So, take off in T-minus one hour and 30-ish minutes, and I should probably finish packing soon.....meh, whatevs. It's just the New York team sitting here in a much-too-quiet pacific woods lodge. All the rest of the teams have been commissioned and are on their way. We, being the last team to leave, were blessed with the privilege of commissioning them. It was very cool to be able to send off the India team. They are so psyched to be so far over their heads.....and I think that is exactly why they are going to be so effective and successful in their goals over there. I am very excited to hear the stories of their adventures with God against the enemy when they get back. Pray for their safety will they are there and also for their safe return. Pray that they will know the power that comes from the name of Jesus Christ, and that God would lift the veil of darkness before them as they hike the Himalayas. Pray that Tom's leg would be strengthened and that he would lean on The Father as his crutch.

I should get back to packing, but before I go, I have taken a lot of heat for having "boring" blog entries. Apparently the fact that I don't take pictures means that I'm boring. So for all you critics out there, here you go:

So, this is....me, biking to .... Victoria in a ..... tidal .... wave ..... ? .....

This is me kayaking in the ocean......mom, don't look....







This is me saving the world during lunch break.....

This is me winning at hide and seek....

Who's boring now Phil JERK-lins....

Wow. So, two days later.....yeah. I'm a bit ashamed that I don't have an elaborate exaggeration of fictional events to entertain you before you read this, but in my own defence, I'm getting old. Things are starting to slip my mind! I can't remember what time supper is at, and everything smells like prunes! Just kidding. But no, seriously. Anyways, this week was hectic. Maybe because it started out rough. On Monday, we had our Old Testament Literature exam on Monday ......you know, that thing we have to write....... that's worth 40% of our final mark? Ya, that thing. Which is funny considering we had just finished the class for it two days before. You may think that would be a good thing, but no. We had all of two days to study for it. I think was got a little depressed that weekend. I didn't see the sun for almost 72 hours! That is hard for an outdoor guy like me! I need to be tanned and bruised and dirt/grass stained! Just ask my mom! Right mom?..... Right?...... Mom? ..... Mom? ...... Mommy? ...... Mom?

So, we had our second last Theology class last week as well, only this time, because we had our test on Monday, we had Theology all day on Tuesday. So basically, the class that had to be split into two, or else our brains would have exploded got compacted into one day again, which so happened to be the day after our exam....which was worth 40% of our grade. Ya. Wow. I'm not sure what an aneurysm is, but I think I got one....

If you tried to imagine the most masculine night that 15 bible college guys can pull off, what would it include? Fort making? Hot Wings? Rock Band? All of the above? Correct answer .....all of the above! We made a reconstruction of the Tabernacle out of couches and tables, pigged out on chips and wings, and played Rock Band until Josh made us all feel so silly that no one wanted to play the guitar anymore. I'm not saying that I wish I had stayed inside for most of my life, but there are times where I wish I could shred a song on expert...... strictly to show off, but still! Of course, shirts were not necessary, and the band "Topless" made it's debut with style, rocking out to the songs "Move Along" by The All-American Rejects, and "Welcome Home" by Coheed and Cambria. Ya, pretty much the two songs on Rock Band that clash the most, but we made it work!

Youth Was a lot of fun. We were given the privilege of running all the games and planning the devo. It was great! Daneille used to be a Program Director for a camp, so she had a plethora of activities to pull out, and Leila recently had an amazing experience with a lady who stole her camera bag that had $3,000 worth of stuff in it. The lady wrote her an anonymous letter to go along with all of the personal stuff that she then mailed, also anonymously, back to Leila, telling a little bit of her story. It was really neat! So between that and Daneille's vast amounts of wisdom and recreational experience, our night was set! It was really cool to be able to step into more of a leadership role for a day. I mean, as much leadership as is required to get stabbed with a pen, I feel like that night was a little bit more meaningful!

I'm going snowboarding tomorrow! Which is weird, considering the fact that I wore shorts today. I guess I shouldn't be too weirded out. I mean, I did snowboard in shorts in January! I think I need to live here......


.......what kind of self respecting guy celebrates his birthday on Valentines Day?.......

Until next time....

Well, hello again! I realise that I am late, but in my own defence I was....taken hostage!....by.....a pack of wild....moose....'alopes....and they.....held me hostage for 8 days.....so I couldn't write my blog because I was being held on.....a giant Ferris wheel.....made of marshmallows..... yeeeeaaaaah...... so anyways, I managed to escape my bondage, and foil their evil attempt to take over the world and turn it into a giant green house, and because of my strong sense of responsibility, I knew that the first thing I needed to do was write my blog....... mmhmm.... yup..... that's what happened. So anyways, last week we had a class that was in the running to be my least favorite class: Old Testament Literature. I was pretty impartial to it, up to the point where we had to read Leviticus......I mean, how many times do they expect me to actually read about how the Israelites can eat split hoofed animals. "Thou shalt noteth eateth ofeth the animals whom haveth not the split hoof. But of the hoofed specimens, thou shalt eateth any that of which you so desireth, counting not the pigeth." I may be slightly immature, but I'm not sure how ANYONE can read that and remain interested for an extended period of time. It was pretty difficult for me to get past the genealogy books as well. I just can't seem to care who was the son of who, unless they are some way related to Jesus. But our professor was excellent. He made it fun and exciting. The whole class was attentive when he spoke, we all participated, and everyone learned the books of the old testament......at least, they learned them a little. But the highlight of the week was definitely making a film summarizing the entire Old Testament. I got to be David!

Youth last week was sooooooOOOOOooooooOOOOOoooooo fun! Basically we played rock band. One of the couples from our church opened their house to us! We went over to their house, where they served us snacks and drinks AND let us use their huge TV. They had a projector and a 72 inch screen! I'm not going to lie, if my parents had had that when I was little.....or ever!.... I would have never seen the light of day! Hmm, maybe that's why they never did.....interesting. Anyways, it was crazy amounts of fun, and we had a ton of kids out. It went over so well that I'm pretty sure I didn't get stabbed with anything all night! Which is definitely a first!

Church was really good this week. We are currently in the motions of trying to get more contemporary worship music into this church. We are working with the pastor, who is all for it, to sort of undermine the general congregation, that has an average age of 87ish. They are so hooked on hymns that they don't think that any other songs could possibly be worship songs. I am not saying that hymns are wrong, I love hymns! But I do think it would be good to introduce a couple of emotion songs, not just lyric songs. Both have their pro's, but getting such a senior congregation to agree with that is proving to be......frustrating. But anyways, the sermon was on angels. Sort of a dangerous topic it seems. Most people don't know how to approach that particular topic. But he did very well, I thought. It was interesting (not that that is a rare occurrence!!) and I found it very helpful. This week we don't have much, but we are having a guys night....so ya. Until next time...

Wow. Already? Really? Mmmmm-ok then. Well, to be honest last week was pretty uneventful.......as far as Kaleo goes. Which usually means we're running around with five papers due in an hour and dish duty for that hour all on 2 and a half hours of sleep. Sort of like running full tilt blindfolded in a dark room full of blunt knee high objects. To be honest I just like that analogy, so I'm going to leave it. But no, seriously, it was a pretty low key week. We had another morning class of Theology, which was great as per usual. For some reason, it's the only only time I don't mind being yelled at. Except when he told the entire class that I would never be married. That wasn't fun. Just because I clapped when he made a crack about how women should be chained to the stove. I don't know. It seemed pretty uncalled for. I might get married!.....some day.......hm......anyways, after that it was really just about getting as much homework out of the way as we could before Missions Fest.

Missions Fest....sort of like a cheaper, less fun but more productive version of YC for adults. Anyone could go, but the whole idea was to promote different mission organizations, christian colleges, and summer camps. I definitely was not ready for what hit me there. I was pretty guarded and docile going into it. For all of you who know me well, I am a skeptic through and through. So to me, a whole event directed at missions organizations that run primarily off of donations stunk of scam fish to me. The youth events were aimed at manipulating there emotions so that they would get a desired effect.....ya. I was pretty torqued after that. As soon as the main speaker started yelling "Jesus! Jesus!" Into the microphone during the worship songs, I was done. Hmmmm, maybe it was after he said "I want everyone to give something. Give to Jesus......so that he can continue his work through missions fest...." Yeah. Wow. Anyways, That was the only sermon I went to. Actually this is kind of an interesting story. I was all set to go to a sermon on preparing for cross-cultural missions, but then heard that the speaker had a medical emergency and couldn't make it. M-k, so I walk into the room of my number two option, Mark Buchanan and his "Your God is Too Safe" speech. Quite obviously the favorite, it's packed out. Since I was already frustrated with the whole thing, I ditch out, and decided to go see if I could find the IJM booth. Not really sure what to do at this point, I walk up to the booth and stand there, reading some material they had siting there. Soon, this volunteer lady comes over and starts giving me the basic, "support the fight against injustice" thing. I, not really caring about fund raising, listen politely until she asks me if I have any questions. So I ask, "what is the nature of the investigators role in the raiding of brothels?" Apparently volunteers don't know that stuff. I was pretty bummed out about this, because I was really hoping to get some answers. So I go to leave, but she stops me and says that the Director for IJM Canada would dropping by in a few minutes, and that I was welcome to snag him for my questions. So I did, but by this time a small crowd had gathered and I didn't really get an opportunity to ask my questions again. I was tweaked right out. I'm still not really sure why, but it hit a nerve and I was agitated more than I can ever remember. Except that one time when I swallowed a button. People were worried about me. I had to leave the center and go for a walk to calm down. It was weird. Anyways, I ended up going back later, when there wasn't a crowd around him. He and I talked for a good half hour about anything I could think of to ask. He ended up giving me some information that apparently he isn't supposed to give. Not that it was sketchy or anything, but people he works with don't really appreciate it. Anyways, long story short, I might become a cop. Just a thought. That is a long story.

Church was quite an adventure! There was no piano player and it was the pastors day off! It was the most exciting service I have ever been to.....there. I could tell that most of the people there were pretty shaken up by the drastic change in the routine. The organ player ended up giving a sermon on presenting your requests before God, prayerfully and humbly. I thought that was pretty fitting. Oh, and the kitchen renovation was finished! Even more excitement! This week is looking like it will be a tough one. We have our old testament class, and there is more to do in this class than any other class before. It will help in that it won't be due later, but I am expecting to get around 20 hours of sleep total this week. The time on this blog should validate that claim. Well I'm off to catch an early breakfast. Until next time...

So, once upon a time, there was boy named......Ronavin. Ronavin was not a perfect boy, but he did consider himself a good boy. He loved Jesus and wanted to know more. He knew that he didn't know everything, but he figured he knew some things. Then one day, Ronavin took a Theology course! And the course basically taught him two things: #1) That he really knew nothing, and #2) that what he thought he knew was very weak, and not very well grounded biblically. The end.

So, that is pretty much how last weeks class went for me! We only have one day of classes per week with Theology.......basically because is so intense that if we tried to take 8 hours of it five days a week, our minds would spontaneously combust! I guess they just don't want to have o deal with that kind of mess. Last week was so intense that they decided to split the day long classes into two morning classes. If you haven't guessed already, it is a very challenging class. Not the workload per say, although there really isn't any room to fall behind in class, but more the personal aspect. No one has ever really questioned me about what I believe and why before....other than me. But the way that he does it is just.....well, it's harsh, but it is true, it's real. He says it like it is, he doesn't dress it up. So it's hard to hear sometimes, but that is the way it needs to happen. It's good to be challenged like this on my beliefs. I thought the hockey dressing room was a challenge. Then I took Theology....

Last week was crazy with the amount of homework we had. Ok, that I had. It was a good week to be able to commit to just homework, even though it feels like nothing got done. Which is weird because I know that A LOT got done, and yet the pile of "still-need-to-do" stuff does not seem to be getting any smaller. If anything, it grows daily. This wees should be fun though. We are going to Missions fest in Vancouver. I am really looking forward to looking into the IJM; International Justice Mission. Ever since I read Wild at Heart, I have felt a burden for the injustices in the world, particularly the sex trade. The IJM investigates injustices and does what it can to stop them. I have heard many stories about girls being saved from sex slavery in Cambodia and other countries like that. Stories of girls being snatched out of windows and sold into the sex trade. After we had the Theology of Mission class, I felt that burden again, this time 2 fold. I don't know what I will find there, but I am hoping to at least get a general sense of direction. I can only hope...

For youth this week, we drove out the 35-40 minutes it takes to get out to Lake Cowichan Baptist, to find that the downstairs room (where we usually hold our youth group) was taken over by old and new kitchen cabinets had taken it over. They are in the midst of renovating it, and they had just gutted it that day, then called it quits, so more than 60% of the downstairs room was taken up. Ya, we ended up playing this.....weird,weird......weird game in the sanctuary. We turned off all the lights, hide pieces of a flashlight all over, and the ideal of the game was to find the pieces, put it together and shine it on the "alien, but they didn't know who it was. Ya.......the lights off.......wow.......I don't think I've ever hit the same spot on my shin that many times in a row before! Oh my goodness. My left leg is roughly the colour of a plum. Mmhmm. But it was still a good night. As hard as it is sometimes, and as discouraged as I get, I still love watching their faces, even if it's as they are running away with my toque........or a chunk of my hair.......ha ha ha ha. Until next time...

So, guess what would make a 5 day ski trip funny. Hilarious even!.....A broken wrist? No, two! K, maybe it's not THAT funny, but it is to me, since my wrists both remain intact. At least as much as they were before, which is not very, but still! On a more sensitive note, I feel terrible for both them. Melayne broke it on the first run of the first day! It was her first day! I know! On the first run of the first day she broke her wrist! Sick! And Jayme broke hers the next day! She didn't even get to learn how to carve at all! I felt so bad! Mostly because I was wiping out huge all over the place, but I was fine. I mean, I am really good at falling, and I'm pretty sure my bones bend, and I seem to bounce around a lot, but it's just not fair. To anyone else I mean. I had some pretty intense ones. It was great. There is some pretty good footage. Oh, and I was doing gainers! Just FYI. Sorry mom. But it was pretty sweet all around. The weather was actually unfortunately gorgeous, so what little snow was up there melted during the day, and froze during the night. So the morning was all ice, and the afternoon was all slush. And hot! I had the opportunity to snowboard in shorts and a T-shirt in the middle of January! I know! I got a lot of comments about it, but whatever. I'm tough. Except when this big guy with dreads and a lip ring asked me where I was from. I think I peed a little. But I'm just that hard core. And I like to go fast!

Phil found this spot in the trees off one of the black runs that was a sweet drop. Probably a 10 foot rock face that he dropped off of. It was intense. I definitely did not. Drop I mean. Finally, something my mom will be proud of me for! Just kidding mom. But no, seriously. I learned how to board slide as well! It was pretty fun. Until I talked Deb into trying a box. She bailed twice, made it once, then got a concussion. Ya, my bad. But she wasn't wearing a helmet, and I did tell her to, so I don't think she can press charges. We went snowshoeing on Wednesday, and built Quincey's. Which is basically an igloo made out of a pile of snow and hollowed out. It was pretty sweet to build, but the best part by far was taking them down! Via a super awesome drop kick! I dropped kicked right above the entrance and definitely broke right through. So I was laying on my back, staring up at roughly a ton of snow with 7 people standing on it, after just having broke through one wall........ya not to great. But all was well. Our guide wasn't impressed though. I think I got scolded three times that trip. But whatever.

We had some pretty sweet chapels too. Basically we talked about our names, and were given the opportunity to change some people's, and to encourage and affirm others. I was a little disappointed with mine, but it's ok. I went first, so people didn't really know how to respond to it, so I didn't really get anything back. Just a general agreement that it was my name. I'm trying not to take that personally. Please pray for that. But it was a good chance to encourage others and affirm their names, and the motives behind their names. I really enjoyed that.

I think it was on the fourth day that I had a nice God moment. I'll see if I can paint this for you. It was a foggy day, and from the bottom of the lift, I couldn't see the top of the mountain. Anyone who has been to B.C. knows how think the mist is. So, I couldn't see the top of the hill from the bottom. The lift took me up, through the fog, and as I got off the lift and turned around, it looked like everything was floating on a golden ocean, reflecting the early sunrise, still low in the east, barely over the mainland mountains which seemed a stones throw away. The sky was a deep royal blue, and I could not help but feel insignificant and small in His presence. I had this metaphor of life come to my mind. In that moment, He did not care what was below the clouds. There was definitely something down there, where I had come from, but it didn't matter anymore. All that mattered was that I was standing up there with Him now. Everything else was covered up by that golden ocean. Nothing else mattered. Ya, it was awesome. Just thought I'd share. Until next time...

The week that Viktor came into my life...

Happy New Year!

"I'm just tired right now. Eat poo...Ben. He's taking notes. Heheheheh. Hahahahah. This is fun I like this. Don't write that. Ahhhhoowhooaoh. How do you learn to type like that. Don't write that. Just answer the question. Cmon! AHHH!!" -Jonathan as recorded by Viktor Karklins

I had youth on Friday, we had a record high with 17 kids. Our first one of the year. They were really crazy excited. We did what we always do, ran around like crazy. Played sardines which was fun, but I ended up smashing my leg on the piano bench in the dark. And then one of the kids kicked me in the spine, which was of course quite fun. Due to the high intensity and the energy of the excited kids, the casualties were a little higher than usual. The kids are insane.

We had Theology of Mission class this past week. A potentially boring topic, but I found it rather interesting. I suppose it helped having Tim Stabell as a professor, since I sat in on one of his World Religions classes at Experience Briercrest last year. It seems like Theology of Mission has a lot to do with opinions, but I thought he did a good job of incorporating Scripture directly into the class (which everyone in the class really appreciated). His experience as a missionary in the Congo gave me a lot of respect for him, which made me want to listen to him. He pointed out that it's about building fellowship within that culture as opposed to how we stick to our comfort zones. That really gave me a desire to really put myself out there in doing missions. I'm going to be looking into I.J.M (the International Justice Mission), who work around the world trying to bring justice to people and countries that wouldn't have it otherwise (so if you could pray for that that would be great).

This week is going to be a really tough week, a really hard one to get through. It's supposed to be a miserable sunny week out on Mt. Washington for a week of snowboarding! I'm actually really excited for the fellowship aspect of it because we're going to be having chapels in the evenings, and there's going to be mountain isolation for a week which will help grow these relationships we've been building. However, we do have a lot of post-Theology-Of-Mission and pre-Intro-to-Christian-Doctrine work to do. So it will be a full week. Well, I should go pack. Until next time...