Congrats Jen and Jordan!

I stole these off of Kaleo 6's site! Congats you 2! Ahhhh so excited for you!

I'm confused and i don't understand

I don't get it right now. I know my God is Good and Just and Faithful, And i know that some times we have to go through things that suck and are crappy. But what if those things make living every day life hard. Since when should drinking coffee, or brushing your one teeth become heard. I'm sitting here on the computer well my mom is struggling to even feed her self. I DONT UNDERSTAND! I'm on my knees, would you please join me.

If it is the lords will for her to slowly get worse, then so be it, But God give me strength! But I pray my faith is Bigger then a mustard seed That i may move this mountain. I'm unsure how to lift this up to you Father, But God would you bring me strength and may my hope rest in your hands.

I love you all deeply, and i praise God for the time we had together. As all of you walk the path that he has set out for you. It encourages me so deeply when i think of all of us spread out all over Canada. Praise God we have become his hands a feet!

HEY!

I have no way of conveying the excitement and passion that I have for everything happening in my life. A quick recap of where I'm at, I’m working at Winkler Bible Camp full time and have been since last summer. I’m doing 2010 summer camp planning/prep and running/directing the Kids Zone program which we started last March.

The Kids Zone kick off was yesterday and it was fantastic! We had about 140 kids show up, and about 30 leaders. It was again a super fun time for the kids with a awesome time of teaching, asking the question of “Who are you living for?” I love it so much and am so pumped for the many ways it will continue to grow and change to become even more effective.

My summer was also amazing and I feel so blessed to have gotten to work with all the counselors and leadership staff that I did. God is so good, and he is always teaching me and preparing me for the next step to take.

One of those next steps is that I’m speaking at my church Jr. youth retreat in mid October. This will be my first speaking weekend, and I’m nervous, but very excited about this way for me to be stretched. I was also give the opportunity to speak in my church today and share my passion for ministry and I know that God is using me and other young passionate people to help bring change to the entire congregation and that excites me so much!

I’m also teaching Sunday school at my church and I have 5 (apparently trouble making) grade 6 boys, so I know we are going to have a blast! And I’m going camping next weekend with all our male summer staff as a way to connect!

So, as you can tell, I’m busy and excited about all of it! God is good, all the time and I want nothing other than to serve him with all my heart, time, money, strength etc.

I’m so excited to hear from all of you too, so keep those posts coming. God has blessed all of us that years after we have been apart, there is still this amazing community atmosphere between us! I love you all, keep doing what you’re doing and serving God!

Revolutionary Steve


P.S. I dont know much about blogs, but is there a way for us to have a "Post Blog" button on our blog, just to make in even more enticing and easy for people to post?

This is for Jim, I'm home safe.. no worries, i had a wounderful drive yes it was dark but there were no other cars on the road.

Hello From The Vagabond

Does anyone remember Kurtis Hoff (thats me) It may come as a shock to some of you but I am alive and kicking. I havn't been as diligent as I want to be in keeping touch with you all, I'm sorry I've been living a very busy life since Kaleo ended and it's not about to change.

Last winter I moved to the U.K. lived and worked in England, shared an apartment with a complete stranger from South Africa, and we became best mates. I moved back to Canada this spring for tree planting again, then worked in the fields for my Dad and now I'm helping my friends Dad harvest in Saskatchewan.

This winter again I will be traveling seeing amazeing things, learning history, culture, and street sense that no text book can possibly fringe upon.

On November 14th I fly for South Africa where I will be going on a nation wide road trip with Nick (former flat mate), and two other friends from England.
From there I will move back to the United Kingdom and work till my visa expires in Sept. 2010. After which I will spend the following winter of 2010-2011 backpacking Europe till the money runs out. I'm estimating it will last till May 2011; then I will move back to Canada and get a life, maybe.
If any of you wish to join me for any portion of my time in Europe, or simply just visit me on your way through please do.
I have alot of plans but nothing concrete, I'm relying alot on God to provide me with safe and rewarding travels, good jobs, fun experiences, exciting stories and most important of all friends to cherish the times with. He's been the best travel guide for me so far and never left me in need or unsatified.
I want to share all of this with you guys because 1. I love you all 2. I covet your prayers 3. You guys are the reason I am able to do this.
Well! God through you. the love and appreciation you guys gave me over our time together has blessed me with the confidense to step out alone (accept that cozzy feeling in my soul like someone is right there beside you), and unafraid, eager to see who and what is over the horizon.
I Promice to let you guys in on the details as the next year and a half of wondering plays out. I just want you all to know that everywhere I go I will be thinking about, loving and missing you all.

Hello Lovely People!!

Oh how I miss all of you! Can't tell you how many times my heart has longed to see you all and hear all things the Lord is teaching you! Thanks so much for the wonderful updates that keep us involved in this wonderful community that God has used so powerfully in our hearts. You all are a blessing to each other and such a blessing to me...I love you.
Okay, so down to business...thought I would give you a bit of an update here...cannot believe what an amazing summer we had here at Qwanoes! I never expected to see the hand of God move the way that He did or so powerfully in the hearts of our staff. We saw so many foundations laid for incredible change! Praise the Lord! So many transformations that are foundational, not experiential...praise the Lord! Many staff have allowed the Lord to strip them of the grip the world has had on them and draw them to Himself and let Him rebuild them into the young men and women He is calling them to be. WOW!! So incredible! Time after time the Lord has answered our prayers for this summer...from the Spring when our team began to form, the Lord placed the desire on our hearts to see our summer shift from a focus on decision to a focus on discipleship. God spoke to our hearts and told us to back off trying to "do" this and get down on our knees...we watched Him powerfully sweep through this place and accomplish so much more "than we could ask or imagine." Praise the Lord!
As for me, the Lord has taught me so much about ministry; and though the past year was a difficult one at times, I would do it all again to see the fulfillment of what that time was for. Praise the Lord!
I thought I would let you know where the Lord has been leading me recently and ask you to pray with me into that...I got accepted into Moody Theological Seminary for a Master's in Spiritual Formation & Discipleship which begins in January! So incredible how the Lord has fashioned my heart for this and opened the doors to head this direction. I'm not sure how the next few years will play out as I would love to remain at Qwanoes while working on my MA. If you would pray with me into that I would appreciate it so much! I'm praying about a place to live right now...I have money for school but not housing and hoping that someone in Chicago would like to open their home! We'll see how it all plays out, but for now I'm excited to continue with Qwanoes through the Fall and then...CHICAGO!!!

Blessings,
Amanda

September Already!

Wow, I'm not really sure where to start! I think the last time I posted was literally hours before I left for Mexico so let's go back to that. Mexico blew my mind. I've gotten to talk to some of you about it so I'll try to keep this short. Remember Theology of Mission and how we discussed the downfalls of short term mission trips, and then decided on the positives... this trip was everything positive and then some. Our church has a great relationship with the pastor there, and has been working with him for 5 years now. We did everything from work projects (dry-walling, tiling, cementing), to VBS, to building fish ponds, distributing food... it was the busiest two weeks imaginable! The hike was quite the experience... Albert Edward now looks like a walk in the park! What did this trip teach me? Well since many of you know I've done a lot before, right, so I was heading into this trip rather last minute, and in somewhat of a leadership role thinking that I was pretty ready for this... then on the third or fourth day we were handing out food to people that was supposed to last them a month. This blew my mind. Out of the experiences I have had, none of them have been quite like that. To see people that poor, that unwanted by their country and government, that controlled by the drug dealers... it's hard to wrap my own head around the memory of it. The other huge thing for me was working with, listening to, and watching the pastor and the people that work with him. Pastor Thomas has been working with the Tarahumaran people for 15 years now. It started with hearing about these people that live in the canyon about 15hours from where his church is, hearing of their need and that they are going extinct and now it is a full blown ministry. Food is distributed once a month, there is a farm where people are brought out of the canyon for a season and taught agricultural skills... it's amazing! They often don't know where they're going with the ministry, but they follow, and as they take giant leaps of faith, God meets them in HUGE ways. There are so many stories of encounters with drug dealers, roads being built, government doing unexpected things... it's so exciting to see. Pastor Thomas spoke to us a lot about passion and vision. Find what you are passionate about, and serve the Lord wholeheartedly in it... so simple right, but when someone actually rises up with total faith and does what God wants them to, big things are going to happen.

After Mexico I was at the church full time running the youth events. This was challenging as we did not get many youth out, and also because I haven't had a summer at home in years and now I was leading groups on outings and day trips to things that were new to me! Summer was good though, challenging and stretching, yet also a good change of pace. I managed to visit camps a bunch of times, which was great.

Well there's catch up and so now I'm back at Columbia Bible and am officially the Director of Middle School Youth at church. September is such a crazy time, having classes for the first time and trying to organize those, parent meetings, leader recruiting and training, kick-off. It's quite something. I was pretty nervous about the amount of things I would be doing this year and all of the pressures and responsibility I would have. Then this past week as I started school I got a cold. I think this was God's way of ensuring that I did in fact have no strength on my own and so was forced to lean on Him. Good way to start the year and to serve as a reminder for the rest of it! Needless to say I now see that this year will involve a lot of obedience to God's call, even through the extremely hard, busy times, as well as surrender and reliance on Him. The only way this year will be possible is by the grace of God. If you could keep me in your prayers about this because I need to be constantly plugged into God and not forsaking my first love as the church in Ephesus did (Revelations 2:4). I also need a lot of wisdom as I lead about 25 leaders and the many Middle School Youth who will be coming... Our vision this year is for the youth to encounter the real Jesus.

Oh right, almost forgot... in keeping with the theme of going traveling last minute... I'm going to Israel on October 18th for two weeks with my church!!!!! My pastor leads a teaching trip there. This is going to be amazing to walk the land, and learn. It's more than just 'seeing the sites', we get to experience the culture and learn eastern vs. western thinking. I'm so excited for this opportunity. It looks like Prairie Bible will give me credits, and then Columbia will accept the transfer (what fun figuring that out was). Now I just need to meet with my profs and discuss with them my leaving for two weeks! Keep this in your prayers as well please! I can't believe the opportunities and experiences that I have in this church. This is definitely where God wants me to be for now and I am extremely thankful that this is regularly made clear to me.
That's about it all... Keep in touch

Stink Bug!

SO the title is meaning less ... sting bugs are just cool!.. I guess its kinda fitting in a way, Only Sheri and Kels and Kins would fully understand.

I'm trying to think of how to start, There are many ways.. One is Its been for ever and I'm trying to think of how to sum up all that has gone on in life, my brain, and My heart over this last .. For ever. lol

4 months ago i moved to camp and took on a leadership position that was perfect for me, Events Assistant (allstar), I had no idea what how God was going to use this position to grow me as a leader. During Advanced crew Jordan, who was to be my partner in crime took on a different position. So the Allstar Leaders were just Steve and I. I don't think it truly hit me on how much i would be stretched until the first day of camp. Every thing was planed it was just a matter of pulling it all off. Also well stepping in to this leadership position i also took another big step at the same time... A relationship. God gave me a Gift.. his name was/is Devon Dupont. I prayed about it ALOT and felt a lot of peace. God Used him to show me lots of things that I needed to work on in my life. He showed me that Yes relationships are not all like my last one. I realized how scared I was of letting him in. It was a Huge step of faith... because i was terrified!... In this relationship I saw how week i am still and how easy it would be for me to fall in to the person i was before and the in to the sin that ruled my life. I also realised how strong i was and am, now i stand firm on the Rock that is My Jesus, and I'm able to turn from such thing and run straight in to my fathers arms. My life is not easier, i would say harder.. But i hold in my heart Joy and Hope in days to come, This is Gods gift to me witch make all trials and temptations bearable. At the beginning of the summer i prayed against distraction knowing why I was at camp and not wanting Devon to distract me from my heart fully being in my call to serve my Jesus at camp.
My position taught me how to organise my self, my thought, and other people. God giving me responsibility and the fact that i need to be an example has stretched my heart by learning through trial and error. I feel like a all of the knowledge that god gave me over the past 2 years about leading through observing various people along the way I finally got to put to test. Over the summer I have been learning a lot about discipleship and how we are called to disciple by the example of our lives, So now i am learning to LIVE!
Half way through the summer I took my 3 days off and went home with Dev, Then the peace i had about our relationship was gone. I was confused, I didn't understand... I still don't.. I wanted to merry this dude, we fit so well together. But the thought of being disobedient again scared me and made me feel sick and the only thing to do was something that sucked and hurt.
God gave me a vision of my life. There is me in a dark place, but if i looked over my shoulder i could see all of these stones on witch i have stepped on. these stones were light up. A soft voice from the darkness kept telling me to take a step.. 'But i cant see where I'm going to step'... Michelle just do it... 'But what if i fall'... Trust me....'ok'. So i took a step, I still feel in the dark mostly, i still don't understand, if this was not a bad thing then why do i need to give it up. But. Through words that he gave Steve He confirmed that this was a good thing and in order for me to serve him fully giving up something that was so good and pure was necessary.

SO now the summer is over, and i miss it deeply. But i know that Port McNeil is where I am to be. Gods plans for my life here are still in the dark. He has changed the way I live, the way I lead, My Few on relationships, and i feel He has equipped me for something big (witch scares me...A Lot) I have been praying for opportunity here every day, and for the past 3 days he has been faithful on helping me see them. I went to the school to let them know my desire to coach.. Volleyball or soccer. They just called today about meeting with the girls tomorrow at noon. So that sweet. I have Gotten to do some follow up with some girls that attended camp this summer witch is SO RAD! and I'm starting to pick up some relationships where they left of since moving away. as for now I'm board.. I know the ball has started rolling, But i feel like i have much time to sit.. witch after camp is a weird thing to do. But i know i need to take advantage of this time to rest and reflect.
I pray For much change in this place, and when needed the Lord will place me and my home on your heart in times when prayer is much needed.

I'm sorry this is long, But i could not skip anything. I thank you all for your words of encouragement, and sharing your lives with me on this wonderful blog.
I think of all of you often and Smile, knowing that You are where God has called you and your lives are wonderful examples to every one around you.
Lots of love

Michelle

I just want you all to know that I love Spell Check!!!!.. if i did not have spell check i'm sure that non of you would understand what I'm trying to say.. I'm sure there are words in there that are not the right ones.. But they have not come out with a grammar check yet.. I hope they do soon!!