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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.

Last one...

So this is my last post before Christmas, and wow how the time has flown by. We have been up to a few things recently, we went out looking for a Christmas tree, bungee jumping and tree challenge course going. As I write this, I am going to be back in Ontario in 2 days. Crazy, and hard to believe. Ministry wise, youth has been going fairly well, although the church is really struggling I feel. This past week we had a real different sermon, one that was filled with things that I did not agree with. It would take awhile to explain, and even then you really had to be there to understand, but it just felt so wrong to me and the other two students that go there. I am really praying for this church right now, as they are struggling with alot of issues. Youth group is going quite well however. The kids are really cool and consistent in coming out. I like the smaller group idea, it really allows you to connect to the kids. Its going to be so different to leave this community and go back into the environments we all were in before we came. This has been the longest I have ever been away from home, and so I don't know what to expect when I go back. I really look forward to coming back however. So looking forward to snow. It just doesn't seem like it is close to Christmas in a way. As well, out here we have missed out on all the consumerism bombardment that most of us experience leading up to Christmas, which has been really refreshing I would say. Please pray for safety as we all fly back, and that there would be no complications with that, and as well for my church, St. Johns Anglican. See you soon,

Ryan.

..

I don't know if this is weird, but I have another thought relating to nature and me. But first I will update you on what has been going on around here. youth group was pretty good last week. we went to a local christmas event, a tree light-up and some fireworks. there wasa few kids that came, and we saw more of them at the event. then we headed back to pack some care bags for the homeless outreach we are planning to do in the future. Camp life has been slow as of late, there really isn't alot going on around here, so I don't really know what to write. Anyways I will share something that I saw while out on our guys night at a beach a little ways away. We hiked in, and camped right on the beach. The weather had been really foggy, and it still was when night began. We all decided to walk to a waterfall not far from the campsite, just down the beach a ways. By now there was thick fog everywhere. As I walked down the beach, even with my headlamp, I could not see very far ahead of me at all, and the part I could see was bare sand and rocks. It felt as though I could have been on another planet. I looked behind me, the very same thing. It was an eerie feeling, and I felt uncertain as to where I was almost. I had to take the journey back to the campsite one bit at a time, and I ended up going a different way than I had planned. I thought about it on the walk back home, and I found that the situation related well to where I am in my life right now. My future is pretty uncertain right now, and I am searching for a way, but cannot seem to see very far. I am praying the fog lifts, but I think I am realizing it might take some time, and that I should take this journey I am on one step at a time, and not try to see what is at the end yet. Anyways, those are my thoughts about now, and I can't wait to see you guys at Christmas break.

Ryan

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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