Everyone Loves a Comeback...

...unless your Indiana Jones in which a comeback was completly unnecessary.

I decided, this very night, as sleep has slowly escaped my grasp that a resurrection of this blog was needed.

I purposely have placed a photo of a staircase in the header of my blog page because it is very symbolic of the place that I am at right now in life, as cliche and lame as that sounds - I don't care, I said it. Right now I am working two jobs, one at MEC and one painting. My job at MEC will likely come to an end within a month when my contract runs out, and I am slowly working less and less days painting so I fear that my job as a painter is going to end soon. So I feel as if the new year has many new unknown things in store for me. I am walking up a staircase, one of which the origin is a mystery to me. I still have not been given any sort of answer when it comes to my seizures, they are currently under control but not to the point that I would like. I decided to put my life on hold this year to get my brain figured out, and now with every month that passes with no further developments I as if a year might not be an adequate amount of time.

Despite my shortcomings I am still walking up this staircase one step at a time, trusting that although my destination is unknown to me it is known to God who has a very good reason for sending me to the place that I am walking towards.

He's got the whole world...

Well onto some more updates (if you hate reading updates as I sometimes am guilty of I will not feel offended if you "forget" to read this blog post). I just got out of the hospital today after an incredibly boring seven days. I was hooked up to a video EEG (Wikipedia it if you don't know what that is). Good news is they know exactly where my seizures are coming from! Bad news, they're kind of sitting on that information right now, I have been put on a new drug (yay for drugs!) and I have also been told that I need to hang around in Winnipeg for for a while to see how I react to this drug and whether it even works. That really was really a sucker punch to the gut because I already felt bad enough leaving Frontier halfway through a week, now I can't even return as soon as I would like. I'm praying that I will hopefully be able to return to Frontier sometime in August and be able to finish out the summer there.

Funny story (but really not so funny). I was sitting on the plane watching some stupid reality show and I thought to myself "man, right now on this plane would be a pretty crappy spot to have a seizure eh" no more than two minutes after that thought I felt a seizure coming on "you gotta be bloody kidding me" was my reaction before I blacked out. Nevertheless it was alright, I think I handled all the stares that were shot my way, and the children whispering to there mothers "is he going to die", and of course the stewardess bombarding me with question after question. We finally landed and I hung my head as I walked off the plane to avoid any awkward eye contact. When I got home (this is where it gets funny - God has such a sense of humor) I would have loved to have sat down and enjoyed some left-over chicken but my brain decides one seizure is not enough. Good-bye chicken I am now too tired to even consider eating chicken, through a joint effort with my mother and myself I finally make it to my bed. I guess my head ache was too much for my brain because it decided to have a third seizure! I at that point was more exhausted than I ever ever felt before in my life (more exhausted than hiking in India). I was done in, the only thing on my mind then was this sucks.

That was my great welcome home, I hope to never have one like that again. Anyways that was a little look at the "Struggle" that I have been blessed with recently, I will be sure to keep you updated, as I am sure there is more to come for it is not a question of "if" but "when".

Bietz

Fatty-Mega-huckers

I had the privilege of being able to cabin lead for our Level 3 mountain bike week. This meant that I got to ride every day with the six guys in my cabin. I was blown away by these guys, not just by their riding (although it was fun to be able to ride with campers who could push it) but there awesome and unique personalities. These guys will forever be in my prayers and I hope dearly to be able to see and ride with them again someday.

here are a couple pictures I took while we were riding the course last Tuesday.

Late Night Brain Wandering

Tomorrow morning I am playing worship at church, and our first week of camp begins tomorrow of which I am cabin leading. The intelligent thing to be doing right now would be sleeping, yes? I thought so too but my mind had something else planned, hence my twelve-thirty blog post (I seem to be wasting some time and waiting for my brain to catch up with my body).

Maybe this late night was needed for if it would not for this I would not probably not be blogging for another month. Now that I've written this much what else shall I say... I guess I could talk about how I spent the last week working decently hard building a dual slalom bike course for our Mtn. bike level three camp week which starts tomorrow, I feel that if my back ever feels my hands pick up a shovel again it will give up and give out. Or maybe I could talk about how last week we had a youth group come up from Colorado and how they were a whole butt-load of fun, I thoroughly enjoyed doing activities with them, mainly because they actually wanted to do the things that we were doing (I am quite sure that running activities without groups complaining is a little taste of heaven). I could also decide to talk about how I have just finished the Chronicles of Narnia series and ever out-trip I go on I feel that I have traveled to the magically land of Narnia. From the deep canyons to the rushing rivers, to the rolling hills covered in trees. If the internet wasn't so bloody slow I would upload some pictures and try to show you what I mean, but hence technology has failed us once again.

I feel that my brain is fianlly slowing down and telling me that it is ready for some sleep.

Please pray for:

Frontier Lodge Staff
Our summer camp begins tomorrow and I ask for energy for the staff that they will be able to go hard all summer long, not allowing pride, or anger, or negativity to get in the way of the ministry that is Frontier

Tim & Danae Gibbon (and family)
Tim (I guess now my former youth pastor) has been called by God away from my home church of Braeside in Winnipeg and on to a new church in Calgary. I ask that God will make this transition and move a smooth one, and that Tim will be blessed in his new job in Calgary. Also that the youth ministry will not die out because of Tim's leave.


Until my next late night wanderings-take 'er easy.

Bietz

Dang those 'Mericans

I haven't made a post in a while, which saddens me because while at Kaleo at least once a week I would have some interesting events or thoughts that I felt were worthy to be blogged on. But for the last little while my mind has been pretty neutral, why is this? Am I too caught up in camp life, to take the time to spend time in the Word? Should I be praying harder for my mind to be challenged and stretched? As much as i love being here at Frontier, there is a part of me that wishes I could remain in bible school for the remainder of my life.

Nevertheless camp seems to be getting greater and greater everyday, we just got a new staff the other day (so I am no longer the rookie). The new guy (Craig) is from Virginia and his accent reminds me a lot of my roommate from Kaleo (Eric) who was/is from Illinois, man I miss that guy.

Good Memories

Despite the theme of my "memories" for the last two weeks, this one is not a memory from Kaleo. Today I was working on some camp vehicles (oil changes, inspections,...etc) and throughout the whole day I was remembering my old job in Winnipeg at Talbot Service. I never really thought that I would miss working on cars but I thoroughly enjoyed my day today so i am beginning to wonder...

In the middle of No"rdegg"where

I'm afraid to say that these blog posts will begin to become fewer and far between, due to a reason of things. This internet is incredibly slow and I just don't have enough time to sit and wait for it. Plus camp is going to be getting pretty busy this spring and any free time that I have I am sure I will want to use for sleeping.

Well i have arrived at Frontier Lodge safely. In fact i was welcomed with a foot of snow on the ground followed by two more days of constant snowfall. It is more like winter here than it is in Manitoba (who would have thought?) I have been spending these last couple of days getting to know people and getting to know the camp. This week has been dedicated to staff training so I have been learning how to belay and tie numerous knots for rock climbing, how to clean/maintain bikes, and tomorrow we are going canoeing and chances are I will have to tip to learn how to do a self rescue (let me remind you that tomorrow the temp. is 8 degrees, Brrrr).

I can't help but think at times that if I had stayed at home I could be going to Cedarwood and working with many of my friends, where as right now I am still trying to get to know everybody.

Please pray for:

-Habit of time with God
Working all day makes it all to easy to spend any free time I have either sleeping or doing something that I feel is more important than God

-Flexibility
Allow me to be flexible in adjusting to this place, the people, and eventually the summer

Chapter Two: Following Phil Continued

My year at Kaleo has finished. But I hope and pray that my growth in Christ has only just begun. I am not sure how many people actually read this blog, but I figured I would continue it as long as I am away from home.

This Sunday I will embark on a new journey, one that once again leads me out west, this time to Alberta, to a small camp in the middle of nowhere called Frontier Lodge. For those of you who know my brother Phil, you might be familiar with this camp as he has now worked there for several years. It seems that I just love following my brothers footsteps (I guess they aren't bad steps to follow). I will be working at this camp (doing what? I have no clue) from the end of April to the end of August. I am unfamiliar with how this camp runs, which renders me very nervous as to how I am going to fit in with this camp. Nevertheless I am going there and God will be there with me.

Please pray for:

Frontier Lodge
-turns out due to my epilepsy I will not be able to belay this summer, which is a bummer considering climbing is one of Frontiers platforms. Along with that I am unable to drive for the same reason. I can't help but feel that I will be more of a burden to this camp than an asset.

Life after Kaleo
-many of us Kaleo students have "crashed" after joining the real world once again. We seem to be plagued with the same struggles we faced before. We seem to have forgotten how important it is to stay in God's word, and to have a steady prayer life.

The End is Now the Beginning

After our last class last week we have been having quite the adventures to finish off the year. Surf trip to Tofino, Kayaking down the Cowichan river, and just last weekend we went and snowboarded on Mt Washington closing day of the season.









The end of this trip was quite sad for a lot of Kaleo's as they knew that this was the last out trip we would be sharing together. Our lodge is now packed full of parents and their families. Gathering together here for our grad ceremony tomorrow.

Even though Kaleo is now over, I will continue to update this blog as often as I can to keep those who actually read it (my mother) informed of my wanderings.

To Fino For the Last Tme

Well we have arrived back from our Tofino surf trip and although the waves weren't the greatest, but we made the best of it and had a good time none the less. Despite the salt water I am really beginning to enjoy this surfing thing, although I still suck I can see that each day i am slowly getting better, too bad this may have been the last time I go surfing for a long time.













This past Sunday was filled with good-byes as we bid farewell to our last Bridge service. We had a sweet BBQ with tons of food to end it on a very light note, although we did reflect some on what these past eight months has held. It was very encouraging to hear how much the youth enjoyed hanging out with us Kaleo's and getting to know us. In the same way it was great to get to know the young people of the Church, Cobble Hill, the Bridge service, and the people involved in both will for
ever have a place on my heart.

Please pray for:

-Cobble Hill
For the people next year who will be running the Bridge. For the relationships that we have built with the people there, that they will not be forgotten. That Cobble Hill will receive the funding they need to move into their new building.

-Kaleo
As our year is coming to a close allow us to retain the knowledge that we have gained from this year. As we all go our separate ways allow us to stand strong as we are re-introduced to society, allow us to keep our faith deeply rooted in the word and not be swayed by Satan.

-Camp Cedarwood
I just found out that Cedarwood is receiving a new director couple this year, so I pray that transition goes well and that this year of Camp will not be hindered in any way because of it. Also pray for an abundance of staff for Cedarwood this year

-India
That the people and places of India wll remain on my heart through years to come. That i will not forgot the dire need for prayer that India has. Allow the India team to continue to pray for the people and villages that we went to.

Slumdog Millionaire

Although this blog post might seem out of place, I feel that my mind has been poked and those pokings are usually what i like to blog about. Last night a group of us Kaleo's decided to rent Slumdog Millionaire. A lot of us had been on the India trip so we thought it would be interesting to see this movie that is filmed and set in India. I knew that this movie was going to be heavy content wise before watching it, but I don't think you can ever really prepare yourself for content as heavy as that of the Indian slums. Although this movie was set nowhere near where we were when we were in India we could still relate with many things that we saw like the kids all playing cricket, the begging that goes on everywhere, the language, the religion, and of course the traffic. But this movie gave us insight to things behind the scenes. I hope that those who watch this movie are able to see past the story of the main character winning a million dollars, and see the kind of oppression that the Indian kids face in the slums. I'm not saying in any way that I know what it is like, not in anyway in fact I am probably the most oblivious but maybe that is why this movie pulled at my heartstrings the way it did. I just have many more things to add to the ever growing list of things to pray for India about.

If you have not seen this movie I highly suggest you do, but do not watch it as entertainment, watch it as a call to prayer for the people of India. This movie might have a happy ending but most people who grow up on the streets and in the slums do not.

Where Do We Go From Here?

I have sat and pondered for quite a while how I am to start this blog and I have continued to put it off. Blaming many different things, saying that I am tired and have no energy (that jet-lag really gets you), saying that I am busy with school and have no time, saying that I am sick and need sleep,. . .etc. I have finally come to the point where I need to toss away all my excuses and get down to the bare bones of what needs to be said in this blog about my trip to India.

Despite a number of colds, a possible parasite, and numerous bad moods our team arrived home safe and sound last Thursday.

I am not supposed to dwell on details of our trips, namely people’s names and places so I apologize for the lack of details, which at the same time is too bad because I would love to tell you stories about the people that we got to know on the trip, their amazing testimonies, and stories of how God has and is working in their lives. One of the guys that we got to hike with had a testimony that left my jaw rubbing the ground, I have never before heard nor dreamed of such devout dedication to Christ, such incredible faith and surrender.

It seems that the overlying theme throughout our trip was faithfulness. Not only how God was being faithful to us but also how we were to be faithful to God. I couldn’t stop praising God throughout this trip for his faithfulness and answers to prayers. My ankle, which had been in a cast no longer than three weeks before we started hiking caused me no problems on the trail, i was able to carry my pack and everything PRAISE GOD! I got sick one evening and sickness while hiking is bad news, but the next morning my sickness was gone PRAISE GOD! At the beginning of this trip despite the opposition of my team I prayed for struggle and trials on our trip, asking for the rain to pour and the winds to blow. This trip turned out to not be easy in any means, we were all faced immense trials PRAISE GOD! On the third day of this trip, I was sick, and being at high elevation did not help the situation at all. It was on this day that I experienced exhaustion like I have never felt before in my life, I was amazed after every step that I had not fallen to the ground and passed out, it was only through prayer that I actually made it through that day, or nay others for that matter.

God truly showed me his faithfulness on this trip but he also showed me how important prayer is and how we need to trust that every single one of our prayers are heard. We need to pray often and pray boldly, not afraid to ask for large things, like entire Hindu villages to be overcome with the love of Christ and transformed. The power of prayer has been doing incredible things in India and will continue to do so.

One of my prayers coming out of this trip is that I will not forget the people that I met, that I will not forget the huge grasp that Satan has on the people of India through Hinduism, that I will not forget the children of the villages, that I will not forget the impact that this hike had on me and my fellow teammates, but most of all that I will not forget India. I pray that my heart will remain broken for the people of this country.

India!

Well after an extremely long day of work, church, and play I finally finished packing my bag for India, I just put the final touch on it, a Canada patch right in the back for everyone to see, I will hopefully now be treated very well in India.

To update you a little on this journey that I embarking on, we are leaving for Vancouver on the ninth and spending the night at a church. We then proceed on the tenth to the airport and fly off to Tokyo, Japan. Where we will spend a night waiting for a flight to India the next day. Upon arriving in New Delhi we hop on a bus and rive many hours north. Where we will eventually begin our hke through the Himalayas.

Things to pray for. . .

• My ankle still has not fully healed and I will need to be wiking on it in less than five days
• Support for India as still have not raised the 3250$ that I need to go
• Health for the people in our group, that no one will get severe mud butt or any ilness related or non-related to the bowel system.

Hmm...

This past week has not lacked work in any way. But despite the stress, late nights, and early mornings I have thoroughly enjoyed the majority of the papers I have had to write. For our theology class which ended last Friday I had to write a paper analyzing Isaiah 6, which is Isaiah's commission from God. What seemed like like such a simple passage proved me wrong when I found myself learning more and more about the Holiness of God. This week we are in our Gospels class, which so far has been quite interesting. A pre-course assignment for this class was to read through the Gospels, which is something I have never done before. I was intrgiued to see all the differences in writing style, content, and focus of every Gospel. I came to the conclusion that I enjoyed reading Matthew more than any of the other three.

Theses past couple days I have begun to feel an improvement in my ankle, which is great, but I still fear that it will not be up to par for India considering we are leaving in a week. But also need to praise God for the improvement that has happened and the healing that will happen. I have received tons of encouragement from people who are praying me and have there churches and friends praying for me. That just blows my mind to think of all the prayer that is involved in the recovery of my ankle.

Last Friday all the youth from our church got together in the evening for a bonfire, food, and Frisbee. it was a great evening! It was really good for us Kaleo's to get away from camp and the homework that was overwhelming us there. On Sunday we decided to play worship as a full band which we haven't done for a while, lately we have been going for more of a group feeling, so we would only have an acoustic guitar and nothing else. But it was nice to have a full band playing again, I enjoy playing much more when I am playing instruments with others.

Please pray for:

• My ankle recovery and our India missions trip in genral (funds, health, moral,...etc)
• Health as a sickness seems to be creeping its way around the camp
• The Bridge, that God would bring people there who he knows need to hear about him.
• Kaleo students - it seems the more that we learn about God and his holiness, the more we understand how full of crap we are and it can be discouraging and overwhelming even thought we know our trespasses are atoned for.
  

Uh-Oh

Well I have just had discouragement thrust upon me, not from anyone but myself. Jeremiah has just helped me face the realization that our India trip is 14 days away...great, right? Nope, not for me, I am terrified that my ankle will not be up to par by then. It has been a week since I have had my cast off and I can barely walk never mind hike through mountains. If you know me, you know that I have trouble accepting help or inconveniencing anyone. I can climb that mountain, I can carry my own pack, I will not be last, I will not slow anyone down, I set the pace and I set it high. I think this mentality is about to be beat to the ground and stomped in the face until it is bruised, bloody and broken. I'm scared. I know that the only possible way that I am going to be able to make this India trip is through prayer, I need a miracle please pray for one.

On top of this, I recently have had another worry placed on my plate. My seizures have not be controlled for this past year and it seems that things are continually getting worse. My neurologist has scheduled me for an urgent appointment on March 4. This means I have to miss a day to a day and a half of our Gospels class. Apparently we are only really allowed to miss one day before we are forced to drop the class, so please pray that the Gospels prof. will be lenient with my situation. Also please pray that this appointment with my neurologist will be enlightening, that I will receive answers and a solution will be presented, and pray that I will have the willingness to accept that solution despite what it might entail.

I will never underestimate the power of prayer, through our Father everything and anything is possible.

Salt Spring Island

Since this past Thursday Kaleo has been on a reading break, despite the plethora of homework that is due this Thursday a dozen of us decided that we would take Saturday off and go visit Salt Spring Island. Salt Spring is a twenty minute ferry ride from us, and we couldn't have picked a more beautiful day to go...

...We had bought a bunch of food for a picnic by the water, after lunch Steve and I thought it would be fun to jump in the water (terrible idea)......Once the feeling came back to my legs I was able to smile again.After lunch we played some ultimate in the park, and then ventured off into the wilderness to find a wicked lighthouse - we immediately took advantage of this great photo opportunity.
After all was said and done, I was tired, my feet were sore, and my legs ached, but it was probably the most enjoyable act of procrastination I have done in a long time.

Between the End and Where We Lie

This past week we haven't had classes but it has not been any less busy. On Thursday night to Friday morning we had girls and guys nights, us guys stayed in the lodge and built a wicked fort (we called it a tabernacle) in the basement, played some Rock band, ate wings, and had some great discussions. The girls did something else, but nobody really cares about what they did.

As most of you know this past Saturday was yes, Valentines Day. Now regularly I do not care about this holiday because there are never women in my life on this day. But this Valentines Day I had three women with me so I was forced to celebrate it. Actually what really happened is that my room (209) and a girls room (311) went on a room date. So went to Value Village, bought some bowling shirts, went for supper, and then went bowling. It was probably the best experience I've ever had on Valentines Day.

This evening God blessed us at the Bridge, we had more people than we have ever had before. Which was such an answer to prayer as people are inviting friends to the Bridge and this is really becoming an outreach. The bad thing about a large amount of people is that then when I screw up playing guitar there a lot more people there to notice it, but oh well, I think I can take one for the team.

This past week I have tossed and turned in bed, trying to count sheep but all the while losing sleep. My mind has just been racing thinking about this summer and next year. I've decided kind of hesitantly to apply for a position at Frontier Lodge this summer (camp in Alberta that my brother works at) which means I will not be going back to Cedarwood this year. It will be good to get a feel for how a different camp runs, and it'll be something that will continue to take me out of my comfort zone. Now the second sleep disturbed - next year. i have decided that I want to pursue a career in the outdoors, don't know yet exaclty what that means but at least it is something. I have applied at a couple schools in programs that focus on outdoor adventure (hiking, white water kayaking, skiing, rock-climbing, rafting, . . etc). I'm not feeling to good about being accepted since the schools don't accept a lot of people, but I feel at peace knowing where I'm going, now the question is just how i will get there.

Please pray for:

• Praise for the work that God is doing at the Bridge
• Quick recovery for my ankle as my cast comes off this Wednesday
• God to provide the funds I need for our India trip this March
• Things to fall into place for the future (camp & school)
• It seems that I may be preaching at the Bridge on March 1, that could use a ton of prayer, cause I am not too sure if that is the greatest of ideas

All of a Sudden

Ths past week we had a class on the Old Testament and wow! I always thought that the OT was full of a bunch of rules that nobody ever followed anymore. But man, I could have never been more wrong. It was interesting to finally so the OT in its entirety, to see the whole time line come together and make sense. I need to say that I enjoyed gong through Judges more than any other book, how can people get mad at R-rated movies these days when so much viloence and gore can be found smack dab in the word of God.

This past Bridge we tred somethng a little different, instead of focusng on music, which most services usually do we focused on prayer, allowing ourselves to learn what and how Jesus actually told us to pray.

Please pray for:

• People to come to the bridge, it s hard not to get discouraged when you are continuely preachng to the choir
• Next year as I have applied to two different colleges for an Outdoor adventure program, and am currently wondering if this is what I should be doing
  
• This summer as I am trying to decide whether I should work at camp again, and if camp is where I should be, then what camp?
• Our India trip and that God would come through funds wise but also that he would gve me a quick recovery as I get my cast off the eighteenth and have about twenty days to get my ankle back up to hking strength.
  

Missions Fest

This past weekend we traveled to Vancouver (I rode my very first ferry!) for Missions Fest. We arrived Friday morning and before we made our way to Canada Place we visited a Mosque and a Hindu Temple. At the Mosque we were given a brief introduction the Islam, it was interesting to see how similar Islam and Christianity are, except for the whole thing of us believing Jesus is the son of God. The Hindu temple was not as informative as the Mosque as our "tour guide" went on many rants and was very hard to understand. But I did get enough out of it to understand where many people in India are going to be coming from. After those two adventures we headed to Missions Fest, you would think that now being among christian speakers we would be more comfortable in the fact that the speaker was speaking from the bible. But I think there in lies the biggest shock to me. I was more uncomfortable at the evening service at missions fest than I was at the Mosque or Hindu temple. Not because false doctrine was being taught but because truth was beign spoken. Tony Campolo gave the sermon in the evening talking about North America and its addiction with consumerism, and how we should should thank God the stock market has crashed, because now the temptations that plagued so much of our country have been relieved. We now need to rely on God, and God only. The rest of the weekend went well, although I did not get inspired to go off into the wrold, not yet at least.
Having fun on the ferry
This team in front of you beat an epic game of Gauntlet Legends in the ferry arcade

On the rooftop on Canada Place

My Brain Hurts

This will be a relatively short blog but I experienced something today that I felt I needed to share. Today in theology class we were learning about different arguments about the existence of God. there was this one theory called the Ontological theory which blew my mind. I'm not going to go into details but my brain hurt so much trying to wrap my head around this theory. I've never been that troubled before about understanding an idea before except once (that was God's passion for his own glory). I really love learning about things that take a while to sink in, things you really need to think about.

Power Of Prayer

This past week seems to have gone by relatively fast, I can't remember much of it, I'm guessing it included a fair amount of work, possibly some reading. But how bout I focus on the things I do remember. On Saturday evening our pastors son Levi was haveing a birthday party, so us Kaleo's who go to Cobble Hill got to go over to the Pastors house for the night. We had a great time hanging out with the Bekesza's, Levi who turned 11 is an amazingly fun kid to hang around.

The next day, I got to play bass in the sunday morning worship team, which as always was a treat. We have been talking recently about what the Bridge needs, what the people there need, and what we as a worship service should be presenting them with. We have come up with the idea that the people coming to the Bridge need to be more involved in prayer. So at the latest Brdige service we presented the congregation with an idea, a plan. We asked everyone to begin praying for the Bridge, especially people that they think need to come to the Bridge, people who need Jesus. Hopefully our plan as the Holy Spirit begins to move in these peoples lives we will give the people in the church oppurtunities each Bridge service to share what God has revealed to them, or done in there lives. This might seem like a small, mediocre task or propostition but we feel it is the next viable step in the life journey of the bridge.

Prayer requests for this week:

• Funds for India: I found out this week that I still need another $3000
• Time: we have a good chunk of assignments building up faster than I can do them, and that creates some high stress levels among Kaleo
• The Bridge: like I said pray for miracles
• Me: lately I have been feeling spritiually dead, I feel like I am at the point where I am just going through the motions, taking in information but not applying it to my life

Sunday of Song

This Sunday was a busy one, chock-full of scripture, worship, and prayer. We led the Sunday morning service as Lech (our Pastor) was away. Once again God blessed us, giving us talent and abilities beyond our power, creating a very powerful morning service. We were taking part in communion this morning, and I was very nervous about it because communion to me seems like such a strict thing, which needs to be done very traditionally, and screw-ups are not tolerated. But nevertheless we got through communion without messing up, setting a very reflective mood.

The Bridge this evening just added to more things on our plate to plan. After coming home on friday from our snowboard trip we did not have a lot of time to practice or plan much. But in the end it all came together. Our line-up for our worship team was different as our drummer and one of our singers left for a vaction to Europe. ALthough we quckly adjusted to our replacement drummer (who is 10 years old and amazing!) and we got by with one less singer.

Prayer requests for this week:

• On Jan. 11th I had another seizure, I am pretty confused at this point in time as to what the heck is going on in my body and brain, please pray for some answers, and guidence.
• Our workload this week is pretty hectic, please pray for motivation and self-control to not procrastinate
• Continue to pray for my ankle as it is still in a cast, but also praise the Lord as it is healing properlly and I should be out of the cast within 4 and half weeks

1-19-09

Mt. Washington

We are now back from our snowboard trip at Mt. Washington and neck deep in homework. I think it is safe to say that most people had a good time even though the snow conditions were pretty sketch. I wouldn't really know, my snowboard consisted of a cast, my chairlift a couch, and my black diamond runs were flights of stairs. But that was not a problem becuase on the first day two people were put out of commission with a broken wrist and the other a concussion so they were able to join me. Then the second day a third also joined our group of invalids with another broken wrist. So as you can see I was not alone during the day.

Back to the Bridge

Today we had our very first Bridge service of 2009. I was expecting that this being the first service after the break we had have a very limited number of people but it turns out we had more people than ever before. It was a good evening full of prayer and worship, Cobble Hill often has a time in their service where they dedicate time for you to pray with the person sitting next to you and it is always amazing to really get to know the congregation of the church you are attending.

It proved to be interesting playing guitar for the bridge due to my broken ankle, I definitely don't feel comfortable sitting on a chair and playing, nor is it an easy transition to get from the pew to the stage and vice versa.

Next Sunday us bridge-runners are leading the morning service as our pastor Lech is away. Last time we did this we all enjoyed it very much so this time we hopefully go as well as last time. One of the churchs youth is preaching the message, he is incredibly talented with words, and it is such a great thing to see a church listening to someone younger than the majority. It reminds me of 1 Timothy 4:12.

Don't let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an
example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity.

I have a couple prayer requests for this next little while, please pray for. . .

• My broken ankle, that healing occurs with haste and without error
• The bridge, that it begins reaching out to and "bridging' the gap between the community and Cobble Hill
• Kaleo's India trekking team, our training has begun, spiritually and physically, please pray for our team, for the leadership, and for any doubt that Satan is placing in the minds of our team
• My epilepsy as I had another seizure this past Christmas break, and my mind is plagued with questions most of the beginning with why

DANG!

Already I have something new and interesting to say about this semester.  I was definitely not expecting nor hoping that this would be something that I would have to deal with but I just found out today that I broke my ankle in two places.  This means no snowboarding for me at Mt Washington next week, and the possibility of me going to India for our trek is in question.  Please pray for me as I begin a journey I am not too pleased to be on.

Reverse then Forward Again

After a ridiculous flight, I finally arrived back at Qwanoes. Welcomed with a conglomeration of snow, slush, and rain I immediately decided I would trade +4 for -40 any day. But despite the weather it is good to be back, I really missed my roomates and the community we have here. I thourougly look forward to this next semester and everything it brings.

Lets raise our glasses, here is to 2009, Cheers!