Pauline Epistles, Hammock Sleepover, Camp and Youth Ministry, Kayaking, and Grad! (Week 22, 23, 24, & 25)

Welcome to the final blog post of the year! We have had so much happen in the last month. Lets take a look at all that happened:

Pauline Epistles 

The week after our French Beach trip the students were back in class with Brian Westnedge. They were learning all about Paul, his letters, the context of who he was writing to, and how it applies to us today. Brian challenged lots of the students with his teaching and there was a lot of growth throughout the week. We also had three student birthdays during the week, so to celebrate, we all went to WhiteSpot for supper. It was so fun and a great community event. On Thursday evening, Brian also took some students out for a seafood dinner in Maple Bay. It was a unique opportunity to get to know him on a personal level. That night there were also small groups. The girls went and did a hike to Stoney Hill and got gelato while the guys stayed back at camp. The final exam for the class was Friday afternoon. 

After the class week was over, there was a retreat for youth groups from all over Vancouver Island here at camp. The students got to serve together counselling, doing dishes, activity support, and working in the kitchen. They did a great job!

Hammock Sleepover and Juniors Retreat

The following week the students had time to do homework. They worked on papers for Brian's class and prepared for their next class with Sid Koop. 

On Tuesday we had our hammock sleepover. We set up our camp spot on the edge of camp property in the afternoon. Then after supper we went on a short hike to "The Point"- a cool lookout down the coast from camp. While we were there we saw a pod of orcas breaching just out from where we were standing! It was so cool. After returning from the hike we had a beach fire with s'mores and then called it a night. It was a really fun evening hanging out as a class.

On Thursday we had our final small groups of the year! The guys washed each others feet and shared communion. The girls made each other bracelets and prayed for each other. It was a bittersweet end to times we had been sharing together all year. 

Friday evening the Juniors Retreat started. The students were helping out with this retreat as well. They counselled, worked in the kitchen and on dish, and helped run activities. They did a great job again this weekend too!

Camp and Youth Ministry

Following the Juniors Retreat the students had the second half of their class with Sid. He was here on Monday and Tuesday to wrap up their year-long course. They learned, presented group projects they had been working on, and had their final exam. This was the students' last class of the year, so after its end, there was definitely a sense of joy among the students. They had come so far and learned so much just in the academics alone!

The next two days were used to finish up the last of the homework they had from Sid and Brian and prepare for the upcoming kayak trip. Thursday we trained all of the students in kayaking safety and had a big packing party to get all of the group equipment and food ready! 

Kayaking (and Boating) Trip

Early Friday morning we started our trip. We loaded up the kayaks and began our trip to Wallace Island where we would be camping. We reached our first crossing and regrouped to begin paddling toward Salt Spring Island. We began to paddle across toward Salt Spring. After 20 minutes of tough paddling with crazy wind we decided to turn around and head back to camp. It would have been too hard to make the whole trip to Wallace Island in those conditions. On our way back one of our kayaks flipped over. However, immediately a man with his boat showed up and rescued the two students. He took them straight back to camp so they could warm up and get dry. He was a gift from God and was proof God was with us and being faithful to us. The rest of our group got back to camp shortly afterwards.

After regrouping and coming up with a new plan, we decided to ferry over to Wallace Island by speedboat. So in the afternoon we got boated over to Wallace Island. We set up camp and had pizza for dinner that night! In the evenings while we were camping we had a group sharing/reflection time looking back at all that had happened during the year and all God had done. We went to bed that night exhausted after a crazy day.

Saturday was a day of relaxing, playing games, and spending time with each other at our campsite. People played spike ball, card games, board games, and we had a group game of manhunt (glorified hide and seek) in the afternoon. It was a ton of fun and a good day spent enjoying God's creation. In the evening we had dessert and more group sharing.

On Sunday we went for a hike to Chivers Point, the north end of Wallace Island. It is a nice walk with a beautiful view and it was great time spent with the community. We had a chapel at Panther Cove and the students got to write themselves letters for the end of the summer to remind  them of all God has done in their lives and to encourage them to keep serving Him. Afterwards we made a monument to signify how God has grown each of us this year. We played more spike ball and had more sharing this evening as well.

Monday, the plan was to ferry back in the morning but it was really windy again so we only had one group go back in the morning. The rest of us stayed on the island until the evening when the wind calmed down. We spent the day hanging out in the sun, playing more games, and relaxing. It was a really nice way to end the trip. 

Grad!

The first grad festivity was a staff and student dinner on Tuesday night. It was one final celebration before all of the parents would show up the next day. That night the students also had the final dance of the year. It was a great time to hangout as a community and enjoy being together. 

The next day parents showed up in the afternoon. They moved into the Pacific Woods Lodge and the Guest House at camp for the two nights of being here. That evening we had a dinner with all of the parents and students and then a parent/student/staff reception following dinner. It was a really fun night of meeting people and eating really good food. 

Thursday was the big day for grad. In the morning students and parents got to go on the SkyScraper together, which is a really big swing here at camp.  In the afternoon we had our grad ceremony. Staff, parents and students gathered to celebrate all God has done this year. It was a beautiful ceremony. Following the ceremony there was time to take pictures as a group and with parents. Then we had our banquet. The banquet was awesome! The kitchen went all out with options of steak, ribs, lobster, salmon, and amazing dessert! It was an absolute feast. During the banquet there was opportunity for staff, parents and students to share about the year and how God had moved. That night there was a grad party for the Kaleo leaders and students. It was time spent hanging out, playing games and being together one last time before everyone left. 

The next morning was very sad. Everyone was gathered in the lobby saying their goodbye's. There was a lot of tears, a lot of laughter, and a general sense of mourning that the year was over. 

Prayer Requests

Now that the year is over we would love it if you would pray for our students transitioning out of Kaleo. Thank God for all He did this year, for how He protected us, was faithful through hard times, and how He grew the students so much. Pray that the students can process everything that happened this year well and that they can have closure about Kaleo ending. 

Thanks for reading this blog post! 

Crabbing and French Beach (Week 20 & 21)

Welcome back to the blog! Another two weeks has gone by so its time for another Kaleo update! The students have been busy crabbing, camping, and doing homework. Lets take a look at exactly what's been happening:

Crabbing

 

After the last class week, the students had a few days of workshops, homework, chapels, and crabbing! Because Qwanoes is located on the ocean, we set the crab traps right off of the dock. For three days the students checked the traps, put the legal crabs in 'crab jail', and rebated the traps. Alongside crabbing, the students also got to go pawning this year too! Tristan, a Qwanoes staff member, kindly took the students out on his boat and set prawn traps each day as well. By the time Thursday rolled around we had a whole host of seafood! We cooked up eight crabs and about a hundred prawns that we had caught and had a little seafood feast on the beach! It was a simple activity, but lots of fun! 

 

The students also participated in two workshops as well. One was led by Krista Penner and the other by Tristan Klassen. Krista Penner taught us about crucial conversations (how to navigate sensitive topics while remaining loving and compassionate) and Tristan spoke on a rule of life (daily, weekly, and monthly spiritual practices that help us grow in our relationship to Jesus)! 

French Beach

The next week was our French Beach camping trip. The students had a couple days to finish off any remaining homework from Cal MacFarlane's class and then we were off to the west coast of Vancouver Island. Located just north of Sooke, French Beach is a gorgeous campground that overlooks miles of open ocean but still boasts a crisp view of the Washington mountains! 

 

 

The first day of our trip (Wednesday) we packed up the vehicles and drove out to the campsite where we ate lunch and set up our tents. The students then participated in a leadership challenge: creating some sort of structure out of the plethora of drift wood on the beach. They constructed a cabana, a "tree house", a ping pong table, a raft, and a shelter. There was obviously a winner and a loser, and one participant from the losing team was subject to taking a dip in the ocean (yes, its very cold)! After we had supper, there was time to hangout, have a devotional, and time for worship. It was a great first day. 

Thursday morning it rained so we took a little bit of a slower morning. We had breakfast, time to relax and hangout around the fire. In the afternoon the rain cleared off and we were able to go on a day hike to Mystic Beach. The hike was about 2km and the destination was gorgeous. Mystic beach boasts a waterfall that flows into the ocean, a rope swing and more beautiful scenery. It was a lot of fun getting to enjoy more of God's creation. Upon returning from the hike we ate supper, hung out, and had another devotional/worship time. It was so cool to see the students bond together in community and worship God together. These times were definitely some of the highlights from the trip! We also had banana boats for dessert!

On our final morning we had breakfast, packed up our tents and loaded the vehicles up with all of our stuff. The students then had time to spend one-on-one with God. They were able to reflect, pray, and enjoy his beautiful creation in silence and solitude. Following that, the students had one more leadership challenge: Bible Skits! We saw interpretations of Cain and Able, Jacob and Esau, David and Bathsheba, Samson and Delilah, Joseph and Potipher, and Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. There were some really entertaining performances! For lunch we had smokies and then we headed back to Camp Qwanoes. 

This was a really fun trip. It was easy going and a lot of fun to hangout and bond with everyone. Also, praise God we didn't get soaked because it was supposed to rain a lot!

What's Next

Currently the students are in class learning about the Apostle Paul with Brian Westnedge. Following class they have their second half of the 'Camp and Youth Ministry' course with Sid Koop, a kayaking trip, and then it is almost Grad! Please keep praying for the perseverance of our students, for growth in community and towards Jesus even in the last couple weeks, and for discernment for our students who don't have plans for this summer/fall yet. 

Thanks for reading. Check back in later for continued Kaleo updates!

Church Ministry, Mission Trips, and Interdisciplinary Studies (Week 18 & 19)

It has been a really busy three weeks here at Kaleo. The students had another class week and then we embarked on our two week mission trips! This year our students did two different mission trips. One trip went to downtown Vancouver and worked on East Hastings and the other half stayed on Vancouver Island and did ministry here and on Salt Spring Island. Let's recap all that went down:

Foundations of Church Ministry

Before the mission trips the students had class with David Lee. David is a pastor in Chilliwack but drove out to teach the students for the week. They had great conversations about the church, their own experiences, and lots of different ideas about how ministry should be done. David pulled from many years of experience and was able to share much of his wisdom with the students. It was an informative and enjoyable week of learning before the two weeks open mission. 

The next five days were spent finishing up homework, praying and preparing for the mission trip. It was a pretty busy few days before everyone started the trips.

Vancouver Island Mission Trip

For the first three days our group served in Victoria. Day one and two we served at two single moms' homes. We did a variety of work including cleaning a garage, trimming so many blackberry bushes, painting fences, and general yard maintenance. It was really cool being able see their reactions and how blessed they were by our service. Day three in Victoria was spent serving at a Compassionate Resource Warehouse packaging clothing and materials to be sent overseas, serving at Sanctuary youth drop-in centre for at-risk teens, and preparing for the Valentine's Day ministry the students were running. For many of the students, the drop-in centre was the most impactful part of the whole trip. Seeing and interacting with the youth that evening was meaningful for our students; God used this ministry to shape and transform many of their hearts. 

 

 

The next two days were spent planning and preparing for Valentine's day. Our students organized and ran a ministry that served hot meals, dessert, and encouragement cards to many lonely and hurting people on Valentine's Day. The students ran the whole event and delivered the meals on Valentine's Day. There were many people who were really blessed by this and we received lots of great feedback from this ministry. Day six was our first rest day and we got to sleep in and have an afternoon drinking coffee, sitting by the fire and playing games here at camp. 

 

Our next three days were spent serving in Duncan. We did a variety of ministries serving the elderly, the homeless, and church communities in Duncan. Many of the elderly that we were serving were unable to do physical labour for a variety of reasons and so we blessed them with yard work, cleaning, and company. We also served a local church by helping clean and organize the church building over a few days mid week. The most impactful part of our time in Duncan was doing street ministry. The students were able to go out twice. The first time the students were given money to go out and bless the people on the street with a more substantial need. Some of the things our students bought people were jackets, gloves, phone chargers, and food. They were able to pray with a lot of the people they met and they saw God working lots through this ministry. The second time our students hit the streets was in partnership with the local church again. We handed out care packages, prayed with people, and shared the gospel. It was another really stretching experience but our students grew a lot though it. After our time in Duncan we had another rest day where we had brunch, went bowling, and hung out some more. 

     

 

The final leg of our mission trip was spent on Salt Spring Island. Our students helped lead worship for Salt Spring Baptist on Sunday and then we were off to work. We partnered with a guy named Grant who is working as a missionary. We were able to bless the people he has been working with by doing all sorts of different jobs. Some of these jobs included cleaning, raking, trimming trees, cleaning up brush, gardening and much more. It was a really cool being able to help Grant further his relationships with those people in order to help lead them to Christ. These four days on the island were a lot of fun but really exhausting. It was a great way to finish off the trip!

 

 

Aside from all of the ministries that we were apart of, these two weeks proved to be very formative for our community as well. Together as a group we watched season one of The Chosen (a TV show about Jesus), played so much Uno and Dutch Blitz, had an awesome beach fire with s'mores, and played a lot of ping pong as well. With half of the class in Vancouver it was a great way for our students to hangout and connect with some of the students they weren't necessarily as close with before. 

 

This trip was a huge success!

Vancouver Mission Trip

    Starting our journey to the mainland was filled with anticipation and nervousness from the students but once we arrived at New Beginnings Church all of that faded away when the students found themselves face to face with a room full of kids ranging from 6 months old to 13 years old for the after school program called "S.A.Y" Yes program (Save All Youth) and the Kaleo students dived right into playing, chatting, and loving on the kids, and as a leader it was a very encouraging start. Later of that evening, once the kids went home and we cleaned up, the lead pastor of the church, Pastor Byron, sat us down and shared his and his wife Diane's story of ministry with us as well as the story of New Beginnings Church and all that God has done in their East Vancouver neighbourhood. His story was tremendously impactful and would be a huge motivation for the students as they cleaned, repaired, and served at New Beginnings Church the next two weeks. 

 

The last two years of the pandemic New Beginnings Church has not had anyone other than 71 year old Pastor Byron doing janitorial or repairs, so immediately following breakfast we starting checking off a very big list of tasks that Pastor Byron had on his plate, one by one; every surface, chair, car, wall, and window was clean and sanitized to the best of the team's ability. At the end of our work day, before we started our street ministry, Karen from UGM (also known as Union Gospel Mission) shared her time with us over Zoom to help shape our perspective on the community of East Vancouver that is experiencing homelessness and help us in our approach to people. But as many would know these words would be most understood once we had started meeting with people and hearing their stories in our street ministry with Potter's Place Church. 

 

 

On the 5th day of our mission trip, early Monday morning, we were finally heading to the very anticipated Potter's Place for the week. Before we got there, many of the students thought it was going to be more of a soup kitchen run by Christians that also shared God's love and communicated Gospel, but quickly that assumption was flipped on its head. The mission of Potters Place's is to share the Gospel, and that is THE most important thing that the students could share with the people of East Vancouver; everything else Potters Place does is secondary. We cleaned the facility, served meals, ran worship sets, and everyone had the opportunity to share their testimony or a sermon over the week at the services held twice a day. In everything we did, what was radically shaping for the team was the full reliance on God and devotion to prayer that the staff of Potter's Place had. The students quickly adopted this zeal for God and determination for prayer into the community and over one another. We witnessed the students pray to have their hearts break for what breaks God's, and watched as God answered, bringing different people to individuals on our team. The stories shared with our students were heartbreaking, and motivated the students to pray with all their hearts for the people God drew them to. It was not easy to experience things like a 20 year old female student to be face to face with a 21 year old female woman struggling with addition and homelessness, but as the students continued faithfully loving and hearing stories, they were encouraged to be filled and led by the Spirit, to mourn the suffering and rejoice in the Kingdom victories. And there were victories. One student encountered a man laying in the street saying all he wanted to do was die, which broke her heart so much she felt compelled to continually pray for him the next two days. When she saw him again two days later he was up and smiling and thankful for her care and the blanket she gave him. We saw these glimpses of God's hope and love touching people's lives in little and big ways.

 

 

Overall this mission trip was a Kingdom success and has tremendously help reset what are we valuing and prioritizing in our own lives regarding how we love people, adults and kids alike, and honour who and where they are from, and to truly enjoy the company of the people God puts before us. 

 

Engaging the Ideas of Our World

Following the two weeks on mission the students had a handful of days to debrief, catch up on homework, and catch up on sleep! Each mission team created a half an hour presentation for the staff members here at camp and presented them on the Friday following the trip. On the weekend students were back at their respective churches for youth and church.

On Monday the students started their next class. It was an interdisciplinary class that looked at Modernity and Postmodernity and how both have affected our world. Cal MacFarlane was back out to teach the students. He was here earlier this year to teach them Spiritual Theology in September. Throughout the week the students engaged with many different ideas and concepts, unpacking what the world believes to be true versus what the Bible says about truth. They took a look at many different historical events including the Renaissance and the Protestant Reformation. They also studied many different philosophers and tracked how each philosophers line of thinking has affected how western civilization views humanity. It was a very stretching class and they wrapped it up with a final exam on Friday. 

What's Next

Currently we are in a week of homework and crabbing. Next week we depart on our French Beach camping trip. And following that they are back in class again.

We would love it if you continued to pray for our students. Specifically for growth in relationship with God and each other. For God to use what they learned on the mission trip to continue to change them and shape them into better followers of Jesus. And for direction for our students who are still figuring out what to do this summer and next fall! 

Thanks for reading. Check back later for our next Kaleo update!