Week 6: Camp and Youth Ministry

After coming off of a week of sailing the students started the first half of their Camp and Youth Ministry class with Sid Koop. Our students come from a variety of camp backgrounds and experiences. This class has helped them to articulate many things that they may have already experienced in working with youth, while also highlighting key strategies to use moving forward working with young people in our 21st century world.

This is our only class in the Kaléo program that is separated into two separate blocks, one in each semester. This gives the students an opportunity to learn about working in a camp and youth context and as the program continues they are given the opportunity to work in a series of retreat weekends that Camp Qwanoes runs. Also putting their skills to the test in the youth groups that they serve in throughout the year. Then the second half of the class takes what they have learned through their experiences and they learn different aspects of organizing and running a youth event or camp retreat.

Immediately following the class students jumped straight into a busy retreat weekend serving in many different capacities.

Many of the students served as; counselors, helpers in the kitchen, running activities, and everything else in between.

This retreat gave students ample opportunity to put their challenge course skills that they learned in the early weeks of the program to the test.

As Camp Qwanoes settles into their fall retreat season we have several more retreats coming up around the corner that the group will have more opportunity to stretch their serving muscles, serving in different capacities than they have previously. 

This is beginning to become quite a busy season for students as more classes come, and along with the class comes the homework, as well as continue to serve in retreats, and at their churches. As the students have continued to grow closer together they are loving the experience of living in such a small community together. 

Continue to pray

That our students will continue to find the balance between when they are serving and managing their school work. 

That their academic learning will continue to spark personal curiosity and growth in their lives. 

That the community will continue to grow closer together as one unit. 

Week 5: Gold Stream & SALTS

GOLD STREAM

We woke up thanksgiving Monday and it was a beautiful day, so we decided to hop in the vans and head off to Gold Stream Tussle. Gold Stream has a waterfall, which was not flowing a lot, but we still were able to enjoy it. Then we took a short hike up a hill to a tussle bridge!

Photo: Anna O'Drowsky

Photo: Matt Lemke 

Photo: Matt Lemke 

Photo: Steven Lofting 

Photo: Anna O'Drowsky 

SALTS

Tuesday morning the bus left for Victoria at 8.00 am where we met the SALTS boat "The Pacific Swift" to go sailing for three nights.

Photo: Kurt Jones 

Everyone was split into three different "Watch" groups. These groups would rotate being on watch together which meant that one group was responsible for sailing the ship during the day. At night the students were in pairs and would switch off every hour making sure the boat remained anchored. The groups had a lot of fun learning about sailing together. During the week we took time to share testimonies in the evening and hear each other's stories.  

Photo: Steven Lofting 

Photo: Steven Lofting 

On Wednesday we loaded up the Dory's in the different watch teams and went to an island for a hike and to potentially find some apple orchards. The orchards turned up empty, but we played Huckle Buckle before we left to go back to the Swift.

Photo: Kurt Jones 

Photo: Steven Lofting

A typical day on the Swift would consist of a watch crew getting up for 6.50 Am to start scrubbing the deck. Another crew would get up for 7.20 Am to eat breakfast and they would have the first watch taking over for the 6.50 Am crew at 8.00 Am. At 8.00 Am the 6.50 Am crew would eat and the last crew would get up to eat as well. One of the last two would do the dishes in the Hold.

Photo: Steven Lofting

After dishes were done we would meet up one deck for devotions with everyone.

Photo: Kurt Jones

The different watches took turns running the ship during the day. Some of them took some time to study our geographical location and the course we were taking. When they weren't on watch they could spend some time hanging out, reading for their courses, or climbing the mast.

Photo: Kurt Jones 

SALTS owns two boats, the Pacific Swift and the Pacific Grace. The Pacific Grace had a group of students on it from Columbia Bible College who are apart of the Quest program which is very similar to the Kaleo Program.

On Thursday the Swift met up with the Grace and we hung out with Quest on a beach and played some Ultimate Frisbee then spent some time hanging out. It was a great time, I think all the students from both groups enjoyed the time and it was a highlight of the trip for many of them.

Photo: Kurt Jones - The beach where we meet up with Quest

It was cool for the groups to have time to fellowship with each other and was a really surreal kingdom illustration for everyone as we gathered to pray over each group.

Photo: Kurt Jones

Photo: Kurt Jones

Photo: Steven Lofting 

Photo: Steven Lofting 

Photo: Steven Lofting 

Photo: Steven Lofting

The weather was beautiful all week! We have been really blessed to have such awesome weather for these out trips lately! The students loved getting to know their watch leaders and getting to connect with the rest of the crew over the course of the week!

HOW TO BE PRAYING:

You can be praying for the students as they begin more class packed weeks. There is a lot of material that they will be going through and a lot more time spent at camp, and less time spent on adventures. As they make this transition into a slower pace of life and the school work building up, be praying that they transition well.

Week 4: Surfing

We started our journey early Monday morning loading our bags and the food we would need for the next 3 days setting off from the east side of Vancouver Island to our destination on the west, Tofino.

Excited for the waves that we would be riding over the next couple days we sang our way to a pit stop at Cathedral Grove. Cathedral Grove is home to Vancouver Island's largest trees, and they were right on our way, so we had to stop! Taking in the grove of Douglas Fir trees some reaching heights of 240 feet and diameters of 29 feet.

These monsters were mind-blowing for many of our students, we nearly lost sight of what we set out to do in the first place, surf! Although we had one more stop between us and the beaches of Tofino.


Wallies Creek, huge rock formations with rushing water flowing through it, with mountains shooting up to the sky on all sides of us. We took that time to stretch our legs and walk out on the rocks taking a closer look.














Now we had our sights set on Tofino. We had a final push until we arrived at Long beach where we took some time to admire the ocean we would soon surf. We broke out the skim board, where one of our fearless leaders would effectively show us how to fail miserably getting completely soaked in 2 inches of water.

We made our way to the church where we would be sleeping and eating for the next few days where we had a chapel time, played some games, and prepared for the big surf days that were to come.




On Tuesday we were ready to hit the waves. We got our wetsuits, boards, met our instructors, and thus, the shredding began.





We spent the entirety of the afternoon in the water, where many members of our group who were beginners at the beginning of the day were far from it by the end. We would have stayed all night if we could have, but the hunger that our bellies felt had other plans. We peeled off our wetsuits and headed back to the church for the evening, refilling our bellies and getting some rest for the big day that Wednesday would be.





Throwing our cold wetsuits on we hit the water once again. Only this time, the sun was brighter and the waves were bigger. We enjoyed the beautiful day of surfing before we went and enjoyed walking through the town of Tofino with surf shops around every corner we dreamed of working in this small town becoming hippies who could surf every single day.


We were finally able to peel ourselves away from the surf culture with enough time to make it back to Camp Qwanoes before sunset. Although we were able to leave Tofino behind, the surfer lingo that was picked up in 3 short days does not seem to be going anywhere.

Continue to pray

For our students as they move into a more class heavy season of the program.

For our students as they begin to serve in the Qwanoes weekend retreats over the next few weeks.

That our students would continue to allow their experiences and things that they are learning penetrate their hearts and spur them on towards growth together as a community, as well as spiritual growth.

Week 3: Introduction to Spiritual Theology

This week the students had their first week of class!
This class is with Cal MacFarlane and is centered in living in step with God and discovering different spiritual disciplines to implement into their lives. Cal has been taking them through some fundamentals of the Christian faith and has given them information into the heart of our Christian walk. In order to help them grasp some of these concepts, he does many practical assignments with them. One of these assignments is a silent and fasting retreat. This is where the students before lunch on Thursday were given a cabin to stay in, and fasted from before lunch to Friday morning and were also not to have any communication with anyone else. This experience led them into setting aside time to be with Jesus and allowing Him to work through some things with the students. On Friday morning we all met at the dock and Cal led everyone in communion to break their fast and then we had breakfast together on the dock. It was a beautiful morning and a really nice way to end their retreat.

This week the students evenings have been filled with memorizing around fifty verses, spending time at some of the staff members houses on Tuesday, some fishing, and helping out in their different youth groups. It has definitely been a busy week! 

 photo by Julie Bayley: some staff and students at fireside celebrating Emerson's birthday

Up next and how you can be praying

• We are heading to Tofino Monday morning until Wednesday evening to spend some time surfing! The students are excited to spend time on the water after being in class this week!

• You can be praying for safety as we head to Tofino. Also that the students will continue to build and form a community around each other as we go on these out trips.

Week 2: Mount Albert Edward

The students have all arrived here at Qwanoes. Despite the jet lag some of the students experienced they were all excited and full of energy to kick off with orientation. Students became familiar with the facilities here at Camp Qwanoes, as well as getting to know each other and the Qwanoes staff through games, beach parties, and enjoying meals together.




After a few days of getting to know the people that they would be spending the next 8 months with we sent everyone straight up a mountain. After spending Sunday evening dividing up food and camping equipment, we set out early Monday morning to begin our journey to the summit of Mount Albert Edward.

Located in Strathcona Provincial Park, Albert Edward has an elevation of 2,093 meters. We left the parking lot Monday with half our group headed to Circlet Lake and the other half to Kwai Lake, setting up basecamp at the 2 separate lakes for the night. Tuesday morning, we all met up at Circlet Lake and set off on a vertical adventure towards the summit with our packs full of any of the snacks we would need for the day. The day of the summit, we had the nicest weather since the students have arrived, sunny and clear skies. On our way up, we could see the snow peaked mountain top in the distance, seemingly so close, but the pain we all felt in our legs made it feel so far away, but this pain only gave us all one more thing to bond over.

After several hours of seeing the mountain’s summit in the distance we finally reached the top, where all our hard work paid off. Basking in all the glory of the mountain top, we all sat in the snow rejoicing in the mighty victory that we had achieved together.

Returning to our campsites after a long day of hiking we all slept like rocks. Wednesday morning, we packed up our tents and headed out. By the time we arrived back at Qwanoes we had enough energy to do a load of laundry and go to bed.


We are so excited to welcome our first professor of the year out from Briercrest to teach our Spiritual Theology class. The students are working hard at preparing for their first class starting on Monday, reading books and memorizing Bible verses, eager to press into the beginning of the academics for the year.


Continue to pray:

That the students would continue to settle in to their new home for the next 8 months, connecting with each other and their churches.

As we enter into our first class that the students would be attentive to how the knowledge that they are about to acquire, and allow it to soak into their personal walks with Jesus and spur them on for growth.

The Beginning. A Verry Good Place to Start

So here we are, finding ourselves in the middle of September, once again gearing up to start Kaléo 2018-2019.  We are so excited for our students to arrive. We have been anticipating the day we get to welcome all the students here to Camp Qwanoes to begin the Kaléo program.

Kaléo Program Leaders (left to right):

Corey Reimer, Program Leader, Sarah McQarrie, Female Intern, Daniel MacCallum, Male Intern, Kurt Jones, Assistant Program Leader. 

We are feeling so good about this group of 18 young people that God had called from all across Canada to devote this next season of their lives to discover what it means to be a disciple of Jesus Christ and a leader in His Kingdom. Our Kaléo program leaders have been working tirelessly to prepare to welcome the students who are about to embark on a full 8 months of intense learning through the experiences of academics, ministry, leadership, adventure all while submerged in a small community that is contagious for growth.


Upon arrival, the students will be given their room assignments here at Camp Qwanoes in the Pacific Woods Lodge, which looks out over the Pacific Ocean towards Salt Spring Island. When the students have settled in we will begin our orientation, which will include; what life at Qwanoes looks like for the next 8 months, getting to know their leaders, the staff, and each other. The orientation also includes a beach party at Qwanoes beach, a challenge course workshop. Where they will be trained to work in Camp Qwanoes’ challenge course. The students will also learn which churches that they will be attending for the next 8 months, meeting their pastors and discovering in what capacity they will be serving at their church throughout the coming months. We are so excited to meet the students as they arrive and get settled in.


Continue to pray:


For our students as they step into an amazing year of Leadership, Academics, Adventure, Ministry, and Community. As well that their hearts would be softened to ways in which God wants to work in their lives over the coming months.


Stay tuned for photos and updates on the next few days of orientation.

Graduation 2018

Just 3 weeks ago now the students officially completed their time at qwanoes as students in the Kaléo program. To start the graduation weekend off we hiked up maple mountain located right next to camp. After a short hike up the mountain we had our last chapel. This was a special time for so many students as they looked forward to how God is going to use them in light of how he has been at work in all of their lives thus far.

The next thing that happened this weekend was a time of getting to know everyones family up in club coco. The next day the skyscraper was open and the students and their families had a chance to experience some of the amazing activities camp has to offer.

Then finally that Saturday afternoon was our Grad ceremony. During this time of celebration we got to here from a few different people including Dan Gabor a representative from Briercrest, Chris Clarke who is a Pastor at one of the local churches in Duncan and our very own Landon Miller this years valedictorian. 

We also presented awards to our five award winners. Those who excelled in one of the specific components of the program. Kaitlyn Willems - Community, Tyler Weatherly - leadership, Julia Hood - Adventure, Teagan Lee - Academics and Christy Van Hoeve - Ministry.  

At the start of the year the students received a Root Beer and Cream Soda labelled first day and graduation. One of the last memorable moments of the weekend was being able to celebrate completing the program by opening up their graduation Root Beer or Cream Soda together. 

Continue to Pray

Please continue to pray for our students with whatever life has in store for them in the future. Pray for them this summer as many of are serving in either church or camp ministry and for those who are already started into summer jobs. Pray that they would continually trust God with their lives and that they would have confidence with wherever He directs them.

Check out this video as look back on the year, put together by our very own student Julia Hood