Bible verses and showed that Christianity is not just 'a western thing'. We shared a lot with him, but because his English wasn't the best, he said that he couldn't explain to us what he thought about the points in the booklet. He said that his mother used to tell him about God and that he could believe that God existed. We gave him a couple websites written in 'East Asian' that explained more about the gospel and who Jesus is, but we had to leave. He was going to the capital city the following week and was going to stay there for a year. He said he would practice English very hard so that he would be able to communicate with us.
Walking back to our hotel I was overcome with this feeling. Tears kept pouring out of my eyes and the more I thought about him the more I cried. That was the last time we got to see him. There's so much more that we could have done. He could have been saved. He could have received Jesus into his life and claim the forgiveness of sin, love of God, and the personal relationship offered by Jesus' death on the cross. I guess God showed me a bit of what He feels for the students in East Asia. Students who don't even acknowledge His existence possibly because they have just never heard about Him, and there are millions of these students in Asia. I had been praying that God would reveal to me how He sees people and I think that He revealed part of it to me in this situation. I just needed to trust in God's plan for Tall's life. The seed was planted by his mother years ago, we got to water it, and somewhere down the road God will use someone else in his life to continue growing him and bringing him back to Himself.
Phase 3 was sharing the gospel with spiritually interested students. Really, all the phases overlapped. If a contact moved from one phase to another, you wouldn't just stop talking to them until the next phase started, you would continue helping them grow towards knowing God and Jesus and the Holy Spirit.
One thing I learned this summer was that God's plans are always the best. I saw that whenever my planning failed, God had a better plan for that time. One day I had a Phase 2 appointment set up. About 15 minutes passed and my friend didn't show up, so we decided to do some Phase 1 work. We went around and met a couple more guys, one named New. A week later we met up with him and two of his friends, Rabbit and Wilson. The conversation led into spiritual topics. Just talking about East Asia and how people don't help someone if they are hit by traffic because of all the hospital bills or how others will look at them, I felt that I should share the parable of the Good Samaritan with them and from there we were into a spiritual conversation. My partner shared a drawing of two cliffs and the uncrossable separation between them. Next he drew us (literally the 5 of us, Rabbit with a bow in her hair, me tall and with glasses, etc.) on one side. Next the characteristics defining the humans on the first cliff (imperfect, sometimes loving, sometimes good, mistakes, sin, etc.) and the other side, God (holy, perfect, unconditional love, etc.). He then explained that there is nothing we can do to cross this gap (an analogy of swimming to Canada from Asia was often used to explain this point). Next, talking about Jesus and what he has done, a cross was drawn in the middle, bridging the gap and sin was crossed out on the human side. Rabbit was very interested. Later that night we passed her contact info to one of our sisters. Next week the three of us met up with those three again and they brought three more friends. The two girls (Rabbit and our sister) went to a different table (we met at KFC each time) and she shared the gospel using the 'Have you heard of the four spiritual laws?' bilingual English / East Asian booklet and her East Asian language skills. We kept distracting the other five and had a somewhat spiritual conversation while the Rabbit was listening about the gospel and praying to receive Christ. When we were all done, Rabbit was so excited she came up to us and told us that she was our sister now! She was really excited to share with her parents and friends back home during an upcoming holiday. None of that would have happened if the first guy had shown up, if we had just done nothing for that hour, or if we had just done anything other than Phase 1 work, but God led us to New and brought Rabbit to our meeting.
Phase 4 was about follow-up with new Christians and going through some discipleship materials with them. I got to see one guy come to know Christ this summer, but I definitely wouldn't have guessed at first that we would have shared the gospel with him. Actually, I met him, let's call him Moped, on the day of rest before phase 2 began. I was struggling to take a day of rest in faith because of my 14 contacts, but in the end I just gave up the day and asked that God would still be with me and empowering me. I really saw that God is always at work, whether or not we are. So that night we were playing Frisbee by some student dorms and Moped came and played with us for a bit. I got his information. Without doing anything, God got me a contact. While I was resting, God was still working. The thing was that his English wasn't great, so I didn't call him for a while. I went through my 'better' English contacts and ended up calling him and going with a staff member. We talked for a bit with him and his friend. I think he said that his parents were somewhat Buddhist. We got into the gospel, but we went through it really slowly, letting them catch each word and fully understand what we were saying. He was really happy about it and was actually pushing his friend to believe in God too. We gave them time to think through this and we gave them the websites. The next week we met up again and this time we shared the booklet with them and he was ready to pray and receive Christ into his life. My partner had to go to another meeting, but I stayed and went through the back of the booklet and I tried setting up a time to meet again. He was actually going to be gone a long time. It was Monday, but he was leaving on Wednesday to go home for the long weekend and wouldn't be back until Wednesday. We couldn't meet on Tuesday. Each day I'd think about him and pray for him. When he finally got back we met up. This was on the last Thursday before we left the city on Sunday to go to Debriefing in the capital city. We met with the two of them again and his friend had some questions about the two circles with the chairs in them in the booklet from the week before. The one with yourself on the chair and Christ outside the circle (a non-Christian who has not asked Jesus to come into their life) and the circle with Christ on the chair and self at the foot of the chair (a life with Jesus in control and self submitting to him). He thought he was neither. He actually thought his life was more like the first, but with Christ somewhere in his life. He wasn't willing to surrender control right now though. He said he needed to believe in himself right now. Anyways, me and Moped started going into the first discipleship follow-up lesson. It was mainly about how when you receive Christ into your life He is now in you, you have eternal life and there is nothing that can separate you from Him, no one that can separate you from His love. He really got this point and the whole children of God thing made him really smile too. I gave him a notebook with the booklet's material hand-written in it and some verses. I'm so glad that I got to see Moped connect and I really want to keep him in my prayers and see him grow. I also want to see him speak God's truth into his friend's life. They asked me to give them English names when they found out that their friend had one. I decided to name them after two of the apostles, two that were brothers. I named them brothers because they will be brothers once his friend is reborn into Christ's family.
While on the trip I missed church a bit. We had a couple hours together on Saturdays to listen to a sermon from an ipod, have communion together, listen to personal testimonies, praise God (without singing) and focus on the God's word. It was pretty great though. God revealed to me more about my own testimony when it was my turn to share. I just couldn't wait to sing tomorrow in a congregation with a bunch of people when I got home. xP It really reminds us that praise and worship is not all about the music, but about God and what He has done and showing our appreciation. A student who had a Christian grandmother asked us what worship was. Although music is the first thing that comes to my head, it is by far the only thing. There are so many ways we got to worship on this trip.
Ya, what else can I say? We ate a lot of greasy food, baked goods, and Korean BBQ. We went to some parks, karaoke, some shopping, and McDonald's. We rode on small buses to get around the university city and took a taxi to town. We had two birthdays while we were there. There was one on one discipleing from the staff members. We had a lot of prayer walks and prayer time. We had a block of guy/girl time each week. We eventually got an international phone plan, but I only called home once. It was an amazing time and I really learned the importance of prayer and being always in God's presence; I learned the importance of good quiet time; I learned that taking steps of faith is always rewarded; I learned a bit of East Asian; I learned again that a church is not a building; I learned about accepting others as they are because they are a unique creation and loved in God's eyes; I learned a lot. I'm going to miss my friends, but I got their email addresses so I should be able to stay in contact at least a bit.
Last week we boarded a bus and went back to the capital. We stayed in a hotel with all the other families and had a lot of time for reflection, sharing, thinking about the future, preparing for reverse culture shock as well as a lot of other things. We also got the statistics for all the things we were praying for. This year in East Asia there were 47 students and 6 staff members. We were praying for 400 gospel presentations, 100 people praying to receive Christ and ten thousand dollars to support the great commission in East Asia. We ended up talking to about 1950 different groups of students, we had about 1500 spiritual conversations, shared the gospel 463 times, sharing again 109 times and we saw 101 new brothers and sisters come to know Jesus as their personal savior. Praise the Lord. Also from just the 50 of us 8200$ were donated to East Asia, considering we are all students or staff members that's quite a bit. We also got to start discipleing about two thirds of the new Christians, went through the Spirit filled life booklet, and shared the Jesus film a number of times.
There's so many people in Asia who haven't heard the gospel, but thanks to you and many others, many students have now heard for the first time, many have heard for a second time and some have already started a relationship with God. We need to continue praying for these things that have happened. Praying that every seed that was planted would begin to grow and be watered. Praying that each new Christian brother and sister would be actively involved in a community, growing in their faith and love for God. Praying that they won't be persecuted for their faith and that they will remain life-long labourers for Jesus. Since we never got a contract to get into a school, there is a chance that we won't have a long term team there next year. Pray that the friends we made would be followed up with and that even without us there that they could be spiritually multiplying in Asia. Also pray for the future missions in Asia. This year we were praying that within two years that of the 50 of us that went on project, that 20 of us would return on a longer term trip for a year or two or do a trip in Canada to help out other campuses. We were also praying that in four years that ten of us would become staff members. In the end though, we want to see the national students be in charge of reaching out to other students in East Asia, so pray for them too. There are actually starting to be a bunch of people going to Central Asia from East Asia and a prayer that we have is that by 2020 East Asia would be the largest missionary sending area. People from Canada can't go to Central Asia easily, but if they are from East Asia it is much easier. By supporting us, we support them and in turn they reach out to another part of the world that we can't go to.
I wanted to let you know now that I am definitely considering returning next year on project as I have seen so many things happen in the hearts of students there and I grew so much. I also want to be doing more at Carleton this year and really need to rely more on the Holy Spirit's empowerment. Also, in two weeks I am leaving Ottawa to go to Northern Quebec to work as a camp counsellor in Native communities. So, keep me in your prayers and if you didn't know already you can follow what is happening in my life by stalking my blog: Incomplete Composition on blogspot. (www.incompletecomposition.blogspot.com) I post almost everyday. While I was gone I wrote a page each day and intend to type them all up before I leave. They should be good in filling in the blanks that I left out and seeing into some very basic things that I thought during the trip.
About East Asia: There is a very large population. Atheism, believing in science or one's self are very common. The rich are very rich and the poor are very poor. University students are a small, but influential group of people from all over the country that will be put in positions of power, often in international positions. There is a large problem with orphans or abandoned children (we actually got to serve at an orphanage a couple times during our stay). The people are thirsty to hear more about God and the gospel. The harvest is plentiful, but the labourers are few. Keep praying for a spiritual revival in East Asia.
Anyways, I want to thank you again for everything and ya, I hope I can go again in the future.
Dylan"
So, ya. I now have 10 minutes left, so just be praying for Northern Quebec and my time there. When I get back I'm singing at a wedding, off for a week, gone to Toronto for a week for a VBS, back for a week, frosh facilitator at orientation for a week, then school starts.
Okay. Got to go.
Ttyl.
D.Fa
Anyways, I wanted to finish posting it before I posted my Report that I sent to my supporters because of obvious spoilers. lol. But you guys have been praying for me too, so I want to give you the update too. The following is the (very long) email that took me a long time to type. lol It basically summarizes the six weeks.
"Hey!
It has just finished. I got back to Ottawa Friday night after a really long day of travelling and one of the very first things I wanted to do was to just thank all of you for the hours of prayer and supporting me so that I could go on this trip and help change lives in East Asia.
There is so much I could say and I'd be more then happy to tell you more at some point, but for the sake of time and to keep this short-ish I will mainly give generalizations and one or two specific stories. [It ended up being really long... xP but there's still so much more that happened.] Also, all names will be changed and all places either not mentioned specifically or changed. The pictures show a bit of what life was like in East Asia.
So, first was the flight from Ottawa to Vancouver. My first flight ever. It was pretty good, I watched a movie, ate, slept, read, etc. Then arrival. I get greeted by a couple other super excited people! "Welcome to Vancouver! EAP 2011!" or something like that and immediately get to meet like 15 or 20 people, get on a bus and drive away and continue meeting the rest of the students from across Canada that felt called to East Asia. We went to a Bible College a couple hours from Vancouver and there we got to spend four days getting to know everyone, getting amazing training from C4C staff, worshiped, prayed a lot for everything that would happen including the goals for this year's project, got to find out where we were going and who was on our 'family' for the project (the people we would be spending a large amount of time with in the city we went to), had Bible studies, had a lot of stuff happen. It was really awesome.
Then the day came. We all went to the airport and said our goodbyes on the bus. The 50 or so people going were split into 5 different families and for the same reasons of prolonging the ministry in Asia and protecting the students we had to ignore the other families while in the airport and on the plane. It was a long flight 11 hours or something. We flew around by Alaska and crossed the Ocean there. Russia has some crazy mountains.
We landed in the capital. Got our bags, had Burger King for lunch (much to my dismay. I wanted Asian food. xP), met a Long Term staff member who is working there now, got on a bus and drove away. Our city was about an hour or two away, so it wasn't that bad, but because of time changes and stuff we all slept a bit on the bus. There were eight students, one intern and two staff couples and their two babies in our family. I really got to bond with them over family diners, fun time, just hanging out after a long day, playing Frisbee, etc. and I really feel like they are my brothers and sisters now, which we are in Jesus.
Ya, so, we were actually in a city where the ministry hadn't been established yet. For us this meant that we were starting with very little background information and nothing permanent had been set up yet. We actually didn't even have signed contracts with a school when we arrived. Without a contract we didn't have classes on campus and we didn't live in student dorms. We actually lived in a hotel placed in the center of the city. It was nice (especially now that I realize that if we were in dorms we'd end up at only one end of the city). About class: we still had it. God placed a Christian teacher in this city and the long term staff had already connected with her. She agreed to help us out by teaching us for a couple hours 3 or 4 times each week, until we got a contract signed. We met at McDonald's each day and she connected some of us with her students. She really had a heart for the great commission and reaching her students with the gospel. We never ended up getting a contract, but she stayed with us the whole time and we were really thankful for her and everything she did for us. She was a great encouragement to us. Seeing how on fire she was for following Jesus even in Asia.
So for the first part of our ministry work because it was a new city we were also scoping out the area, gathering information and getting adjusted. At the same time we started with the ministry by walking up to students to find out if they could speak some English, learn a bit about them and get their contact information so that we could call them back later. This was Phase 1 ministry.
For me personally, Phase 1 was a slow start. I was going out by my own strength and not making much or any progress. I was also having bad attitudes towards doing ministry work and I wasn't really connecting with God by having solid quiet times of prayer and listening to Him. Nearing the end of Phase 1, one of my brothers really helped me out. He told me more about quiet time, his own personal struggles in ministry and how relying on the Holy Spirit for everything really is the only way we can do anything. The last day before we were going to move onto Phase 2 I was feeling really bad again. I felt that I had not done enough and at the same time felt useless. After class that day was quiet time. I ended up looking over John 14. While on project we had Inductive Bible studies of John 13-17, one chapter each week. So I started to analyze the chapter, looking for repeating words, seeing key ideas, just looking for what God had placed in this chapter. While doing this my attitude really changed. God's word really pumped me up for going out and doing His work.
So we went to a cafeteria, me and one other guy. I was at about 14 contacts of the 25 we 'should have made.' Well, my partner said that he would not be doing any of the talking unless I was completely speechless. He basically made me go alone. However, I prayed for the spirit to fill me and to guide us to a bunch of English speaking students. What happened? God led us to 8 students in an hour and a half. Even though I couldn't do it, God could. There is no way I actually expected to get all those contacts in the two hours before Phase 2 started. Praise the Lord. By stepping out in faith and relying on the Spirit, God provided and got the job done.
So, we met back at the hotel and had 'business time', a time where we plan the next couple days, have a training lesson, pray, good stuff like that. Then Phase 2 started. We didn't have phone cards or anything, but we had 5 cell phones for the staff and intern, so we used those phones to make appointments for the day ahead. We would do this each day and if they were busy when we called (although they would pick up even if they had class) we could schedule them later that week. We would often have between 3 to 5 meetings with our national friends each day. Usually we would eat a meal, go to a coffee shop, walk around or just hang out for about an hour or so. Generally we'd get to know them better and get into some spiritual topics. I don't think this ever stopped us, but the point of phase two was to gauge how spiritually interested they were and (just in case) see if they had any connections to the government before really sharing the gospel.
We got to know a bunch of the students and really become friends. We'd always encourage our friends to bring their friends to the meetings and God really used that a number of times to bring people into contact with us. By the second meeting with a student, we'd try to get a transition to a gospel presentation. This often went through the topic of holidays, or books, or weekends, sometimes just "I was wondering, do you believe in God?", but in any case the gospel was spread and many students were very interested and prayed to receive Christ. After ever single spiritual conversation I'd just be so happy. Seeing their eyes light up as the truth is told to ears who have never heard it. Seeing people genuinely interested in talking more about God. Seeing lives transformed.
One time though, me and one of the staff members on our family met up with this second year student, who I will call Tall. His English wasn't the best, but after meeting with him, we went to his dorm to talk. We ended up on the topic of difficulties in the world. He said he believed in himself and that people can solve the problems in the world. The problem is that humans make mistakes, people fall short of perfection. *Gospel presentation*. We used a booklet that had both an English and 'East Asian' translation of various Bible verses and showed that Christianity is not just 'a western thing'. We shared a lot with him, but because his English wasn't the best, he said that he couldn't explain to us what he thought about the points in the booklet. He said that his mother used to tell him about God and that he could believe that God existed. We gave him a couple websites written in 'East Asian' that explained more about the gospel and who Jesus is, but we had to leave. He was going to the capital city the following week and was going to stay there for a year. He said he would practice English very hard so that he would be able to communicate with us.
Walking back to our hotel I was overcome with this feeling. Tears kept pouring out of my eyes and the more I thought about him the more I cried. That was the last time we got to see him. There's so much more that we could have done. He could have been saved. He could have received Jesus into his life and claim the forgiveness of sin, love of God, and the personal relationship offered by Jesus' death on the cross. I guess God showed me a bit of what He feels for the students in East Asia. Students who don't even acknowledge His existence possibly because they have just never heard about Him, and there are millions of these students in Asia. I had been praying that God would reveal to me how He sees people and I think that He revealed part of it to me in this situation. I just needed to trust in God's plan for Tall's life. The seed was planted by his mother years ago, we got to water it, and somewhere down the road God will use someone else in his life to continue growing him and bringing him back to Himself.
Phase 3 was sharing the gospel with spiritually interested students. Really, all the phases overlapped. If a contact moved from one phase to another, you wouldn't just stop talking to them until the next phase started, you would continue helping them grow towards knowing God and Jesus and the Holy Spirit.
One thing I learned this summer was that God's plans are always the best. I saw that whenever my planning failed, God had a better plan for that time. One day I had a Phase 2 appointment set up. About 15 minutes passed and my friend didn't show up, so we decided to do some Phase 1 work. We went around and met a couple more guys, one named New. A week later we met up with him and two of his friends, Rabbit and Wilson. The conversation led into spiritual topics. Just talking about East Asia and how people don't help someone if they are hit by traffic because of all the hospital bills or how others will look at them, I felt that I should share the parable of the Good Samaritan with them and from there we were into a spiritual conversation. My partner shared a drawing of two cliffs and the uncrossable separation between them. Next he drew us (literally the 5 of us, Rabbit with a bow in her hair, me tall and with glasses, etc.) on one side. Next the characteristics defining the humans on the first cliff (imperfect, sometimes loving, sometimes good, mistakes, sin, etc.) and the other side, God (holy, perfect, unconditional love, etc.). He then explained that there is nothing we can do to cross this gap (an analogy of swimming to Canada from Asia was often used to explain this point). Next, talking about Jesus and what he has done, a cross was drawn in the middle, bridging the gap and sin was crossed out on the human side. Rabbit was very interested. Later that night we passed her contact info to one of our sisters. Next week the three of us met up with those three again and they brought three more friends. The two girls (Rabbit and our sister) went to a different table (we met at KFC each time) and she shared the gospel using the 'Have you heard of the four spiritual laws?' bilingual English / East Asian booklet and her East Asian language skills. We kept distracting the other five and had a somewhat spiritual conversation while the Rabbit was listening about the gospel and praying to receive Christ. When we were all done, Rabbit was so excited she came up to us and told us that she was our sister now! She was really excited to share with her parents and friends back home during an upcoming holiday. None of that would have happened if the first guy had shown up, if we had just done nothing for that hour, or if we had just done anything other than Phase 1 work, but God led us to New and brought Rabbit to our meeting.
Phase 4 was about follow-up with new Christians and going through some discipleship materials with them. I got to see one guy come to know Christ this summer, but I definitely wouldn't have guessed at first that we would have shared the gospel with him. Actually, I met him, let's call him Moped, on the day of rest before phase 2 began. I was struggling to take a day of rest in faith because of my 14 contacts, but in the end I just gave up the day and asked that God would still be with me and empowering me. I really saw that God is always at work, whether or not we are. So that night we were playing Frisbee by some student dorms and Moped came and played with us for a bit. I got his information. Without doing anything, God got me a contact. While I was resting, God was still working. The thing was that his English wasn't great, so I didn't call him for a while. I went through my 'better' English contacts and ended up calling him and going with a staff member. We talked for a bit with him and his friend. I think he said that his parents were somewhat Buddhist. We got into the gospel, but we went through it really slowly, letting them catch each word and fully understand what we were saying. He was really happy about it and was actually pushing his friend to believe in God too. We gave them time to think through this and we gave them the websites. The next week we met up again and this time we shared the booklet with them and he was ready to pray and receive Christ into his life. My partner had to go to another meeting, but I stayed and went through the back of the booklet and I tried setting up a time to meet again. He was actually going to be gone a long time. It was Monday, but he was leaving on Wednesday to go home for the long weekend and wouldn't be back until Wednesday. We couldn't meet on Tuesday. Each day I'd think about him and pray for him. When he finally got back we met up. This was on the last Thursday before we left the city on Sunday to go to Debriefing in the capital city. We met with the two of them again and his friend had some questions about the two circles with the chairs in them in the booklet from the week before. The one with yourself on the chair and Christ outside the circle (a non-Christian who has not asked Jesus to come into their life) and the circle with Christ on the chair and self at the foot of the chair (a life with Jesus in control and self submitting to him). He thought he was neither. He actually thought his life was more like the first, but with Christ somewhere in his life. He wasn't willing to surrender control right now though. He said he needed to believe in himself right now. Anyways, me and Moped started going into the first discipleship follow-up lesson. It was mainly about how when you receive Christ into your life He is now in you, you have eternal life and there is nothing that can separate you from Him, no one that can separate you from His love. He really got this point and the whole children of God thing made him really smile too. I gave him a notebook with the booklet's material hand-written in it and some verses. I'm so glad that I got to see Moped connect and I really want to keep him in my prayers and see him grow. I also want to see him speak God's truth into his friend's life. They asked me to give them English names when they found out that their friend had one. I decided to name them after two of the apostles, two that were brothers. I named them brothers because they will be brothers once his friend is reborn into Christ's family.
While on the trip I missed church a bit. We had a couple hours together on Saturdays to listen to a sermon from an ipod, have communion together, listen to personal testimonies, praise God (without singing) and focus on the God's word. It was pretty great though. God revealed to me more about my own testimony when it was my turn to share. I just couldn't wait to sing tomorrow in a congregation with a bunch of people when I got home. xP It really reminds us that praise and worship is not all about the music, but about God and what He has done and showing our appreciation. A student who had a Christian grandmother asked us what worship was. Although music is the first thing that comes to my head, it is by far the only thing. There are so many ways we got to worship on this trip.
Ya, what else can I say? We ate a lot of greasy food, baked goods, and Korean BBQ. We went to some parks, karaoke, some shopping, and McDonald's. We rode on small buses to get around the university city and took a taxi to town. We had two birthdays while we were there. There was one on one discipleing from the staff members. We had a lot of prayer walks and prayer time. We had a block of guy/girl time each week. We eventually got an international phone plan, but I only called home once. It was an amazing time and I really learned the importance of prayer and being always in God's presence; I learned the importance of good quiet time; I learned that taking steps of faith is always rewarded; I learned a bit of East Asian; I learned again that a church is not a building; I learned about accepting others as they are because they are a unique creation and loved in God's eyes; I learned a lot. I'm going to miss my friends, but I got their email addresses so I should be able to stay in contact at least a bit.
Last week we boarded a bus and went back to the capital. We stayed in a hotel with all the other families and had a lot of time for reflection, sharing, thinking about the future, preparing for reverse culture shock as well as a lot of other things. We also got the statistics for all the things we were praying for. This year in East Asia there were 47 students and 6 staff members. We were praying for 400 gospel presentations, 100 people praying to receive Christ and ten thousand dollars to support the great commission in East Asia. We ended up talking to about 1950 different groups of students, we had about 1500 spiritual conversations, shared the gospel 463 times, sharing again 109 times and we saw 101 new brothers and sisters come to know Jesus as their personal savior. Praise the Lord. Also from just the 50 of us 8200$ were donated to East Asia, considering we are all students or staff members that's quite a bit. We also got to start discipleing about two thirds of the new Christians, went through the Spirit filled life booklet, and shared the Jesus film a number of times.
There's so many people in Asia who haven't heard the gospel, but thanks to you and many others, many students have now heard for the first time, many have heard for a second time and some have already started a relationship with God. We need to continue praying for these things that have happened. Praying that every seed that was planted would begin to grow and be watered. Praying that each new Christian brother and sister would be actively involved in a community, growing in their faith and love for God. Praying that they won't be persecuted for their faith and that they will remain life-long labourers for Jesus. Since we never got a contract to get into a school, there is a chance that we won't have a long term team there next year. Pray that the friends we made would be followed up with and that even without us there that they could be spiritually multiplying in Asia. Also pray for the future missions in Asia. This year we were praying that within two years that of the 50 of us that went on project, that 20 of us would return on a longer term trip for a year or two or do a trip in Canada to help out other campuses. We were also praying that in four years that ten of us would become staff members. In the end though, we want to see the national students be in charge of reaching out to other students in East Asia, so pray for them too. There are actually starting to be a bunch of people going to Central Asia from East Asia and a prayer that we have is that by 2020 East Asia would be the largest missionary sending area. People from Canada can't go to Central Asia easily, but if they are from East Asia it is much easier. By supporting us, we support them and in turn they reach out to another part of the world that we can't go to.
I wanted to let you know now that I am definitely considering returning next year on project as I have seen so many things happen in the hearts of students there and I grew so much. I also want to be doing more at Carleton this year and really need to rely more on the Holy Spirit's empowerment. Also, in two weeks I am leaving Ottawa to go to Northern Quebec to work as a camp counsellor in Native communities. So, keep me in your prayers and if you didn't know already you can follow what is happening in my life by stalking my blog: Incomplete Composition on blogspot. (www.incompletecomposition.blogspot.com) I post almost everyday. While I was gone I wrote a page each day and intend to type them all up before I leave. They should be good in filling in the blanks that I left out and seeing into some very basic things that I thought during the trip.
About East Asia: There is a very large population. Atheism, believing in science or one's self are very common. The rich are very rich and the poor are very poor. University students are a small, but influential group of people from all over the country that will be put in positions of power, often in international positions. There is a large problem with orphans or abandoned children (we actually got to serve at an orphanage a couple times during our stay). The people are thirsty to hear more about God and the gospel. The harvest is plentiful, but the labourers are few. Keep praying for a spiritual revival in East Asia.
Anyways, I want to thank you again for everything and ya, I hope I can go again in the future.
Dylan"
So, ya. I now have 10 minutes left, so just be praying for Northern Quebec and my time there. When I get back I'm singing at a wedding, off for a week, gone to Toronto for a week for a VBS, back for a week, frosh facilitator at orientation for a week, then school starts.
Okay. Got to go.
Ttyl.
D.Fa
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