A series of divinely ordained events

Hello again dear Readers,

In my last blog post,  I had stated that there was a series of detailed events that lead to my decision to move back to Vancouver Island. It seems like it would be appropriate to give the account and thusly give God glory to how He's been moving and directing this decision.

It all started back in January where I began to develop a restless sensation whilst working at the Spa. I felt alive and excited to be going to youth group, preparing for talks, welcoming everyone, seeing the leaders... but was less than excited to be going to work the next day, and I was not even working that many hours as a casual.

I also really wanted to go back to Vancouver Island for the summer... but didn't know if I could maintain my job at the Spa AND ask for two months off.

It was around February that I had gotten together with Ken for coffee and I had mentioned to him how I was going through the Gospel of Luke and as I thought about going home and not returning I had read the part of what the cost of following Jesus was and thought it very convenient that it would come up as I thought about going home.
He corrected me in my misinterpretation saying that following Jesus in that passage had to do with becoming a follower of Jesus and not what I was reading into it. He also followed up by saying, that shame should not be felt in returning home for a year or so.

That was the first time I had heard anyone say this... as well that it truly sunk into my mentality, "I could go home."

I'll explain why this thought struck me. While I was a student at Briercrest... I was reminded by a friend that in my first year I had said, "Vancouver Island is like a second Eden." I do not remember this, but I do know that I HIGHLY valued the Island with all its beauty and that my family resided there. In my second year at college I had made the decision NOT to go home for Christmas, because when I went home my first year, I missed and loved being back with my family so much that I knew if I returned home for Christmas, I WOULD NOT go back to school, not unless my parents dragged me kicking and screaming to the airport. It was also that year I made the decision to stay in Moose Jaw for the summer to stay on as a volunteer at Hillcrest because I had come to realize the importance of youth ministry and dedicated leaders cared about the overall mission and not just how it benefited themselves; plus I needed to find a job to earn money for school... that's how I ended up as a prep cook at the Spa.
This what I did all the rest of the years at Briercrest, aside from returning home for one more Christmas, I would get a job at the Spa during the summer and maintain my volunteer position at the Church in youth ministry.
I was able to do this! Be a functioning and self sustaining adult in most cases - INDEPENDENCE!
All the while... the idea to go home for more than JUST a vacation crawled on my back on more than one occasion, but I would suppress it thinking, "I need to be here... I'll only grow complacent there, it's an idol that I need to uproot in my life."

I can see in many ways that thinking was correct... but things have changed. I was restless at the Spa, I wanted a change...

Then a job opportunity at a local Christian school opened up, and my co-worker was the first to tell me of it. I was intrigued, but unsure to really get invested in it considering I knew I wanted to get into Seminary not long down the line and being committed to a full time job that required much focus and dedication concerned me. However, the Youth Pastor also suggested I apply for it the next day, so I went for it, but was not emotionally or mentally invested in wanting the position badly.

I prayed to God that He would be the one in control of the situation, whether I would get the position or not, I would trust in Him and whatever happened would be because of Him.

It was then I was talking to one of my close female coworkers about applying for this job and for certain quitting at the Spa, she asked me what my plans for the summer where and I told her about going back home. She, being a BC girl herself, laughed and said, "Once you go home, I could see you not returning if you got settled and found a job out there."
Laughing with her, I did not think much of it until a month past and I received NO WORD from the school about my application.

It was in the first week of May that the Youth Pastor and I went for a walk talking about the Church's vitality, the youth ministry's growth and amazing leaders, the lack of response from the School.... and it was then I let it slip my mouth, "Hey, when I go home for the Summer... what if I don't come back... will you guys, the ministry, be okay?" His response was gracious and encouraging - saying he knew there would be a time when I would have to move on and if it was in God's time that it had come, he would send me off with much blessing.

I knew what needed to happen next; a skype call to my parents.

It went something like this:
Me: Hey, so... if this job does not happen... when I come home for the summer... could I stay home for a year?
Mom: You can always come home.
Dad: (jokingly) I dunno, I'll have to think about it
Me: I'll pay for rent.
Dad: (not so jokingly) Done.

This sealed the deal for me. At this point I KNEW I would not be accepting the job offer even if the school got back to me. To which they never did - and so over these past few weeks I have been telling people of my soon departure and will be making for "goodbyes" before the end the June.

I have to say, it's been a good five years since I spent more than two weeks on Vancouver Island, I am thankful to God that He's allowing me the opportunity to return home for a while.

There are still a few weeks of youth/student ministries left and a Cypress Hills Retreat with the group near the end of June I still need to go on, so this blog is not just about rapped up yet, but once it does I will direct you to a new one I will start to commemorate this time of transition and adventure!

Thanks for reading!

~To God be the glory

This is how a heart breaks

"And I'm steady but I'm starting to shake,
and I don't know how much more I can take..."

Heyo my dear Readers!

Umm... you know in that blog post called "Hopes and Dreams" where I stated "no, I will not be staying there forever - at least at this point I do not think so," when it came to going back to the Island?

Some things have changed.

After talking with the Youth Pastor, a job not lining up for the fall, the healthiness of Hillcrest Church and the youth/student ministries... God is directing me back to the Island indefinitely at the end of June.

I had to share this info over the past few weeks gradually, starting with my co-workers, the Youth Pastor, and as of Wednesday evening, my Jr. Leaders.

It was harder to admit to them than I anticipated...

but I think it will be REALLY hard to admit it to the kids when the time comes...

So, if you're reading this and you're from Hillcrest - I have not announced this to the group yet that when I leave for home and the Island, it's indefinite - so keep it on the DL as much as possible, thanks.

There is/was a series of very detailed events that lead up to this decision to head back to the Island after 5 years of being out on the Prairies... but I think it all can be summed up to say that it's all been by God's direction and working in my heart and mind that I can be at peace and excited with this decision... even if it's going to be sad when I have to say goodbye to everyone over the course of the next month.

I have been thinking about what to do since I dedicated this blog to Hillcrest and I'm leaving soon... but I figured it would be time to start a different blog when I return to the Island, more of that soon to come.

~To God be the glory

[Guest speaker] come back...!

"any kind of fool can see..."

Hello Dear Readers!

So this past Wednesday, we had our guest speaker from Briercrest come and talk on the "Lord's Prayer" in the Gospel of Matthew - and it was SO GOOD.

Let me relay how the evening went:

I decided to walk to the church a little earlier than normal in order to prepare for the evening, and as I walked through the parking lot, I arrived at the same time as the guest speaker.

We greeted one another and then meet up with the Youth Pastor. As we lead our guest to the youth room, we found out from him that he had not spoken in front of a group of teen in a long time. Non of us were really concerned, and I did not think nor feel that our guest would be nervous in front of our group; simply because I knew how he handled himself in with college students (which are basically bigger versions of young teenagers) and had been involved with youth ministry before.

As the night wore on, our leaders and youth arrived and we did our basic welcomes and mixers, and our Pastor introduced our speaker (we had said the week before to our group he'd be coming, so it was not a huge surprise to those who were there the week before). I sat myself on the bleachers with our group facing the speaker, he opened up saying, "I know we have roughly 15min to go through this passage, let me try to identify the most important things in this prayer."

In my head I was like, "NOOOOOOOOO - Take all the time in the WORLD!" But he STILL managed to mesmerize, engage, and thrill not only us leaders but also our young adults within the short amount of time he worked with.

I wish I could say everything he talk about with the few verses he walked us through - but that would take up most of this blog post when all I really wanted to say about the evening was - we fell in love with our guest speaker.

Some of our teens had said to our Pastor that they wish/want him to come back! He did amazingly with asking questions and our group responding to him. His passion and simple explanation of the Scriptures was thrilling and wonderful to witness and be apart of, and that's probably why all of us HIGHLY enjoyed his company.

Our Pastor loved him so much that during our debrief at the end of the night, he desired to concoct a plan to get him to attend Hillcrest and be part of our congregation.
My response was, "Just remember kidnapping is illegal." To which another leader replied, "But... he's not a kid..."

* we found our loop hole *

All Joking aside, it would be awesome if that guest speaker could come back again - no, we will not use kidnapping to make that happen.

That's all for now!

~To God be the Glory 

Chu-chu-chu-chu-CHANGES (turn and face the [weeks])

A sassy response to the title... yes I'm contradicting myself - I do that sometimes

Heyo!

Some updates and expectations:

1. I've officially sent my resignation at the Spa for mid June.

It's been a good, insightful, helpful, learning, and growing experience - but the time has come to quit and move on to other things.

Some of my co-workers have taken it better than others (one co-worker was adamant of saying "No" when I gave him the news and continued to repeat said word about 100x - we eventually had a good laugh then he wished me well).

2. I STILL have weeks of work left and my schedule for the next little bit looks like this:

Mon-Tues : 3:30pm-11:30pm, Wednesday : youth group 6:20pm-9:30(10)pm, Thurs-Fri : 7am-3pm

This means I have the weirdest sleep schedule and lots of people time which will often result in my introvert levels being VERY depleted.

It's friday and I'm dead

Sooooo, if you happen to keep me in your prayers for the next few weeks, that'd be AWESOME.

3. This week for the 'Sermon on the Mount' series Jr. student ministries is going through, one of the Professors from Briercrest will be speaking on the 'Lord's Prayer'!!!

We're so excited! 

I'm pretty sure most of the leaders are more excited than the youth... but that's really because some are former students of the Prof. and have high respect and/or knowledge of him.

Anyway, that's all for now!

~To God be the Glory

FINAL COUNTDOWN

We only have 6 more youth group meetings left!

Copyright: Toby Fox

Where. Has. The. Time. Gone.
My goodness. 

Welp, in the mean time, Jr. youth will be going through a new series and it is...

*insert drumroll here*

THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT

I am both 

Friends, I am SO PUMPED with excitement to start this series.

Tonight, I will be giving a talk by going over the Gospel of Matthew as a whole, and then focusing on Matthew 5: 1, 19 - that is it.

Most of my talk notes are based off my very last college class I had at Briercrest called, "Sermon on the Mount," and the class changed my life.
When the youth pastor and I were planning out the youth group program back in August, this class and what I had learned from it was still fresh in my mind and I was DETERMINED to have it as a series to talk about for youth group.

If you've been following along in my other blog posts, you will have noticed my referring to youth not knowing what the commands of Jesus are and why we ought to be following them and not saying we follow the Laws of the OT.  This Sermon is one of the more clarifying sections in Scripture as to WHAT the commands of Jesus are and WHY it's only by him we are able to do the commands and are made righteous.

I cannot wait and see how our group will respond to this section of teaching, and the amazing things God will reveal about himself through them.

Thanks for following me along on this journey. It's been quite the ride.

Till the next time!

~To God be the Glory