home....

it feels like i have never left. i drive through the streets and its as if i was there yesterday. i am very excited to be home though, to be able to sit in my kitchen and look out on a landscape of a valley with a river, plains and mountains in the background. and when the sun sets and the clouds are cooperating, it is something to experience. and it is something that i have had the privilege of experiencing for the past 13 years. Im not trying to talk down on BC or anywhere else. it just seems like i have been in perpetual shade for the past 3 months living at Qwanoes and coming home i realize how fortunate i am to have been blessed with a love and attachment to the landscape outside my window. But i am home, and the ability to physically hold my sister is something that i have wanted to do for so long as the news kept roller coasting up and down. and now as christmas has come around, the coaster has been temporarily stopped to allow a false sense of "normal". except is it truly normal to have a, what we think of as, a normal life? no hardships, the occasional death but that death is usually an old age relative. as i have been coming to realize that if you have a life that doesn`t include some or more of the following; Death, Broken Families, substance abuse, physical abuse, sexual assault, cancer. Etc. you do not live a normal life. your life has been blessed because it shows that Gods hand for some reason chooses to cover some families more than others for protection. An thats where your life becomes abnormal . But what would life be without some excitement and near death experiences thrown your way. Throughout my Walk with God my favourite aspect of him i have come to adore i his sense of humour. i find it everywhere in creation, especially the sky. thats probably why i enjoy where i live because there is always something happening with the clouds and the sun. both combined to make shapes and portraits that i can follow with my eyes and discuss with others and how the earth feels sometimes as if it were a giant playground that i can run, leap and create forts and my imagination tends to run away on me usually all the time whenever I'm idle. Although i have come to a point where i am very in-tune with his humour side, i have begun to get a grasp on how serious he is when it comes to a point when someone has to turn there heart back to God. there comes a point in our life where i hope we all come to that we can look back and see with clear eyes of all our wrong and the destruction we have caused by carrying a negative attitude and sharp words. However God is not normal, but nor should he be not-normal. he Just is. Just is God. and just now realizing how gifted we are to have the ability to be blessed emotions. the emotion of Anger, Joy, sorrow. God feels as we feel but what we feel is only a sliver of what it was truly meant to be. this Christmas i am going to feel a lot of these feelings and it is not going to feel normal because it hasn't ever been this way. but in reality this is the norm of our world. we are marked by brokenness. but at his discretion we are being filled and mended.

I miss watching lost....

Shhh…..SHHHHHHH… if you are in a church with the chromosomes XX… No Talking for you! Haha jokes. But those have been flying around somewhat for the past few days. Can you guess what our latest paper is about? Oh you guessed it! WOMEN IN THE CHURCH! And on another not Kaleo has been cutting students loose and now our numbers are down to nine. Well we have been that way since last Thursday and there is one word for that absence of 70% of the population missing… silence.. and maybe a bit of relaxation thrown in and you got yourself a wild weekend! As soon as everybody left Bob, Tim and myself tracked down Marissa and using our manly brute strength fended off 4 females and tied her up in the stairwell leading to the girl’s dorms. It was a glorious victory and the chaos ensued as the morals and serenity of Kaleo drove away…well we still had morals, they just dropped down a notch or five.
But I’m going to have to back up a day to Tuesday. Tree hunting!! For a, guess? A CHRISTMAS TREE! YEAH! But it wasn’t the tree hunting that I had fun with. It was the ____________(two year story…or at least a month) that I did with Bob and John. After a successful mission of “hunt the tree” we came back to camp to have a Christmas dinner with Qwanoes staff and all of Kaleo. We all had to dress up and look our best for this meal because it was Christmas dinner. I dressed up pretty good…some may say “greasy” or “dirty” but I literally thought I looked good and is a look I’m looking forward to busting out in the future to cap off the evening was a talent show featuring dances, Alexisonfire covers featuring the “smash the drums so loud you think your ears are bleeding and cant hear anything else the band is playing” solo artist, and songs from females which for the guys create an awkward tension in the room for no apparent reason but they sound good none the less…. That’s how I would describe the talent show. It was fun. The past couple days have been warm/sunny and clear and the nights have been not warm or sunny but cold and clear for the stars to shine through. Sadly though we have quite the abundance of homework to keep us indoors and outside of the sun and I am currently stuck indoors punching out words.
Within the days of being alone I have been roommate-less and most of the people dear to my heart have been gone and I am finding myself missing them all the time and missing simply there company. I don’t know how Christmas break is going to be with them gone and all hanging in Ontario (well at least 50% of them) and I am probably not going to see any of them until January. Currently I am at peace with them and not really feeling left out because my longing to be home is soo strong that frankly I don’t give a rip. But when I’m at home it may be a different story.
At youth this week I got a chance to meet with the major prospect to be our new youth pastor at Bethel Tabernacle. He seems he has got the job since they did fly him out from Ontario, but couldn’t help but cringe when he spoke about love for his message. It wasn’t a bad topic and it is something that should be talked about all the time. But I can’t help but see love as a bucket. Something that is a simple idea. Portable. Light. Easy to carry once you got a hang of it and the right instruction. But when we try to look inside that bucket and grasp the bottom it is so deep that we can never fully explain or see its reality in this lifetime. And for the talk I felt like it was very, very surface level and I am hoping that in the future the messages get deeper for these students because they are hungry.
Well im signing off for now and next time you hear me speak on the
inter-web-data-base a.k.a. “the internet” ill be in Alberta! Yeah! I’m so excited because I see Alberta as the top dog province. Hearing about BC’s and Ontarios lame bylaws and taxes I have come to appreciate Alberta so much and probably will never move away. Unless I find a home in New Zealand when I go there in the summer.

Blog, Blog, Blogski, Blogo

The past week has been very eventful. full of sadness. learning. hope and perseverance. but most of all perseverance. God has been teaching me the ways of perseverance lately by continually placing constant obstacles in not so much my own, but the life of my family. These obstacles are not simply ones that can be leapt over in our life but more over a staircase that when it seems we can stop climbing because we are at the top, but another set is laid before us where we cannot stop no-matter how sore we are feeling we must push forward until we get over it. It is hard enough to be stretched everyday by the people around me but to have that constant pull from home added on top of all that is already happening is probably the strongest shaping force in my life. For God to have me long to see my family, to long for there faces and touch, i feel closer to them now more than ever and am very excited to go home in two weeks. The past week in school we had another Professor come out to teach us yet another aspect of our faith, and that aspect happened to be Church Ministry. David Ernst definitely made the class an enjoyable one to sit through and the learning easy to absorb all the information that was bombarded onto our simple college student minds. our latest topic for an essay happens to be on whether or not women should be allowed to have a leadership role in the church. it is a controversial issue and an essay topic that i will not readily share because i do not really like having confrontations with any one of any-sort, so ill just leave it as it is. we are now moving into a week which will be filled with quietness because most of Kaleo is heading out to vancouver for the convention for youth workers for 4 days. but before that on friday night Bo, Emma, Abby, and myself all came together to run our youth service. the amount of time we took to plan this event was quite crammed compared to the amount of time it took to do youth. Youth consisted of a competition between the guys and girls for who can pickup a cereal box with there mouth from the floor. but the catch is that after every round we cut the box about 1-2 inches shorter until it was no more than a centimeter from the ground. i was astonished to see the guys surpass the girls in this competition by being able to pick up the box off the floor. following that was a popcorn eating competition that has 4 students eating a total of 16 popcorn bags and the PK ended up puking at the end of the competition. but after that Emma and I led a worship service which the students desired soo deeply to have because since we have been at Bethel we haven't had a worship service until last friday. all in all youth went over better than we thought it would and was a success. next friday the youth-pastor prospect is coming to youth and Bo and I are going to meet him and see what he’s all about. well thats all from my end. I’m signing out. and craving some LOST.....

Part 2. REMIX.. November 16-22

Week 2, prayer week; probably one of my favorite weeks so far in terms of spiritual downtime and revival. My time slot for the 24/7 week was a constant 5AM – 6AM. The mornings were usually acquainted with a clear sky that oh so much reminded me of home because usually at home it is either snowing partially cloudy or clear. And for the most part it is clear with an abundance of shooting stars. When I would go into the room I would look around the room for any new additions of praise and prayer requests then quickly turn off the lights, and sit by the window staring at the stars quietly whispering to God for answers, comfort and requests. The week started out strong for the first four days but near the end I felt strongly exhausted from my early mornings and was on the verge of falling asleep. But let me backtrack a bit. During the week I was able to do my QFX with the maintenance crew and helped them take apart a rotting girls bathroom! I know! Exciting! I was thinking I was going to be smashing everything but instead we were trying to preserve every little bit we could so we would save money on the next build. It was a great experience to come alongside the staff and have a great male bonding moment in the dismantlement of the bathroom. It took some crazy turns, which included a spider battle and a very insightful lesson on servant-hood but in the end we stripped that building bare.

On Friday I was able to go to youth for the first time in a while but when I got there I realized that it was nothing but a movie night and we were watching star trek. Not my favorite movie and I have come to loath space movies because I cant help but notice a universe being portrayed as a universe without God. Such a thing repulses me and I came prepared and finished my textbook that I brought to read. Something that I am very proud of accomplishing is starting and finishing my second textbook on Saturday. Start time 11:00. End time 5:00. 243 pages of a decent book… finished. Sunday came and here I am. After church I had a desire to get out of the buildings because lately I have realized that we are spending most of our time indoors and I wanted to go for a walk. I decided to walk up maple mountain where near the top is a clearing that I have heard of that has a cross and a beautiful view. It is just around a 40-minute hike past some great waterfalls. It was a very eye-opening walk and a great set of downtime to be had at my destination. I would like to include that on the way back from the gym one rainy night my I pod fell out of my rain jacket pocket and onto the wet path and in the rain. I realized this when I returned back to the lodge and looked in my pockets. I came to the decision to never put it in those pockets again because they have holes in them for some reason that is I pod-sized. Apparently TheNorthFace is not I pod friendly and desires all I pods to fallout into the rain. Of course this was a bummer because my pod is used every night to lull me to sleep and now it appeared to be broken. But after some prayer and a heat vent and uncooked rice it somehow works still! Tragedy avoided! Tomorrow is the Twenty-Third of November. A very big day for my family. Pray it goes well and the Lords healing hand is upon the Boyda’s in more ways than o

Part 1. REMIX.. November 9-15

First of all I would like to apologize for my slacking for the past two weeks and previous weeks before. My blogs have not been filled with very much content and have been quickly growing shorter. I intend to make an improvement on these shortcomings starting now with a different approach to writhing them. Now lets fill in the gaps for the past two weeks….

The morning of November ninth was a very exciting one because not just anyone was coming but DON TAYLOR was going to start teaching us about the Old Testament! At first I was discourage because I was thinking “what? A test? Memorize ALL the books of the Old Testament in order AND remember how to spell them ALL correctly?? OH NO!!!! These were my initial thoughts. At the start of the week but I was still pumped to learn about all the scandals, lies, murder and battle associated in the OT and at the end we were going to have a movie! Exciting eh? I thought so! As the week progressed the reality of the movie turned into a few late night/ early morning sections throughout the week but none of us are like the trooper Trent who pulled basically 2 all nighters, what a chief. But at the end of the week the movie turned out to be a fantastic film with effort put in from the whole Kaleo community. I must admit, because it was basically caught on film… the water in November is really… REALLY cold but it was worth it to add some Epic-ness unheard of in the film.

When the weekend came around I was slightly bummed to see that I was working again (but I signed up for that weekend so I really did that to myself) and Friday night consisted of me directing traffic. But this wasn’t the first time I directed traffic, the first time I did it alone but on my second attempt I was given an older and more “experienced” person to tell me how to tell where cars are to be parked. I never knew it before…but directing traffic is FUN! I remember watching at the airport where the men with the flashlight batons would wave where to place the planed by doing a little dance on the spot and that’s where the plane would go! And finally I got my own baton… which Brendan eventually threw on the ground after much provocation on my part and the flashlight cracked in half… nut it wasn’t mine nor was it a high quality light. In fact it was a low quality. So your welcome camp Qwanoes.

On Saturday I was on maintenance all the hours of the average North American workday except for the time of activities where I was doing ropes on the sky-scraper (giant 3 person swing). For those of you who do not know what ropes are on the giant swing; the cable that pulls the occupants up to the top gets unhooked from the riding swing thing and it is my job to pull that rope back to its original spot and prepare for the next ride. As it may not sound, this job is strenuous and tiring. In the end I got arm pump and couldn’t hold on to anything with my hands and had to find a replacement.

Reading week/Jr. high weekend retreat/first day of Old testament literature.

stress, stress, stress, crunch time. those four words have been dominating the past week and will be ruling for the next 2. its not that i am behind, its more of there is much to do and little time to do it.

this past weekend, there was a junior high retreat and the only thing i was scheduled to work for was directing traffic for an hour on the first night. so for the entire weekend i hung out with the children and councilors for the time i could on the weekend. it was interesting to be able to be there for the retreat but have no obligations to the kids but to be there and play the games, worship in Q-town and sit in during meals and talk with joke around with them by talking in a british accent and tricking them into thinking i was british!

because i worked i was unable to go to youth, in fact, our whole youth party of Kaleos were unable to go to youth an on sunday i was the only one to attend the service.

Today we started OT lit. and it is unbelievably interesting! i am very excited for this week of class despite our limited time for homework and i am looking very forward to working as a class for our project

Photos, Not Photons....

This past week was a definite contrast between the week earlier. instead of class, we went surfing in tofino! Instead of a mildly stressful weekend with children, it was a mildly stressful weekend with Homework! and i was able to go to church and youth on sunday and friday! that was a good time. Friday Youth happened to be our halloween party which consisted of pumpkin carving, an interesting discussion with the youth and a game of sardines (hide and seek with different rules). It was interesting and good to finally have a time where we can engage in a message with some good questions to get the youth talking, thinking and breaking out of their boxes a little with each other. it is quite different from the youth back home dealing with a more emphasis on "parties" and fun times over messages and times of worship. This realization has make me more appreciative of when i used to help set up for youth and there was much emphasis on "atmosphere" and at the time i thought it was dumb but now i see how every little bit helps. church on sunday was very interesting because i attended a different church than my usual one. its number of attenders was quite less and the age category was through the roof! it made me thankful to be in the church i am stationed in. surfing in tofino was a blast of a time! i didn't do much surfing due to a previous motocross shoulder injury but had a blast and a half simply running around the beach taking pictures. all in all it was a good week full of good memories and now on the reading week its time to do some more H-work

JUNIORS!!!!

This weekends was quite a reality check in terms of the world we live in. we had a the junior retreat stay with us and i was a councilor along with a character named Curtis from the mainland. it was quite interesting how my frame of mind changed so quickly from friday night to sunday afternoon. when the children were arriving i was more focusing on how i was going to pull through the weekend and was praying for it to be over quickly because to be honest i am not too fond of interaction with children of this age group unless they are blood relatives. so now you know where i was at. wanting to finish quickly. If there is one thing that is a pet peeve it is having some young pre pubescent boy scream into the late hours of the night. and thats exactly what i received. Gifts from God come in many shapes, sizes and forms and This one was in the form of _____. i withhold his name because as much of a gift he was he was quite a handful and for some privacy stuff. but it was interesting to see how i was tested about how much i actually know about the bible and how much i know Jesus. the weekend was full of various activities such as climbing tower, skateboarding and swimming. a highlight would be the swimming with the campers. the pool employees were very much lenient with how rowdy or loud we were so we had maximum fun! by the time sunday came around, we were having good discussion and reasonable control over the volume levels but then the children had to leave early after lunch so the weekend was cut short according to me. to no surprise i was exhausted as soon as the campers left because deep down inside i guess i could finally let go of all my tension and stress. with the weekend out and surfing tomorrow i pray for homework to be complete before sunday.... which is the duedate.

Quiet Week

This past week happened to be our Tofino surf trip but sadly the weather did not cooperate and it got set back some weeks. Also to add to the quietness our friday youth was canceled due to the youth being on a camping trip that us kaleos were unable to attend. But on top of it all my sister Olivia came to visit for my birthday weekend! when i herd she was coming i was excited beyond normal, But soon after i herd there were complications and she couldn't make it...BUT THEN i herd that if she changed her travel schedule she could make it! so she came out for a nice visit for 4 days out here on the island. it was a chill time and excellent time to see how the kaleo community would react to having a sibling live among us for a few days. SUCCESS! everyone loved her, was accepting and treated her like the big sister she is. And she helped with some of the girls sessions too and shared her vast well of wisdom with the men HAhaha! then on sunday she got to experience the church i was attending and it got a rating of two thumbs up. which is a pretty good rating from what i hear. all in all it was a very quiet week around qwanoes.

Stranded in Victoria... October 12th

As bad as it sounds its not that bad we have a way to get home but i thought i would make the title interesting! But on this current escapade i was unable to attend church on Sunday but i will be there next sunday for sure. But on a higher note last friday i was able to attend youth which was a Guys night/Girls night! The guys got the Gym at the local elementary school rented out for a night of games and Fun. i have no idea what the women were up to but I`m sure they had some fun! At the Gym it was a good time to start seeing the character of most of the boys because nothing is more character revealing than a heated game of dodgeball or a close game of basketball. It was very good insight to see which of the boys had a strong personality and which ones were more laid back, who were the leaders and who were the followers etc. etc. the night lasted from 6-9 so we had a considerable amount of time to break the ice between us ("the interns" as is our new nickname) and the student body of the group no real personal one on one heartfelt conversations went on because everyone was too busy competing for the bragging rights of the evening but after friday i feel more comfortable just hanging out with the boys and i am not just excited to be known as their leader but i cant wait until they begin to recognize me as a friend.

Rock band is the new cool? october 4

well not only did we have High school youth happen but also we attended the elementary program (kidopolus)! that night was exhausting! the children there were crazy! at our first arrival we didn't know what to expect and it turned out to be their christmas night in september... but it still was a good time. i helped by making multiple wraps on a prize that the children would pass around in a circle and take turns unwrapping until one lucky kid unwrapped the final layer and got the prize, then we went into a time of worship with christmas music followed by the story about the birth of Jesus. overall the night was awesome but exhausting at the same time and we wont be doing kidopolus for the rest of the year because two nights a week is too much time and too much energy. On friday though we had our Rock band party with the high school kids. this was an interesting night because with none of us kaleo students skilled in this particular video game but we still had a good time connecting with the students and rocking out on the Wii. but what the youth leader told us was to dress up crazy and you'll see by our pictures that we did but apparently "crazy" is code word to dress up in suits and fedoras and ties. we felt dumb but made up for it by naming our band "missed the memo". we have yet to have a serious worship night/message night at the church because of the party this week and the concert the week before. but i am optimistic that within the next weeks that youth is going to pick up. today after church we went to our pastors house for lunch and had great fellowship with him and his family. also to finish things off after lunch i accidently had a napkin overtop a burning candle as i was stacking plates and started a fire at their kitchen table. but with a fast reaction and maybe panicking a bit i got it out. but other than that it was a good time to get to know our pastor and youth pastor on a more personal basis with the group.

First Youth Night! September 28

Well well well. Last friday was our first Sr. high youth and to kick off our youth events and we went to a concert at a church in Nanaimo. The band that was playing played songs ranging from Hillsong to Chris Tomlin. The vibe and power this band expressed from the stage was unwavering from the beginning to the end. It was an experience like no other to connect with our youth on such an intimate level on our first night. It was as if the barriers fell right away and conversations opened up on the van ride there and back and we were able to stand together and worship the Lord. I have gotten to know some of the youth on a one to one basis, learning names is a working process but learning their hobbies, music they like and what school subjects they enjoy was on the menu of what i wanted to learn from them. The message at the service was the salvation message and it is amazing every time i see people accept Christ and the support they get from their friends as they walk back to their seats. Next week we are going to have a Rock Band party where we are required to dress up as a rock and roll band. I am very excited for the church that i have picked and the youth that are there i have a great feeling that Jesus is going to work in the lives of the children and the lives of myself once again thank you for following along!

September 19th. First post!

Well welcome to by blog where i shall update you on my current ministry involvement in one of the local churches in the area that i have chosen to assist in and help them grow and grow as a man of god myself. I am very excited for this year of change that is going to happen and for all the new people i am going to build everlasting relationships with these strange but love-able people who i will soon call family in due time. To start things off, i am eternally thankful that this program is hosted in one of the most beautiful places on Gods green earth! The forest is lush and full of animals that are just not found on the prairies, such as slugs and Jellyfish! This journey that i am on not only involves myself but also everyone i know and am around. i would like to thank you all for allowing me to invite you my life and glimpse at what i am going through this year. I have been adopted into the Bethel Tabernacle church of Ladysmith. the description i have received when first choosing our churches read as follows:

-Largest church in ladysmith, vibrant community, contemporary, multi-generational, young feel, relatively conservative, Pentecostal expression, strongly biblical.

When i first learnt about the church is was overcome with joy to get back into the Pentecostal environment which i was originally raised in my early years of child hood. after much praying and thought on my choice it was finally solidified. But before meeting with the church members i started having second thoughts. Oh No! cold feet! but i reassured myself and headed off to chapel the meet with my new family. and it turned out that they have some amazing and energetic church programs that are in need of assistance. Luckily what they need is where i have been assisting in E-free. they have openings for worship leading on their K-Gr.5 nights where i can also be a leader and their is a need for leaders on friday nights where they have their Sr. high students. I am looking forward to this upcoming sunday and next week where i can get start getting involved and growing in my faith towards Christ Jesus our Lord. Thank you for your time and most importantly thank you for your prayers.