Let Me Introduce You To… June 24, 2008

The reason that I couldn’t tell you until now that I am going to Brazil is because there could have been issues with getting a Visa to stay there. There was a chance that the consulate would not give me a Visa and then I wouldn’t have been able to go at all. I am happy to say that I do have my Visa and can now talk about all of the preparation work that our team has been working on since before January.

I am a member of a team of almost 30 young adults that are going to Brazil to work in an orphanage, help build a school and visit hospitals, jails and the slums. We have an average of 2 meetings every month where we are learning Portuguese, doing a bible study and bonding as a team.

Another part of our prep is creating drama and puppet presentations. We will be using these for presentations in the orphanage, in the slums, in the street and in churches. I am on the puppet team and we are memorizing skits that will be translated when we are down there. Here is a picture of myself with Violet. She is definitely a blonde girly-girl. She loves to shop and could talk your ear off any day. We are both excited to interact with the kids we come in contact with and playing hide and seek and tag with the other puppets!

I’m Going To Brazil! June 16, 2008

I posted this a while ago but was told to take it off because I didn’t have my visa yet. So some of you may have seen this but others won’t have.

I am officially going to Brazil in August!
I’m not going on a holiday, but on a mission trip with a group of young adults from my church, Bethany Chapel. We are flying into Sao Paulo and are staying in Holambra at an orphanage called Lar Feliz. We have been practising Portuguese and rehearsing skits and preparing our hearts to go down there. We are going to be staying in an orphanage, helping with the building of a school, visiting hospitals, prisons and slums and doing whatever else we see that needs to be done.
I am so excited to go and I know God has huge plans for me while I’m down there. For more information visit this site for our teams updates and photos. It hasn’t been updated in a while but it will hopefully soon.

My Weekend May 27, 2008

I spent this past weekend in Edmonton Alberta at YC and had an amazing time. For those of you reading this that don’t know what it is you can check out the website. The weekend started on Friday night and went non-stop until Sunday night. I am still exhausted!

Here is a brief summary (thanks to Celine) of the weekend. She wrote her summary on Facebook and I am “stealing” it and changing it a bit. I hope she doesn’t mind…

Sitting on a bus with many others. Watching National Treasure and Mr. Bean episodes while covering my nose from that nasty stench. Putting on neon green bracelets that are our passes into the Rexall building. Passing through the doors while holding our arms up so they can see we payed for this experience and praying they don’t check my purse and take my water bottle away.

Kicking a band out of our awesome seats. Music so loud that it left my ears ringing for hours afterwards. Screaming, shouting, jumping, dancing for God. Losing my voice so that I just have to mouth the words because no sound comes out anymore, but then getting it back just to lose it again. John Bevere speaking about fearing God and how he will magnify our steps as we walk for Him. Singing to our heavenly father with 17,000 people in unison, truly worshiping without worrying about who is watching me.

Unloading the bus and setting up snack. 23 of us on a midnight search for a donair place to find it demolished. Laughing at the idea of walking through the Tim Hortons drive through and then shocked that they actually let us. Iced Capps at 1am. Playing Family Business until 2:30am. Cleaning the kitchen with Marc. Going to bed and waking up to find that I had a conversation with Emily while I was sleeping - weird.

Reggie Dabbs speaking, shouts of “Carpe Diem - Seize the Day” “We are all chocolate!”. Safeway for lunch, ditching Marc (I’m still sorry for that). Trying to get into Amanda Falk’s girl talk but going to a boring missions one instead. Finding Marc and worshiping with Vicky Beeching. Parachute Band! Hearing Omega’s story of God’s Mercy. Liz and Dayna’s turkey baster (KJ52 actually rapped about it!). Eating my second fruit tray. More of Reggie speaking. Moved me to tears. Being shocked at the number of kids who stood up for prayer because of suicidal thoughts. Worshiping God with tears rolling uncontrollably down my face. Getting back to the school for prayer and discussion. Being so proud of my little sister for declaring her conviction for her future. Watching boys play their stupid game. Getting attacked by my sister with a water bottle (I’m still hurting). Laughing so hard I couldn’t stop crying and people being concerned. Cleaning the kitchen with Marc…again. Sleep.

Cleaning and packing the bus. Being late for Sunday’s morning service. Leeland leading worship and the Aussie man making us sing to a DVD. Chicken fingers for lunch at the restaurant. Cute little Asian lady running around to get us our food. Parachute Band once again. Amazing worship. Papa San “shake your tambourine!” Finding Avery, praying that God spoke to her in a huge way! More Reggie, singing to his saxophone playing. Leaving during Newsboys. Getting home exhausted but staying up past 2 again!

Incredible worship. Praising God like how if might be like in heaven. Feeling the Holy Spirit in the room and being moved to tears and singing with a shaky voice. Screaming till it hurt. Feet sore but standing anyway. Realizing that I need to be still and focus on God’s voice speaking to me. Knowing that I should not hold anything back and that I need to focus on what God thinks and not to be concerned with those around me. He made me and thinks I am beautiful. I need to seize the day, every day. No day will be wasted.

BBQ in the Park May 3, 2008

Our youth event yesterday was a barbecue in North Glenmore Park with a couple other churches. There were burgers, hot-dogs, pop, chips and candy for everyone to pig out on. We also played games like tag, Frisbee, football and bocce ball.

The night was so nice and here are a couple of the high lights that brought me joy.

• Spinning around on the Merry-Go-Round until we felt sick
• Playing full contact football
• Playing toilet tag
• Watching Allan’s eyes turn bright red from the smoke from grilling the burgers
• Playing extreme bocce ball for more than 2 hours!

And here are a couple pictures from the night.

One to go! April 21, 2008

I apologize to all of you out there that read my blog that have noticed the drop in posts recently. I have been studying for exams and haven’t had the time or the energy to post anything.

I have so much information to share with you all that will come in the next couple of weeks. I have been keeping a list of all that has brought me joy throughout the last little while.

For now, I just need to say that I am so excited that school is almost over! I have only one more exam to go, then I pack up all of my stuff and move back to Calgary for the summer. I am so excited!!!

But for now, I just need to study . . .

Getting Away For The Weekend April 1, 2008

I want to start by saying thank you to all of those who have sent me messages on feeling better soon. I felt a lot better today than I did yesterday, but I’m still not 100%.

Sadly I have nothing to post about any April Fool’s jokes or pranks. The day just seemed to fly by and because of that I look to the weekend for my blog on joy today.

We had a great weekend in beautiful British Columbia. I went with my family to Windermere with another family that is super close to us. We stayed in a gorgeous “cabin” complete with 5 bedrooms, huge screen TV’s and an espresso machine! We went to celebrate a little girls first birthday and had a great time.

One of the games that we played a lot of during the weekend that you should check out is Family Business. It’s a great game where each player takes on a mob group and tries to kill the other mobs off. The game includes alliances, backstabbing and the killing off of a lot of mobsters.

 

 

 

And here is a photo of some of us enjoying the Fairmont HotSprings.

Off to Invermere March 28, 2008

Today my family and I are off to British Columbia. We are all packed and heading to the mountains for a weekend with a birthday party and fun with friends.

We plan on doing the “touristy” stuff in Invermere and going to the Fairmont and/or Radium Hot Springs.

I love getting out of the city and am looking forward to this weekend.

Can I Give You A Hug? March 25, 2008

Let me go on a bit of a rant for a moment . . .

Have you ever ran into a good friend or a family member and your immediate reaction is to go in for a hug? The anticipation of a gesture that shows someone that you care about them, missed them, or are just happy to see them becomes so great that you stretch out your arms and walk towards them. You meet your friend or family member face to face and embrace them tightly only to receive . . . nothing. No squeeze, no embrace, no squishy feeling of love. You realize that you might as well be hugging a stick or a limp noodle.

There are a little number of things that are worse than a limp hug. Although, when you get a good one they are fantastic!

I don’t know if it is because my family is a “touchy” one if that is why I love hugs so much, but give me a good hug any day and I’m happy.

If you are unsure about how to hug someone, or are a male concerned with their masculinity, take a look at this video for some simple steps to giving and getting a great hug.

As a side note, you may have heard about the Free Hugs Campaign. It was a campaign started by the name of Juan Mann and was a mission to hug random strangers to pass happiness around. The idea spread quickly and Juan ended up with getting his fifteen minutes of fame on Oprah. Since then free hugs have been offered all around the world.

Getting Sweet Seats March 5, 2008

Today was the official registration for YC and was it ever a rush. I was asked to help purchase tickets to increase our youth groups chances of getting better seats this year. The previous years we have gone, we’ve always been behind the stage or in the nosebleeds and this year is going to be different. I’m so excited!!!

So, since I didn’t have class today I said yes to sitting by my computer and clicking madly as soon as the clock hit 10:00 am. Kelly our youth pastor and his wife were also doing the same thing and the plan was to call Kelly when I got in to purchase. I got in fairly quickly, entered in all the address info and hit continue when Kelly phoned me. He bought all 50 tickets that were needed and got really great seats!

We’re in section 136, to the left of the stage and rows 5 to 8. Pretty Sweet! Check out the seating chart here (but remember the stage is to the far right side, not in the centre).
It’s amazing how fast the seats go when registering for YC. As I sit here typing, I’m looking at the seats that are left and the floor has 7 seats left, the bottom bowl is almost all gone and the nosebleeds are now being bought up, and it’s only been 40 minutes since it opened! Crazy!

This picture was from our seats in 2007. This year our seats are to the left of this picture (so we’re in front of the stage)and way down at the bottom!

I’m so stoked for YC 2008!!!

** Update** 1 seat on the floor, 1-3 seats in the sections in the lower bowl and between 50-90 seats in different sections behind the stage and up high @ 10:57

Put on Those PJ’s February 21, 2008

Today I spent the day doing pretty much nothing. Yes I got some homework done and worked on my passport application, but besides that . . . nothing.

This week is reading week for many of the University’s and College’s in Canada (and perhaps elsewhere). It’s our version of Spring break or can also be called suicide prevention week. Rumour has it that we get this amazing break to decrease the numbers of suicides that are committed by those attending post secondary education every year. I just love that I get the time off to catch up on school and to see friends I haven’t seen in a long time.

One of the parts that I love the most though, is sleeping in and staying in my pajamas for long extended periods of time. I love my PJ’s! They just come in comfortable fabrics and bright colours that make me happy.

Check out this site dedicated to all of the pajama wearers out there.