This week has certainly been quite eventful. A lot of homework, youth group preparation, girl's night, and Valentine's Day were all significant events of a great week. 

Our head Youth Leader, Stevie-G (as we like to call him), gave us six Warmlander's the opportunity to organize and run the Wednesday night grade 5-7 youth group. Considering Valentine's Day was a few short days away, we decided to bring the theme of "love" out of the closet. One thing that was mainly talked about was the Greek word "Agape" which means thee presents divine, unconditional, self-sacrificing, active, and thoughtful love. God gives us this love daily. With his love, a lot of other characteristics fall into place like grace and mercy, forgivness and compassion. We then brought up the topic of fear. What do you fear in your hearts? With that being said, we couldn't think of a better peice of scripture that suits the topic any better than 1 John 4:18 wich says, "There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love." A lot of questions were brought up from the kids which was super encouraging for me to hear because they don't normally listen and usually goof around during group time..but yeah, it was really great. 

On Thursday night, all of us girls drove over to the guest house and had a sleep over there. It was a night like no other. Typical girl games were played such as, "truth or dare", "two truth's and a lie," and a dance party. It was such a great night. Obviously we know each other a lot more so it was a really comfortable and relaxing time to just be girls and be silly. At the end of the night Kristy wanted us to write our names down on a peice of paper and in a circle, we passed our name around and each person had to put something that was encouraging on the paper. I really enjoyed it. Sometime as girls, we look at ourselves a lot differently than other people do. We critque and critisize our image and our personalities to the max. So when I got my peice of paper back, there were a lot of things that I didn't think I portrayed or even thought about, so it was really cool to see what other people thought about me and to have that affirmed. 

So Valentin's Day...Congradulations to Shannon Allison and her new FIANCE Jonathon. They were engaged on the 14th. There was romance and love in the air all over Kaleo. Surprises, scavenger hunts, limo's and good meals. My roomates and I went out for a round of bowling and milkshakes with our "brother room" downstairs. It was really fun and glad I got to go do something. 

So this week I come home! I am really excited to see everyone. The downside of this break is that it is a "reading break" meaning I have A LOT of homework to catch up and finish before I leave back to BC. I will mainly be nesstled away in my room with books surrounding every corner, but I'm sure I will find some time to hangout with everyone and relax, share some good stories and some good laughs.

Thanks for reading my BLOG and I will return next week. God Bless you and your week. 

Malayne 

THIS WEEK IS SORT OF A "BI-WEEK" I GUESS YOU COULD SAY. WE ARE MAINLY JUST DOING HOMEWORK AND...YA I GUESS MORE HOMEOWORK. OH BUT WE DO HAVE A GIRLS NIGHT ON THURSDAY, SO IM SURE THAT WILL BE COOL. THEY ALWAYS ARE. 

ANYWAYS, I HONESTLY DON'T KNOW WHAT ELSE TO SAY. SO I THINK IM GOING TO END IT. 

Last week the crew and I headed over to the superb mainland, that being Vancouver. We enjoyed three days of the downtown life which included food courts, random mall walking in ridiculously overpriced stores, Starbucks, and missions fest. Of course missions fest was the whole reason why we were there in the first place. I had never been to the Vancouver one, and my oh my, it is HUGE (compared to Edmonton's). Missional booths were of course the main attraction of the event. There were hundreds of them. Whether it was summers camps, colleges and universities, or local and international organizations, they were all trying to somehow get your attention. I had the pleasant opportunity of dropping by the YWAM booth. The "booth runner" or whatever you would like to call him, told me some interesting facts about the Australia and New Zealand 6 month back packing DTS programs. They seem very intriguing and I have been looking into it for a while. There were a few sessions that I went to during the day that really brought some new things to my attention. One of the sessions was organized by Ratanak Foundations. There main focus at the moment is specifically on Cambodia and the brutal circumstances that are revealed. The presenter spoke about the sex trade that goes on there with kids young as 8 years old. The man that spoke had been a private investigator for the Canadian Police Department. He had gone on a vacation to Cambodia with his family, heard about what was going on there and then decided to devote his life to bring justice to the unjust. The organization is wonderful and is bringing great hope to their nation. They have put a lot of bad people in jail and created a safe placed such as churches and youth centers for the people of Cambodia. My heart goes out to these people. I don't know what much to do about the situation. The first thing that came to mind was " I just want to go there and help stop everything." Of course that is something that could be very possible. I am just not sure where God is directing my future at this point of time, but he certainly is putting missions on my heart whether it be YWAM or another organization.

Today was our first class of "Old Testament Literature." It was so interesting to hear the historical stories of the Bible. A lot of my responses to the readings were mainly "What the heck?, I didn't know that..circumcsion? GROSS." But i certainly learned a lot of the bible stories that i SHOULD have already known when I was 8 while "listening" in Sunday school.

I am looking forward to what the class has in store for the rest of the week. I expect to come out of this class with a lot more understanding of who God is and how he used his people.

A little piece of scripture that i have been thinking about this week: Psalms 145: 8- 9The Lord is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in his steadfast love. The Lord is good to all and his mercy is over all that he has made.

May your week be filled with the Lords love and grace.

Malayne

This week has been spiritually challenging and exhausting, but at the same time it was refreshing and it put me in a state of vulnerability towards God. God gave me the opportunity to asses my relationship with him and it threw me out of my comfort zone inorder to become intentional with him. Now y0u may wonder "where did this inspirational thought come from?" A lot of it mainly had to do with our 24 hour, 4 day week of prayer. I had the privilege to pray with a couple girls in room 204 (where the prayer room is). During that time it was a chance to lift up what we had on our hearts in amazing conversations and blessed prayer. It brought me a lot of new insigts and encouragment. I felt like I could express myself in an authentic way. I had a lot on my mind, and I got to release my thoughts and perspectives. It was a freeing experience. It was an amazing place to be weak and vulnerable. "Your flesh is weak, but your spirit is strong"- Jim Badke

So last Saturday, Colleen (a lady that we met at church) invited a few of us girls to come with her to Victoria with a trunk full of sleeping bags, cloths, hats, mits, socks, hot chocoloate and cookies and headed out to the downtown area to hand everything out to the homeless. Colleen is an amazing women with a strong passionate heart for God as well as the homeless. During the 2 hours that we were there, a lot of them came and went, not really looking to talk. A few stayed around and we  had the chance to engage in really cool conversations. The thing with the guys on the street is they don't usually give out their real names. They introduce themselves with their given "street names." A guy named "Poet" came up to us and asked us about our lives and what we do. He concluded his conversation with a small poem on the topic of "Crack-cocain."...hmm...I thought to myself "Is this guy for real?" I stared at him until he was finished. His face had dried sores all over and you could tell he was on some sort of drug, but the words that came out of his mouth were so heart aching, real, raw and crack is what drives this man's life. Surprisingly I was not the one encouraging him to have a better life, he was the was influencing me to have a better life and to look to God for wisdom. Another man we were talking to was named "G". He has been on the streets for quite a few years floating around the area. We offered him a bible of the New Testament to take a look at. He was very interested in what we were doing and why we were doing it. Gerri (a guy from our church that also came along) closed our conversation in prayer. I was truly touched by his act of love. The relationships that were created that night was something I will remember forever. We are looking to go and do this again next month, so hopefully we can interact with those same people. I think God is showing me what my passions are and how much I have a heart for these people. G now would like to come out to our home church and see what we are all about, so we are picking him up next week from Duncan!! Man, God is good. I never even imagined that we would get such an impacting response. Something so little can turn into something life changing. 

This thursday we are heading out to Vancouver for missions fest. The Vancouver team will be staying with people that run the organization called "Inner Hope Missions." It is sort of a test run to check us out and what our personalities are like. I am really excited to meet them and hopefully they will like us! We are going to be attending the evening sessions and taking a tour of the booths that will be set up. It will be a really neat opportunity to take a look at all of the different mission organizations. I am currently looking into a Y-WAM mission for next January in Australia. I plan on getting a lot more information on it, so it will be really cool. 

I will wrap this up, sorry for such a descriptive BLOG. God Bless everyone and thank you for your prayers. 

Until Next week

Malayne

Reflecting back on this past semester, I have come to realize and truly appreciate the amazing moments that I have seen God prepare and reveal to me. I thank him everyday for the good times and the bad, for the moments of tears and the moments of laughter. 

I must say, getting back into the groove of Blogging once a week is going to be a challenge for me, especially due to the fact that my right wrist is currently broken! BUT...here goes nothing

This past week we gathered up our things, put on some snow gear and headed out to Mount Washington Ski Resort where we spent five beautiful warms days of relaxing in our chalet, boarding the slopes, eating great food, and having awesome conversations as a group. So if you all would like to hear how my wrist detached itself, I would love to tell you. It was the morning of the first day not to mention the first run of the day. I had just finished coming down the mountain and was meters away from the chair lift. I began to turn my board into the "snow plow" position, and suddenly my toe edge grabbed me and BAM, fell directly on my right wrist. The pain shocked me! I had gone into the emergency that evening to be told that I will be casted for 6 weeks! OH and the following day, my roomate Jayme busted her right wrist too!! Can you believe that?..well..that sure covered the rest of my week with a drenched wet blanket, or so i thought. The week was amazing even though I did not get to snowboard. Sleeping in was a bonus and playing out in the snow was the cherry on my...cake? Aside from those events..wow..chapel. What can I say about that? Jim gave us the opportunity to speak out about our Kaleo names that we were previously given on the SALTS trip. (mine was "Sure") The word "sure" has been on my mind for quite sometime now. Since this last semester, God has transformed my heart from being "unsure" to "FOR sure". Of course that doesn't mean i have things figured out. But it certainly contributes to my journy with God. Hebrews 11:1 says, "Faith is being sure of what you hope for and certain of what you cannot see." I have a better understanding of what it means to trust in Him. I have yet to share my testimony with the group, and I have realized why i have been holding back from that. My story is something that doesn't quite make sense in my eyes. I am slowly beginning to acknowledge the hurts and needs that I have not dealt with in a healthy matter. Anyways, chapel was amazing and it brought up questions and concerns that I need to figure out, so I thank God for that. 

This week is basically preperation for a class we are having this tuesday. Our Prof is Lech Bekesza. He is a Pastor at Cobble Hill Church. I am expecting great things out of this class. Although I hear he is a little intimidating and a bit authoritative and not to mention opinionated, but I think that it will be a great experience to hear what he has to say about Theology. Prep work is what i have been consumed with this week and am ready for a little down time. One of the assignments that we have to do is to write a Psalm about a passed experience where you have aknowleged  your sin and how God has been shown in that situation where he has changed you. 

I fail exceptionally at my attempts of reaching perfection

I have reached a new high of imperfection and weakness

Sin consumes my life daily

I dwell in what is bad, never in what is good

Never what you have given, but always what is missing

Selfishness overcomes me

More, more, more

Nothing is ever enough

Falling, falling, falling...

You have given me new eyes to see

A glimpse of perfection

Your selflessness has altered my outlook

You are a God of grace and love

You provide our needs and wants with what we do not deserve

You have given me a new sense of peace and strength

You have given me a desire to give rather than to receive

I want to strive to become your image

The image of perfection

The image that captures one's heart and free's the soul

I want what you want, not what the world tells me to want

My selfishness is being transformed into sacrifice

Thank you for this freeing experience, Oh Lord

You are who you are because of your selflessness

I find great fervor and zeal in knowing who you are

You are captivating and everlasting

Thank you for your grace and beauty

It is a great thing that God has shown me. Until next week

Cheers,

Malayne

Church Min Class: So we are officially done fall semester classes, and wow..they were amazing. I especially enjoyed this one. Prof. David Lee taught us so much about church history, modern day church and how churches have been twisted in our day. He really oppened my eyes to how the church has been tanted from past traditions and how a church should be properly run as disciples after God's kingdom. It was interesting to get the perspective of a pastor and how he views church in general. I never realized how big of a comittment it was. I really loved the class and i would love to go further in that class.

Chill week ahead: The next week and a half is pretty much for cathing up, being lazy and having fun. We are going on a "christmas tree hunt", watching christmas movies, christmas banquet, having a talent show and going snowboarding. WOOT!! 

See you all very soon and Merry Christmas!!

God Bless

Malayne