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...