Old Testament Film and Class: Week 10

We had Don Taylor fly out from Briercrest to teach our students about the Old Testament last week. Don has been a long time professor with Kaleo. In fact, he has taught classes every year since Kaleo began. Not only did the students complete their Old Testament class, but they produced a 10/10 Old Testament film. It even had Jesse (our assistant Kaleo program leader) crying laughing.

Old Testament Class

This class was very eye-opening for many of the students. When reflecting on the Old Testament class, Ari, one of our students said, "It was so different back then, and learning about how the society worked in those days really gave clarity on what the Bible was talking about, and it just reaffirmed to me that God doesn’t change."

Emma, another student, stated "One of my favourite things from the Old Testament class was developing a deeper understanding of how the Old and New Testament work together as one continuous story."

Personality Test 

Don Taylor also led the class through the Myers Briggs test. This is a test that reveals your personality type. After each student found out their results, they all lined up and stood in a spot that reflected their percentage of where they fell in each category. The categories are extroverted - introverted, intuitive - observant, thinking - feeling, judging - prospecting, assertive - turbulent. 

We got to see the vast differences between students, and this also allowed them to better understand one another. Many felt they understood themselves much more as well.

The Film

As the class continued, students were just putting together the finishing touches on the Old Testament film. Before we knew it, Don had completed his last lesson and the film was complete. A few of the students organized a film premier topped with snacks, awards, and fun games. Everyone dressed up in their best clothes and we sat down to watch the film.

Don Taylor actually appeared in the film as someone flipping through T.V. shows and commercials. Each T.V. show was a scene made by the students in very creative ways. The beginning of their scenes started off with an INCREDIBLE musical. They also included soap operas, anime, weather forecasting, sports broadcasting, hallmark spin-offs, and many, many more creative scenes. I could go on, but you'll have to see it for yourself.

The hype crew for the David and Goliath battle.

Pharaoh all dressed up for an interview

Gotta get that lighting 

This was "Olive" the sacrificial sheep

*No animals were harmed in the making of this film*

Dora and Boots as Moses and Aaron.

More of the hype behind the David and Goliath scene

As creative and funny as this was, it was also so amazing that the students were able to actually capture the heart of the biblical stories within a lot of these scenes. We have said numerous times, but we are so proud of how the students led each other through this project. This can turn into an intense project but, the students listened to each other, took initiative, and came out of this united rather than divided. They represented what a church body looks like. A special shout out goes to the directors of the film; Kaylee, Olivia, David, and Nolan. They set the culture of the work environment and made it such a fun and learning experience for everybody else. 

Here is the link to the Old Testament film: The Adventures of the Old Testament- Kaleo 2021

Prayer Requests:

- For Camp and Kaleo to make wise decisions as to how to keep this community safe regarding all the new COVID updates. As well for the health and safety of both our staff and students

- Thank God for the way he brought together the students during the Old Testament filming

- For students to have discernment over God's voice in their lives as well as obedience in this

Caving: Week 9

    This past week we took a day trip to Coombs and the Horne Lake Caves.

    We went in two separate groups. The first group headed straight for the caves, took their tour and then went to Coombs on the way back. The second group went to Coombs first, explored the area and the shops, and then went to the caves afterwards.

The Caves

    To begin the tour, the guide lead us on a little hike to the caves, giving some history of the area on the way and explaining a bit about how the caves were discovered, the size of the caves, etc.

    There were two different caves we got to explore on the tour, each of them were super unique and locked with a metal gate. We got to see many different types of calcite formations, stalagmites, some large open spaces in the cave and some tight squeezes. There were lots and lots of daddy long legs and cave crickets (which are like normal crickets just much bigger). We also got to see how quartz, when rubbed against more quartz, lights up, almost like it's sparking. Lots of cool stuff.

Coombs

    Coombs is a little tourist town on the way to Horne Lake. There is the famous Goats on the Roof (a novelty shop that literally has goats on the roof (usually)), Billy G's Donuts, an ice-cream shop, a board shop, a little pottery store, etc. It was a great spot to stop on a trip like this and putz around, maybe grab a Christmas gift for the family back home, who knows?

    This trip was a really nice break for the students from homework and filming for the Old Testament video.

Old Testament Filming

    Speaking of the Old testament video, the students have continued to be hard at work creating their video for their Old Testament class. It has been so much fun watching them film and interact as well as contributing to a few scenes. The filming has been mostly completed now and the students have moved to the editing phase.

Remembrance Day

    On remembrance day one of the students, Janae Deurksen, lead a remembrance day service. She talked about the history of remembrance day and the significance of it. We sang some songs and ended the service with a time of silence.

Prayer Items

- Class this upcoming week: Old Testament with Don Taylor

- The absolutely massive Covid Outbreak here at Qwanoes. No one is safe, the virus will get us all...

Love Crofton: Week 8

Chapel

To start off our week, Colburn (Our Male Student Life Assistant) gave a chapel on Service. It was great being reminded of our purpose in serving others to glorify God and build his kingdom. This led us into our next three days of serving Crofton.

Love Crofton

Every year around this time, the community around camp starts to get excited for Love Crofton. This is a three-day event run and organized by the Kaleo Students partnered with Warmland Church. This year, students helped around the town of Crofton by doing any outdoor work needed. This involved anything you could think of from raking leaves, cleaning gutters, to chopping wood and taking out blackberry bushes. Not only did the students get to provide service, but also a listening ear. This opportunity is incredible for Kaleo students to form relationships with their neighbours in Crofton. It was impactful for both students and the community.

There was some great feedback from our local Crofton Facebook page. One person posted, "A big shoutout to Thomas and Olivia who are students at Camp Qwanoes. They came despite the rain and worked all day to help me with my winter clean up. They managed to do the entire yard. They even rebuilt my Inukshuk. Thank you so much" 

Another had said, "Thanks to the young man & young lady from Camp Qwanoes for cleaning out our Eve's troughs in the rain today. Unfortunately, I didn't get their names. We appreciate the love shown to Crofton from the camp & Warmland Church. God bless you throughout your lives, young people. May you shine for our Lord."

Many students loved serving so much that they are planning to go back throughout the year to some of the houses they volunteered at and finish up some more work for them and getting to know them better.

(a little relaxing after a long day of work)

Testimony Time

After Love Crofton, students got to hear each of the leader's testimonies. We set out a time for this so that not only do we get to know the students, but they also get to understand who we are and how God has worked in our lives. It was really beautiful as each leader got to be prayed for by a student. 

Old Testament Filming

During the weekend, students have officially started their Old Testament filming. We'll leave the theme a surprise until it's finished, but so far it's looking really good! It's become a common occurrence to see students dressed up in crazy costumes as you walk through the hallways now. They've only just begun, but we are very proud of the way they are striving to lead this in a way that will glorify God and unite the community together. 

Prayer Requests:

- For continued relationship building within the community of Crofton

- For students to be able to organize their time well between filming, homework, and class

- For the group to be united rather than divided during this time of filming together

Prayer and Leadership Week (Week 7)

Prayer and Leadership Week

    This past week was prayer and leadership week. We had a prayer room set aside that students would sign up to spend hour long "shifts" in to spend time with God. They each signed up for four 1 hour time slots (roughly one a day). Many students found this time really refreshing and challenging. We had chapels on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday morning focusing on hearing from God and embracing his guidance. In addition to this we had several leadership workshops led by some of the staff and leadership team.

    One of the workshops was about balance in leadership. Why and how to manage what fills you up and what drains you, so to speak. To demonstrate this visually, Korey brought a bucket covered in holes that were sealed with duct tape, he then had the students fill a the bucket as fast as they could with ocean water using only four cups. Then he had them do that again but he would slowly start removing the pieces of duct tape so that the water would begin to drain faster and faster, making it harder to fill the bucket. He then allowed a certain amount people to try to cover the holes. This was a visual representation of what can happen when we bite off more than we can chew and get burnt out. We need to find what fills us and drains us so that we can have a healthy balance of both.

    Harvest Party

    

    On October 31st, we had a mega Harvest Party! Everyone came dressed up in creative costumes (the girls all came as old ladies), we had a pumpkin carving contest, snacks, candy and punch, and watched a movie. 

   For the pumpkin carving contest, the students were separated into teams (their rooms) and had to carve a pumpkin and give it a backstory. Then each team presented their pumpkin (accompanied with music or sound effects upon request), and at the end we judged to determine the ultimate, mega, best pumpkin! Room 209 (David, Nolan, and Luke) was the winner. 

 

 

    Afterwards we had the students vote: movie, or karaoke/air-band. Everyone was ready to chill at this point and the resounding consensus was: It's movie time!

Thus completed week seven of the Kaleo program, 2020/2021.

Ways Get Involved

Prayer Items:

- Love Crofton: Safety, Good Weather, that God would be glorified.

- Health and safety: Covid-19 wouldn't reach camp.

- Friendships would continue to flourish.

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