Out on Missions trips!

Hey everyone! Both the Vancouver and Mexico team arrived safely at their destinations and are now diving right into service! So thankful to have internet for this quick update to you from Mexico, know that we are all safe and doing so well. Keep both teams in your prayers, and everything God is going to be doing in our lives and in the lives of those we love in his name!





The next blog post won't be up till we return after february 26, we will have many stories to share with you!

Until next time,

Levi

Exploring Missions - Gaining New Perspectives

Hello everyone!
As promised here is a post sharing about what our time was like at Missionsfest Vancouver and the students most recent course.

Every year we take our students to this amazing conference that has been running in Vancouver for over 30 years. It is a hotspot for discovering about every kind of mission organization from around the world, while also learning about missions from experts through in-depth sessions. We got up early thursday morning taking a ferry to the mainland and kicked off our weekend with an afternoon exploring the famous Stanley Park seawall on tandem bikes!

Ready to explore!

Who would have thought riding tandem bikes could be such a blast!

Can you believe the amazing weather! Many of the students from out east could not get over the fact we were on a beach in January on a sunny day, and we were still in Canada!

The next morning we also spent some time at Granville island before heading to the conference centre. It was great for the students to experience a little bit of the City of Vancouver as most have never been here before. Then after eating lunch we headed to the conference centre and enjoyed two full days of everything to do with Missions. For this post I asked Riley McRae to share with you all about what he thought of Missionsfest.

"Mission’s fest was full of God and full of fun.  Missionaries were everywhere giving talks about what God had taught them and about their experiences in the mission field.  There were seminars on just about everything, some were talking about their experience in the field, while others talked more about other reaching out to other religions. Many people here were very influential and they spoke to each and every one of us on personal levels. Some cut us to the core and others left us thinking about life and how we could serve God more. I personally learned and was challenged by so much, I came back with new perspectives and challenges of I my faith. I want to be able to back up my faith with facts that stand to the world and not just to me. What does this mean? This means by knowing the ‘why’ of what I believe and getting hard evidence that prove that Jesus is the Messiah, that prove that the Bible is real, that prove that God exists. It was also cool to see so many people ready to take their faith seriously and be ready to go on an adventure for God. No money? no problem, we have a God that has a plethora of money and gold ready to be disposed of for His glory. Overall missions fest was a great experience and definitely would go again."  - Riley McRae 2014 Student

Our students leading the sunday morning worship at Ruth Morton Baptist

 While in Vancouver, Ruth Morton Baptist Church graciously let us stay in their sleep in their building. It also provided an opportunity for some of our students to help in the leading worship in the sunday morning service and also the children service. 

Riley and Kelsey helping to lead worship for the youth service on sunday morning.

Sunday afternoon we headed back to camp getting ready for the weeks class called Perspectives in Missions. Steph Huisman pictured bellow in the top right is going to share with us what she thought about the course.

"Perspectives in Missions was an awesome course! Tim Stabell’s teaching style was laid-back and easy to listen to. All the information was really applicable since we’re leaving for our mission trips in a few days. After this course I feel better prepared to go to Mexico and enter another culture. On the last day, we talked about discerning God’s calling on your life which was very applicable for all the students as we’re trying to figure out what to do next year. We also talked about spiritual warfare which was really interesting. It’s not a topic that gets talked about a lot in church settings. I realized that I didn’t know much about spiritual warfare so being able to talk about it and ask questions in an open environment was a really cool opportunity." - Steph Huisman 2014 Student

So there we have it, learning about Missions has been an absolute blast! It was great experiencing Vancouver as a community and everyone left that weekend having learned something in one of the sessions. The following week of class with Tim Stabell was also greatly appreciated by everyone as our Missions trips are coming up in less than a week! As the students finish up final assignments for the Missions course we are putting together the final details of our trips. There won't be another full blog post till the end of the month as both Vancouver and Mexico teams will be engaged fully in missions. Please keep us in your prayers and we can't wait to share stories from our time serving. 

Until Next Time,

Levi VanderKwaak

A Week at Mount Washington - Experiencing the Mountains

Hey everyone,I hope you enjoyed our last post about our adventures out at sea. Now I want to share with you the great time we had for the rest the week up on Mount Washington! 

Immediately following our fishing adventures we packed back up in the 15 passenger vans and headed up the mountain which was only 45 minutes away from where we were fishing. The snow on the drive up did not look promising, but sure enough when we rounded the last corner and the ski hill came into view, the lifts were running!

Our chalet!

During our week we got to stay in a beautiful log cabin chalet. It had two sides, with two hot tubs, bedrooms and living areas both. Our first night we took it easy playing lots of boardgames, sharing stories from Christmas break. and worshiping together late into the evening.

Playing a dice game that was a big hit during our trip!

Our first day on the hill was spent tubing, it was such a blast being able to go down in lots of different groups and spending time with everyone. Our hope was that by tubing for one day the next day more runs would be open as the groomer had more time to clean things up. We didn't know if this would happen for sure, but we were definitely hoping for it.

We went down in some pretty large groups

Come wednesday we had our first full day of skiing! The sun was out and shining and more runs had been opened just like we had hoped for. We picked up our rentals early on and hit the slopes. There was an opportunity for lessons for all levels of experience. Some people tried skiing and took a skiing lesson the first day, and the next day they tried snowboarding and took another lesson. It was a great opportunity to learn from the instructors and also other students in the group who were willing to share their experience. 

Although the conditions were not the best it felt a lot like spring skiing. The sun was out and many of us were peeling off layers in the early morning. The view from the hill was spectacular, we would ride the chairlift up to the very top of the mountain and look down seeing a carpet of clouds covering what was the rest of Vancouver Island and the mainland off to the east. 

During the week the leadership team brought morning and evening devotionals based off our Finish Line statement. Our Finish Line statement is a collection of areas this years students hope to grow in by the end of our year together. Every student had input and it captures what the vision is for our year. We are always trying to connect our experiences and what we are learning to how it makes a difference in our lives now, and more importantly going to the future. This statement captures this very well because it not only represents areas of current character growth, but also captures the vision of continuing to grow as leaders in Christ wherever and whatever future circumstances have in store.

Our finish line statement is: Stirred to be a life-long community: rooted in Christ, authentic, and actively loving. Spurring each other on towards growth in: Perspective, Intimacy, Devotion, Confidence, and Courage in all of life.

From our chalet we could see the peak of Albert Edward. the mountain we climbed at the beginning of our year!
Crazy how high and far away it seems, yet that is the mountain we climbed one step at a time. It
was a powerful image for how far we have come to this point.  

Our time on the hill provided great opportunities for relationships to continue to grow, through quick chats on the chairlift, or our evenings spent together. It was great to just hangout with each other. 

Our time on Mount Washington was such a blessing, God brought us snow to ski and board, beautiful sunny weather, time together in community, and new experiences for everyone. We skied three days in total making the most of every hour! 

I hope you enjoyed hearing about our adventures on the mountain, look out next week for an update from our time in Vancouver at Missions Fest, and what the students thought about the most recent course Perspectives in Missions with Tim Stabell. Thanks again for reading, please consider sharing this blog and the program website kaléo.ca to any young adults you think might be interested in doing the Kaleo Program next year! Your help spreading the word is greatly appreciated. Also please keep us in your prayers as missions trips are now just two weeks away! 

Until next time, 

Levi

Kaléo Program Goes Fishing - Catching Fish on the Open Ocean

We are back! Its been an adventurous couple weeks and there is finally a moment to fill you in with our latest stories. These past two weeks we went fishing, spent a week shredding the slopes of Mt. Washington, wrote 2 papers, finished 2 books, and spent 4 days in Vancouver at Missions Fest! We just got back from Vancouver on sunday and the students dove right into the course on Missions. There is a lot I could write, but first I would like to share one of our adventures from our week of skiing. I will be sharing more from skiing later this week, but for now lets talk about fishing.

Coming up to our highly anticipated week on the slopes the weather was not looking good. Mt. Washington was having a record low for snowfall this time of year, and the lifts were not even opened yet. We wanted to make sure the week was still a blast with lots of opportunities to hang out and try new things, there was snow in the schedule but no one knew for sure if that meant the lifts would be running. We had several contingency plans and we still ended up implementing the first one, deep sea charter fishing off the coast of Vancouver Island! 

On the monday of our Mt. Washington week we headed up to Comox to test our luck in the waters. Our group was split into two different groups of four, and each of these groups of four went out with different guides (For this reason I only have a limited amount of pictures from two of the boats).

Nic reeling in our next catch. Note the cable system pictured bottom right, it could take the lines down
 hundreds of feet with great accuracy. 

We had a blast! This was a first for pretty much everyone including the Kaleo Program and a majority of our group got to reel in fish. Unfortunately none of them fell into the category we could keep to cook, but we still caught tons nonetheless. There was varied reactions from people on holding the caught fish, some more humorous than others. 

Thanks for reading this week. I hope to post more stories from our week of skiing in the next couple days, in the meantime keep praying for us as we prepare for Missions Trips that are fast approaching.

Until next time,

Levi

Kicked off the new year! - Back to the books

Everyone is back at camp and we are now rolling into the second season of the Kaléo Program! Travel back for most as a little hectic with delayed flights and snow covered train tracks but we are thankful everyone is here and safe. 

Many of the students made comments about the warm weather here on the island, as most just came back from way colder places out east. The 5 degree temperatures have been welcomed by many. Unfortunately the warmer weather on the island and lack of precipitation has meant we are still in need of a good dump of snow to make our next adventure a success. Please keep us in your prayers and maybe pray for a little snow too, that would be very appreciate. 

Back in class with Josh Stigall!

For now though the students with renewed vigour got right into their first class of the semester Pauline Epistles! The class started on monday and they will be finishing their last lecture tomorrow. Josh Stigall came out to teach the course and has been actively getting the students involved in leading discussions and guiding their peers through what they have learned. They broke off into groups, each group tackling different issues and learning about the context of the letter they were studying. Their effort has been great creatively making each presentation unique and interesting. 

To kick off the new year I thought it would be fun to hear some voices from students and what they have to say about last semester, this semester and their time at home with their family!

What is something that you really missed about the program when you were gone?

When I went home for the Christmas break, I had a great time connecting with family and friends again. It was a nice break from the school work aspect as well. However, as much fun as I had at home, it is good to be back because I missed so many things about the program. I missed having roommates because no one was there to make me get up on time for breakfast. I missed having a genuine three meals a day. I missed the community and how much I have loved hanging out with all the fabulous people here. But most of all I missed the intentionality the program offers of developing relationships with each other, but most importantly with God.

- Heather Wilson

What is something that you are looking forward to in the second semester and why?

I am really looking forward to serving in the mission trip! I am so thankful for the opportunity to put to practice what I have been learning in class. I am excited to see Gods mights hand at work  in and through our lives. I pray that God would enable us to reflect his grace to the people we will encounter.

- Jon Loper

What was your favourite part of the first season?

The whole first semester was amazing. I was able to enjoy meeting a whole bunch of new friends, go on fun adventurous trips, serve in a camp setting, and learn so much about the bible. All of these combined made the whole experience my favourite part of the first season. I am very excited for it to continue as I grow in God more and more each day.

- Sarah Richards

What did you appreciate about being home with your family after the first time being gone for a semester of School?

I already appreciated my family a lot before I left, but being gone made my appreciation even greater. My little sister is what I gained a lot more appreciation for. She is the only child left at home out of six and sometimes I feel bad that she has to be alone a lot with my parents working. Now there are so many times where I wish I could be back home to keep her company. I appreciated my parents cooking and realized it actually takes a while to prepare a meal, right after a long day at work, and it always tastes so good. I appreciate the amounts of love they have for me and hugs from my mom a lot more. I knew I was not going to be home for long and that time was going to fly by, so I tried to take advantage of the time I had with them and the conversations we had. I really appreciate my family and how loving they are towards me and how much fun we all have together.

- Sharon Van Egmond

Thanks for reading this weeks blogpost! We are very appreciative of all of your support as we move into this new season of exciting growth. Please keep us in your prayers for safety as we move into the adventures that next week have in store.

Until next time,

Levi

Christmas Festivities at Qwanoes - The Fall Season Comes to a Close

Hello everyone! The last couple weeks at Qwanoes have been an amazing time of hard work and Christmas celebrations. The students just left today on their Christmas break and we have many stories to share from our last moments together in our fall season of the Kaleo program. We wrote to you in our last post just as the lectures for Gospels with Wes Olmsted were finishing. The days that followed the students were all busy prepping essay outlines for their final exam and studying hard with all the content they had to memorize. They really came together working as a team and helping each other study and review the immense amounts of material they had to review. Just before the weekend we went to the famous Ladysmith light up together. It was a fun night with a parade and fireworks!

Some of the students stopping for a picture waiting for the parade to start.

Andrew MacDonald with his super cute daughter Aubrey!
Andrew and his wife Jenn also have another girl on the way expecting her very early in the new year. 

The evening after their final exam there was an optional viewing of The Passion of the Christ, a film by Mel Gibson. The gospel message and graphic imagery struck deep for the students who had just spent so much time studying the life and ministry of Jesus. Although its painful to watch, it served as a helpful reminder in the Christmas season of what Jesus mission coming to this earth was, showing just a glimpse of the price he paid to reconcile us to Himself. 

The following was our big Christmas prep day. We spent the morning making our own creative decorations and listening to christmas carols. It was fun to see each student put their own flair and personality into their decorations. We then had our last Qwanoes community lunch of the fall—the staff-student relationships that have been forming over the semester have become a integral part of the students experience here at Qwanoes. 

Sharon and Stephanie making ornaments out of dough!

Later in the afternoon we packed up in vans and headed to a tree farm to pick out our very own tree! 

This is a slightly hectic task with 23 students, but after carefully inspecting many candidates they managed to settle on a beautiful tree! We took turns cutting it down and then brought our prize tree back to camp. 

We then proceeded to paint and decorate our ornaments that had been in the oven while we were away. We strung the lights and put our ornaments on the tree while drinking hot chocolate and enjoying each others company. Setting up a tree is usually something done with ones family in their own home. For most this was the first time they have ever put up a christmas tree with a majority of people they had only met 3 months previous! As a guest in the room you would have never guessed that most of these students didn't know each other just months previous—a huge testament to the family God has been developing here in the program. 

The next night after a day of paper writing we had an amazing Christmas banquet enjoying a turkey dinner and awesome desserts! After the banquet we had our annual talent show! These sort of things can always be a toss up, going into it many were not sure what to expect only aware of what they personally had put effort into preparing. Its safe to say everyone who attended that night was blown away by the amazing different pieces staff and students had put together; there was beautiful singing pieces, parody songs written by the students, skits, movies and comedy acts! (there was even a presentation on blue whales!) It was amazing what the talented group was able to pull off given the busy season of academics they were in. A new standard has been set for the Kaléo program talent show.

A photo of the students and Aubrey at the Christmas banquet!

After a day of paper writing we spent an evening hanging out separately as guys and girls doing our own activies. The ladies had a surprise cooking contest. They had to compete against each other with the ingredients they were given and make do with some interesting surprise ingredients as well! It was incredible what some of them were able to pull off with ingredients like goat cheese and hot peppers. 

A few of the different groups working together in the contest.

The guys played some games in the afternoon and then spent the evening on Mt. Prevost to watch the sunset. The guys finished off the evening with an awesome meal in the town and a game of Laser tag in the dark across the camp property.

Yesterday we closed off our season together with a Kaléo Christmas morning and mug exchange around our beautifully decorated tree! Each student had brought a mug that represented themselves and we played a fun game unwrapping the mugs,and stealing them from each other in a typical gift exchange fashion. After an awesome morning the rest of the day was spent putting in the last finishing touches of their final assignment for Gospels. The last assignment, can you believe it! They worked so hard right to the very end and I speak on behalf of the leadership team in regards to how proud we are of all of them. 

It was hard to say goodbyes today but excitement was still high as everyone was looking forward to spending time with their families back home. We have been blessed with such an amazing season so far—it is crazy to think that this chapter has already come to a close. God has been doing some incredible work in the lives of his disciples here and it has been an amazing blessing to see his handy work happening right in front of us. We are expecting the big things God has in store for our next season together. We hope you all have an amazing Christmas and may you encounter our incarnated Lord with your friends and family in this season of celebration. 

Until next time,

Levi