Right now I have "Beautiful Things" by Gungor on repeat and just been reflecting on God's faithfulness in my life. There's not much I can say but I'm not the way that I am on my own accord, but rather it's God who has been working in my life piece by piece and keeping my heart soft so that I may continue to grow closer to Him in His presence. No matter how far away I try to go from Him, I will always be in the palm of His hand.
I am the farthest from perfect, there are others who understand God's love and God's grace more than I, who are more bold and unashamed to proclaim what they believe and who are quicker to receive those who are considered, "unwanted". But God is not done with me yet, and I know that He will bring me to completion at the day of Jesus Christ (Philippians 1:6).
This is the kind of thing that I have been learning over the past week, and I've been encouraged throughout it all.
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| Snowshoeing |
Last week we were up on Mount. Washington spending 5 days snowboarding, snowshoeing and skiing. The first two days for me (we had a choice of which activities to do each day) was snowboarding and I was actually surprised that I was able to get off the chairlift several times without falling (unfortunately I think that I still need to work on my finesse...but let's not get too out of hand here!). That was quite fun as I was attempting to teach myself how to carve, yet I wasn't able to accomplish that particular skill during those first two days and though it resulted in quite a lot of wipeouts I fortunately was not too injured by the time wednesday rolled around. And on wednesday we went to another nearby rental place where we got our snowshoes! What's really cool about Mount Washington is that it is in the same area as Mt. Albert-Edwards - where we had our first hiking trip! So it was cool to see the mountain while we were boarding and realize how far we had come since then. So while we were shoeing around, we realized that we had hiked these trails before...only without all the snow, so that was really special for us to come back to that place as think about the growth that we've experienced throughout these past months. After that expedition, we headed back to the chalet that we were staying in and had an awesome time at chapel. What was particularly special about this night was that I was feeling quite empty - so I basically tried to ignore it and focus on how others were doing. But I know that there are times when God feels far away and yet that's when He's actually the closest, He brings those times so that we become hungry and thirsty for Him. This was one of those times where I was yearning for my cup to be filled so that I could reach to those around me. Funny thing was, during worship, "you are my all in all" was requested and in the song, these lyrics came up: "when I am dry you fill my cup". And that is exactly what God did.
So after worship, Andrew decided that the next two nights would be edifying each other and so going down the list, one by one we would sit in the middle and have people speak words of encouragement and appreciation. On wednesday night I didn't sit in the middle, but it brought me so much joy to watch each person being loved upon and having things said about them that others didn't really notice. God was truly making my heart glad and making my cup overflow! What's more, after chapel everyone headed down to have a snack, while I just sat, thanking God for His goodness -while God was telling me to go and encourage Andrew. The next thing I knew Andrew came and found me and rather than me saying what God had put on my heart, Andrew said what God had put on his heart. Andrew being a first time father expressed his desire for his baby girl to grow up to be a woman with compassion, love for God, beauty and a servant heart. "I want my daughter to be like you Marissa" is what he said to me, me:*cue the water works* (yes I did cry, a lot ). So thank you mom and dad for loving me and teaching about the love and discipline of my Father. That was a powerful night, where without any effort on my part God far surpassed everything imaginable.
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| Boarding buddies! |
So after that awesome night, thursday was next up to bat. I wasn't feeling too well but still wanted to get outside. But after a couple runs I headed back to the chalet for some rest. It was only after I had emptied my stomach was I feeling up to hang out with the others who were either injured or just not up to getting outside. I have to say I wouldn't have had those talks if I was up on the hill so I pretty excited for that though I would've loved to get outside. However thursday was another night of encouragement, which was still as good as the night before (and it was also my turn to be in the middle). And when Friday rolled around, I was super excited to be back out, especially since it was a blizzard outside which meant a ton of snow!! So to sum up the day I was actually able to carve - which turned out to be not as hard as I thought that it was, and almost went down a black diamond run rather than a green run - that could've ended much worse than it did :) But I made it out and had a blast doing it. Though we did have one major-ish injury, Tessa had wipeout pretty rough and the first aid responders weren't sure whether or not she had torn a ligament or if it was a high ankle sprain. Apparently Bec (our intern) was actually more worried than Tessa was, and Tessa wasn't actually in a ton of pain so we were pretty grateful for that. And thus after that episode, we basically packed up and headed back to camp.
And now, we've had a few days off to get started on our theology of missions homework and to recover which has been really nice because it's given us some time to really think about what's going to go on next year. It's almost set in stone, but I will be doing my B.A. in Christian Ministry with a concentration in Childhood studies at Briercrest next year - so I'm pretty pumped about that! Yet I am still working on what's going to happen during the summer, though right now I would absolutely love to stay here for 4 1/2 more months and see what God has in store for this camp but I cannot say that it is set in stone.
But what I do know it that our crew is leaving on thursday morning for the mainland to spend it at Missions Fest!! So very excited for that as we will be staying at a church and spending thursday touring around Vancouver (hmm...something that I've never done before!) and then both friday and saturday going to be filled with sessions and seminars!! So I'm looking forward to be seeing people and learning more about God's global mission...stoked!!
I think that this is all for now, adios amigos!
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