Fought the Good Fight.

Well, it seems fitting to write one last blog from YWAM Blackfalds. I have fought the good fight, and I have finished the race and I have remaine- … wait, that’s not my own words.

But I have finished this course, and boy was it a race. A marathon in fact… (just don’t tell real SBS students who do 9 months that I said that!!). So lets see how I can summerize…

66 books read

15 books studied (Philemon, Ephesians, Luke, Acts, Romans, 1 Timothy, Ecclesiastes, 1 Peter, Deuteronomy, Hebrews, 1& 2 Kings, Daniel, Amos and Revelation)

12 weeks of class

5  elective courses (Teaching and Preaching, Small Group Bible Study, Church History, OT Overview, Wisdom Literature)

4 tests

3 students

2 leaders

1 insane experience.

… so, what do I do now? I have this thing call Time, and I can spend it however I want, that’s also an insane experience.

It’s snowing and tonight us three students are driving to… some town that stsrts with W to go to a YWAM Lusaka fundraiser.. since I spent a few days at that base, I thought it would be neat. Then tomorrow we all go down to Calgary and fly out. Goodbye beloved small town with your crazy red house and crazier cultish people who live in it (that’s us by the way).

Hello Voncouver and Abbotsford.

It’s over. This course has finished. It was a long haul and I had been anticipating it long before I got to Canada – since week 2 of my DTS in Zambia… Like, July 2006. And now I’ve done it.

Yay.

I don’t know what’s next, I dont have as much foresight as I did back then, but I know it will be good, because my God is good and He’s leading me. I just follow along for the ride (oh, and draw up horizontal charts along the way).

Next blog will be from B.C.

Hope to see you there…

kez

Saying Farewell.

Hey everyone!

It’s been snowing lightly off and on for the past few days and I’ve loved it. I threw my first few snowballs on Friday night and it was so much fun. Since then, we’ve only had snow that is powdery and not really great to make into snowballs, but still, it’s lovely.

All my household is leaving tonight to go to India for their outreach and us three BCC students are staying put for the next few days. And then onwards to part three of my trip to BC for 10 days. 

It will be sad to go away from Blackfalds, it’s been quite an experience and I’ve worked hard and got alot out of it. We have another day of work and then our final day is Friday.

That’s all for now,

write more when I have time.

kez.

Whine, whine, whine.

Sometimes it helps to complain. It’s SNOWING!! Lets hope it sticks and doesn’t stop until Thursday…

kez

oh, for the love of snow…

I shouldn’t complain.

We’d read Job and learnt about how we aren’t to ask the ‘why‘ questions to God, but more the ‘what are You teaching me through this?’ questions… well I’m sick of that and let me explain why.

Yesterday morning it was cold. Very cold. To the point that my snot froze in my nose (now that was a weird experience) and my fingers hurt. We were outside walking around for half an hour at 8:30 in the morning. Don’t ask me why, it’s YWAM. It got to the point where mostly everyone I could think of decided it’s not worth it being that cold if there was no snow to make it fun. And there wasn’t, and it wasn’t.

Now, 24 hours later. It is warm. So warm we were considering getting out our shorts and shirts… 4 degrees. But you know what else? It is raining. RAINING! Pouring down. So much of it and if only it had come yesterday, it would have been snow…

I have one week and one day left in this town and I really wanted to see it covered in snow. Lots of it. White snowflakes lacing the rooftops.

The average temperature for November is -3/-4 and this year it was 4. FOUR DEGREES. Snow melts at four degrees. It does not stay frozen at four degrees. 8 degrees delta T  in average temperature makes a big difference.

So, since I’ve been in Canada, I experienced their wettest summer on record and now what seems like a really warm winter. With crazy lack of snow. Crazy.

*sigh*

I mean, I try to go into things with no expectations but I at least thought I would see SOME good snow… just to throw a snowball.

Oh, and the reason I’m getting antsy to see snow is that I’m returning to Perth by Christmas – in case I hadn’t shared that.  So right now, I’m on a deadline. Snow by Christmas or bust. I’ll be in Vancouver for the final days and they say it doesn’t really snow there until much, much later.

Pfft, snow is overrated anyway. Right?

Time to venture into the wetness that is rain. Another week down, one more to go. Revelations. Interesting book. We are having our ‘love feast’ this Sunday which is a bit like graduation for the schools. Last I heard the schools are leaving next Thursday. : (  Sadness.

Peace out my brothers, hope all is well around the world.

kez.

Calm Down, it’s just a heat wave.

Another blog, although again I feel like I am writing about nothing interesting or relevant. Same old same old. Another week, another book, another Saturday cramming to get it done.

People are moving into the house next door to our YWAM Red House (AKA The Barn) and I was going to go over there and warn them that we are a bit like a cult… well, in the way that we live together and eat together and sometimes do strange things… but aren’t really like a cult because we’ve got legit theology. Anyhow, turns out they already know YWAM and so they’ve already figured we are a bit strange.

No snow still. Cold weather still. Although today is a balmy 6 degrees and I’m not even wearing two pairs of pants! Heat wave.

My cousin Jayne is still alive, in Japan, and I find it ironic that my mum would ask me… in Canada. Well done on being alive Jayne.

Time to go do more on the kings of Israel and Judah. They were all a bit stupid, most of them. The prophets were sweet as though!

kez.

I Captured The Snow.

There’s something to be said about patience.

I woke up this morning and there was snow. Yes, real live snow all over the ground.

Okay, so it wasn’t THAT deep, maybe a couple of cms, but still, the roofs and the ground and the roads – all covered in a sweet layer of whiteness.

It had melted by the time we walked home from the church at lunch, but I live in hope of more. It’s only mid-November, plenty of time for massive snow storms! I’m thinking several inchs at least.

This week we are studying 1 & 2 Kings. Can’t say too much on it since it’s only the first day, but like all the books, it should be interesting and enlightening. This is the start of the final set of 4 weeks. Wow, I have worded that strangely. We are in week 9 of 12, much past the half-way mark and coming towards the end. Kinda. The outreach peeps are leaving on the 9th of December, a good few days before us BCCers and so the house will be sadly empty without them. They are a good bunch that I live with and I’ll miss our times of late-night insanity together. And Saturday morning brunch… *sigh* good times.

Well, not much else to report, lets hope this week will be a bit cruisier than last week… I think it will be.

peace out my friends

kez

P.S. Congrats to Leith and Benay who both just got married. To each other.

…subtly was never my speciality…

newblog!newblog!

What to say? oh not much. Still no snow. Still lots of work. Maybe even more than last week. Yes, even more than last week. Culminating in a crazy heavy slightly-sleep-deprived week but I look forward to… ummm… a few things. I guess. You need to look forward to things to get through sometimes.

The sun sets at 4:30, we now have a phone at the house although it won’t ring the phone card number I have (why? why??) and I am reminded of my hero Andy’s words, ‘getting through the BCC requires a subtle blend of the Holy Spirit and caffeine’. How true his words.

The Aussie Dollar has dropped even more against the US, it’s actually a good time to be working in Canada, and not paying school fees. I still have my cheques from the summer camp, and so they are actually getting more and more valuable the longer I leave it… hmmmm.

We went ice skating at the rink a few nights ago, the place offered it for free as the start of the season has come and I got tightly laced into some borrowed skates and went around and around an oval for 45 minutes. Was fun. The kids wore helmets and everyone was pretty good since I guess it’s alot more part of their culture than mine. Still, I’m no fool, I can skate around and I didn’t fall which I’m pretty happy with. I think inline skating is more fun because it’s easier and less bumpy, but still, it was good to be part of the experience.

and that’s all.

kez.

-there are many things to enjoy-

They predicted snow for yesterday and it didn’t happen. They predicted snow for Sunday, most definately, but it really doesn’t matter but it snowed TODAY!!!

Yes, yes, alot of galavanting and joyous rejoicing abounded. It wasn’t really much snow, they were tiny flakes and they didn’t ’stick’ and apparently it wasn’t hardly even snow, it was almost sleet and some countries have 10 different words for snow but I only have ONE and this was snow! The best thing I can compare it to is the precipitate you get when you mix two solutions and get like, AgCl or something white and fluffy, AS IS SNOW and it’s floats around, AS DOES SNOW. What can I say, I think in terms of science. Now I am just waiting for more snow that does stick so that we can start throwing snowballs. Right now all we have is wet roads. That’ll do for now though.

In other news, we have a ridiculously good looking speaker for this week. Ridiculously. We all agree. I decided he was a cross between Orlando Bloom and Antonia Banderas. We don’t mind if class goes on for an extra day… ‘Deuter-what?’. Still, I gracefully concede to the other girls who are in my class – we are all single, but they are both older. I still have many years to chase after ridiculously good looking bible-knowing fellas.

That’s all that’s happening for now.

until next time,

kez

Babies Don’t Sleep Through The Night… Neither Do I.

new post! new post!

I’m back in cold cold Alberta, passed all those mountainous regions and got home late last night. Go Conference finished, it was very good I decided, so nice to meet new people and hear encouraging stories of God doing stuff without me. Brian Hogan was one of our speakers and he has a good story.

The ride home was, once again, long, but we passed the time with insane word games that were often idiocracy and strange stories about Loren Cunningham and an ipod on the top of a pyramid in Egypt. You know, the usual.

Today is WARM. And it’s weird. You would think November would be cold. It’s about 10 degrees and Caleb was jumping around insisting he could wear a t-shirt and shorts. I’m sure he could. He’s that used to the cold. I’m still fine with many layers, BUT, I only had to wear one pair of pants today so that’s saying something. Oh, when will it snow? I saw the snow on the mountains and that was very cool but alas, alas, I want to stand in the middle of a snow storm and hurl snowballs at unsuspecting boys.  While making a snowman.

There is much to do tomorrow, I am taking today off as my Sabbath because they are all about that here (I have differing controversial views which they won’t understand). Travelling is always a bit wearying and so to get lots done, I think it is wiser to do it all tomorrow. Ecclesiastes can wait until tomorrow. Everything is meaningless. I want so much more than cash can buy… ummmm, wait, where was I? That was a song…

I have photos, very average photos since we didn’t stop to take photos (oh yes, the joy of having leaders who have done the Rockies trip many times…) but I also can’t load them right now. There were a few mountains with a bit of snow and stuff, you know, the usual.

It was nice to get home and have a shower, although the ones in Kelowna weren’t bad at all. The only thing I never remembered was the TRAINS. I slept through the night every night while I was in Kelowna and I thought that was strange and now I realise it is because there were no trains. The train line goes right past our house, I can see it from my window and it is not far away, and so three times a night we hear it. Usually the first and last times are at the edge of sleep so it’s okay and once in the night we wake up. Yes, mum, it’s not ideal, but what can you do?

Time to depart I think and wander around and chillax and embrace this warm weather. Caleb asked me today whether it was cold outside. I am not the right person to ask this to.

‘Caleb, it is always cold outside’…

til next time,

kez.

Harry Connick Jr.?

Yay! Now I want to be a frontier missionary too! They have converted me!

It’s such a pity I have no church planting skills OR desire to minister in China. If only.

Seems I am destined for a life of destroying ignorance through sound doctrine, which is equally okay. How or where or what or who or when or why or how that will happen is still completely mysterious, as is most of my entire life. Apparently that is okay.

6 weeks of school down, 6 weeks to go. Will I survive? Will I learn great biblical principles? Will I meet the man of my dreams? Will I have 14 children? Will blue be the next brown? How come fruit always comes with stickers on it?

Umm… ok, am less sick. Huge relief since I spent 30 minutes walking around the playground with a blindfold on this morning while Trish made strange noises. Am sleeping lots, possibly due to intense amount my brain is processing, possibly due to me being a freak. But we leave tomorrow lunchtime so sleep will be HOPEFULLY plentiful as I push and elbow and shove my way to a seat which isn’t the crappest in the van. In a loving Christ-like way of course. Christ never had to sit in a mini-van with 14 other people. He had camels and donkeys and just walked around everywhere. Donkeys are fun.

Time to peace out, have a great day and I’ll write from AB where HOPEFULLY it will have snowed and Lori will have had her baby naturally.

I live in hope.

Because it floats.

kez.