Kaleo Ministry- Vancouver is here!

playing in the park before Jr. Youth Group
the team going downtown for a night out
"SAY YES" playing in the park
me waving out the window to everyone  as we leave for vancouver

Epic Mission - Part Aà off to Vancouver!

So I am writing to you after the whole experience of my B.C. mission’s trip. I want to sum it all up into a beautifully written paper or so, but honestly it seems near impossible. I will have to explain my trip, day by day, otherwise I will fall into complete confusion…and even then I am sorry to say that I will be leaving out things that I can’t sum up with words. Hopefully you all enjoy my little rant. Thank you for your constant prayers, and hope you all have a wonderful week.

Day One [march 8^th 2009]

-Went to church, came back to say our goodbyes to everyone, and then bam off to Vancouver (by taking a ferry of course –which I happened to drool while sleeping the whole ride there-just a little fun fact I thought you all would be delighted to hear).

-We were then picked up by Jenny (the fonder of Inner Hope (with Carla)), and headed from that to a cheap pizza place.

-Went to the New Beginnings church, and after the evening service we got to meet some of the teens and got to chill with them for a bit before driving to the Inner Hope house and settling in for the day

-had a few interesting cross culture experiences, so I learned quickly what to do and not do around first nations kids.

-met all the teens staying in the inner hope house, got to hang out with them before heading off to bed.

Day Two  

-Painted the entrance of the house we were staying all morning (we painted the house all week…and sometimes each other).

-  Had our first experience at UGM (Union Gospel Mission), we had to give a 20-30 min chapel, before the men and a few ladies could get their lunch. I played the piano, then Jenny gave a short sermon, then we played a questionnaire game with them to see how well they were listening to the passage. If they were the first one to give an answer they got a prize. It got pretty competitive pretty fast:D I longed to help these people so quickly, just learn their stories and show them that I care and because I care someone even more important cares. My heart really hurt for this old lady with no teeth, and a man that was labeled as a “per-ma-drunk”. I don’t know why, but each person made me think of my family, and how I wouldn’t want them on the streets, and how I felt almost responsible for them, like they were my family. One educated man from the homeless feeding, came up to our car as we were leaving, and gave an angry spiel as to why everyone is in their position that they are in. I just wish I could have done more. I know I just have to pray pray pray!

-had a guided tour of Vancouver. 

 Day Three

-Kylie and I went to a ladies house instead of painting this morning. This lady was out at school finishing her high school diploma, and her son was at pre-k, and daughter at grandmas. The situation was so sad, because as this family was out at their individual locations, Kylie and I spend 10 until 12:30 cleaning her house. Unfortunately, it was so bad that we couldn’t clean anything BUT the kitchen, and even then we missed cleaning out some drawers and such. I can’t paint a picture in your head, and it would take me a full page to explain this experience, but it was disgusting. I have never seen a worse conditioned house…there was even a mouse! I just felt so bad that they had to come home to this, and that this was making the kids sick lately. They had no time to clean, and even what we did would probably be ruined in a week or two. I am just sad that it is only clean for them for that short time. Garbage, food, everything was all over the floor, the house even smelt as bad as the dump that we went to with all the collected garbage that same day. It was eye opening.

-Went to our first day of the after school program called “Say Yes”. I had a great time, but the kids knew way too much, their childhood was robbed from them. It broke my heart, the things I heard or saw…it was painful to see such disrespect to their two leaders that had this program running. The program was 3 hours long, playing games, helping with homework, having supper, watching a Christian short movie or hearing some sort of story, and making a craft if they were up for it.

-Gage (one of the guys staying at the house we were at for the week) and I played some basketball that night, and just joked around with everyone after playing some good old garage band.

 Day Four

-Cleaned the Garage of the house. (I cleaned the tool section:D)

-had a nap after lunch because I wasn’t feeling good…I was sick all this day.

-Another Day at “Say Yes” had some kids run after our car as we were leaving at the end of the day, so we were already bonding with them.

-Took the sky train with Toni and Nygel (two sweet people we met through the inner hope house) to gas town, and other places, racing around the town being goofy and taking pictures!

 Day Five

-Painted

-Organized a Craft Box

-Played more Basketball

-Say Yes

-Went to Stanley park for some more hanging time with Nygel.

 Day Six

-Painted (had some pretty good convo’s with Nygel about Christianity and such, which was so sweet!)

-we weren’t prepared for UGM, so we were all pretty stressed out driving out there. Thankfully we prayed and God blessed us. We played one song to start, and then I ended up talking to the audience for basically the whole time but it was good! I was talking to them about 5 ways that God uses problems. I wanted them to participate in the discussion, but they were pretty quiet…they laughed at some of my funny comments though, and I seemed to have their attention! Aaron finished up the talk with a visual about how God needs to cover everything in our lives, and then we sang some more songs, and finished up. We were a bit early, so the crowd asked for more songs. After that we stood outside the doors of the kitchen and watched them as they left. Loads of people smiled, thanked us, and wanted us to come back again. One guy came up to me and said I should be a comedian! Lol that was pretty cool. I love all their smiles. Two guys ended up talking to us for a bit…Fernando from Peru, and Kenny from Trinidad. As Kenny was talking, he was pointing the whole conversation to me, and it was really cool because even though he had a strong accent I could understand everything from having to sharpen my ear over seas. After talking to us for 30 mins, he wanted my notes for what I spoke on, because he said he really related to it and wanted to read it over again with the verses that were included.

There were so many people that day that just touched my heart, they are all engraved in my mind.

-came back to the home and painted.

-Malayne, Aaron and I went to Jr. High Youth (Kylie was sick), and went on a picture scavenger hunt.

-finished the night de-briefing our experiences with Carla at McDonalds.

 

Day Seven

-went back on the ferries to Vancouver Island. Spent night at home, made banners for Ucluelet and prepared for our upcoming trip.

 

So yup that’s the Vancouver Trip, and there were still plenty of experiences that I didn’t talk about. I loved it so much; it was amazing…the good and the bad. Seeing how God is at work. Seeing all sorts of different situations…East Hastings street etc etc.

There is just so much work to be done, but I take comfort in knowing that God is in control. 

Kaleo Ministry- off to be a light within Vancouver and Vancouver Island!

This is the bus we took to Youth Quake in S.K. --GOOD TIMES!
6:40 in the morning we are at Calgary's old winter Olympic grounds.
Me stopping half way down the hill to take some pictures of Mt. Washington
Kylie, Josh and Phil Karklins on Mt. Washington (one of our school snow days!)
check out the view! and this is half way down!!!!

Hello yet again! can you believe it is march, 2009 seems to be flying by! Am I the only one who thinks this??!! I'd also like to take this time to say that it is snowing like CRAZY! and sticking, and thick and white and SO PEACEFUL! wow out west is getting some weird on and off weather!

So I would just like to apologize that I did not take any pictures in Sask! I know I feel horrible, but there is nothing I could do about it, we were driving on the bus straight through Sask...and once I got to Caronport, I had so much to do that by the time I did have a minute to think it was already night time. I guess I will just have to go through there again on a road trip! anyone wanna go on a road trip with me?!?!:D

So this week we had Gospels class! I learned more than I ever dreamed of learning...and if you want to talk about the gospels anytime soon I'd be more than willing! Here are a few passages that I really enjoyed reading. Luke 14:8-11, Matthew 6:25-34, John 13:10. There is so much knowledge in the Bible, I honestly feel overwhelmed, but in a good way!

This week besides classes, and tons of work, I haven't been up to a whole lot.

I've had a few wrestling matches, had a few meetings about our missions trip, studied a bunch for my gospels exam, played football with Kylie, got a sweet shirt and scarf from the salvation army for 3 bucks in total! what a steal of a deal for a college student:D, played drums with some of the kaleo guys on guitars and bass, practiced some piano. stuff like that.

two funny things this week that i'll tell yah about.

1) I randomly went round this week to different peoples computers. When they left to have a break, or left to get some food, I would jump on their word document, and write a random story about anything (plants, animals, cutlery) and put a twist on the story and leave before they caught me. Lol so once they got back to their computer to start working, SURPRISE STORY TIME! It was a pretty grandiose moment!

2) So my church buddy Ben and I kinda have a funny history. We have both been caught saying mushy things to each other when we did not intend it to come out like that. So since then, all the kaleo people have a joke that we should be dating! HAHAHAHHAAH oh man what I get myself into! Anyways just so you guys get the point, here are a few examples of things I have said to Ben "you complete my heart"..."I love you" and he has said stuff like "I wouldn't have it any other way"...you get the idea. Ironically, these moments have happened when you don't even realize what your saying ..for example I said I love you to Benny boy when I was hanging up the phone, I didn't even think about it lol. So anyways long story short, Ben and I want have some serious studying for gospels, so we decide to study together and test each other. On the outside of the door I put a sign (so people wouldn't come in and out disturbing us)...Ben and Deb's study date ...SHHH WE ARE WORKING!! well of course I wasn't thinking, and the next time I go out to get some popcorn and have a break from memorizing, i see on the door "Deb's and Ben's HOT DATE!" lol it was quite comical!

Good old times!

Youth Group was pretty good this week, we went to Naniamo to hang out with another youth group. We played some games, won some chocolate, and played a massive game of 4 on the couch! Let's just say I am a pro at that game, for future reference YOU WANT ME ON YOUR TEAM! Not meaning to brag or anything;D It was super cute, I hadn't been at youth for 2 weeks, and as soon as our car pulls into the church, everyone runs and hugs me and tells me how awesome my hair looks and where they want me to sit on the car ride over. lol it was pretty cute. I am going to miss those kids, by the end of the night they asked me how much more of kaleo I had left. When they found out it was a month and a bit, they were all pretty upset and said i had to give each of them something to remember them by. OH MAN ...I'm gonna have to dig through my stuff!/ write a lot of letters! The best thing was, I told them where I was going for my missions trip, and a few of them said they would pray for me every day! sigh ...I could use all the prayers I could get!

So I am writing this blog to you early because I leave for Vancouver (for my missions trip) Sunday right after church. There are four of us going, and with no leader (we are leading ourselves). Kylie, Malayne, Aaron and I are going first to help the ministry of Inner Hope in Vancouver, and then we are coming back to the island to do missions work up at Ucluelet, and Copper Island. Pray for E.P.I.C Mission (that's what we call ourselves- it stands for energetically praying in community--pretty cool eh? we made it up ourselves).  

Please pray that God really guides our work on Vancouver and Vancouver Island, that we will be full with servant hearts, that God's light will shine in the dark areas of the inner city, that God will give us words when talking about our faith.

Also, could I ask you to pray for.

-Youth at my church, that they will be spiritually fed.

-for protection for all the missions trips.

-for health.

-for wisdom and also a calm heart.

-for a friend in Taiwan who is hurting, and does not know why he has to be nice when he receives nothing in return.

Answer to prayer-

-God gave me a calm heart for all the work that had to be done (I wasn't consumed in stress for once).

I hope you all have a good two weeks!

I will probably not be blogging again until when I get back from both missions trips. I return on the 26th of march, but will return to Qwanoes for a day from Vancouver on the 16th or 17th.

Keep smiling!

Love as always,

-Fish-

Debb!

Kaleo Ministry- lacking sleep ...so what!

So it is one week before we head out to our Vancouver missions trip! yup we leave Sunday afternoon, and I can not describe my mixture of feelings, excitement, nervousness, anticipation, joy, fear, trust, and just happy! 

This week is going to start from Wednesday because Monday and Tuesday were covered from my last blog (returning from Youth Quake!)

This week was so tough....lets just say there was plenty of homework, but there was no time! Everyday I had been doing papers and homework and giving up more and more sleep time. All in all, I am thankful to say that God blessed me with a calm mind, because I remember the week before I left for youth quake I was freaking out to myself and my parents lol. By the grace of God, I put my foot to the pedal and plowed right through my work. For the most part, I am proud of all that I have turned in, it was an honest effort, and was not just something coming from my arse. (excuse my language mum and Gramma:D) But yah, I am hanging in two things late, but honestly there was nothing more I could do about this, I was already going a bit loopy in the head, so instead of sacrificing even more sleep than I have this week, I decided to sleep. 

A few highlights of the middle of the week and on...

Wednesday- after doing homework all day Jon and I played some worship music for a break. What a good break! I got taught new songs that I didn't even know, and I just got to worship the Lord through all my burdens.

Thursday- I found out that someone gave me money for my missions trip...the crazy thing is I didn't ask anyone for anything or tell anyone I needed money for food! GOD IS GOOD! 

funny story: while I was typing one of my papers the New York missions team was having a dance battle to get the team "in mood" for their trip...lol. anyways so I stop typing to see their finished product (boys had 10 mins to create a dance and girls had 10 mins to create a dance ...both couldn't see each other until the battle). Anyways we had "American Idol critiques" and two dance crews. They did both a great job it was awesome. Just while they were counting up the scores for each team, I got the Youth Quake team together to do our dance that we all learned at one of the workshops there...so we busted our moves! Then we went free style, and just while I was taking center stage doing the famous (shopping cart dance (if you don't know it I will gladly show it to you some day)) and then the music stopped....there i was in the middle of my moves and everyone started laughing...it was pretty funny. Long story short, awards were given, and among the awards I received "The most efficient dancer"! Very proud moment of my life, but I ask you...WHAT DOEST THAT MEAN?! HAHAHHAAHAHHA

Friday- saw baby raccoons climbing trees, it was so cute! Had a late night mac n cheese party with Jayme Jesse Malayne Tom and Mir. Unfortunately I missed youth yet again, but honestly I had so much work to do I couldn't afford to go to it.

Saturday- I woke up at 6:45 to pray from 7-8 in the prayer room. (BTW. this week from Friday to Sunday night was our 24/3 week of prayer)... anyways back to the prayer time at 7-8am. It was so great, I got to see one of the best sunrises ever, see the birds fly over the calm water, the dawn sky turn bright pink  to yellow to blue! I just got to be with God at an early hour and it was beautiful, I was pretty tired from lacking sleep this whole week, and pulling a few all nighters, but I just sat there in my chair, staring at the beauty, speechless, just repeating God you are Good in my head. It was perfect. Later that day Shannon and her fiance were baptized WOOT WOOT...and the rest of the day I just worked worked worked.

Sunday- I was asked to play piano, because all the instrumentalist  were gone, of course I said yes, but this was a scary thought. Having to lead songs that you didn't pick yourself, having to lead Older ladies then you in songs, and being the only instrument that mess up's could be clearly heard! Anyways, it went better than expected, however I still feel like I would like to talk to my church about worship in general, I feel like they are making it hard on themselves, structure needs to be installed. This does not mean that we need to worship the Lord in a set structure every Sunday, NO by all means put variety into worship, but if there is no structure at all, sometimes it just gets too messy!

Another cool story:

So after church was done I was going back to my seat where I left my jacked and folder, and there on top of the folder was 30 bucks! So Ben and I ran to Dairy Queen and each bought some ice cream. Then we put 20 bucks to Ben's India trip. It was pretty funny, because while we were running to DQ after church I fell down a hill...oh man was it funny, I didnt get hurt, it was just a funny experience that I am proud to laugh at with people! You would have to see the hill or hear Ben's story to understand why it was so funny. Then while I am doing ______ (what is it? you guessed it MORE HOMEWORK).....I was looking through one of my books that I was writing about and BAM 30 more bucks! So I ran up to Ben and we just laughed and again I put that towards his India fund. Wow....it was just a crazy experience. GOD IS GOOD!

Tom Brandon and I had a great walk late Sunday night because I needed a breather from sitting down so much....Tom and I went down to the dock, and then Brandon came out of no where and scared me half to death that I jumped up and screamed so loud. From there we walked both ways on the beach from the dock, seeing a few pair of eyes along the way, and stopping for some swinging time on the tire swing! It was a great time to just hang out with two of my brothers and talk about different things we learned in Lech's Theology class that we had on Thursday and Friday of this week.

It has been a pretty crazy busy week last week, and this week we have Gospels class which is just going to blow our minds as we learn more about our saviour! 

Thanks for continuing to pray,

Prayer requests for this week:

Please pray for our missions trips, they are quickly approaching and we still have a lot of preparation to do.

Please pray for the Gospels course we are now taking

Please pray for my wrist, its a bit painful, I think I sprained it, but I don't know how (maybe that hill lol).

Please pray for more sleep, I am really worried I am going to go to Vancouver exhausted!

Please pray for God's will to guide me this summer, that I will have a job and it will be the one I am supposed to do.

Keep smiling!

much love as always,

Debb

FISH! btw I am sorry that there are no pictures yet again, I just don't have time!

Reading Break!!

Hey again!

So I have a lot to do this week in terms of homework. I thought I would tell everyone at once how my reading break was and then I can focus on all my work and not worry about sending out a truck load of emails!

Okay here I go...

So monday a few kaleo students including myself went skiing/boarding at Mt. Washington...it was a lot of fun ...I got more aggressive with jumping, and I got to hang out in small groups with some of the kaleo peeps!

Tuesday we had more theology class, which was really good because we got to here more about the role of women in the church and just history of women in general. Things like, Adam only received direct instructions by God not to eat the fruit of the forbidden trees, and thus Eve received the information second hand. On top of that Adam was right with Eve as she was plucking the fruit off the tree, he did not try and stop here. (information like that) The rest of tuesday I was doing Homework Homework Homework.

Wednesday- Homework and packing until 4 am thursday morning (where 10 Kaleo students hoped on a ferry together including me ...excitingly awaiting the trip to Saskatchewan!

Thursday- Picking up other people throughout B.C. like in Kelowna, Chilliwack, and Coquitlam. From Kelowna we had everyone on the bus (24 youth, so we all had two seats to ourselves which was VERY NICE!). Revelstoke had a SWEET ghost town that I REALLY must check out again. There was such a great view all the way for our drive, of mountains, rivers, and just the beauty of God's creation. By the end of Thursday we were all pooped and stopped at Golden for the night (it is the law that a bus driver needs 8 hours sleep). So we went to bed around 9 and woke up at like 4 am and was on the road again. 

Friday- from Golden we went through Calgary and all the way to Caronport. Man was it an eye opening experience. To see beautiful mountains to the flat lands of the prairies. WOW OH WOW....i couldn't believe it! plus seeing the oil riggs! wow that was cool....and seeing nothing for as far as my eye could see was kind of scary! Our bus driver dropped us off at Briercrest at around 4:45 (btw or driver was so nice...her name was Brenda and she did such a great job of taking care of us!). 

anyways so then once we got off the bus into the cold winds, we went inside for the first time and got in line for registration. From there I went to Olivia's room for the weekend (she was the same girl that spent a week at kaleo in my room so it was nice to stay with a familiar face!). We dropped off our stuff, had a super quick bite to eat, and then went to the kick-off in the massive chapel room. It was a sweet play that joked around with our everyday actors and popular music. From there I went to a play with the dance crew there called Refined/Undignified. AMAZING!  then to a main session in the chapel!.. to a concert with Tipmeter, Britt Nicole, and Red...Unfortunately it wasn't that good as I spent most of my time sitting on a chair and reading a sermon, or walking around outside, or waiting for one amazing song by Red which they happened to play at the very end...so I wasn't really impressed with the bad choices this year...but thats okay because I got a  lot more out of the speaking and the experience.

Saturday- I went to the Flying Wallendas, a circus crew that travels the world bringing the gospel into their preformance...it was pretty good:D Juggling tight rope walking, clowns, flying rope girl lol. Another main session after that, lunch, watched Jake Daniel and Nate (Jakes little brother) with the 3/3 tournament this week, I along with Daneille Jesse and Erin were their cheer leaders (I ended up getting a free t-shirt because of my cheering too!:D). Then hearing Brett Ullman talk for Dating.for.life...i really enjoyed what he had to say. from that to supper...to a main session to a dance workshop with refined/undignified (now i have some moves!!)...to a praise session with Downhere...man was it good...i was up near the stage with Erin Wags Daneilles brother(Ryan) Josh and David. It was amazing!We worshiped until like 2 in the morning!

Sunday-breakfast, last main session (I actually fell asleep I was so tired from the weekend), lunch, said goodbye to all the cool past kaleos that we met at briercrest (man did they treat us like family!)..and were off our way on the bus ride home! 

I forgot to tell you! I am sponsoring a child! YUP IM A MUM! His name is Jhon Paul Ulloa Pabon from Ecuador. He is born on April 24, 1998, enjoys soccer, runs home errands, and needed immediate support! I picked him up and couldn't his picture down. How are you supposed to just pick one, or go through all the kids and pick your favourite! It is almost cruel! None the less I am supporting this boy for 35 dollars a month and couldnt be more happy! I am so thankful he is part of my family in a way, and I get to write him letters, I cannot wait until I send him my first one!

Yah so overall Youth Quake was amazing, and I am so happy I went. The speakers were so good, I got to meet a lot of past Kaleo people, I got to see the interesting land of saskatchewan and just had a great time....sure the bus ride was long, and I am probably lacking a ton of sleep, but it was all worth it! Bus rides were filled with pit stops, sleeping, deep talks, catch phrase the game, a movie or two and just chilling with the ipod in my ears playing some new music I got from ryan before I left.

I hope you all enjoyed this long read, and sorry there are no pictures! I will have to upload them later.

I am off for lunch and then continuing my huge load of hw.

Please pray that I get it all done..I will not be checking emails really until march 1st because I need to get this work done, so I thought I would tell you this here and then you all know how my time was instead of me emailing a whole bunch!

Hope you all have had an amazing week and enjoy the sun of this one (its a beautiful tuesday morning here!)

P.s. one last epic story of the trip....so we are coming back (this is monday)...and we have dropped off everyone from all over vancouver...we are the last people to get off the bus for the end of the trip. SOOOO... we would really like to catch the 5:45 ferry and not have to wait 2 more hours until the next ferry...so our bus driver is trying really hard to get there as fast as she can, and thank the lord We got A LOT of green lights:D anyways long story short we are cutting it really close 10 mins before the ferry is about to leave we finally arrive at the terminal. We have josh run to the ticket place and ask the man if we can still get on, while this is happening all of the other kaleo students including me are sprinting off the bus and grabbing our bags. At that very moment another bus load of people come up behind us and start heading towards the ticket booth. So I sprint a head with bags in hand and get in line...Once I get there he asks me where I was going and I oddly say Departure Bay ...and he says in a weird tone NANIAMO?! immediately he says you better run after i start giving him my money and I am like WAIT! there are still more with me...so I get everyone to budge in front of line with me. We all want to pay separately, but he said the only way we can make it on is if we pay all together. So I am like uhhhh this isnt going to work...then Ben comes to the rescue and says how much will it cost. At first someone says that there is 17 of us so we get charged like 300 bucks but im like no there isnt and i YELL there is only 10! (TIME IS WASTING!)....so we get everything under control and ben dishes out like 160 bucks or smth like that and the only reason he had that money in his wallet was because his brother gave him the money for his india missions trip....ben said to his brother that he didnt need it...but his brother sam was like you never know when u might need this money! HOW FUNNY IS THAT?!

lol anyways so we run with our bags and start heading in the wrong direction when this man yells NANIAMO THIS WAY...so we start running onto the road where most of the cars go to get on the ferry...we have like no time...we are running with our massive bags in arms and yelling and laughing and just haviing a hilarious time ...kinda felt like we were in a serious bums rush! As we get to the rap the lady is like tickets please...and all the people that ran fast including me stop turn around and yell BEEENNNNNN!  ben comes flying out of no where hands them the tickets and we walk on laughing and thinking of how much an "AMAZING RACE" experience we just had! lol

Hope you enjoyed the story!

all in all i had a great time!

wow good old memories

love you all

keep smiling

debb

Kaleo Ministry- SURPRISE:D

HAPPY VALENTINES DAY!

Be curious always! For knowledge will not acquire you: you must acquire it. -Sudie Back

So it has been quite the valentines week...yup...WEEK... dont quite know where I am going with this, but I guess I will start with my week from Monday!

Monday:lots of exercise today run with India missions team, ultimate frizbee tryouts, and soccer at 10 pm. exam for Old Testament. 

Tuesday: theology class, went to duncan, surprised Daneille for her birthday in the girls bathroom!

Wednesday: sprayed jono in the face with some water from doing dishes, I got pay back for sure...learned a song that jono and tom made..we put the piano into it which was me playing.

Thursday: read a book for gospels out in the forest near this creek that goes into the ocean it was SWEET!  played ultimate frizbee, girls night (best one ever!) played games, talked, supported each-other, prayer, and then miranda jayme erin and I went and pranked the boys rooms. we were marking their mirrors with dry erase markers, putting shaving cream on their toilets and sinks, and just doing harmless things, mostly writing messages like "you got served", "dont hate the players hate the game" and in each guys room we had a quarter of a story, so they had to go to each room to read the story...unfortunately, as we were on our second room, two guys come walking down the hall...man did our hearts go instantly 1000 times fast...jayme and miranda bolted into the shower and Erin and I went under different desks....we were good for a bit..i cant believe they didn't see us, but then erin laughed and we had to run...so we were made-we were uncovered:( ...they guys were so shocked they just watched us run away in laughter lol it was pretty intense. there's more to the story but I dont have time, I guess Ill have to finish it another day, just remind me!

Friday: the guys pretended to be pretty annoyed at breakfast...tom josh eric jake ben and I took down the old wood skate park with some of the staff! i loved it. got to work with some tools and just demolish things! it was really fun, plus a good work out! (I stepped on a nail, but thank goodness it didn't puncture the skin, it should have the way i stepped on it, but it didn't! THANK GOD!)

Saturday:valentines brunch, napped until supper man was i tired! found out Shannon from kaleo IS ENGAGED! IT HAPPENED ON VALENTINES DAY! wow Jon (not jon from kaleo) did so much for their day, bungee  jumping, spa, breakfast, lunch, limo, dinner, everything wow oh wow!

went around a fire and celebrated jono's birthday with ice cream sandwiches! i sat on a nail...i know ....OUCH! 

Sunday: played piano for church, God helped me with my solo's thats for sure, because I thought I was playing piano until i arrived at church this morning. 

 I didn't make it to youth this week because of working with the skate park, demolishing it, plus of way too much homework before Youth Quake. 

I hope you all had a lovely valentines day! 

Answer to prayers: we have an intern pastor for our church until we find an official one, so this is very exciting!

Please pray for:

-the youth for Ladysmith, Ben and I will be missing next week because of Youth Quake

-for our missions trips

-for Shannon and Jon as they are now engaged! wow oh wow I am going to a wedding!

-for so much homework due on the 1st of march and before that date!

-for sleep, my eyes have been sore for two days now.

-for continuous energy for the last two months.

Thanks so much everyone for keeping up to date on me!

much love,

Deborah Fisk

FISH-KEEP SMILING!

Kaleo Ministry- LIFE in the OLD TESTAMENT!

My Ministry Team (we call ourselves EPIC MISSION -energetically praying in community!made it up ourselves!)-this looks like a band picture so much!
HOW EPIC IS THIS PICTURE! LOL GO TEAM!
climbing in the amazing oak trees of one of Naniamo's parks!
chilling in a little hut!
we are going to rock B.C.!
some of us went to moxies and spent the day in laughter!
believe it or not Tom and I did not know this picture was being taken!
Fish faces on the street of Vancouver....we wanted to do it like our buddy THE MASK behind us!

Another Week has come and gone...wow oh wow. It was a full one!

We had old testament class this week. Class was really interesting, and I now know that if I want to understand the New Testament at a deeper level, I must first understand some pretty crucial things in the Old Testament that point to Jesus. I loved learning about some of the crazy stories...they are something else!

I am proud to say that this was the first class ever that I was not tired in, I know that sounds really bad, trust me all my classes have been amazing and I have learned so much, but this is the first one that kept me so active that I didn't find myself getting tired after lunch! I pretty much made deborah history for staying alert through the whole week:D yah! (be proud mum and dad:D HAHAHAHA)

-I got some exercise in this week

-Kaleo had to make a movie on the Old Testament as our class project by friday, there were a few late nights but the movie was AMAZING!

-played a lot of piano and drums this week

-had a girl from briercrest stay in our room for the week, it was great having her and talking and laughing a ton just before bed:D

-went into town with eric jayme ryan karklins and tom just to get outta kaleo for a breather:D

-cut thomas' hair with dans help lol that was pretty fun.

-went to a meeting for Vancouver Island mission trip in Naniamo, had a great time walking around, seeing my house again, and just spending time in preparation for our trip!

-fondu for girls in Jen Lee's room

-pranked the boys rooms, and I paid the consequences! oh man oh! so we had a cleanest room test..(we didnt win but we should have and same with the boys that won it last year too but we both didnt win! SO RIGGED! but yah)-so we pranked them after all the rooms were nice and clean..not too bad:D then we were listening to their "meeting" of how to get us back...and they found Jayme, Miranda and I listening in on them and they locked us into the laundry room.... eventually after a ton of wrestling, yelling, and trading of personal stuff we were set free...it was a pretty funny night and I guess you had to be there!

Youth this week, we had a progressive Dinner. It was pretty interesting. There was a lot of drama that went down, gossip, back stabbing, fighting, talking over top of leaders, and just really weird night. I was pretty disappointed that they didnt listen to the bible study, but after awhile what can you do? I really feel like having a bible study on gossip and backstabbing and just what it means to be a true friend, but we will see when that chance turns up.

I love these kids, I really do, I just want the best for them, and sometimes that means challenging their level of respect. It is kind of depressing how the younger generation is being raised! PARENTS TAKE CONTROL OF YOUR CHILDREN!

Church this week was alright, thankfully we have a pastor filling in until we get an official one. I really pray that this pastor leads the church well for the time being. On another note, I was disappointed that in a certain situation that I overheard, some of the community cares for the floor of the church more then the development of their youth. This just makes me want to scream! 

Take hold of the chances the community has to bond with the youth, and inspire the future leaders! 

In church I also had to talk about my missions trip, I was a bit nervous but I guess all was said that needed to be.

Thank-you all for your constant prayers!

-Please pray for Kaleo and the last 2 months we have together

-For the missions trip in march

-For the youth of Ladysmith, may they fall in love with God!

-For the community that has shown a lot of love here.

-For my future, and where to go and what to do.

-For my Old Testament exam tomorrow.

-For the numerous piles of homework I have to do before Youth Quake (I AM STRESSED!)

-for deep sleeps!

Thanks so much again, have another great week!

Happy Early Valentines Day!

Love: Deborah

-FISH

Keep smiling!

Kaleo Ministry- a heart of ministry

Alivia, Jen, Miranda and I up mt. "zoo-hay-len" last semester in the fog!
Paul, Tom and I wasting time as we wait for the seminar!
Mir and I taking the streets of Vancouver!
The view from our snowboarding retreat of Mt. Albert-Edward (the first trip we had- WE CLIMBED TO THE TOP OF THE POINTY MT!!)

for ALL have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. -Romans 3:23

So Finally some pictures again, sorry about that.

So again this week was everywhere with a bit of everything.

a few highlights

-we had fireside, so Leila, Aaron and I went out with Isaac a staff member, got coffee at coffee on the moon, and had a great time talking...i had a great night with those 3!

-some boys from the India missions team had to jump in the ocean because they lost a bet to the girls, so to our enjoyment we were spectating the cold jump!

-got to go on the new ferry to Vancouver (man they are NICE!)

-tried on dresses down town, had a good time taking pictures all over the streets and just chilling down town with Kylie Kristy and Miranda...i think i broke into dance in the middle of the street too!

-spent the night at (inner hope) the organization/house we hope to be staying at in Vancouver for our missions trip (it was kinda like a trial period).

-really enjoyed going to the Muslim mosque, i learned so much!(so interesting how close our beliefs are-and sad too!), Hindu temple i was a bit tired but man we had amazing samosas after! wow oh wow!

-really enjoyed the Friday night seminar with tony...i learned a lot about missions and  how Christians should really take a stand for it. Not being of this world, detaching from the materials and picking up your cross to follow Jesus. Man i was really fed at that sermon, but it just goes to show how hard a christian walk really is!

-got to talk to a lot of booths at missions fest, including MAF ministry aviation fellowship!

-great music at the youth rally sat morning

-India film on untouchables was so educating...and heart wrenching!

-seminar on child sex slaves in Cambodia, man that hit me hard, since I have been there and since they are so young. LORD FREE THESE GIRLS!

-enjoyed talking and hanging out with Capernwray students and kaleo students.

Unfortunately, church was a bit frustrating this week. It is starting to wear me down that this church is not being led by a pastor. Other things came up on Sunday that also got on my nerves, but I am trying to shrug it off. I have to keep practicing patience when sometimes I feel like yelling, HELLO WAKE UP AND SMELL THE COFFEE! I pray that God really works in this church, it needs a revival in so many levels. Thankfully I really am connecting with the youth, and enjoy every opportunity to hang out with them on Sundays and on Fridays. Sadly I couldn't make it to youth this week, because I was on the mainland...I really miss those kids, its crazy how much they can become apart of yah. I feel like I have to look out for them, in every chance I can, give them a friendship that they can trust. 

Anyways, all in all, I had a pretty interesting week. I am learning, and I love that we become more educated people by just following God. Right now I have started Old Testament classes, and it is again opening me to some stuff that I never really thought about.

-Prayer requests:

-for Ladysmith

-for my prof

-for good health

-for a continuous work ethic

-for appreciation of the beauty around me!

-for a heart for missions!

-for my unknowing future!

have a great week

much love

deb fisk

FISH

KEEP SMILING!