Monday, March 27, 2017

Engaging the Ideas of Our World

This past week the students intensely studied the ideas of this world as they took the class “Engaging the Ideas of Our World,” with Grant Poettcker, PhD. They participated in deep discussions about the founders of Modernity and Post Modernity and how this affects the current culture.  One student, Colin Bovingdon, commented about the class “I loved having Grant Poettcker here, he was able to take ridiculously hard concepts to grasp and break them down to a Sunday School level so that we could better understand them.” Overall, the students’ minds were stretched this week and they thoroughly enjoyed the class.



                                                                                                   (All Photo Credit: Peyton Arnold)

 The students are now marching into their last two and a half weeks of the program. Please keep them in your minds and prayers as these last few weeks are very full. They have final projects to complete, they will be embarking on their last three out trips and their last camp retreat. Please pray that our students would be able to finish well, and that they would be fully able to take in the time they have left here.

-Rachel Nelson, Kaléo Program Intern


Monday, March 20, 2017

French and Mystic Beach

Different paces bring different levels of bonding. It seems that the slower the pace is, the deeper the bond. That was true for French Beach. This beach slowed down the pace everyone was running at and the students were able to just take time and talk with one another and invest. The conversations that were had were deep and personal to the students. They learned more about each other in those few days than they would have if they were living at a faster pace. 



This is not to say that they only talked for the three days and did not go on any adventures. No, we took a little time out of the second day to go to Mystic Beach. This is a beach that required a bit of a drive and a hike to get to. But the drive and hike were worth it! There is a beautiful beach that has a waterfall, a cave, and a rope swing! The students enjoyed these features despite the weather not cooperating. 


(All Photos are taken by Peyton Arnold)

The week was very relaxed, but the students are now in their last full class of the Kaléo Program, Indisciplinary Studies with Grant Poettcker, PhD.  Pray for concentration and clarity as they take this class. 

Isaiah Moffatt
Kaléo Intern

Friday, March 17, 2017

Crabbing, Climbing, and Leadership


This past week was filled with small adventures that the students thoroughly enjoyed. Last Tuesday the students started a three-day crabbing adventure. For this activity, the students broke up into groups and took shifts catching crabs off of the camp’s dock. After a few days of collecting crabs, we all gathered together on the beach to have a crab feast.


This week we also had the opportunity to go indoor rock climbing at the Romper Room in Nanaimo. The students had the chance to learn how to climb and how to belay. It was a fun filled day of both bouldering and climbing the walls.




 
                                                                                                          
                                                                                                         (All Photo Credit: Peyton Arnold)

Another aspect of last week, was the focus on leadership. The students were able to gleam wisdom about leadership from a few guest speakers throughout the week. The students are now gearing up for their last month of the program. They are currently working hard to prepare for their final classes and finish up final projects.

-Rachel Nelson, Kaléo Program Intern




Wednesday, March 8, 2017

Paul's Letters and Nerf Guns

This past week, the students have learned about the life and teachings of Paul in the class Pauline Epsitiles. This year, they had a new professor teaching the class and all the students really enjoyed the way he taught the class in a thought-provoking way.

Here is one of the students commenting on her experience in the class:

"To be completely honest, I was hesitant at first what to think in starting class monday morning. But as soon as the second hour rolled around, I realized that I was going to enjoy this class thoroughly. Brian Westnedge was our professor for the week of Pauline Epistles and he has such a gift for teaching! As we opened up Paul’s letters, they came alive to us as never before, we have a solid foundation for the background and culture of what was happening during the writings of his letters and how that impacted his writings. I would say that I have a complete new appreciation for Paul’s letters, and an understanding of how they fit within the scope of the bible and how we are to read them. Learning about what the gospel is according to Paul is probably one of the many eye opening concepts I learned over the week. That everything Paul speaks about is very much recounted in his understanding of the gospel and then correlates with his understanding of the Old Testament. I think out of all of the classes we have taken this year I was able to retain the greatest amount of information in this class. I think I speak for a lot of my classmates as well in saying that, we are really thankful and blessed to have such good teachers.
Sarah McQuarrie"


Sarah spoke correctly about her classmates as many other students said similar things about this class and  about Paul and his letters. 

(Brian Westnedge took a timeless selfie with the class at the end of the week)

We also had a great battle take place in Pacific Woods Lodge (PWL). The students and staff were able to let off some steam in the form of Nerf guns. We had a western themed "Battle for PWL," where everyone was put into battle scenarios with poorly working Nerf guns. many Nerf darts were shot, there was chaos everywhere, and fun was had by all. This was a highlight of the week for the students who just needed some time to run around and be crazy. 

This week the students are crabbing and we go rock climbing! 

Until Next time, 

Isaiah Moffatt
Kaléo Intern

Wednesday, March 1, 2017

Missions trips, to the city and down the coast.

Vancouver Mission’s Trip

These past two weeks 14 students, Shane and I had the opportunity to serve in Down-Town East Side Vancouver City. We spent our time there working within two different organizations, New Beginnings and Potter’s Place Mission. These two places, even though they are close in proximity, have very different focuses in the type of services they provide. New Beginnings is a church that is surrounded by an area that is highly populated by first nations people. This church’s primary goal is too meet first nations people where they are at and to mend the relationships of first nations people and Christianity that had been severed. The students had opportunities to work with the youth and children of this church. Many students enjoyed tutoring and playing with the children in their “Say Yes!” program. This program was an after school program in which kids would come to the church for tutoring, a meal and games. They also served the church by doing projects in the church that the full time staff had not had time to get around too. The staff were very thankful for all the work the students put in that week to help them in these areas





The second organization that we had the opportunity to serve was Potter’s Place Mission on East Hastings Street, Vancouver. This organization provides two services and two meals per day to the homeless in the surrounding area. Everyday at 11 a.m. and at 9 p.m. there is an hour-long church service and a meal that is served at the end of the service. The students led worship and spoke, either sharing their testimony or a message at every service. Every afternoon we were at potters, we helped them in their renovations. In one week the upstairs of potters was completely transformed. Another big part of potter’s place’s ministry is their street ministry. We were able to go on a few walks that week, talking to those on the street and praying with them. Throughout the whole week, the students were touched to hear the stories of those who came into potter’s place. The student’s minds were transformed to the way they think about homeless people as they listened to many of their stories.  Overall, this trip was a very eye-opening for everyone who went. God spoke to us all in different ways and we all left with something that we could take with us for the rest of our lives.





Until next time,

Rachel Nelson, Kaléo Program Intern

Mexico Missions Trip:

God is at work in Mexico. He has been working there long before we went there, and He has continued to work there after we have left. Although we may feel like we were the cause of God working in Mexico, that simply is not true. God blessed us with the opportunity to see how He was at work and that we were merely tools used there for a short time. 


For the Mexico missions’ trip, ten students came down and served alongside the Northern Lights Ministries, proclaiming the gospel to both the Mestizo and Indigenous Mexican people. While we were there we built student housing for married students attending the seminary down in El Papalote. Almost nightly we also had the privilege to work alongside some of the leaders in the area and assist in leading youth nights in various villages around El Papalote. There were also opportunities to see and assist the widely marginalized people of Mexico, from houses holding many disabled people, to people living and working in the landfill. Through all this work, God has been working and making change in the community. There is joy.



Joy is everywhere to be found in the San Quintin Valley. Christ has permeated the communities down there and joy fills the lives of those who follow Him. Now not everyone in Mexico has this joy, just as not everyone has this joy in Canada. Despite the living conditions, despite the poverty, despite the corruption and adversity that everyone must face while living in Mexico, those who have Christ are so evident. They do not put their trust in material things, but in God as we all must do. Even with their interactions with us, when language was a struggle for both sides, they were joyful and wanted to interact with us.



The language barrier that was before us made communicating difficult. Thankfully, God has given us more than just words to communicate with people. The saying "actions speak louder than words," was brought to life for us. How could we possibly tell these people about the love of God? Well God has blessed us with non-verbal communication. We lived out God's love to these people every chance we God. We played with the children, we gave them attention and we loved them as best we could. And they responded. The smiles and hugs that we received from the locals spoke volumes to what we communicated to them and that they returned the expression. With the adults, communication of God's love was a little harder than it was before. But we managed to communicate to them that we wanted to invest in them and build into their community. Through the little bit of Spanish we knew and hand gestures and sometimes a translator, we were able to have communication with many of the locals that we interacted with. The language barrier was a difficult barrier to cross, but God's love still transcended the barrier and brought the two communities together. God's love cannot be silenced, even if we have no idea what the other person is saying to us. 


Pray for the students as they head into their next class, Pauline Epistles. Thank you for taking the time to catch up with our students and investing in them. 

Isaiah Moffatt
Kaléo Intern