Week 21: Perspective in Missions

After arriving back from trips to Vancouver and Mount Washington the students are back in class with Gord Nickerson learning about the Perspectives in Mission. 

With the Missions Fest conference fresh in our minds and the missions trips approaching rapidly, the students had many questions and ideas about missions already forming even before the class started. 

This class focused heavily on why we do Global missions, focusing on Jesus' call in Matthew 28:19 to "Go and Make disciples of all the nations." There was plenty of good conversation regarding what this call looks like in the context of the coming missions trips, the youth groups that the students serve in.

Each day the students had the opportunity to skype with a different missionary each day from different places in the world. They were given the opportunity to hear about some of the ministries that the missionaries were involved in and what life is like where they are living.

Students were able to get an idea of what kinds of things missionaries are up to around the world today, and how the Gospel is impacting lives globally.

The students are thankful for the timing of this class as they get ready to leave for their missions trips very soon, as this class got them in a missions mindset preparing them to be sent out.


 Continue to Pray

For the students as they prepare to go on their missions trips, that they would be open to the ways in which God wants to use them in each other's lives on the trip, as well as in the lives of the people that they come into contact with.

That students would continue to press into how God wants them to grow closer in community and in relationship with Him.

Week 19 & 20: Missions Fest and Mnt Washington

The last couple weeks we have been busy! We went over to the mainland to attended Missions Fest and spend some time in Vancouver from January 17 - 20. The thursday we got up early and made our way over to Vancouver to go tandum biking.

We spent sometime in vancouver and went shopping. Then the rest of the weekend we spent attending missions fes and going around looking at different missions booths, attending semeniars and general sessions, and connecting with missionaries and each other.

We got back from Missions fest on sunday and got packed up to leave for Mount Washington monday morning. We took a stop to go snow shoeing on our way to the ski chalet. We had beautiful weather all week at the mountain and everyone loved the time spent outside in the snow! 

Up Next: This week the students are in Missions Class. The week after they are preparing for their missions trips and a youth night that they are putting on here at the camp.

How to Pray: You can be praying that they are feeling prepared for their trips, that there is teamwork amongst the two teams and that the students are going in prayfully. 

Week 18: Introduction to Theology

This week the students took part in their first class of the semester - Introduction to Thoelogy.
This gave them the ability to think through some thoelogical concepts and for some it helped solidify their foundation.

The students had a really busy week. During the evenings they had small group and were doing a lot of research for their debates which took place on friday morning. Friday afternoon they had their exam.








This past weekend all the Qwanoes staff were gone on a retreat, while the staff were gone two couples came to hang out with the students. All the students had a good time over the weekend. They have had a few different papers due over the last few days and everyone has been working hard to get them done.




Up Next:

We are all off to missions fest in Vancouver on thursday for the weekend. We come back sunday afternoon and then monday morning we are going skiing at Mnt. Washington. Everyone is getting excited to be done school work for a bit and to spend some time in the ski lodge and on the hill.

To Pray:

You can be praying for the students as they are at missions fest that the seminiars would be good for them as they are thinking about different mission opportunities. That they would be challenged and encouraged in their faith and that what they hear would sink in.

You can also be praying for safety as we go skiing next week. That everyone would stay healthy.

There and Back Again: Christmas Break

We are back in the full swing of things, this time in a whole new semester. Our students have all safely returned from their Christmas breaks and are jumping straight into the second half of their Kaléo lives.

We finished the semester with a mug gift exchange. there was a variety of mugs that appeared, from practically sized, to enormous, to absolutely goofy. We ended our time together giving each other quick encouragements, or pointing out different things in each other that we admired. The following morning everyone was shipped off to airports and ferries where they made their way home for the holidays.

Despite lots of flight delays and unpredictable Canadian winter weather, everyone made their way back to Camp Qwanoes.

Upon arrival, the students reunited after their longest time apart since they have known each other. Although, this season of reuniting was short some of the students were able to get out on a short hike, while others shared good coffee, while the Introduction to Christian Theology class was around the corner starting up only a few days after the students arrival.

So after a short time of sharing stories of their individual Christmas breaks, the second semester of Kaléo 2019 has officially begun.

Continue to Pray

That the students settle back into the grove of Kaléo life and everything that entails.

That students remain diligent with their studies as the semester kicks into gear.

Students would press into each other as they continue to grow together.

That God would continue to reveal himself to the students as they press into the next three and a half months before graduation.

Week 13: Foundations of Church Ministry

This week the students had their final class of the semester - Foundation of Church Ministry. This class gave the students the ability to think through the practical things about the Church in a way that lead them to have a better understanding about why the church exists and what it is for.



Between class time and small groups students had a lot of time to ask questions and discuss different elements of the church throughout the week. The students found this week really benefical as many of them contemplate whether Church Ministry is what they would like to pursue in their futures.








This week we continued to prepare for Christmas! We had a staff and student Christmas banquet (first photo) where the students enjoyed a Christmas meal with the staff and their families.

Up Next:

Next week the students are finishing up assignments, writing papers, preparing for a talent show, and we will be doing our very own mug exchange.

How to Pray:

You can pray that the students would be diligent in getting their work done.

That they would be able to remember and be thankful for what the Lord has done in their lives throughout this semester.

That they would enjoy the last few days together before the break.

Week 12: Christmas Festivities

After a couple weeks of hard work, the students were all ready for a change of pace before the next class came around. So over the past week, they had a variety of Christmas festivities that they took part in.

On Tuesday morning we loaded up the vans and took all the students to Victoria for the day.

Everyone broke off and went separate directions, some eager to get some Christmas shopping done, some headed to the climbing gym, some went to take photos, and others on the hunt for the best place to get a cup of coffee. It was an absolutely beautiful day to hang out downtown and get away from school work for a while.

On Thursday we had a big day, we started off by setting out on a quest to find a Christmas tree.
With a permit in hand, we found a logging road in the middle of nowhere. We parked and set off in search of the perfect tree.

We searched high an low for the tree that we thought would work the best. We thought that the best way to search was to break off into several groups and decide on one tree as a group, then present what was best about their tree to the rest of the group.

After looking over the selected trees we found one that especially stood out.

So we cut down the tree, took some pictures and made our way back camp to set it up and decorate it.

We spent the rest of the afternoon baking cookies, drinking coffee, making tree ornaments, decorating and playing games.

When we thought we could not fit get any more Christmas into the day we all loaded on a bus and went down the road to Ladysmith. For a Christmas parade called Ladysmith Lightup, an iconic Vancouver Island event. We enjoyed the lights of the floats moving past us and the parade with a spectacular firework show to finish.

The week turned out to be very refreshing for the students. It gave them an opportunity to get ahead on some homework, and also get out and have some fun before the next class and final push before the Christmas break. 

Continue to pray 

That the students will stay diligent with their work with Christmas break around the corner.

That the students would continue to apply what they are learning to their personal spiritual lives.

As the students return home, that they would be able to recognize the ways in which they have grown personally and that this would drive them to push hard into the second semester.

That the students would continue to grow closer in community and building each other up.

Week 11: Love Crofton

This last week the students took part in Love Crofton. Love Crofton is an event where all the students would take part in helping out the community.

There was a group of four students who were placed in leadership over the project and they had organized a day to make, cut out, and deliver flyers throughout the town. Warmland Community Church is partnered with Love Crofton and has a contact person who the residents would call in their jobs. The student team would then follow up to organize the three-day event.

The week was a great success and the students thoroughly enjoyed serving and learned lots about themselves and the people of Crofton. They helped lots of elderly men and women who were no longer able to do some of the work by themselves. Some of the students had a hard time having a positive mentality during the first day, but as the day went on everyone would say that they were able to really enjoy helping the people out.

 Throughout the week the students did a variety of different jobs: raking leaves, cleaning gutters, landscaping, pressure washing, cleaning out a garage, taking stuff to the dump, gardening, and anything else people could think of to ask for help in.

The people felt very blessed and really enjoyed getting to know the students. They would almost always ask the students to come in for tea and coffee to have a chance to know them. The students heard so many interesting stories from many different backgrounds. One of the women invited them for lunch. She had somewhat recently lost her husband and said that just them going over for lunch gave her so much life, they were thankful to get to spend time with her.

A man they had helped had trails in his back yard and they were all named, they learned that one was named after his granddaughter who had passed away and he opened up and talked to them about some of the things that meant the most to him.

As the week ended we started to  hear some really encourgaging feedback from Crofton. It was encouraging to have a very practical way to serve people like Jesus.

These are some of the notes we have received:

"Im just dropping a note to you to say how very pleased I was with the crew that came to spruce up my yard! Sam, Jacob, Anna, and Ashley were the frist to arrive and did an amzing job, never letting up! A few others, including Devon came by and finished off a few things as well. I have them a big thank you and explained how grateful I am for all they got accomplished and wanted to follow up with a written word. I learned long ago that if something is important, write it down; saying thank you is important!"

"A huge thanks to the three young people from Camp Qwanoes that came and raked my leaves today! Still smiling in the rain.. bless you."

"I just had five delightful young men from Camp Qwanoes raking my leaves. Thank you so much! You brightened up my day"

 Up Next:

The students have papers due, books to read, and work to start getting ready for their next class. This week is also Christmas preperation. We will be getting a christmas tree, doing some festive events, going to a Christmas light up in lady smith.

Continue Praying: 

You can be praying that the students will continue to be diligent getting their work done as it is easy to become narrow minded and find it hard to focus as the Christmas break is very close.