A Final Thank You

I have now been back home for two weeks and I think I am mostly adjusted. It has been a mixture of emotions being home. There are days when I am so happy to be home and around my family and friends again but other days when I miss my new family and friends and just being able to talk to people who went through the same things I did. God has been great with helping me adjust and getting involved with different programs. I am currently looking for a full time job and just plan on saving up money, no school for me this year. Hopefully next year! I want to thank you for reading my blog. I loved updating you on what I was given the opportunity to do. For those of you who supported me financially, thank you thank you thank you. I would not have been able to go without you. I know that a lot of you were praying for my safe return and I thank you for all those prayers! This is the end of my Cambodia Adventures, I can't wait until my next adventure! :)

The ending is near...

The last night in Cambodia was the perfect way to end. After our amazing dinner with our team, Heather, Kayla, Kristin and I took some pictures together and had a fun girly time. Then Justin, Taylor, Heather and I went down to the beach. We just sat on the sand, listening to the ocean and looking at the stars, talking about how amazing our time was. The next day and a half was so hectic and confusing because of the 14 hour time change. We took a bus back to Phnom Phen to catch our 6 hour flight to Korea. We had a 12 hour layover and I, along with 10 others, went into the city and shopped around. I got to see Nanhee who showed us around Korea last time. It was a great day and then it had to end by us getting on our 10 hour flight to Seattle. It was hard. We left Korea at 6pm on Friday and arrived in Seattle at 1pm on Friday. Yes that's right. We went back in time. I am surprisingly not really jet legged because I didn't let myself sleep until the normal time when we got home. I stayed up by going to Seattle with Kayla and going to her place and out for dinner. Then yesterday morning we had our final meeting all together. We all met and had brunch with our major sponsors and thanked them for everything they did. After that the leaders all got to say something to us students. Oh my gosh I am going to miss everyone so much. I’m not too freaking out about leaving them all, because I know without a doubt that I will be seeing them again, probably soon. After our meeting I drove Kayla to the airport and Heather came with me. I love those girls like crazy, can’t wait until we meet up again in 3 weeks. Today I went to Seattle with Heather, Jenae and Taylor to go shopping. I’m just about to go to church and then everyone is going their separate ways. Ill be back in Canada tomorrow and have mixed feelings about it. I can't wait to be home but I don't want to leave. My body is beat up so I'm happy to go finally go to a doctor and get everything checked out. Ill make sure to write in here at least one more time. God has been so amazing this summer. My world was turned upside down for the better, despite how hard some of it was.

Team=Family

Tonight my outreach team went out for dinner together. It hit me how much I love them and seriously view them as my family. The 11 of us decided to tell each person one thing that stood out to us about each other. Staring with Patrick we all said one thing about him then moved on to Heather and so on. It made me realize what I have learned from each person over the last 3 months and how much they have impacted me. It was also SOOO encouraging hearing what they had to say to me. I'm so thankful that God had our teams perfectly planned out because we worked with each other so well. The ease in which we make fun of each other and yet the seriousness in which we build each other up was amazing to observe at dinner. Today was really cool because 6 of the students got baptized in the ocean. Tonight's debriefing was really good and kind of in an open mic setting. Some people encouraged leaders, some asked bible questions and other asked practical questions. It was a really good ending to our last night it Cambodia. Tomorrow we leave in the afternoon for the airport, our plane leaves at 11pm. We have a 12 hour layover in Seoul, Korea and then we begin our flight back to the U.S.A. See you soon!

Sihanoukville

Our concert at the crusade

The boat we had our tour on(sketchy!)

Snorkeling!


Sorry that I haven't updated in awhile! This week has been fantastic. Today was our day off as it is Sunday and we all went on a snorkeling tour. It was crazy! The boat (as seen above) had like 25 or more of us on it. We went to three different locations to snorkel and swim though and it was beautiful. I freaked out at the first place because I couldn't breath properly and there were sea urchins about a foot under us. But then I got the hang of it and stayed away from the urchins. My friend Lauren got poked by one and has its spike in her leg. :( We flipped and dove off the boat into the Gulf of Thailand. It was really a once in a lifetime experience. The weekdays here we have stayed on the same schedule each day. We meet for breakfast at 9 then have two hours of devotionals. We meet for lunch at 12 and then after that we do some kind of group activity. We've spent some time with the local people here, and because its more touristy they speak English quite well compared to the villages. We meet for dinner which is always fun and go off in different groups. At 8pm we always meet in one of our hotel rooms and sing a worship song or two then we do some debriefing. Adam will ask us a question and it has been really good to go over what we have learned and are still learning. He's taught us different things some of the nights as well. This usually lasts around two hours.I absolutely love our group and I cant believe the school ends in exactly one week :( This last week has been very different from the rest of the trip, but then again every week as been very different from the next. I have learned a lot about myself this week more than the others. It's time for me to go get ice cream for 50cents with Heather and Kayla. See you all soon!

Hospital

Hospital!

Flowers from my team
Late on the 15th I began to have extreme body pains so I stayed at the hotel all day on the 16th. They took me to the hospital early on the 17th and I stayed there for 3 days. After blood tests and x-rays doctors told me I had influenza A which is pretty much H1N1. Andrea and Tony took me to the hospital and Andrea stayed with me all day then Lauren came and stayed with me all evening and night. The 18th Steph stayed with me all day and then Kristin stayed with me all night. The 19th Kayla stayed with me until I went home. I can't believe how amazing they were. They all missed some really cool activity to be with me and I love them so much for it. My team sent me flowers and snacks it was so sweet of them. Im still taking my medication which makes me nauseous but Im almost completely better, my WBC's just need to increase. I wore a stupid hospital mask for 2 days after the hospital so I wouldnt get sick. I still will if I go to the markets. I finally got to go to the last night of the crusade because I was sick the first 4 nights. I'll upload a video and pictures when I get a chance. So because we came a week early to Cambodia we have an extra week with nothing planned. We are at the beach. It was cheeper for all of us to drive 4 hours and stay at a hotel by the beach then to stay in Phnom Phen or even to go home. Thats how much more it costs to fly in Aug instead of Sept. Today we left Phnom Phen at 6 am and drove for 5 hours. I just got back from jumping in the waves and body surfing and am now sitting by the pool. We have one more days of rest and hangingout before they tell us what our plans are for the week after. Over and Out. Your tanning friend, Calsie.

Conference

Time is flying by! Last monday we went to a youth drop in center and just spent time hanging out and playing ping-pong and other games with them. We held our "Catalyst National Conference" from the 11th-14th. There were 100 young adults from all over Cambodia who we had brought in to do it. It was really good to hear everything we have already learnt again. I learnt so much from hanging out with the people here. We had a major thunder and lightning storm the other night and it was purple. So cool! We haven't had team time with just our 11 for days and it makes me miss the smaller team dynamic. We're going to go check out the venue that we will be using the next week for the crusade we are having. I'm so excited! 1200 people each night. Ill let you know how it goes...love you all!

A few pictures

Shrines by a palace Phnom Penh

In Phnom Penh visiting the Mekong river

The homes we visited in Krotches

Playing with kids while in Krotches

Heather and I arriving in Cambodia.

A day in the life of Calsie

Joom-ree-up sooa! Hello! Our group of 34 just reunited in Phnom Phen. What an awesome week its been. After our 11 hour flight last week(which was the best flight ever) we landed in Korea and stayed with a Korean family connection we had through our church. They treated us like royalty the whole time. They had an amazing dinner set up for us and the same thing with dinner the next morning. One thing about Seoul...it is so hot and humid. Heather and I felt like we were in a giant ,it was ridiculous. The next day we went into the city. I instantly loved it, I'm not even kidding. Ryans friend from YWAM, Nan-hee, came and showed us around. We saw tourist sports but also traditional Korea. It was so amazing. WE went to this sweet shop where the guy making them spoke some English. He kept calling me honey and joked about being my boyfriend. Justin wasn't too please and said that the guy would kidnap me', like in the movie Taken. The family took us to a Korean restaurant and I surprising tried and loved the food. We almost missed our bus to the airport and we had to run after it.The flight to Phnom Penh was only 5 hours. My first day in Cambodia was spent traveling to our teams outreach location. It was great to unite our team of 11 again as 5 of us had been left behind. The drive the the province Krotches was 5 hours and we actually stayed in a decent place. I thought we would be in a hut. Our translator Narro is pretty much the best person ever. Its hard to sum up or even begin to describe what went on the week in Krotches. We would eat breakfast at 7 and the head to a house in the village where the pastor lived. We would go back there for lunch and dinner. For about 8 hours we would move from hut to hut where we sang songs and preached the gospel. After we would ask if anyone needed prayer. There were countless numbers but that's what we were there to do so we went at it for hours. For those of you who have read the book of Acts, we seriously walked that out. There were so many times we asked people if they believed in God and the response was "If He heals me then I'll believed"they wanted to see if God was more powerful that their witch doctors. Well God showed up. We saw people who had been blind for 6 years get their sight back, stomach pain disappear, backs and legs given the ability to move. It was amazing to see god move and change the hearts of the people here. Especially the older Buddhist people come to Christianity. It showed the power of our Lord. For the next 4 weeks in Phnom Phen I'm sharing a room with Jenae, Elizabeth and Andrea. Jenea and I really connected and are having a blast. Its just been a lot of fun, although very exhausting. Everyday there is a random downpour of rain that drenches out in 2 seconds . We have had some great team bonding time and its different to be back with our big group. I'm trying to think of random information to share. I has a bit of a fetal duck egg. It was the grossest thing ever. Our food has mostly been amazing, consisting of rice and cooked vegetables and chicken. Our last night there we had goose strew and Patrick had an entire foot in his so I stopped eating. One night Jenae, Adina and I who were sharing a room woke up at 2 am and were so hungry and uncomfortable that we went out onto our 3rd floor poarch and ended up sleeping outside. We had a few encounters with spiritual warfare but those stories are for another time. Today was our relax day and we went on a major shopping spree in the markets. I hope you're all having an amazing summer. Even as I think about the fact that Im sitting in an internet cafe I get EXTREMELY excited and think about how much I am loving Cambodia. God is so good!

Problemo numero uno.

So yesterday at 3:30am all 34 of us arrived at the airport. We were checking in when we had our first issue. Myself, along with 4 others had issues with getting our visas and were not allowed to board the plane. So the rest of the group went on ahead and Ryan, Dan, Justin, Heather and I went back home. We slept for a couple hours and then headed into Seattle to the Cambodian Consulate to get our Visas. Thank God we were able to get them without any problem. It took an hour for them to process and during that time we just went to a park with an amazing view of Seattle and the water and had some amazing bonding time. The 5 of us have seriously become so close just in the last 2 days. Today we all met at 9:30 and us girls made breakfast for the guys. We spend a good chunk of our morning praying for our friends in Cambodia and just spending time together. During the afternoon we tried to stay in the mindset that we should be on our outreach, we did a mini one at PLU ,the university close by. We went to prayer tonight and it was nice to see the people that thought we had already left. And thanks to our amazing travel agent we have a flight booked for tomorrow at 2:45pm. Instead of flying to LA then Seoul then Cambodia we are going to be flying straight to Seoul and have to stay a day and night there then fly to Cambodia. We are surprisingly in such good spirits and just trusting that God has this all planned out. I absolutely love these 4 and am also excited to see the rest of the group in 3 days. Hopefully I can update soon. Love you all!

And we're off.

I'm sorry this is going to have to be short, as it is 11:25pm and were meeting together in 3 hours. These past few days have flown by. I was able to go home this weekend to get shots and to see my family. I LOVED spending time with them. I got to see a few friends too and it was exactly what I needed. I feel really prepared going into Cambodia. Our group has really grown strong together and I absolutely love everyone on my team. I feel at peace about everything and knowing that God has it all planned out. We're going to have such an amazing time doing Gods work. This first coming up week we will not have Internet but I hope that the weeks after I will be able to update my blog once a week. Feel free to leave comments. I will love getting them and knowing familiar faces are thinking of me, while I'm on the other side of the world. I can't believe it has already been 6 weeks! 6 more to go! Love and Miss you all

It's crunch time.

It is now crunch time. We're leaving in 5 days! This week, in the mornings we do our devotionals and then Bruce and Paulette Buskirk are teaching us. Were going through our Freedom 2 manual. The last 3 days tie together and this is what we've talked about. Teachability, Deconstructing Defensiveness and Deconstructing Rebellion. Pretty much were learning how to posture your heart to make it receptive to being teachable. Man, is it hard to hear what defences you put up in your life and how you fight for control. It's frightening when you look at what's in your heart. Thank the Lord he is so gracious and forgiving. Teachability is basically being able to receive what God or others are telling you without instantly inwardly rejecting what they say. Check out Proverbs 15. Now it is so easy to see how other people are not teachable but you need to look at yourself. It sucks! I realize what I need to sort out to make my heart more teachable. There are 5 general forms of control: Self-Pity; Striving and Performance; Drama and Emotional; Domination; and finally Distrust. No surprise I need to learn how to stop controlling situations by Domination. It was hard being called out on the fact that I think I can do things better than they are being done, that I put on a mask and act like everything is under control or I don't let people close enough to spot my weakness. Of course there were many other things but I'm surprised I'm even this open. ahaha Clearly it has already affected how I think. I have been trying and trying to humble myself everyday. Its hard :) Anyways this is what our mornings have been like. Around lunch time were talking specifics about Cambodia such as schedule and packing lists. In the afternoons we have been organizing an outreach in the community. My group and I are running this thing called SozoFest which is a three on three basketball tournament, dance off, face painting and nail painting. We've been doing it wed, thurs and now friday. It has been going AMAZING. I absolutely love just spending time with all of the people in the community. Even more so than before I have no fear going up and talking to anyone. I got to know a few people today and be able to tell them about the Gospel. Now for the evenings. Tuesday we went to the beach!!! We went to someones place on the beach and went to a boat! I was finally able to tube this summer. We had a bonfire and just an amazing day. I felt completely finally spending a day at the water. Wednesday was prayer night and tonight I am just sitting at home watching The Office with Heather, Justin, Taylor and Rudy. Were just writing out our testimonies for Cambodia. I will update you again soon!

Happy Birthday to me!

What a good day. It been so different than any other birthday I've had. But let me go back to Thursday. So we had our Catalyst Urban Intensive(CUI) students from Portland, Oregon arrive. They are the coolest Asians I know ahah. We had class with them mostly going over the Freedom Manual with them. Friday was the same. Both those days we went to different parks for lunch which was a ton of fun, played ultimate Frisbee and climbed trees. We had worship every night. It was ridiculous, but really awesome. We had a six day week and went to school with the CUI students. One of the girls from the CUI has gotten close to me, shes 15 and her name is Chrystal. She is such a sweetheart. I'm loving all these people I've met and become close to. My friends from Taylor University had some friends visiting who were so awesome. A bunch of us went over to the guys house after worship and I spent most of the time just chatting with this guy Paul. I'm going to visit them in Kansas City I've decided. I then slept at another girls house and spent time talking with Kristin and Christin. Yesterday was our day off. I woke up at 10 and Justin and I headed over to Casey and Travis house where Erin was starting to make brunch for us. At after Justin, Carly and I hung out and watched the office until we had a BBQ at Ryan's at 4. After that we headed to church. After church we ended up having a bunch of people here to celebrate Taylor, Kevin and my birthday (their bday was yesterday). Today we started our outreaches with with CUI students. My group and I are organizing a HUGE 3 on 3 basketball tournament for wed, thurday, friday. There will also be face paint, painting nails, music and other things. Today we spent the afternoon handing out pamphlets to tell people about it. One of the CUI students Nathan, Justin and I spent 2 hours handing them out and I had so much fun! I've fallen in love. I'm serious. I love mission work. There is no part of me that holds back anymore I just strike up a conversation with whoever. I'm so excited to just spend time with people of all ages and just love on them! Iv surprised myself I spent my birthday serving others and I loved it! It started with me waking up in a great mood. When we arrived at school Brynne bought me a coffee! I love her. Then we worshiped (Andrea choose my fav songs) before breaking up into the 3 teams for the next week. It became super nice and sunny and our day was filled with getting ready for the different activities the groups are doing this week. We had our family dinner tonight and I spent most of the time walking along the train tracks with Nick then playing football with Travis, Taylor, Justin, Dan and Nick. I decided to call it an early night because last night way a SUPER last night. Steph and I are having some girl bonding time. I am sooooo thankful that we were put in this house together. Let me see, some random info. Iv spent some time dancing during worship and Iv loved it! Im reading through the book of Genesis again and also through Galatians. I leave for Cambodia in a week and need to begin my packing list I wish I could express just how overwhelmed with happiness I am right now. I'm so thankful for my amazing parents and brother. I absolutely love my life.

Fear of the Lord

I just finished painting my nails and the only safe activity seems to be typing, so here comes another entry! I'm sitting in the kitchen listening to Andrea and Brad warming up for worship set. I love their voices together! I'm loving living with Aimee and Andrea, they're absolutely hilarious. I really hope one day I'll have a friend as close as they are. Anyways as I mentioned in my video, monday was a bit different schedule wise. In the morning we split into our outreach teams and worked on the dramas as a team. Switching around some roles and learning new ones. We totally rocked it. Dan and I do this sweet lift at the end. Ill make sure we get a picture of it. Then in the afternoon we did a video conference with Danny Lehman who is living in Hawaii with YWAM. Our lesson was about how to reach different types of people when you're doing evangelistic outreaches. Finding a common ground is always the first goal and what they previously know about the Bible. He talked about 7 different evangelistic outreach styles and how each are effective. Now yesterday and today, Gerry Fry spoke to us. Now this is one amazing 70+ man. Everything he spoke I felt the need to write down. I'm barely kidding. I feel like I just need to get a recording of the last two lessons so I can listen to it again. I feel like I'm should just write all the quotes down. Day 1 we talked about Gods glory. He said that to understand Gods glory is just to know Jesus. If we pursue Jesus we will understand God better because Jesus is Gods glory on earth. To know the glory of God we need to enter into true worship. To start this we need to acknowledge who God is in every aspect of our life and how we live. Love for Jesus is the way to worship. Iv been just reading the Word so I can better understand who Jesus is and therefor who God is. Iv been discovering new ways to pray. Its mind blowing the difference of how I pray through things and what God does. God wants to reveal his glory even more than you want to see it. Imagine that. Now on to something I am still meditating on and trying to understand. The fear of the Lord. Now true fear of the Lord is NOT being afraid of him. It is to stand in awe, knowing all he can do. "Fear the Lord, you godly people, for those who fear him will have all they need" Psalm 34:9 One things I am trying to grasp is that you must fear God more than you fear man. Iv spent a ton of time thinking about that. You need to ask God for the fear of Him. I know it sounds strange but by holding nothing back and laying it all down you can ask him to reveal the awe of what he can do. He gave us about 8 verses about the fear of the Lord. If you want them I'll give them to you. Iv been really just praying, reading and asking God to reveal it to me. We spent about an hour on the Beatitudes today. I have no idea how to sum it up. One thing that hit me was when Gerry said " To be meek is not be be weak. It is strength under control" It gave me a new out look on that. One last thing I want to touch on was that offence is one of the major things that come between relationships. When a person is offended they have built up anger and they come to a place where they are limited in their ability to love. Take away this - Offence leads to Disloyalty which leads to Betrayal. There is a lot more I could write but I need some sleep. One thing Gerry said I think we all should live by "I look at the past only as a prologue to the future. I need to look at the past to make sure that I don't make the same mistakes again but then I move on further than I did before."

Video Blog!

To gain or to loose? That is the question

What a week! Lauren came down and visited me this weekend. I love her, she's the best! We had such a good girl bonding time. We hung out with people a bit, watched the final and were extremely disappointed. but mostly spent some quality time together. It made me really miss home. During the week, well Dwayne Roberts is amazing. Its hard to figure out the sequence of what I have been learning. I'm sorry if this is all scattered. Let me see, were talking about the desires God has placed in our hearts. God created the human spirit with seven longings that draw us to Him and reflect His glory in us. These longings are common in all of us. They are the longing for the assurance that we are enjoyed, the longing to be fascinated, the longing to be beautiful, the longing to be great, the longing for intimacy without shame, the longing to be wholehearted and passionate, and the longing to make a deep and lasting impact. These longings are put in your heart by God BUT the devil prays on these God given desires. The longing is not wrong it is the way that we sometimes satisfy these longings that is sinful. Think of the ways each of these perfect longings can be twisted by the devil. To play off of what I wrote last time. The way to free your heart from the domination of sin is by delighting in God. To say No and abstain from something is so you can say Yes and get a fulfilling reward. Right now I am trying to rid my life of distractions. There are times that I have been so consumed with with my own priorities and goals. I'm trying to realize that I'm not supposed to be number one. Another thing I really enjoyed hearing was that Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I loved knowing that God views me differently than I do or that man does. He actually loves me for who I am and that He doesn't care about how I can mess up sometimes. This is my verse of the week. "If you cling to your life you will loose it; but if you give up your life for me, you will find it" Matt 10:39. I honestly spent 40 minutes during worship on friday meditating on this verse over and over. I'm starting a process of writing down who God is whenever I come across a verse. Just to understand more. I'm also starting to write down who I am. I'm trying to define myself as God sees me. Its pretty cool. If you look at Judges 6:12 God called Gideon a mighty warrior but at that time he was hiding away, clearing not being a mighty warrior. But He said what Gideon would become in the future and that is how he addressed him. I'll share 2 of the things I have discovered about myself. One I am a magnet of people, no surprise there, God has shown me how He will continue to use that in my future. Another on is that I have a heart of a lioness. A lioness is bold, a warrior(hunter) and has a loving heart. She will do anything to protect those she cares about, like a mother protecting her pride(that's what lions travel in right?). I'm not sure what this is for my future but I'm pretty excited . Id love to write more but Steph and I watched Remember Me and now I'm so tired. I do not recommend it by the way. Horrible ending, too many injustices. Over and Out

Love

I have been completely blown away these last two days. I don't even know how to sum it up. Dwayne and Jennifer Roberts are on the leadership team at the International House Of Prayer in Kansas City which they helped start. Jennifer has been talking to us the last two days and Dwayne starts tomorrow. They're talking about the Song of Solomon. She is blowing my mind. She talked about how important the 1st commandment is. To love God above all else. We need to desire to have a close relationship with God more than anything else. He does not disappoint, while the people of the earth always do. We talked about the Bridal Parody and that we are as precious to God as a bride to a groom. As much as we should desire God, He desires each of us. We need to be in desperate love for God because there is a part of our heart that only God can meet and it is not fair for us to put that expectation on worldly relationships. There are times where it is harder and it is because God likes to hide himself because he loves to be found. The joy is in the discovery. Lots of times people read Songs and get so distracted by the imagery used. They are only used to express Gods amazing love over us. When its says "Kiss me again, for your love is sweeter than wine" it is a metaphor for the words coming from his mouth that are sweet encouragement to our ears. God is all knowing, He already knows our weaknesses and mistakes and yet He loves us anyways. Why would you not want to love him right back? Jennifer said that by faith and the grace of God you can have an amazing lasting marriage that is like this. Today she talked more about how pleased God is with who you are. As long as you have a heart that is yearning to do his will, no matter if you mess up he is delighted in what he sees. He know you and still love you! There are going to be major bumps but as long as we don't give up God is so proud. Sometimes success is just not quitting. Today we were praying and I knew God was really please with my obedience in him and that he loved me. I was so pleased that God loved me for who I was. And then God flipped my way of thinking. It took someone coming up and saying something to make me realize that God doesn't love me because I obey him. He loves me so much because I have accepted him into my life and because of this I want to obey him. He loves me even if I don't love him back. If I could take away one thing from these two days it is this. God loved me first and I want to love someone who loves me even my weakest points when I'm not obeying him. So this has been the last two mornings. Monday afternoon we headed into Seattle because we had tickets for the Mariners game that evening. We walked around Pike Place Market, Carly and I spent time together talking and I loved it. Sadly we lost the game but it was my first baseball game and I had a great time. This afternoon we presented our projects about Cambodia. I learned so much and can't believe we leave in 3 weeks!

Fourth of July!

What a day! These Americans go all out :) First let me talk about the last few days. On friday we split into guys and girls and went to different homes for our "class". As girls we had Jenna speak to us about body image and self destruction. Shame was the main topic we were talking about. Its amazing how much shame we carry with us. We broke down into groups of 3 or so to pray though things with each other. I think it was the first day every single girl cried but God did some awesome healing in peoples lives. Friday afternoon is recreational time so we all went to a and it was soooo great! I was kind of dancing in the back just totally absorbed in how awesome God is despite all the challenges in life. Then everyone came over to our house for an impromptu hangout session. Aimee, Justin, Taylor and I stayed up super late watching The Office. On saturday the priorities I had in my life were totally rearranged. I really have no idea what I'm doing in the fall anymore. Its been a little difficult but God is already revealing some awesome things and learning to trust in Him. Saturday I hung out with Aimee, Andrea and Tony and went shopping. Saturday night we had a surprise birthday party for our friends Brynne and Steve at our house. Clearly it is party central :D Now today was awesome! The 4th of July is crazy here. We started with a BBQ at noon till 4. At someones huge house and backyard. We had a badminton tournament and Jenae and I won the first round but were eliminated in round two. We ate, hung out and had a great time. We then headed to a field behind a school where we set up an outdoor stage area and held worship for church out there. It was such a great time. Taylor, Justin, Travis and Casey are a band and they played. They were great. This happened between 5 and 7 then we headed to another house to light off fireworks. I cant believe how many fireworks there were! They were gorgeous but I'm surprised no one blew up their hands. Happy American Independence Day.

Canada Day!

I was up in Canada for 4 days and I loved seeing my family but I am soooo happy to be back into my Tacoma routine. I loved my graduation and seeing everyone. While I was away they finished the Freedom Manual. I have the recordings from the days I missed and I am uploading them to my computer as I write this. We have started a different freedom book and I need to listen to the recordings and look at the book. Today is CANADA DAY! so Carly,Dan and I (my fellow Canadians) rocked out in red and white with face paint and mini flags. We got some major hating on Canada and it was great ahaha This afternoon we worked on projects we have about Cambodia. My group is doing a project on Culture and Arts. We're doing a skit which should be a lot of fun. Also this afternoon we got...drum roll please.....our outreach teams! Our group of 28 students plus leaders are splitting into 3 groups while in Cambodia. For the first week we will be separated and then we will be doing things all together but on a whole we stick with our team. Ryan and Jenae are my leaders and my team members are great! We're also attempting to learn some of the language, because it will be A LOT easier to communicate if we can speak the language, which is Khmer. We leave for Cambodia at the end of this month!!!!!

Buzy Little Bee

I am currently on a train on my way home for the weekend. Wow the view is gorgeous! What a week it has been. It has absolutely flown by! I’m trying to remember everything that I have done over the last week. Aimee has had a friend staying at our house for the last week. Hannah is the best! I’m going to miss her when she leaves. This week we have finished going through our freedom manual. 3 days this week we had worship in the morning and I love it! We talked about injustices and how what people say to us and what we say to others really effect each other. One thing I loved that Adam said this week was when he was talking about the power of words and that we either curse(say something mean to) or bless(say something nice to) someone and that we need to understand our authority in what we say. We then had to write out ways in which we had been cursed by others, the ways we have cursed ourselves and they way we have cursed others. We learned that you are most destructive on yourself. One big thing we worked on this week was generational sin. We talked about how we can stop the destructive generational patterns and learned how to break through them. We looked at how generational patterns can go back 4 generations. Evan in the bible Abraham, who was one of the most godly, influential man in the bible, started patterns of lying, favouring children and breaking family relationships which were passed on to his children. His son Isaac then followed these same patterns which caused a lot of destruction within their family. And then he passed it on to his son Jacob and so on and so on. We began to identify bondages within our own families. Some afternoons we’ve gone out into the community and did some outreaches, such as praying over people. As for our evening we have been mostly spending a ton of time together. Monday we had our family dinner, so we all ate at one house. Tuesday I just hung out at my house and spent time alone for the first time. Wednesday we had a church prayer night, I watched the children who were under 3 years old with two other Catalyst students Lauren and Justin. The kids were so cute and we had a good time. After we all went out to this place for ice cream. Last night I played ultimate Frisbee for a bit then decided to come home and Skype mom for her birthday. Then out of nowhere about 20 people showed up at our place and we had a fire in the backyard. I already miss being down there and I haven’t even arrived back in Canada yet. Oh! The reason I am coming up this weekend is a wedding on Saturday, bridal shower Sunday, and my graduation on Tuesday. I really hope I make it back in time for classes on Wednesday.

One Week Down Eleven To Go

I am so sore! At least I have been staying in shape. Friday night we played this amazing game called Broomball. It is the same concept as hockey. It is played on ice but you wear shoes instead of skates, have broom-like-sticks instead of a hockey stick and have a ball instead of a puck... In other words it is awesome. I am always made fun of for being Canadian but after Broomball I have total respect with Canadian hockey pride because I rocked at it. :D Then yesterday we played Ultimate Frisbee. So of course I went all out and am now feeling the pain. Our group has been amazing at bonding and it feels like we have known each other for longer than a week. These activities have really brought us together, along with what we have been sharing in class. Let me see, in the last few days we touched on a bunch of things. We talked about how in our society personal happiness has become the most important thing and the way we believe is relying too much on personal feeling. We do or don't do things just because we wont "feel happy". Chris, who was speaking, said that as Christians we are not here for our own feelings. Luke 9:23 says -Then he said to them all: "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me."- The journey is going to be rough if we actually do deny ourselves for others. One thing I am realizing and am trying to act out is 'You will act how you think' and 'You become who you say you are' It is amazing how much we hold on to in our lives. We talked about how the archenemies of restoration is passivity. Passivity is really just laziness or the lack of desire to do something. We should be living in a form of initiation. Its late, I'm getting tired now. Lastly Jordan came down Saturday evening and we played ultimate with everyone then we went for a walk and out for dessert. Today we went to Seattle and went shopping and just spent the day together. He left after church service which was at 6pm. I watched some kids after service and I think I will be doing it every Sunday and Wednesdays:) Church service was amazing. I love this church. I can not believe that I have only been here a week! Oh and Happy Fathers Day Daddy!

Life in Tacoma

It is so nice to sit on the couch with a cup of tea and my laptop. We are keeping busy. Every day we being class time at 8:30 and go till 12:30 when we have an hour lunch break. In the afternoons we either stay in the class room(like we did yesterday) or go out into the community like we did today. I don't know if I stated this before but the main 3 points of Catalyst school is Prayer. Restoration. Mission. and each day we touch on all 3 of those. We start off the morning with personal devotions, right now we are reading from the book of John. Adam, who is in charge of the whole program (awesome guy) talked about understanding who God is and how to obtain the truth. I am really enjoying the restoration portion. We are using the Freedom Class Manual as a text book. Here is a line from the book. "It is important that we understand that we have been created which a great purpose. Our personalities and abilities have been uniquely developed by God" I wish I could spend hours talking about all the things were learning. I don't know how I am going to retain all the information. Now for Missions. It is WAY more practical than I thought it would be. Not only are learning about what we will do in Cambodia but most of it is how to apply it in your community. Today we learned about how to understand the city and culture of a community and what you can do. Obviously a lot more than just that but that is the gist.In the afternoon today we looked at the "hillside" of Tacoma where a lot of gangs live and instead of looking at the needs of the city we were told to look for the assets. So we talked about the hospital, the rec center, the church, the water tank and so on. It was an eye opener that's for sure. I loved learning how to apply mission work to a north American community instead of a third world country. We are also beginning to work on 1 of the 5 dramas we need to learn for Cambodia. Were doing Everything by Lifehouse. I'm the main female role in my group. Tonight I have a worship/prayer time from 7-9 then were having a birthday party for my roommate Steph and everyone is coming over. Happy Birthday Steph! Sorry this was such a long post, I just want to share everything :)

And so it begins.

I'm am so pumped right now. Today is the second day here but first let me tell you about yesterday. My parents and Jordan dropped me off around 3 and stayed for an hour or so. Thanks God we had no problems at the border. Andrea and Aimee are the ladies who have opened their home to 3 of us Catalyst students for the summer. They are both so much fun. I am extremely happy with my housing. I share the basement with Steph and Christine. Christine and I share a room which is a pretty good size and I am learning how to handle a roommate. Steph is amazing and we share a similar humour. Yesterday was a little hard. I was thinking I'm never going to do this again. It was just the realization of being away that made me a little upset. But then we went to the City Central Church service which is Sunday nights at 6pm. I LOVE it. I was afraid I would miss my church a lot, which I do, but this church is also so loving and I already feel a part of it. The Catalyst students and staff hung out at someones house and had a barbecue after. Today we started school at 8:30am. It was different than our regular routine will be because we did a lot of introductions and explanations and really just connecting to each other and God. We talked about Cambodia and what our time there will look like. I feel way more calmed about it than I did before. If today is an indication of how these 3 months will be....Bring It On!.

Getting Ready To Leave

Today is my last day to pack for my trip because tomorrow I am going on a 16hour road trip and getting home just in time to sleep before starting my trip on Sunday. I cannot wait to meet the people I am staying with. I will keep this post short until I have more interesting things to say. Tacoma here I come!