Wednesday, January 23, 2013

Adventures on Mount Washington!!

Hello everyone!

It's now been nearly two weeks since we've last checked in, but that was because we have just had one of our most exciting and eventful weeks of the year. There is no doubt that any of you with loved ones in the program have heard stories of our trip to Mount Washington! We have just spent the majority of last week snowboarding, snowshoeing, and genuinely enjoying ski resort life!

We left early in the morning (around 5!) on Monday and headed our way up to the mountain. We were lucky enough to be able to get there reasonably around 9 in the morning and spend out first day either learning or reacquainting ourselves with skiing and snowboarding. Most of us rented equipment and were lucky enough to receive lessons with our package. Mount Washington is the biggest ski resort on Vancouver Island, it is well known for having one of the largest snow bases for resorts in the world. Conditions are usually very favorable and the powder is kept amazingly groomed. We were so lucky to have this within driving distance to us.






We also had some amazing accommodations. We rented a chateau situated directly at the bottom of the ski hills. You could literally make your way down the bunny hills and side-track to where we were staying. The chateau had a number of bedrooms, common areas and hot tubs which were all used regularly as most of us were pretty sore in the evenings and needed some down time. We also were lucky to have incredible food all weekend (steak anyone?) I'm not sure if these pictures can quite capture how nice the area was, but we all felt so blessed to be able to stay and enjoy the amenities.




Wednesday brought another fun adventure, as we were able to go snowshoeing for the afternoon. We took a chairlift up the mountain and all walked together (with our guides) to an awesome out-of-bounds area. It was here that our guides taught us a bit of survival techniques such as how to build a snowcave, how to use a compass, and how to see where avalanches might happen. I think we all enjoyed just how much fun this was. At one point we separated into groups and used our compass to find our way down the mountain. I know it was my first time snowshoeing and this was definitely a highlight of the week. We really enjoyed our guides as well, and you'll see in the pictures below we decided to build a little homage to them.






Nights also brought some really special times as we had the opportunity to get to spend some amazing bonding time together. Some nights were spent encouraging each other, and some were spent talking about what God is doing. I can truly say that one of the hugest benefits of this trip is how close it makes us as a group. We can truly see the bonding and closeness being magnified after this trip. I think we definitely grew together with the quality time we were able to spend.

You'll notice there's not a lot of pictures of our skiing and snowboarding action so far, and that is because we were able to have some of our incredibly gifted students take a video of that! Special thanks goes to Matt who edited this video and took most of the shots!



We arrived home on Friday night, some with more bumps and bruises than others! After a couple of days recuperating, we are now on our way to Vancouver for Missionsfest. I will give you a full report on what that is when we return. But we are on our way tomorrow for yet another adventure! Things really don't slow down here!

Please continue to pray for us! We are so grateful for all of you!

Derek

Thursday, January 10, 2013

Happy 2013!

Hey Everyone! Happy New Year! We trust you all had a great time over the holiday season and that those of you who had loved ones return home enjoyed every second with them!

Returning to the camp seemed very similar to when we left, there's still no snow on the ground and the weather actually seems nicer now than in December. We are currently sitting at 5 degrees and it's sunny. This is why we love the West Coast life!

The students hit the ground running upon getting back. They are currently taking a Pauline Epistles class with Prof. Carl Hinderager. We have seen the holiday rest attitudes go away and a strong academic work ethic take over. There are scenes like this all over Pacific Woods lodge right now!






One of the assignments for this class included memorizing an entire book of Scripture. It has been amazing to see the students take this project on with excitement and work hard at it. It's not an abnormal thing to see students walking around talking to themselves in memorization. It's also been great to see how hard the students have been pushed to know their Bibles in this class, every day includes a quiz that expects them to know what book and chapter a certain passage is found in. I know that while the moment may seem like rigor to many of the students, they will be richly rewarded through Paul's Epistles.

It's also been the season where we are really kicking our missions trips into full gear! The teams have been formed and we are weeks away from embarking to either Mexico or Vancouver-East Side. Many of the students have been figuring out what they can specifically bring to the trips. I can say from personal experience that the trips are one of the most important parts of the year as they stretch you out of your comfort zones in ways unimaginable. These are not going to be vacations, and we are excited to see how the students will push themselves and really learn things about themselves and ministry in the process.

It's with this in mind that I would like to present an opportunity to all of you. Many students have been fundraising for this trip and it's been really encouraging to see many people partner with the trips in either financial or prayer support. We would like to ask all of you to be praying for these trips already! If anyone does want to support the trips financially as well, either connect with your loved one in the program or contact us directly! All the funds will be going to the students fundraising efforts, and anything extra will be given as a donation to the organizations we are going to be working with.

I think it is time to end here, the next couple weeks will be crazy! Next week we are going to Mt. Washington for our yearly ski/snowboard trip, so you can all be praying for that! We leave bright and early on Monday morning!

Until Next Time,

Derek