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!