brand new eyes.

third-best moment of my day? getting razzle gum in the mail. so good, it should be currency.

second-best moment of my day? finding out that paramore put their entire new album, brand new eyes, on their myspace, even though their album isn't out until tuesday. it's phenomenal. i'm so excited to get the boxed set in the mail, with the lyrics and vinyl and dvd and book and stuff.

first-best moment of my day? chapel today. absolutely phenomenal. i was mulling over a quote last night, about how we were created to be loved and have our stories known and just be known in general, to live in relationships... and i was thinking how strange yet opportune it is that for the first time in as long as i can remember i'm set in a brand-new location with brand-new people and building relationships more or less from scratch. today, we had our chapel in the fireside lounge for the first time... with those times, i think, the focus will be more on us as a community, and less of a service... more of a conversation. it was incredible; jim talked to us about how generally we present prayer requests in groups, almost preparing them to be suitable requests for God, then we invite Him into the room and pray for a few minutes on something we discussed for a far greater amount of time than we did pray for it. so today, everything we did was prayer. every request we presented and all the encouragement and of course all of the prayer and scripture we offered in response was all put forth with the awareness that God is as present as any of us... and it was really cool to see the burdens being lifted, the journeys that have started to begin... last night i scrawled in my journal: "i want this journey to begin, for me, my heart, and all of us and our hearts." i don't know what sort of journey God has for me specifically this year, but i know that it's begun for some of us individually, as well as our journey as a group.

i think we're standing on the edge of something big.

hey friends! so i'm sitting in room 211 of pacific woods lodge at qwanoes, at almost midnight on day 3 of kaleo seven. i'm extremely blessed to be able to be a part of this program - a partnership between camp qwanoes and briercrest college - and couldn't possibly be having a better time. there are 28 students in the program, and together over the next eight months we'll be studying, going on adventures and coming alongside one another, forming a community and getting to know each other really well. kinda goes without saying that i'm stoked!

it's only three days in and there's so much to tell, and not a lot of time to tell it; i never thought it was possible to be so busy so quickly, but i'm pretty much swamped with things to do. they're all more or less really cool things, but it's getting a bit hectic.

so i'll give you the rundown. i'm living in room 211, as i said, with three other dudes for the year. we're all within a year or so of each other as far as age goes. i'm rooming with a dude named john from white rock, trent from alberta, and jeremy from orangeville, ontario. actually, jeremy and myself did cit at qwanoes the same summer, but were in different groups, so it's cool to have someone i kinda know but have lots of room to get tight with throughout the year still. it's been really great so far, it's a great group of guys for the room, as well as a really great kaleo group over all. i've been really surprised (in a great way) at the conversations some of us have been having right off the start, and am really excited to get to know all these folks real well over the next year.

we're currently doing work in prep for our first course, spiritual formations, which is taught by marv penner, a youth worker/professor/counsellor/writer/super-hero who spoke at qwanoes staff training last year, and i am very much a fan of his, and so stoked for his class.

we've also picked the churches we'll be serving at for the next year, and met with the pastors today. i'll be at a church called st. andrews, and it's the first year that kaleo will be working with them, and i'm so flipping excited. we met with the youth pastor today, and he told us that the three of us (jessica, nick, and myself) will be joining a team of only two other youth leaders for this year, and with a youth group of around 30 kids, it'll be a far cry from what i'm used to as far as size goes. i'm really excited though, because i have heard incredible things about the community there, and the youth who go there and their leadership potential... this description reminds me a lot of coquitlam alliance's youth group back home. i was talking to jim, today, the kaleo leader, and he was telling me the history of duncan, the city (town?) that neighbours us here in crofton and is where st andrews is located... there is such a dark history, full of evil and hatred between the caucasians/hudsons bay company and the first nations people. i am appauled at the horrible things that the settlers did in the very area i'll be serving, and am shocked at how little i've known about this in the years i've been coming to camp. with a first nations population of 20-30% this is an extremely relevant issue and as disgusted as i am by what's gone down i'm glad to be more knowledgeable and better equipped to serve God and fight for truth in this town.

our first trip is also in two days! we'll be hiking up mount albert-edwards, which is a three-day journey, and one that promises to bring us closer as a community. i don't know much except that i'm really excited.

prayer requests for you, my friends, would be for my energy and time-management, first and foremost. i've got a lot of reading and writing to do before spiritual formations starts, as well as personal reading - and my own devo's! which i don't want to allow to suffer, but days have never felt shorter. another prayer request would be all of our group's safety on the trip ahead and really cool opportunities to bond on this journey. prayer that i will find where God wants me at st. andrew's, and that i would be able to pour myself out for the sake of the gospel in these kids' lives. also, praise Him that i already feel really tight with a number of the students here, please pray that this continues and we can grow close and reflect Christ in our community here, made up of so many people from so many different backgrounds with so many stories. and of course, praise Him for this opportunity! i cannot believe that i am here, and i don't want to take a moment of it for granted. i am blessed more than i can realize or acknowledge.

some paint/laundry detergent antics we had on the first night.

riding around a shopping cart in wal-mart... regular college-student behaviour?

what remained after the first night.

myself and bitty, after hitting up wal-mart for some last minute hiking stuff.