Finally...New York stuff.

Hey. I finally finished typing the journal. you can read it here

some photos, here , there is a full size button to look at them bigger.

back.

Hey everyone. This is my first blog since returning from our New York trip. I know you are all wondering how the trip went, and what we did and such, and so I had an idea. Rather than make a blog post about it (which would be not super informative, or tell you the most details, i have decided something else. I wrote a journal entry for each day I was on the trip, and so I am going to type it up, and have it available for you to download. I will do the same for an album of photos I have as well. Anyways, being back has been good, exchanging stories with the other teams. We spent an entire day just sharing with each other in a group how our trips went. This post is really just to inform you that there will be stories and photos from the trip on the way. Thank you all so so much for your support, it really has been so appreciated, probably more than you will know.

Ryan.

heading out into the world.

Hey. Let me start by saying I know this is my first post in the past two weeks, and I apologize for my absence from the blogging world. This past little while I have seen little sleep, many assignments, and little time to be even thinking about blogging. Again I apologize. Anyways, I have finished work as of now, and today is a big day. Off to New York city! We are leaving here at 6:30 our time, driving through the night to Seattle, and taking an early morning flight from there straight to New York. I will be gone until the 24th, and will definitely be updating you all on what happened and photos etc. Your prayer during this trip for not just our trip, but the other Kaleo students going to Vancouver and India would be greatly appreciated. Anyways, I have much packing to do, and so I will be posting on the other side.
See you all then, and thank you so much for your continued support,

Ryan.

-+___

This week. Wow did it ever fly by. It seems the more we go along, the faster things go by. Having a ton of work doesn't help either I suppose. Since I am writing this late, it is now reading break, and mine and Phil's friend Adrian is here. Should be a great week, and I look forward to what is going to happen. This trip that I am going to be taking to New York has been on my mind a lot lately. We had the opportunity to meet with a couple that we are going to be working with while we are down there, and hear from them about their experiences and what we are going to be doing. It was awesome to hear what they had to say to us, and get an idea of some of the things we will be encountering. To be honest, quite a bit of what I heard scares me. We are going to be in Brooklyn, and doing some things I never thought I would be doing. I think I am going to learn alot through this trip. Things have been much the same as far as youth group and church goes. I am really coming to appreciate Friday nights, when I get to hang out with the kids. To be honest, in the past there have been times I wondered wether it was even worth going, but there have been many things that have convinced me otherwise and I am glad God has placed me at St. Johns. Thanks to all of you for your support, it is so appreciated.

_____

A photo that I took while on the Mount Washington trip. A bit of an experiment in photoshop as well.


Another week of class, flown by. Old Testament literature was the topic this time, and I really was not sure what to expect. As someone who really has not spent much time in the Bible until this year, this course was a real eye-opener to me, and I learned much from the great teaching of Don Taylor, as well as the readings we were doing. He has such a passion for teaching, and he made the class enjoyable and interesting. I will definitely be delving into my Old Testament more often! As well, we as a class made a video about 27 mins, long that was depicting the Old Testament. It was super fun, and it was cool to work on something as a whole group. Youth group has been good recently. Just on friday, we had a board games night, and made a big ice cream sundae. I am definitely feeling like the kids are connecting well, but the church seems to be doing not as good. I was not at the last service, but from what I heard from the people who did go was not positive at all. The message was an annual report, made by the minister who is filling in while the church finds a new one. There are many issues this church is struggling through as of now, and they are really in need of some solid guidance. As well, if you could be in prayer for our missions trips that are coming up. One group is going to Vancouver, one to India, and the group i am in, New York.

thinking. alot.

Hmm, where to start? This week has been a challenging one. I think I have thought about more things this week than I have in a long time, and its wearing me out. Maybe sometime soon I will share more on that. We spent some time in Vancouver on the weekend, at a thing called Missions Fest. There are many seminars, booths of different organizations, and talks. The whole weekend I found to be ok, but one thing really stood out to me. On one of the nights, a man named Tony Campolo was speaking. He delivered a very convicting and challenging talk, and I sat in attention for the whole thing. He spoke on many things, and many things spoke to me. One in particular is the question "Are you just giving 1/10th of what you have to God?" That spoke directly to me, and one of his points was asking how we could sing the song "I surrender all." He sang the lyrics like this: "1/10th to Jesus I surrender, 1/10th to Him I freely give; I will ever love and trust Him, In his presence daily live. I surrender 1/10th, I surrender 1/10th; 1/10th to thee, my blessed Savior, I surrender 1/10th". Wow. That hit me where it counted, and I got this sick feeling in my gut. I had to step back and take a look at myself. I have told myself I am giving myself fully to God, in all aspects of life, but am I really? No, I am not. I want to change, so help me God to do so.

Hey I'm back.

the first shot is from farther down the mountain, on our snowshoeing trek.

the second is the view from one of the peaks of Mount Washington. this wasn't even the highest peak! amazing.



So first semester is over, and Kaleo is back in full swing. We have had one class already, the Theology of Mission and have recently started our next class: Introduction to Christian Theology. I think this has been the most interesting class to me so far, and I have not had much trouble paying attention in class, which can sometimes be a problem for me. I am just really enjoying this class. By the time some of you have read this, I will have applied for two colleges. One is North Island College in Courtenay here on the island, and the other is Georgian College in Barrie. I have applied at both for graphic design, so I guess we will wait and see what happens. We had our second week of prayer, a bit shorter this time, 24/4. That was pretty good for me, I gave over alot to God in that time, and have been filled with his peace about this situation. I still have to decide what to do with summer though... Our youth group at St. John's has been going alright. Recently, we had one of our students over at camp, one who had been considering leaving youth, just to hang out. Jake had the chance to connect with him, and he is going to return to youth, which is encouraging for sure. We have been doing some fun events, such as scavenger hunts and things, which has been fun and also helping to build the relationships between us. Work is on the brain for sure as well, and there is no lack of it, thats for sure. I have just recently heard that Phil and my friend Adrian is going to be coming out here to visit for our reading break, which is so exciting! It is going to be awesome. This week will be one of some working, so be praying for focus for all of us here as we work.

Ryan

Back

So I have returned to the west coast, and am back here at Camp Qwanoes. Christmas break was... different. This was a good thing however in most cases. We did alot of things that we did not normally do for the break, and I think it turned out well. I did alot of thinking over the break as well, alot of which confused me even more I think. Confused about what I am going to end up doing. I find that if something is overwhelming, I just tend to just try and avoid it, and that is what I was doing this whole break... almost. It caught me, and just really seems to drag me down, yet something has to be done about it. I have been trying to handle this myself, and I just need to give it over to God. I am really looking forward to this semester, and praying that God will do amazing things throughout the rest of this year, and in our youth ministry especially. I am off to Mount Washington for a week skiing trip, and still have some pacing to do, so I will write more later.