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Hey everybody. This last week has been really great. It was our 24/7 week of prayer here, and it was a great week, wow. I went in, not knowing what to expect. What would I do? Would I be able to keep praying for the whole hour? I found all the answers to these questions my first time in. At first I was looking around at everything, the pictures of everyone that were all around on the walls. The hour flew past, and I found myself surprised when the next person walked in. Over the next days, I really looked forward to being in the prayer room. I worked through and gave to God alot of things that had been bothering me, and had some really great talks with others. You were allowed to pray with one other person for some of them, and the conversations that came out of them were really encouraging. It is exciting, I had never thought of myself as being able to pray like that before, and I learned alot throughout the week. I am going to try to do this more often, spend some alone time with God. Youth group has been pretty good so far. Friday we had a guys/girls night. The guys stayed at the church and played some video games, ate some snacks, and had some conversations. I am looking forward to what is going to happen there. We are in the midst of a class right now, Foundations For Church Ministry. It has been good so far, and this is our last class before the Christmas break. I am looking forward to coming home for awhile, and seeing all of you again. I hope there's alot of snow!

Ryan

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So today is monday, the first day of our 24/7 week of prayer here at Kaleo. Each student has signed up for an hour each day to be praying, for a week. It should be a really good experience, I have not prayed like this before. I am kind of looking forward to it, but at the same time i do not know what to expect. Pray that it would be a good week for all of us, and that we would be able to focus and meet with God in our times of prayer. We had youth group on friday, I went for the first time in awhile it felt like. We did a really fun experience to do with teaching the kids about the body of Christ. We split into guys and girls teams. Each team had to make their own batch of cookies, but the twist was each person had a different role. Roles were: eyes, hands, feet and encourager. The eyes could see everything and tell instructions to the other parts, but could only use eyes and mouth. The hands were blindfolded and could only use their hands and could not talk. The feet could not talk as well, were blindfolded, and had to carry the hands everywhere according to the instructions of the eyes. I was the feet for the boys team, and it was pretty fun and interesting. The kids really enjoyed it, laughing when the hands messed something up, and it was a cool way of teaching this lesson. If you could all be specifically praying for me as I have decisions that will need to be made in the future about where I am going after Kaleo that would be great. This has been on my mind lately, and that would be really great. Thanks

Ryan

Reading Break

So here at Kaleo, it is reading break. It has been good to sleep in! This past weekend I was working here at camp, with the junior high retreat. I did a number of things, mostly helping out the events coordinator with the games. It was a good weekend, and I got to talk to quite a few kids too, which was pretty cool. We are beginning another period of lots of work to do, and it's catching up to me once again. I am sorry about not writing this sooner, but I haven't really thought of much to write. I haven't been to church in awhile, as working on the weekend took up my time. Its a weird sort of time right now. Tonight we are going to the Warren Miller ski movie in Victoria, which should be fun. All of today I am going to be finishing a group project for Jims camp ministry class. I had better get back at it, so I will write some more possibly later.

A light

A full course, all the work, done. What a relief. Hermeneutics turned out a lot better than I had thought earlier in the week. I learned quite a lot, and am trying to apply it to my Bible reading. Never again will I look at the Bible the same way as I do now, and that change is definitely a positive one. Half the Kaleo group went caving/swimming on monday, while the others were in Victoria talking to homeless and helping them out. Then today we switched it up, and each group did the thing they did not do the day before. On monday I went caving. It was a really cool experience for sure. At first I was a bit worried about being a bit claustrophobic, but after a few minutes of being in the caves, it wore off. At one point we all stopped in a kind of open area, and we all turned off our headlamps. What darkness! I could not see my hand touching my nose, let alone anything around. I felt so isolated for this brief moment, and it was a really almost scary feeling. This was true darkness, and I thought "This is what it is like to be blind. Imagine if I was in here by myself, and my headlamp went out!" Reflecting on this experience now, I can realize that this situation can be related to people who are not following God, and are trying so hard to find their way. If I really was in there by myself, and if my light had burned out, there is no way I would ever be able to get myself back to the entrance of the caves. As well, I would end up injuring myself trying to get back out. This is what so many people are experiencing, and they need a light. We are called to be this light to them, to guide them to Jesus. Matthew 5:14-15 says "You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house." This, along with visiting the homeless in Victoria has really challenged me to reach out to those in need of the light.