Surf Trip Round two and a really disappointing book along with really decent book. Long title.

Hey everyone, (mainly Kristie), but everyone else too,

Hope all is well in all your lives. Mine is very interesting right now. Unfortunately I cannot write about Youth this week because yet again the Kaleo schedule has inhibited me from attending youth. If anyone has has been keeping count I am up to seven consecutive weeks of being absent from my group of pretentious little 7th graders. Love those guys. BUT...I am not only going to youth this week, I am speaking at it! Sweet! It will be cool to talk about the bible to the whole group. It will be my first time talking about scripture to a group of people. I would definitely appreciate prayer so that I don't go up there alone; that would be a nightmare.

But to return to the opening clause of my title, we went surfing up at Tofino this past week. It was largely different from last time. We had a great long drive there stopping at a market and to climb some trees (subsequently Justin fell into a river). Upon arrival we perused the town, read some of our Christian Worldviews books and many sat around and played music. I chose to sleep as i was quite tired and knew that surfing the next day would require a great deal of energy. The next morning we went to a beach (I have no idea what it was called) and just climbed around. I personally had an experience with the divine. I stood and watch the waves crash violently against the jagged shore, listening to the deep bass of water beating upon stone and feeling a gentle breeze pushing at my back. I have been meditating on worship and music lately. It was incredible to witness such a performance. I use sound when I perform. Some even manage to marry sounds to visual entertainment and create a whole new dynamic of experience. God, however, created a beach that incorporates all five of my senses and brought my understanding of performing to a new plane. I felt the breeze, I smelled the salty, sea air, I tasted the crisp chill on my tongue, I heard the bass of the reckless waves and I saw the glory of God pounding water in triumphant blasts upon the rocks. I realized that nature can far out-perform me and that my feeble attempts to honor God with sound are not valued for ability, even the inanimate has more skill than I. Rather, before God my music has value for the heart it portrays, for the soul that it describes. God values my efforts, seeing my skill as the fruit of devotion. God would much rather hear devotion than a pop tune, at least that is how it seems to me.

Yeah after my euphoric encounter with the ocean symphony, I left and got ready for surfing. Surfing was not nearly as fun as last time. My toes hurt cause my boots were a size too small, the zone we had to surf in was so small that after fighting the inward flow of waves to get out to a decent depth, I was already out of bounds and had to then fight the undertow back in bounds. After i had then return to the proper lateral position on the beach I was then too far in to surf because the relentless waves had pulled me back. It was frustrating. I got up a handful of times but it was most unsatisfying. I didn't last very long.

The trip was cool because the last night there we opened the Kaleo door to a guys youth group and a local family. It was an interesting night of prayer, encouragement, great conversation, even a little scripture reading. It was cool to see how Kaleo opened up and shared with the other members of the church.

After I got home I read a really boring book called Engaging God's World and then I have been reading a really good book called Prayer by Richard J. Foster. He is a great writer and he has some God-given things to say. Rob Bancroft is arriving soon and I am excited to go see him. I will leave you all now. Can't spend too much time on blogs with only three weeks left in Kaleo. Cheers everyone.

Gospels according to Timothy

Hello everyone,

This week was a great week. The pre-course work was madness. I read and read and read and still didn't finish but I am so glad that I did cause it really helped during the class. The prof was Wes Olmstead, the one and only. Truthfully I have never heard someone speak as knowledgeably and humbly and passionately and confidently as Wes about the teachings of Jesus. It was so good to hear someone say with certainty what Jesus was saying and then logically and throughly explain why and it all clicks. I had so many questions answered and so many doubts or uncertainties taken care of. I read Matthew in a whole new way and I am excited and really enjoying the post-course work for this class.

Yesterday I went to Victoria with some friends for some sweet parkour and fun with friends but when I was there Jeremy and I were chillin a Starbucks and he asked me what was one big thing that I took away from Wes's class. The thought puzzled me for a bit because I hadn't really digested a lot of the information I had taken in. Upon reflection I think that I really enjoyed experiencing the class. Before the class started I had read a book that was all about 1st century Judaism and it really got me into the head space and I found myself thinking like a first century Jew. I was hoping for rebellions to lead to freedom for Israel and I was respecting how zealous for the Law the Jews were. Then when we started getting into Jesus' story and I was reacting to it like the disciples were. Jesus shocked me with his bold words and I had to think really hard about what he was saying. Then I started to recognize who Jesus really was as the disciples were. At the end when Jesus gave the great commission I was so pumped. That was definitely a sweet thing, to experience Matthew's Gospel, not just read it.

Another really cool thing that I learned is the balance between faith and works. Here is pretty much what Matthew ways in his Gospel, your works reflect what is in you, so if you don't have the works, then you don't have the faith. In other words, if you don't believe it enough to live it out, you don't believe it enough period. Very cool to see how solid Matthew makes that in his Gospel. Too it is good to understand that when Jesus says something like "be perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect" he means it, it's a command not meant to just make us feel imperfect. And perhaps the most encouraging thing I learned is a new way of studying the New Testament and seeing how the bible is such a literary work of art, so intentional in the way it was put together. I now have an excitement to study the bible and to see what God is intentionally saying.

Good class, back to youth this week, I will get some stories. It will be good. Pray for these last few weeks at Kaleo. Pray for genuine holiness and genuine obedience here at Kaleo so we can know the fullness of these last five weeks. Cheers all,

Tim

The Man-Venture According to Timothy

I am writing for all those who wish to draw out an accurate record of all personally relevant events transpiring during the manliest trip Kaleo has ever seen.

Many have undertaken to draw up an account of the things that have been fulfilled[ among us, 2 just as they were handed down to us by those who from the first were eyewitnesses and servants of the word. 3 Therefore, since I myself have carefully investigated everything from the beginning, it seemed good also to me to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, 4 so that you may know the certainty of the things you have been taught... here is our story..

One wednesday afternoon and Nate, Justin, Jeremy, Mark, and myself had finished our essays (except for justin because he doesn't do anything) and seeing the beautiful day outside we all decided to go for a hike up a mountain located in Duncan or just outside Duncan because I cannot imagine someone building a town around a mountain and expecting it to do well. But the point is, it is in the Duncan area. We drove out there, I my self as well as Nate Boyda were the only ones on the trip who had not climbed this stack of stone and We were giddy with excitement as conversation was floating around the van in prefect harmony. We got to the base of the mountain and from the drive it seemed that we were already at the top seeing as how half of the drive was up hill but we got out and walked some way. The hike was beautiful, the sun was setting in two hours from this point. The trails were barren of other people and it was quite hot out so it was a great time to run around on a mountain our shirts off. We stopped along the way and took an "pit-stop" off of a mountain as a group of guys often does climbing mountains. Finally at the top we had a great down time and talk time with the boys and the temperature started to cool down so we make our way down to the bottom but instead of walking we sprinted down. If you ever do this hike you will find that it is pretty steep and we got down pretty quick but we failed to make it to the van because we stopped at one of the openings/outcroppings of stone that overlooked the valley to the west. We sat down and enjoyed the sunset which was so beautiful. The idea came to mind that since for the next while it is to be beautiful and the weather is to be clear we came to the conclusion that it would be a waste if we didn't sleep under the stars at The Point. We watched the sun set on a mountain over a valley, Nate compared the beauty to "sky kittens". We then drove over to our beloved superstore and bought steak in the form of chunks and strips, fine cheeses, a can of beans and alphagetti, and peppers. When we returned to the camp it was nightfall and there was some preparation to be done to make this trip a success. We packed our packs and headed over to the kitchen to prepare some banok bread dough to accompany our steak and cheese. It was a fun but strenuous hike since we were carrying bags and just returned from a hefty hike on the previous mountain. It was pitch black outside and our headlamps were doing everything but failing on us but luckily Mark brought a machete to save the day if any cougars showed up and we were blind in the dark. Some girls were planning on "scaring" us in the dark but lucky for them because we all had knifes and were masters at throwing them through the forest, and we implemented the policy use knives first and ask questions later. The hike passed over some dangerous terrain and God was good to guide our feet in the dark and prevent ankle injuries of trip-ending proportions. We made a humble fire on the rocks next to the sea where we sat down around it roasting steak with fresh bread and fine cheeses while passing jokes and stories as young gentlemen do. Some of these stories shall remain on that coast as there some accidental implications derived from the content of these conversations. (Justin learned a the risks of playing with words). The food all had a unique taste since it was fire roasted over the underbrush and vines of the majestic west coast deciduous and coniferous forests. the burning of wood from that area adds a unique smoked flavor, as well as roasting on pine sticks, that you can find no where else in the world. Once we were done our meal we continued our hike to the point where we sat around digesting our food and talking some more as we were accompanied by a starry night without clouds of any sort. We found sleep quite easily as the day was long and full of much physical activity. We woke up in the morning with a nice coating of young dew on the exterior of our sleeping bags. We packed our stuff watched the sun rise, hiked back to camp, during which we stopped for a quick swing on a "rope swing" as suggested by our fearless intern. All accounts rendered are not exhaustive but are of particular relevance to myself and make for excellent memories. Choice :)

OLYMPICS!!!

Hey Everyone (Especially family) I have been getting asked to explain what is happening with me at the Olympics so hopefully you have found this page and all can read it.

Yeah, I am a "host" at the olympics. Now for all you funny, funny people out there that doesn't mean I am the Ryan Seacrest of the 2010 winter games. Really it means that I am lowest on the food chain. I guess here's a general run of my day. I will write this trying answer all the questions I think my mom would ask so if it gets a little specific just keep this in mind...(sorry mom). I wake up at 3:45am...(yeah I know) and in total silence and almost total darkness get my gear on for the day and head downstairs. It's imperative that I stay silent cause there are people who have a days off and so I want to let them sleep a little later. I go down stairs to the lobby/kitchen area of the Squamish Baptist church. I pop a bagel in the toaster, butter it up and munch it down. Then I usually grab a bowl of raisin bran and use a bite to swallow my cold-fx pill. It boosts my immune system to keep me from getting sick which currently isn't working very well cause I am feeling a cold coming on strong. I will either grab a bible and write down a verse for the day or just sit there and be numb for a few minutes. At 4:25 I pile into the van with the other 10-17 people and Jimbad drives us to the bus station where we catch the 4:40 bus. The bus ride is different every time. Sometimes I talk to the person next to me, sometimes I sleep the whole way. Mostly it's a combination of the two. We roll into the Whistler Olympic Park at about 6am and head over to the check in tent. We check in, grab a bottle of water, get an assignment and then head out to our areas. I usually get mag and bag which is the security area. at 6:30 we have a meeting with out team leaders then we get ready for open at 7. I have had different team leaders everyday and different teams, most of the time I am with at least one other Kaleo student. Down at the mag and bag I wait until security opens their tents. There is airport style security and my job is to make sure people go through the metal detector one at a time. Depending on the tent I get put into, there is usually a lot of time where we are just standing around. I get to talk with the security people for many hours and it's great. I will get one break before 10:30 which is about 15 minutes long, time enough for a hot chocolate and bathroom break.. Depending on the events that day I, the security mostly closes down by 11am. I then get 30-45 minutes for lunch. It's good to sit at this point. The food is always a bowl of soup, a sandwich, a granola bar, a cookie, apiece of fruit and a drink. It's a filling meal of varying qualities. Salmon paste on rye bread with cauliflower soup was a particularly dark day for me... After lunch we get ready for what is called "egress" which is just the people leaving. They come down and we tell them which line to get in for the buses. The first few days there was a two hour wait in the bus line and people were pretty angry, especially since it was raining those days. I mostly went around and asked people what I could do to make the wait better. Many of the asked for either a song or a beer. I gave them a song but the beer was a tall order. After the third day the bus system improved and now egress is just saying good bye to people and answering the occasional question. After egress I grab a bus back to Squamish. An hour's sleep later I hop off that buss and get a 10 minutes ride from the stop to the church. When I get back to the church I change into comfortable clothes, read some of my books for class, play some music and then eat dinner. If I am not on dishes then I go to the prayer room and wait for our evening meeting. While waiting I sit and read my bible and pray and just rest in the Lord, most important part of my day. Then we have a meeting where we all share our stories from the day, prayer requests, tomorrow's schedule and maybe sing a tune or two. After the meeting I head upstairs to an inflatable mattress and bed down. In another 7 hours I will do it all over again...unless I have a day off. Which is a different story.

So far I have had a lot of fun working. Today I got to go watch biathlon for a half hour which was cool. I have been talking to a lot of people. I am mostly in talking with the security people. The security people are an interesting mix. They get paid about $18.50 an hour so there are some who are there for the money. These people have some sad stories. Many had to leave their families cause they had no work. One lady I met, Angela, had to leave the morning that her 5th grandchild was born. She felt sad about it but she had no choice, she has 11 foster children that she still sees and normally works at a school as a janitor and in a casino. Another guy, Josh lives a hard life. He works jobs all around the west coast, mostly construction but he spends a pile pf time away from his wife. There is also Max, a painter/author who was hard up for cash and put his art on hold for while so he could support his family.

There are also really interesting people who are around for the experience. Today I met Pierre Desjardins, a retired security guard who just wanted to volunteer to be around the Olympic hype. Or there is Michael from Germany who is spending the year traveling around Canada and is working to get some money for his flight back home to his girlfriend.

It's also important to know that the accommodations for the security crew are terrible. It's called rainbow valley but's it's been nicknamed "District 9" and "The Refugee Camp". The rooms are stacked storage containers with four people to a container. There is mold and many people are getting sick. This makes it hard to be there. I love talking to them cause I get to share some hope and enthusiasm with them. Very few people take the time ask about each other's lives in any detail so when I know them by name and ask them questions for an hour or so they seem to cheer up.

There are also a few volunteers outside of the group who are attaching themselves to the Kaleo group. Gareth, Tim (from Germany), Raissa and "Zan" are some of the other youth volunteers who we hang out with, even outside of the Olympics when we can.

Kaleo is getting known amongst the workers too. Some people are coming up to us and saying "Oh you must be part of that bible school group". Which is cool cause we have a continuing ministry everywhere we go. At this point we rarely are starting from ground zero when we talk to the volunteers and workers cause they already know a but about us. The other cool thing is that people are recognizing the Jesus in us, even if they don't realize it. Some Kaleos have been approached by people and told "there is some sort of spirit about you that makes you stand out". Others have seen us reading bible verses and encouraged us and been encouraged by us. This is so cool because according the policies of the Olympics, no religious group can be directly involved in the games at all and yet we are there, sharing hope and joy and our ears and lives with these people. God has put the church where they were told they couldn't go!

Yeah I am getting really tired but a few of us were talking last night and it really just allows God to show his strength. There is irony in that God's weakness is stronger than men (1 Corinthians 1:25) and yet His power is made perfect in weakness (2 Corinthians 12:9). Very cool thing to see so visibly how God sustains us, especially when we are so weak.

Pray for us for freedom of sickness, rest, energy, more great conversations, bold words to share with these people we meet and above all praise God for working in such incredible ways.

Hope you all now know what it is I am doing and I will give updates in a few days on this very blog. Thanks for being interested and for praying everyone.

Cheers,

Tim

So TIRED!!!

Hey everyone,

So this week was pretty sweet and full of new experiences. Unfortunately I wasn't feeling very well on Wednesday so I had to miss youth group which I heard from the other leaders was a dramatic evening. The good thing is that on Friday and Saturday we had a youth event/snowboard trip up in Campbell River. The night started off like any youth trip should, with a burger from McDonald's. Our cashier had a great name, Alberta Blue. I was tempted to ask her is that was her name tag or it listed her province of residence and favorite color. I decided to withhold my question out of respect.

We then hopped on the bus and took a two hour drive up to the church in Campbell river. The bus ride was fun. The boys were crazy and beating on each other and the leaders held conversations and occasionally told the boys to stop the violence. I managed to get an hour's worth of sleep which was greatly needed. We pulled into the church and went to a youth event called lift off. We sang, played some stage games and heard a speaker. It was all really good except our boys were really bored and cranky.

After the youth event we went to a pool across the street. I played some b-ball with the guys and we ended up just wrestling in the pool. I also got the chance to catch up a bit with a youth pastor by the name of Chris Synesal which was good too. After the pool we had Pizza at the church, went to a nearby Tim Hortons and then headed back to the church gym for some sleep. Now when I say we of course I just mean me. I managed to get to sleep even though a gym full of guys were talking, playing b-ball and probably fighting each other. This was around 1:00am. The boys decided we needed to wake up at 6:17am and so no leader really got that much sleep.

We got up, hit up Tim Horton's for some breakfast and then made our way to Mt. Washington. It was a long drive and a long wait for rentals but finally around 10:00 am we made our way onto the slopes. The hill was packed. We waited a solid 20 minutes just to get onto the first lift. The conditions were also really crappy. Near the bottom of the hill it was raining which made everyone soaked. At the top is was so foggy you could barely see the other skiers on the hill. One girl sprained her foot and I ended up sitting in the first-aid building for a couple hours. But we got in some good runs and ultimately had a lot of fun.

When we got back I did some homework and went to bed. Today at church we mentioned the Olympics as our mission trip and even got invited to a super-bowl party at our youth's house. We saw a bit of good football, ate some great chili and got a chance to hang out with our youth's parents. His dad even prayed for our mission trip before they gave us a ride back to camp. It was such a good experience in connecting with our community in Crofton.

This week we head out to the Olympics which is the biggest trip we will have this year. We will need much prayer cause we will be working hard and I have no idea what challenges will arise so pretty much jumping in somewhat blind. Any and all prayer will not just be appreciated but needed in order for us to even SURVIVE. Like the title says I am so tired and may not be making sense any more. Talk you all in a few weeks.

Cheers

THEOLOGY!!!

Hey everyone,

Had a pretty good week to honest. A little insomnia, some Camp Ministry Class, a major youth event. Lots of good things. Youth this week was fun. We had some kids there which is encouraging because they haven't been very good at attending lately. The cool thing to do is to chill outside youth group but not actually go in. I don't mind so much because we had a youth event on Friday which was incredible and I knew they would come to that. I am also anticipating some great experiences with the guys this weekend on at Mt. Washington. It was a struggle but we able to convince the guys to come and I am stoked.

I feel like I have breezed over the youth event. The story is, as with all youth events, it was completely confusing and disorganized as far as who was running the event was concerned. It may have been the New Life Church or maybe Camp Qwanoes. Qwanoes ended up running the show which was great because they are great at it. Then there was the question of how many kids were coming. could have been forty could have been three hundred, we had no idea. Thankfully it turned out that what seemed like over 200 kids turned up, sang some tunes, played a game, heard Justin Lenny speak hope into their lives and then ate some cookies. I should make note that Justin appears to the type who would seldom speak at a youth event and yet was refreshing for that very reason. He spoke little of responsibilities of Christians, or the fact that Jesus died for our sins, while the latter is important. He chose to speak about the visibility of God in everyday life and the intent of God to bring light into the world. Letting kids hear about a God who loves them and wants them to leave darkness and enter into light was so different than most talks I have ever heard about youth events. Better yet I think these kids really cared about what JL was saying. Very cool.

Yeah we have Intro to Theology this week and I can tell that there will be some good conversations. Pray for Kaleo and myself this week as we delve into some deep topics of great significance. Also pray for myself, the leaders and the kids for this weekend's trip up to Mt. Washington for some snowboarding. The night before is a youth event style thing plus a sleep over. I am hoping that such an environment might provide great opportunities for some deep chats and really let the boys open themselves up. I really want to hear their stories and what these boys think. Right now the relationship is somewhat surface level but I know that there will be chances for things get much more transparent. Cheers everyone, have a good week.

Tim

SNOW SNOW SNOW

Hey everyone (mostly Kristie)

Had a sick week at mt. Washington. Learned to snow board, shredded the gnar as it were. The mountain was sick. Had so much fun. Too the view on the top of the mountain was incredible. It was strange to wake up at camp where it was green and rainy, fall asleep in the van, wake up two hours later where there is three or four feet of snow. BC is a messed up place. Crazy mountains and all. Yeah we also had a sweet snowshoeing adventure where we made snow caves and ran down a mountain doing flips along the way. (not exaggerating) We also went tubing but we won't talk about that.

The chapels were really intense. We would snowboard from 9am until 3pm then chill until about 8pm when we had chapel. In other words we would physically tire ourselves out, chill and nearly out ourselves to sleep with music and chill conversations then go and get into deep spiritual exercises. Pretty intense week to be honest. The most memorable part was definitely the names. One night we went around pointing out how we saw Jesus in one another. The next two nights we went around and gave each other Kaleo names. These names were meant to encourage and appreciate what each person already had but also to admonish and hope for them so they could grow into each one. The whole process was incredible. We spent so much time listening, praying and wrestling with each name until the group was satisfied. Sometimes we would have to throw away names or disagree with names in order for the right name to come.

My name is refiner. This name was given to me because I am dissatisfied with anything that isn't truth and I wrestle with it until I am satisfied. It is a hard characteristic to possess because it can so easily turn into bitterness. The hope for me is that I would refine things until they are pure and that when tested with fire would remain strong and intact. I am really grateful for the name and quite intimidated by how big the name is. It is definitely too big for me now but I can't wait to see how God is going to grow me into it.

This week I will be going back to youth group and can't wait. In a couple weeks we are going snowboarding with the kids at Mt. Washington and I can't wait for the sweet times we will have. My boys seem to be at a hard time in the year. We will see what happens.

I am also playing guitar for a youth event this weekend and I am looking forward to it. IT will be fun to play some tunes with some other Kaleos. Keep me in your prayers.

Cheers,

Tim