Homework to the Rafters

Good day to you all!

Well, if I've said before that I've nothing to discuss in some particular blog week and then go on to still write 4 paragraphs, I can say in all honesty that tonight is not going to be a similar situation. This week, I can actually say that I don't have lots to report. Essentially, most of the week consisted of homework. Lots, and lots of homework. And this is what our life continues to be this week, plus the little fact that we have class. Hermeneutics is the word of the day, and interpreting the Bible is the name of the game. But enough of that, or I'll give away all my material for next week's post. Outside of homework, we also had a Camp Ministry class on Tuesday, and on Thursday about half of our class went to Victoria to help out in the shipyards with SALTS, winterizing their ships for the winter. SALTS is the organization we sailed with back in September. So that day was a nice break from the books, spent in the sunshine taking down sails and the like (see picture!!!). Other than that, this past weekend was spent doing yet more homework, drinking Starbucks, wasting time, and making a just-for-kicks video remake of The Princess Bride: Select Scenes with a few friends in the lush forest nearby.

Yesterday, I also attended Cobblehill Baptist once again. This church is starting to really feel like home; there are starting to be some familiar faces when I walk in the building. After church, we went for burgers in Duncan with a couple from church. After a couple hours at home spent finishing homework (to hand in by 4:00), we headed back to church for practise, supper, and The Bridge, our evening youth service. Although there was a smaller crowd at The Bridge this week than the previous, I feel pretty positive about how things went down. God is definitely working in people's hearts. At the least, He is prompting and challenging me weekly with new and stretching responsibilities and opportunities. Though I often am tired and worn out by the time weekends swing around, I'm learning the importance of a good night's sleep to the success and general enjoyment of my Sundays. Above all else, I'm learning the importance of trusting in and relying on God's power and strength, and being reminded of how much I need to keep His glory in focus. I need to remember that I am praising Him when I lead worship services, I need to remember that it is selfless service that is my aim. I am not in this church to be comfortable and to relax in cheap chairs. And so, in my tiredness, I press on. I am loving these people. I have developed some sweet relationships with the girls in the youth especially. And I am excited for what these next months have to bring. The Lord is good!

There's not a whole lot more to say, other than to reassure you all that I'm still LOVING it here. Even though sometimes it gets overwhelming and exhausting with constant homework and constant community, I wouldn't wish to be anywhere else in the world right now. Though I do feel that the "honeymoon" stage of Kaleo (ie: the first month of "oohh, we're finally here! this is so cool! Ahh!") is done and we're getting into what real life is like here (ie: not always quite as fun/adventurous and requiring a little more hard work), I am most definitely content... content and expecting great things for these next months. Thank you all for your prayers that I know have been with me these last weeks. I appreciate them so much; and they are still SO needed! If you could be praying especially for our entire Kaleo group, for comfort and perseverance, as a lot of people have been dealt with some tough situations back home right now. Also, if you could pray against distraction and procrastination in our studies. Often, we get so caught up in our relationships with each other that our sleep lives and stress lives suffer for it when we end up staying up til 3 am finishing homework. Other than that, just pray that we would all be open to learning and growing more and more this year and through this current course. Pray that God would be at work in our church ministries, our camp ministry, and in our lives through each other. Pray for direction and vision for each of us. Just pray in general, and the Big Guy will get the picture. :) Thanks again so much! I hope all is well with you and yours! Miss you all!

Love, Jess

Putzing Around

Hello again y'all!

To be completely honest with you, there's not lots I can say about this past week. For the most part we were hanging out here at camp, supposed to be doing homework like there's no tomorrow. The result: A lot of college students hanging out, procrastinating on homework and getting less sleep than they normally do when we actually have a busy schedule. Shucks anyways. And so, truth be told, I am now in the midst of a mountain of homework that threatens to grasp its hold around my neck and choke me to death by the time Sunday at 5:30 comes around. Unfortunately, as this due date looms nearer, I continue to neglect the work. Great...

Anyways, there were a few highlights to point out about the week. Obviously, if I wasn't doing my homework, I must have been doing something else with my time, right. So, as usual, we had a couple chapels and short courses. We spent one day in Camp Ministry class. And then.... we had Girls/Guys Overnights!! In a nutshell, this means that the girls and the guys split up and go their separate ways for a special night of fun activities without the, erm, distraction of the opposite sex. We girls went to Nanaimo around supper for Indian food on the shoreline at an incredible place called Amrikko's (shameless plug), then we hit up DQ for the seasonal favorite of Pumpkin Pie Blizzards, followed by a trip up to Parksville where we stayed the night at a beautiful home on oceanfront property owned by a Qwanoes board member. Beautiful! We ladies stayed up late, eating sweets, singing worship songs, praying, playing silly games, and enjoying the opportunity to really chat about some deeper stuff with the group that we've been holding back up until this time. In the morning, we slept in and enjoyed a scrumptious breakfast that included banana pancakes! After packing up, we went for a walk along the shoreline, took some pictures amongst the newly changing leaves of autumn, and went shopping in Nanaimo for a couple hours. Needless to say, I spent too much money for being a poor college student. Also, I managed to go to Starbucks way too many times this week for it to be healthy for anyone or even slightly excusable. But anyways, it was a very refreshing trip away from the camp that really drew us girls closer together. Good memories.

This past weekend, we had the great pleasure of hosting the annual Qwanoes Women's Retreat. Many students were working all weekend as part of their volunteer service quotas, and I too worked all of Saturday afternoon on the challenge course, belaying women and harnessing them up to gain victory over personal, legitimate fears of heights and security. These women are hilarious! I thoroughly enjoyed that afternoon, working on the climbing wall and the skycraper, a ridiculously high three person swing which you're hauled up high and then released to plunge again beneath the trees. Scary! Quite honestly, I hadn't even worked up the courage myself to try it yet, but at afternoon's end, the ladies convinced me and a friend to get up there and do the thing we'd been encouraging them to do all afternoon. Unbelievable.. but I'm not so sure I'll do it again soon. On Sunday, I also was given the opportunity to help out at Cobblehill in a couple ways. Although it provided for a ridiculously busy, overwhelming, and not at all relaxing day, I am thankful for these service opportunities. I arrived at church at 8:30 in the morning in order to play the piano and sing with the adult worship team, who was leading the service, so that was fun and challenging. Us Kaleos then went to a church family's house for lunch, a walk, and a tour around their new house. We came home for about an hour, in which I chatted, read the good book, and had a 15-minute nap. Heading back to Cobblehill at 4, we practices for the Bridge, our youth worship service, and had some dinner before everyone arrived. Last night there was a much bigger crowd that showed up to the service, which was definitely encouraging for us. Arriving home late last night, we were all pretty tired and ready for sleep, so once again the homework was pushed aside and I arrived on today. This week, we get to go caving! So that should be a pretty fun and interesting new experience.

Hope all you are doing well. I miss you!!
- Jess
p.s.: sorry folks. no pics this week! :(

Happy Thanksgiving From Your Very Own Surfer Chick!

Hey again!

Pictures:

(surfing in our wetsuits! me = far left) (church on the farm - PIE!)

Here's wishing you all the most fabulous Thanksgiving holiday ever! I trust that as I write this some of you are contentedly lounging on couches after having gorged yourselves once or twice this weekend. I myself am looking intently forward to our own little Thanksgiving dinner here in about an hour. All the more local kids are returning home and joining us for some good old-fashioned turkey goodness. I even carved a pumpkin with the shape of the Mayflower for dining hall decor. Oh yes, I am indeed feeling the holiday spirit.

All this aside, it has actually been quite a low-key, uneventful weekend here on campus. I went to Victoria on Saturday with a few friends for shopping, ethnic cuisine, and Starbucks, and attended an enthusiastic "Church on the Farm" Sunday morning with pie-eating contests, tug-of-wars, and gunny sack races to boot. This weekend, I've managed to spend far too much time on facebook and skype, far too much time hot-tubbing, far too much time watching movies (we watched FOUR last night in a Disney marathon!) and far too little time doing homework. FAR TOO LITTLE!

As for this past week, the greatest consumer of my time was.... SURFING, baby! From Tuesday til Thursday, our school went to the west side of the island to Tofino. I voted in my first federal election on the way out, and then we camped out on the beach, wore smoking hot wetsuits (that actually work amazingly well... I wonder if they would be so efficient in Sask. winters?), surfed it up in the days (or at least - tried), and enjoyed the splendour of saltwater matted hair. Surfing is DANG HARD... but soo fun at the same time. I caught a few waves, and at the very least have a definite desire to try it out again in the near future. I think in some ways that I could definitely get used to that lifestyle, apart from the imminent danger of getting smoked on the head by a surfboard following a particularly destructive wave-rocking (which happened to me, luckily, only once). Anyways, it was, once again, a great trip into God's beautiful creation and a great opportunity to grow in fellowship and love with my fellow Kaleo students.

What else to say? There's not loads to report this week by way of ministry. There were no events or retreats on at the camp for which to help out with, and because of Thanksgiving, we had no responsibilities to fulfill at church. There was no youth group, no Bridge service, and not even a church service at Cobblehill attended by myself. There was church on the farm, and of course the daily ministry of which we are a part here at Kaleo with each other. We've begun to hear one another's testimonies in small chapel services, which has been an amazing experience that continues to draw us closer to each other and to the Lord. How great is our God!

I know I say it every time, but I miss you all! Here's wishing you a marvelous belated Thanksgiving! All my love,

Jess

Finally A Class!

Hello again from the West Coast! So... I have a feeling this post might be a little shorter than my previous two, as there was a little less going on this past week. Nonetheless, this is a GOOD thing! This past week we had our first actual course, when a professor flew out here to teach us Monday to Friday from 9-4. This translates to: Big, long days of sitting at a table; very reminiscent of typical schools for once. Marv Penner came out to teach us Spiritual Formations, a class in which we learned to strive towards growth in and love for the Lord. Essentially, it involved a lot of discussion on different spiritual matters, and exploring of different spiritual disciplines in more depth than we might experience on our own (such as prayer, solitude, etc.). Basically, in this class we were challenged about the general basis of our faith, to ensure that we're truly chasing after God, and to simply gain some perspective on how we can live with Him as the focus in this busy, crazed world of ours. Marv was an incredible teacher, whom we all felt very comfortable with and mentored by. I didn't even fall asleep once in his class! (That being said, I didn't really fall asleep in high school either. What I'm trying to say is that he kept things interesting.)

I enjoyed this past week a lot, mostly because it was finally an opportunity to delve into routine. As strange as it sounds, it was refreshing to have an adventureless week to rejuvenate ourselves and get a taste of what a lot of this year will be like from here on out. It was a cool chance to get to hang out more with our peers here at the camp, to start in on the late-night "study" groups, and to get the place really "lived in." My room officially looks much the same as my room back home did when I left (a pig-sty) and I'm already putting into effect the procrastination clause. I guess old habits die hard. Let's see... these are just a few fun things that were experienced by the college students of K-6 this week: trips to Superstore (because Wal-Mart is "heathen." haha) to buy oh-so-nutritious goodies such as confetti icing and teddi-grahams, eating pistachios, after-supper beach volleyball, dish pit (maybe not so fun), skype (with some new, much-needed limitations), fooseball competitions, fireside (in which a few students go to a Qwanoes staff members' house to hang out for a few hours... my group played Disney's Scene-It at the camp director's house and ate ice-cream!), experiments with the ora-gel of yours truly (if you think of it, prayer for some certain wisdom teeth of mine that have chosen to painfully impose themselves on my mouth would be appreciated... thanks), wrestling competition in the lounge, trips to the dock, late-night soccer, girls' floor dancing, cleaning dressed as superheroes, tea-drinking, a 9-hour power outage, some amazing student-planned chapel services, hot-tubbing, and a LOT of rain (break out the rubber boots!). Good times. I'm still loving it here, and though I'm often ridiculously exhausted, its usually my own fault because I lack discernment in regards to bedtimes. Haha...

This past weekend managed to return to the busyness I've become so accustomed to (Have I really only been here for three and a half weeks?!). On Saturday night, I attended a sleepover at my church, Cobblehill Baptist, with the youth. We played a night game around the town, then played some gorgon inside. We ate lots of food, and watched "Wallis and Grommit", and attacked the boys with pillows. And then... we stayed up til all hours telling stories about boys, giving foot massages, and just being goofy girls. Good times.. but I fear I've been getting a few too many opportunities to act like a goofy girl lately; apparently this is what having roommates does to you. See above posted picture of me and my roommates, Jayme and Malayne! Our favorite pastimes include dance parties to Abba and Keith Green, chatting with boys out the window, eating icing out of the can, and failing to clean (props go to Malayne for cleaning the bathroom finally last Thursday). Anyways, back from the tangent... we got up Sunday morning, had some breakfast, and headed to church. This Sunday we had church at the new structure they're in the process of building for Cobblehill. It is beautiful, and though it was a little chilly having church somewhat outdoors, it was a great service. I'm really enjoying my time at this church, and am starting to feel really comfortable with these people. The Lord is so hugely at work, and I find myself challenged every Sunday by the pastor's message. After church, we came home briefly, and then headed right back to Cobblehill to prepare for and carry out "The Bridge," which is a youth worship service we're heading up there. Though there was a very small turnout, it was a great opportunity for us to prepare for future Bridges, and to grow as a ministry team. I'm excited. The Lord's potential sometimes floors me, and I'm so psyched to see how he puts that into use. I've found this church completely echoes a lot of my recent thoughts on religion and spirituality, so my brain's been churning pretty consistently. Cool how God has His hand in the tiniest things, right down to which church little Jesse Gronhovd decides to go to.

And finally, I suppose its time for me to close. So much for a short post, eh. Here's wishing you all the most excellent Thanksgiving holiday ever! Wish I could be there with you! Eat too much.. and think of me. haha. I'm so far planning on staying here at the camp with the other prairie and ontario kids. We're having Thanksgiving dinner on Monday night, and might try to go to a concert, bungee jumping, or shopping on Saturday or something, just to make things interesting. I'm also leaving tomorrow to go surfing on the west coast of the island at Tofino, so I would appreciate any of your prayers for safety and good weather. Thanks so much!! I love and miss you all!

- Jess (in yellow rubber boots).