Ahh, surfing...well for one thing, I know that I'm never ever going to be a pro surfer, but I do know that I can stand up on the board! We roadtripped and stopped at this little (but cool) market place called goats on a roof, then we stopped at Cathedral Grove provincial park. We made it finally to Ucluelet (the town near Tofino) and stayed in Christ's Community Church. The first day we went to Green Point where we played some ultimate frisbee and ran around in the water and had quite a lot of fun there. The next day we got to actually go surfing and we went to Chesterman Beach. We had these two instructors who were really cool and easy going and gave us pretty good instruction. We were rearing to go once we got our wetsuits on and had our boards. The instructors kept us waiting for a little while, but finally we got into the water...and it took me from about 1-4:45 and I could barely get up on my knees. It was SO MUCH FUN though!! Although I didn't really get that chance to stand up, I wasn't totally bummed out because we had some really fantastic weather that day (it was actually warm!) and everyone just enjoyed themselves. After all that surfing, we went back to the church and cleaned up and got to watch soul surfer---great movie to watch when the next day you're going to go surfing..not!! (I actually prefer the documentary over the movie personally!) We had some really awesome devotions that night too, we had separated in to boys and girls and really delved in to different issues. And the next day we headed out earlier in the morning and ended up at long beach. It was quite a bit cooler out, and it was slightly overcast. And to make matters worse, we had to put on cold, wet wetsuits! That was definitely an experience, but I got it done! But there were so many more waves, and they were bigger! There was just one problem...we just couldn't catch a break 'cause all the waves kept coming! However, we were able to battle the waves and actually found that because there were so many more waves, it allowed for more chances to practice standing up. I finally stood up!!! In fact, everyone who didn't stand up the day before got to stand up, it was just a day of accomplishments! The only trophy that I really got to take back with me is the nice rash across my neck from the wetsuit. Everyone else just looks like they were hanged because of the bright red line across their neck, but mine actually looks like a hickey...how embarrassing!!
We really experienced different things along this trip. For one, being in the ocean and feeling so small was something that I encountered, and really coming into understanding about how great God really is - for although the ocean is majestic and wonderful, how much more glorious are we, mankind, whom He formed to be the pinnacle of creation because He loves us so immeasurably more. So it was quite an adventure! With all the travelling, and surfing, we arrived back to camp quite worn out, but so grateful for the opportunity that we had to actually surf - I never actually thought that I'd surf in my lifetime, so it was really fantastic to realize that I quite enjoyed myself!
There has been one thing so far here at Camp Qwanoes that has had me terrified out of my mind, and it has not been any of the adventures, or the classes...in fact, and it's quite surprising, it's actually the Juniors Retreat. Why, you ask? Although I absolutely love kids and investing into their lives, I have never counselled before. And my job this past weekend was to look after 6 girls of 11 and 12 years old and attempt to create relationships that model Christ's love for them and to show them that something's different here (the theme of the weekend). I really can't explain why I was so afraid, I just was - and my fear was increased when I realized that I knew 2 girls in my cabin. They come from the church that I attend during the week at Lake Cowichan Baptist, and they are 2 of the most craziest, unpredictable girls that I know (they almost remind me of boys with ADHD because they're just that incredible). So thus, the weekend full of 120 junior campers commenced on Friday and took off! It was absolutely crazy with all the games, activities and trying to wrangle my girls together. I kid you not when I say that almost every time I looked up, one of my girls from Lake Cowichan would be gone, and we would have to go looking for them, and then try to persuade them to return to the current activity. However, it was actually an enjoyable time to actually get to know these beautiful young girls and really develop a surprisingly quick and strong relationship with them. They were so responsive in the cabin devotion times, and really interacted during the activities (when they weren't distracted with wanting to go to the park or something similar). It was really interesting to see a certain maturity amongst some of them and how they accepted each other without any sort of hesitation (you could call it child naivety, but I don't think so). And on top of all this I belayed at the climbing tower during free time and got to get to know so many more kids. I loved it!! I love to love kids and this gave me a chance to encourage them and challenge them a little more than what they think they can achieve. I even had one child say to me, "That's the first time someone has ever told me how proud they were of me!" and it made me really step back and realize how powerful my words could be to a child, even one simple sentence. So that was quite an afternoon! And to top it all off, every girl in my cabin said that they didn't want to leave, they wanted to come back again (music to my ears!!!) and so when it came time to leave on sunday afternoon, they were quite brokenhearted - so we ended off on a lot of hugs and goodbyes and see you soons...hopefully I'll be seeing some of them in the spring for the next juniors retreat!
I have to say that although I was so scared before this weekend started - I know now that I'm ready to do it again, and to learn from my mistakes and to experience actual camp life here at Qwanoes again.
Finally, we've come full circle to the next week...and our next class: Old Testament literature. This is a class in which I was really interested to see what I would learn, but also kind of unsure of our professor, Don Taylor and what he would be like. We had this pile (or more like heap) of pre-course work (that we're still working on): 2 papers, one book, 1 large creative project and an exam + all the class material. I was expecting someone who was a lot more strict that what he actually was, so I was really caught off guard when he turned out to be really flexible, quite knowledgable with the skill of making OT quite interesting (I love OT, but still, it's more interesting now), made Jesus and his story more relevant, and he was actually funny! I feel so much more less stress now that he's cleared up most of our work and I'm excited to see what we're going to learn, and it's quite sad to think that we only have 4 more days left with him :(
Although in this past week there has been a roller coaster of emotions and different happenings, I have been able to stay somewhat sane and my devo time with God has really helped me to stay centred on Him and to give me a place of refuge when I'm lacking in sleep, strength and understanding. So thank you to you who have been praying for me, I definitely have been revelling in God's love and grace - He has given me so much more than I could ever be worthy of.
No comments:
Post a Comment