This happened about three weeks ago. I’m falling behind on the events.
John Knoch is the base leader of the Eagles Nest Ranch YWAM. He is married and has three kids; His wife’s name is Janna, and their children are David, Joshua and Sarah, very biblical names. One day, John got a call from one of his mentors who resides in California. He tells John about a dream he had the night before. In his dream, John dies in a car accident and they went to his funeral. Kind of a scary type dream, but it is good that the person had the courage to tell John about it. So, that night, John tells all of the staff and students about his dream and we all come together and pray. John told us that most time vehicles are in dreams they relate to ministries. So we prayed for safety and also for blessing in there ministry out at the ranch. Two days pass, nothing really happens. On the following Saturday that we went into Medicine Hat to do some community service/ministry, we arrived back at the ranch to hear that Janna had been in a car accident! No joke. Some people began to tell us how Janna was taking her three kids in to town and ended up sliding on some ice then gripping the road again and rolling her vehicle. Amazingly, and totally by the grace of God, she and her three kids walked away with out any injury. And I mean nothing. Janna said that she broke a nail, but that’s it. I actually saw the vehicle and it was pretty bad. It was a miracle that they were ok.
Janna shared with the students what had happened and how the family had stood together after it had happened and laughed in the face of the devil. It was pretty crazy.
After writing something like this I have to ask my self Coincidence? I think not. For John’s mentor to have a dream like that and then for this to happen is more that coincidence, and it has impacted me to ask God to speak to me in my dream life. Now I’m not a shake and bake charismatic type, I am charismatic with a seat belt and on a side note: it sucks that the word “Charismatic” has a bad reputation because in the Greek it means: Grace Gift, which we all have. But now more than ever, I want God to speak to me in all ways that he wants to and I want to submit my dream life to him and be open to all the gifts of God no matter how freaky they look.
Saturday, December 20, 2008
Thoughts from the mind and life of Luke
I was digging through my computer and I came across some files that I had written quite a while ago so these are some not so recent thoughts that I have had over the past three years.
When You Lose, Don’t lose the lesson. Right? Maybe. Well I am not sure what to say about this. Have you ever lost something that you thought was a sure thing? Like God had told you that this is it, this is what you have been waiting for. All you had to do was just keep it true and then you would get it in the end. Well Trying not to get to big in to theology and such but I now feel like you can lose something that God was going to give. Have you ever been there? I have, and it doesn’t feel nice. Well the only thing to do now is to turn life around and that’s all we can do, that is the only thing to do at this point. I don’t really know where I am going with this writing but I know this, God Is faithful even when we are not. Don’t worry about blowing it because God is there to pick us up again. That is the most real statement that I can utter at this point because God loves us so much it’s, for lack of better words, crazy.
Thanks be to God for his grace mercy and love.
When You Lose, Don’t lose the lesson. Right? Maybe. Well I am not sure what to say about this. Have you ever lost something that you thought was a sure thing? Like God had told you that this is it, this is what you have been waiting for. All you had to do was just keep it true and then you would get it in the end. Well Trying not to get to big in to theology and such but I now feel like you can lose something that God was going to give. Have you ever been there? I have, and it doesn’t feel nice. Well the only thing to do now is to turn life around and that’s all we can do, that is the only thing to do at this point. I don’t really know where I am going with this writing but I know this, God Is faithful even when we are not. Don’t worry about blowing it because God is there to pick us up again. That is the most real statement that I can utter at this point because God loves us so much it’s, for lack of better words, crazy.
Thanks be to God for his grace mercy and love.
Thursday, December 11, 2008
Saturday outreach
So we have been doing a lot of interesting things during this time in DTS, but two Saturday's ago was particularly stretching. We are called to make disciples of all nations so, why not start with where you are at? So, on Saturday we went into Medicine Hat to do some street ministry. Initially we were supposed to team up with a church that has an actual street church and walk around the Hat and invite people to the service. On Friday, however, we got the unfortunate news that the street church had been canceled do to so circumstances, bummer. But, the leaders decided that we should just go in and do something anyway. I was a little freaked at this because now we have no real ice breaker but- Jesus is Lord. So we went into town, not really knowing what to expect. When we arrived in town, we met in a parking lot down town and began asking God about who and where we should go to minister. We were all silent before the Lord for a while then, someone spoke up about ministering to a lady in a pink shirt another talked about ministering to a man who was walking with crutches and probably the most crazy one was "there will be a girl in playboy bunny pants that we need to pray for". After we discussed and devised strategies, we paired off and began walking, looking for these different people. Naturally, Barbie and I went together, talking about how crazy it was that we were doing this. We began walking, asking God to direct us as to where to go. As we walked, I felt God leading us down certain streets and avenues until we came to a four way stop. We stopped and stood there for a moment and out of a building emerged a young lady and her young daughter. I felt really strongly that we were supposed to follow them, which sounds totally weird and creepy, I know. Well, we walked behind them, with uncertainty as to what exactly we were doing. They stopped to do some window shopping and we continued past them as to not appear totally creepy. We were now walking ahead of them down the street wondering 'what we were going to do?'. I heard the Mother say "we should visit Doris, do you want to go visit Doris today?" I began thinking, who is Doris? Then up ahead I noticed a store called Doris' Baby clothing store. Booya. We were still ahead of them at this point, so when we arrived at Doris' store we stopped and looked in the windows. The two went in and we followed, knowing that there was defiantly something about these two. Now in the store, we began wondering, again, 'what are we doing?' We just followed these people into a Baby clothing store and we defiantly don't have a baby or the desire to buy anything baby related. The Mother and the store owner, Doris herself, began talking and we, trying not to appear like we were trying to steal something, were eavesdropping on their conversation. As we slowly got closer to the till I noticed that they were talking about biblical things. The mother mentioned something about Noah's arc; They were talking about many well known Bible stories. As we got closer to them, I noticed that they had some really sweet little kid bible stories books on the counter. Doris began saying how great this one book in particular was. Now that we had an ice breaker I approached them and picked up the book. The book was quite awesome it had a lot of really good stories and a good sized write up about each one. So I cunningly commented "so you guys must be believers?" Doris immediately said "oh yes Jesus Christ is my Lord and Saviour." Then she just opened up about all kinds of things. We asked her where she went to church and she commented that she hadn't been to church in quite some time because her and her pastor had some disagreements about some things. The more we talked about it, the more Barbie and I saw that her pastor had seriously hurt her and others in there church by offering some wrong teaching and just being all together cruel. We encouraged her to check out the Bridge church since we had the pastor of the church lecture here and we were able to build relationship with him. Our conversation went on about forty five minutes and we discussed a lot of things about Christianity and had a really good time with them. Before we left we prayed for Doris, Jen and Rosie and encouraged them to journey together in there christian walks. Yes it was amazing. We left that place floating and giggling like school girls and praising God for using us in this way.
God is awesome. We are persuaded that this can happen any where we go if we are obedient to the leading of the Holy Spirit and we are trying to live this out in everything we do.
God is awesome. We are persuaded that this can happen any where we go if we are obedient to the leading of the Holy Spirit and we are trying to live this out in everything we do.
Friday, December 5, 2008
Luke Ch 5 revisited
Today during lectures the speaker hit Luke Ch 5. For God to revisit this today is significant. Last night (December 2nd) at dinner we were talking about direction and God giving instruction and how hard it can be. Shane said that we have to go back to those moments of complete soberness that God gives. Sometimes it’s difficult because the further apart these moments are the more things that can get in the way such as our own emotions, thoughts and feelings. I began to share how in May 2008, I heard a sermon on this text and it spoke to me about leaving what is familiar and doing what God is telling me to do. Just as Jesus called Simon to follow him, Jesus is calling me to go out in to the deep for a catch. (Luke 5:1-11) So today in this crazy lecture where the speaker just asked me to go in front of the class and practice my one two punch combo on his hand, we are talking about it again, well kind of talking about it.
God is the same yesterday, today and forever. God is bringing me back to this original illumination that I had in May. I am called to leave all I have, (which is not always selling all of your possessions for the record) it is what I know. Friends, Family familiarity and follow him. I want to be a true disciple of Jesus! I want to listen to the leading of Jesus and not just do things. In this D.T.S I am learning how to be a true Disciple of Jesus and I am finding out that it takes listening more than doing. If God has good works stored up for us (Ephesians 2:10) then we need not focus on doing works, but listening to God. I have been doing a lot of works and it has been good, don’t get me wrong, but God is calling me to just listen to him and do what he says.
God is the same yesterday, today and forever. God is bringing me back to this original illumination that I had in May. I am called to leave all I have, (which is not always selling all of your possessions for the record) it is what I know. Friends, Family familiarity and follow him. I want to be a true disciple of Jesus! I want to listen to the leading of Jesus and not just do things. In this D.T.S I am learning how to be a true Disciple of Jesus and I am finding out that it takes listening more than doing. If God has good works stored up for us (Ephesians 2:10) then we need not focus on doing works, but listening to God. I have been doing a lot of works and it has been good, don’t get me wrong, but God is calling me to just listen to him and do what he says.
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
A little bit of everything
It has been a couple of weeks since our last blog and much has happened. God is really working us over.
The past weeks have been intense. Two weeks ago we had a lady speaker named Donna Jordan who is a prophetic lady with a motherly calling to the nations. She spoke on listening to God which was very different and off the cuff teaching style. She has a tremendous relationship with God and communicates with him in real time. She would often pause during her speaking and send up quick bullet prayers just like Nehemiah. It was very cool to witness her do this. She taught us, not how to hear Gods voice par say, because there isn’t really a formula for that but, more that God truly wants us to communicate with him about absolutely everything. Some of the examples she gave were even to the extent of asking God what she should eat when she went to restaurants and other things like movies music how many games of solitaire she should play! Really interesting. I really enjoyed the week. We ended with an exercise that was cool; we broke off individually and answered a series of questions. #1 God, what do you think about me? #2 God, what are your plans for me? #3 God, what do you want to say to ________ (person’s name) through me? Number 3 was crazy-the leaders went around the room and had the names of all the students in a hat and we had to pick one out and pray about what God wanted to say to them through us. Yeah, it was really different. To tell you the truth, Barbie and I switched names. It’s all good though totally God.
Ok here’s what happened. Barbie got this dude, Earl, who I have had on my heart that I had been praying for a few days, and I got Aarons wife, Kendra, who Barbie has been hitting it off with. So it was all good, really different though but very awesome. I came out of that time receiving a couple of things from God that I have been left to pray fervently about.
After this week we did something completely different. A pastor from a local church in Medicine Hat came and lectured about leadership. It was awesome, Pastor Ian from the Bridge church shared about his journey becoming a pastor and shared some insight that he had about mentoring and the different kinds of leaders there are. It was an information packed week and probably, in my opinion the best week we have had. He left us with lots of tools to study up on about leadership and also gave us a free book!
On Saturdays, we do outreach in town or volunteer work or what have you. This past weekend we worked with the Salvation Army and we were bell ringers. I know that you all have seen them with the plastic dome thing on the metal pole colleting money for Christmas. Yeah we did that this year in Super Store. It was so fun. First thing we did was deck out our pole thing. Barbie went and bought decorations, Santa hats and bells. Then John “Bear” bought a dock station for an iPod and we rocked some tunes and danced and talked to people and pretty much provided free entertainment. It was fun. It’s interesting, the people’s reactions. There were four types of people, maybe five; Number one, people that joyfully gave had it ready and dropped cash in the pot. Number two, people that walked past then turned around rummaged through the purse or pockets and scraped some change together. Number three, people that came up to us and made excuses or told us how they donated to some other charity. Number four, people who avoided all eye contact and made emergency phone calls seconds before they got to the door. Number five, people who would make small talk with us about, well in this case John’s Sweater or beard. Good times. I think we made about $500.00 in the four hours we were there so I was stoked. I would suggest volunteering for a shift or two, and just go for it! Make people smile!
The past weeks have been intense. Two weeks ago we had a lady speaker named Donna Jordan who is a prophetic lady with a motherly calling to the nations. She spoke on listening to God which was very different and off the cuff teaching style. She has a tremendous relationship with God and communicates with him in real time. She would often pause during her speaking and send up quick bullet prayers just like Nehemiah. It was very cool to witness her do this. She taught us, not how to hear Gods voice par say, because there isn’t really a formula for that but, more that God truly wants us to communicate with him about absolutely everything. Some of the examples she gave were even to the extent of asking God what she should eat when she went to restaurants and other things like movies music how many games of solitaire she should play! Really interesting. I really enjoyed the week. We ended with an exercise that was cool; we broke off individually and answered a series of questions. #1 God, what do you think about me? #2 God, what are your plans for me? #3 God, what do you want to say to ________ (person’s name) through me? Number 3 was crazy-the leaders went around the room and had the names of all the students in a hat and we had to pick one out and pray about what God wanted to say to them through us. Yeah, it was really different. To tell you the truth, Barbie and I switched names. It’s all good though totally God.
Ok here’s what happened. Barbie got this dude, Earl, who I have had on my heart that I had been praying for a few days, and I got Aarons wife, Kendra, who Barbie has been hitting it off with. So it was all good, really different though but very awesome. I came out of that time receiving a couple of things from God that I have been left to pray fervently about.
After this week we did something completely different. A pastor from a local church in Medicine Hat came and lectured about leadership. It was awesome, Pastor Ian from the Bridge church shared about his journey becoming a pastor and shared some insight that he had about mentoring and the different kinds of leaders there are. It was an information packed week and probably, in my opinion the best week we have had. He left us with lots of tools to study up on about leadership and also gave us a free book!
On Saturdays, we do outreach in town or volunteer work or what have you. This past weekend we worked with the Salvation Army and we were bell ringers. I know that you all have seen them with the plastic dome thing on the metal pole colleting money for Christmas. Yeah we did that this year in Super Store. It was so fun. First thing we did was deck out our pole thing. Barbie went and bought decorations, Santa hats and bells. Then John “Bear” bought a dock station for an iPod and we rocked some tunes and danced and talked to people and pretty much provided free entertainment. It was fun. It’s interesting, the people’s reactions. There were four types of people, maybe five; Number one, people that joyfully gave had it ready and dropped cash in the pot. Number two, people that walked past then turned around rummaged through the purse or pockets and scraped some change together. Number three, people that came up to us and made excuses or told us how they donated to some other charity. Number four, people who avoided all eye contact and made emergency phone calls seconds before they got to the door. Number five, people who would make small talk with us about, well in this case John’s Sweater or beard. Good times. I think we made about $500.00 in the four hours we were there so I was stoked. I would suggest volunteering for a shift or two, and just go for it! Make people smile!
Monday, November 3, 2008
God is good - week 2
Has it been 2 weeks? Some days, I feel like it's only been a couple of days; Other days, it seems as though we have been here all our lives. It's a good thing.
Today is Monday November 3. Luke and I find ourselves, once again, sitting in the cozy basement of Shane & Nikki Fox. Funny as it sounds, this place is our getaway from our getaway.
This week has been amazing- busy, emotional... a time of discovering more about out Heavenly Father.
Our leaders were excited to inform us that we would be sharing lectures with the New Waves DTS. Since most of them speak English as a second language, they had a Simoan translator for the whole week. This meant, though, that we would be in lectures in morning and afternoon.
We were told ahead of time that this week's topic- "The Father heart of God" would be hard, both content and application.
At first it was tricky to, ahem, stay awake, but it got easier as the days went on. It was most difficult after lunch. ("I just need to close my eyes for five minutes!")
We discussed attributes of our Earthly fathers, areas of darkness in our hearts which became strongholds in our lives preventing us from accepting God as our Father. Forgiveness. Reconciliation. Restoration.
Larry (our lecturer) shared many personal experiences & revelations. The raw emotion he brought to the class was incredible, and eventually many students felt moved to share. After much prayer and waiting, more and more came out and healing began in many.
I have to say, I was resistant at first. Little by little, in my own times of reflection, the Lord began to show me dark places in my heart. There are many of which I am already aware, but He wanted to go deeper. Why do I do the things I do?
God is amazing, and what He does when we are obedient, and just listen and wait. This has been a struggle for me- waiting, listening.
Hallelujah! I love it when He brings things to the light. I walked for a long time in the shadows, in fear. When things come out, it hurts, but the freedom is worth it.
Yes this week was definately a harder week than last. This week we walked through a segment of teaching called "openness and brokenness". The goal of this time is to ask God to go deep into your heart and search out any areas of darkness that are in your life. Difficult! The goal of which is to bring further healing and humility. It was definitely an intense time of listening to God speak to us.
It has been so amazing here so far. I am learning to wait and hear from God. I know most of us have been in a place before where we are asking God to speak to us and when we think we hear something, we wrestle with if it was just us or if it was actually God speaking. I have been learning to discern that voice inside my head.
This week we talked a lot about Love and fear. At one point our speaker noted that there is no fear in love, and quoted 1 John 4:18. I reflected a while on my walk with God and as I did I pondered upon my own revelations of fear and love and I was lead to conclude that there is fear in love but not the fear that is experienced by a wife with a overly oppressive husband. The fear I have in my relationship with God is a holy fear. A fear of doing something that would break God's heart and, the fact of the matter is, I have. In sin of omission and comission I have done this numerous times. But as I am further sanctified in my walk with Christ I can further develop a Holy fear of the Living Father God.
Cool. Well we will be writing more as the days go on. Please remember to pray for us and feel free to comment.
Blessings,
Luke & Barbie.
Today is Monday November 3. Luke and I find ourselves, once again, sitting in the cozy basement of Shane & Nikki Fox. Funny as it sounds, this place is our getaway from our getaway.
This week has been amazing- busy, emotional... a time of discovering more about out Heavenly Father.
Our leaders were excited to inform us that we would be sharing lectures with the New Waves DTS. Since most of them speak English as a second language, they had a Simoan translator for the whole week. This meant, though, that we would be in lectures in morning and afternoon.
We were told ahead of time that this week's topic- "The Father heart of God" would be hard, both content and application.
At first it was tricky to, ahem, stay awake, but it got easier as the days went on. It was most difficult after lunch. ("I just need to close my eyes for five minutes!")
We discussed attributes of our Earthly fathers, areas of darkness in our hearts which became strongholds in our lives preventing us from accepting God as our Father. Forgiveness. Reconciliation. Restoration.
Larry (our lecturer) shared many personal experiences & revelations. The raw emotion he brought to the class was incredible, and eventually many students felt moved to share. After much prayer and waiting, more and more came out and healing began in many.
"There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment.
But he who fears has not been made perfect in love." 1 John 4:18 NKJV
But he who fears has not been made perfect in love." 1 John 4:18 NKJV
I have to say, I was resistant at first. Little by little, in my own times of reflection, the Lord began to show me dark places in my heart. There are many of which I am already aware, but He wanted to go deeper. Why do I do the things I do?
God is amazing, and what He does when we are obedient, and just listen and wait. This has been a struggle for me- waiting, listening.
Hallelujah! I love it when He brings things to the light. I walked for a long time in the shadows, in fear. When things come out, it hurts, but the freedom is worth it.
"To those who have been called,
who are loved by God the Father and kept by Jesus Christ:
Mercy, Peace and Love
be yours in abundance[!]"
Jude 1:1-2 NIV
(Luke)who are loved by God the Father and kept by Jesus Christ:
Mercy, Peace and Love
be yours in abundance[!]"
Jude 1:1-2 NIV
Yes this week was definately a harder week than last. This week we walked through a segment of teaching called "openness and brokenness". The goal of this time is to ask God to go deep into your heart and search out any areas of darkness that are in your life. Difficult! The goal of which is to bring further healing and humility. It was definitely an intense time of listening to God speak to us.
It has been so amazing here so far. I am learning to wait and hear from God. I know most of us have been in a place before where we are asking God to speak to us and when we think we hear something, we wrestle with if it was just us or if it was actually God speaking. I have been learning to discern that voice inside my head.
The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge; Fools despise wisdom and instruction.
Proverbs 1:7 NASB
This week we talked a lot about Love and fear. At one point our speaker noted that there is no fear in love, and quoted 1 John 4:18. I reflected a while on my walk with God and as I did I pondered upon my own revelations of fear and love and I was lead to conclude that there is fear in love but not the fear that is experienced by a wife with a overly oppressive husband. The fear I have in my relationship with God is a holy fear. A fear of doing something that would break God's heart and, the fact of the matter is, I have. In sin of omission and comission I have done this numerous times. But as I am further sanctified in my walk with Christ I can further develop a Holy fear of the Living Father God.
Cool. Well we will be writing more as the days go on. Please remember to pray for us and feel free to comment.
Blessings,
Luke & Barbie.
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
Our first week at YWAM
The first 7 days…
We arrived to the YWAM base at Eagle’s Nest Ranch Wednesday October 15, 2008 about 3:00 pm; A crisp, still day in the Cypress Hills country near Elkwater, Alberta. The road is winding and there are wild horses and deer in the rolling hills. As we pull into Eagle’s nest, a rush of adrenaline comes over me. I can’t believe we’re here. We reminisce for a moment of the five months past in preparation to this day.
The scenery is magnificent. The hills in the background look like a painting from an old Western film, wide open blue sky and the silhouette of the Montana Rockies. Taking in all there is to see, we pull up to the YWAM building, nestled in the trees; Just as I had imagined, rustic mountain lodge style, perfect.
We were greeted by Enoch, a true Korean cowboy, and Jen, his wife, who is expecting any day now. We’re led to our room-our new home for the next three months. Our own bathroom! (YAY! But, no water…yet) In no time we’re settled in and it’s feeling cozy. We set off to explore.
The staff is small and we soon have met everyone. So far, only one other student has arrived. Aime is a middle-aged gentleman from southern Manitoba. There are five more students to arrive yet. We met the Islanders during dinner of “poor mans’ steak & schwarties” which was delicious.
“The Islanders” are a group, called Island Breeze, from Samoa, a small island in the South Pacific. They are loud and crazy and hilarious. They are part of another DTS which began mid-September called New Waves. They do mostly evangelism through Polynesian Dance and story telling. It is quite something to watch!
We did a bit more socializing, and then turned in early. It’s so nice to be home.
Thursday was pretty relaxed. More students arrived, Shane & Nikki Fox and Christina Dyke. We did some team building exercises and visited a bit. Lectures don’t start until Tuesday.
Luke made a new friend- David Knoch, son of the YWAM director. David is 12 and loves to skateboard, so he and Luke rolled around the skate park for a while. I plunked out some chords on the old piano in the student lounge. I think it’s coming back to me?
Thursday night, there was a welcome dinner for the new DTS. We had a poem writing contest between each table. We began with a keyword, which was chosen at random.
Our table won for most creative. Our key word was Jalepeno. It was a love ballad. It was pretty much the best poem I’ve ever written. (I’m not sure what Jen did with our poem… but I’ll post it if I can find it!)
Friday morning we were up very, very early (due to a bit of a miscommunication). Once we got it figured out, we went back to sleep for a bit. We began the morning sharing our testimonies. We sat by a roaring fire drinking tea and sharing our hearts. It is always an emotional time with laughter and tears and prayer and vision. It was an awesome time. We went for lunch at about 12:30. Shane and Nikki and Christina left shortly after, back to Medicine Hat. Theirs is a bit of a special situation as they have children and arent’ living at the ranch. We have a neat dynamic. A typical DTS is young people age 18-21. We have two newly married couples, a young family, a mid thirties single mother of two teenage boys, and a retired business man. (We are also waiting on confirmation from a young man from Zambia) We are quite the melting pot, but family all the same.
Friday afternoon, a bunch of us climbed the hill to “Prayer Mountain”, a high point overlooking the entire valley. There is a beautiful, cozy gazebo up there with a wood burning heater. It was a beautiful afternoon, though the wind was strong, but warm. We shared some funny stories for couple of hours. Mostly about Bear and his many broken bones.
After dinner, Luke and I jammed it up with one of the DTS leaders, Jon, more popularly known as “Bear”. Jon on the electric guitar, Luke on the drums and I on the bongos, we played together for a couple of hours. It was so much fun.
We ended the evening playing a few rounds of dumb Dutchman with Aime and headed to bed.
Saturday morning, we finished sharing our testimonies. It was such a cool time of getting to know one another. Late afternoon, Bruce got a bunch of us together to go down the zip line. We got harnessed up and climbed the eighty foot pole, crossed the (very wobbly) rope ladder & waited to jump off the platform across the 200+ ft zip line. Luke dove off head first, but not with out a bit of hesitation. I just scooted off from a squatting position… the free-fall aspect always takes my breath away! It was so fun! I think the whole crew went down, except the littlest girls.
Sunday morning, Aime, Bear, Luke & I got in Aime’s truck and drove into the Hat to go to church. We went to the Link. We arrived about 25 minutes early, but many were already there. Just as I was wishing we had stopped at Starbuck’s, I saw they have a full-on coffee bar! We ordered a couple lattes and visited a bit. There were three baptisms that morning which were awesome and inspiring. The sermon was sweet and I got hooked up with a cousin of mine who I haven’t seen in a long time. (Kind of a neat story- I knew she was in the Hat, but I didn’t have her info. I got a bulletin for some reason. I sat down and noticed an ad for kitchen helpers and my cousin was the contact person. I looked for her but I didn’t see her. I emailed her, and now we’re going to have lunch this Sunday. Cool hey?)
We went to Shane & Nikki’s for lunch. I played Barbie’s with Sola, their daughter. We shopped the rest of the afternoon and headed back to the ranch around 4:30. We stopped in Elkwater on the way to check out Aime’s brothers “cabin” (which was amazingly lovely.) WE got a bit lost on the way back, as in we almost went to Saskatchewan, and then we almost went to Montana. We made it back, but too late for dinner. I wasn’t feeling great (car sick?) so I napped. At about 8:00 we were invited to Enoch and Jen’s for some food. They had prepared Korean salad rolls and they were amazing! Kind of make-your-own style. I finally know the perfect way to cook those finicky rice papers, too. The rolls were followed by a few heated rounds of Dutch Blitz. Around midnight, we decided we should go to bed.
Monday is our “day-off” so we slept in til 10 or so. We lazed around all day and didn’t really do anything. Luke and I went for a long walk down to the main road and talked about what we would do if we saw a cougar. We hung out in the classroom in the evening and had planned to watch a movie, but ended up re-wiring the sound system, mounting the projector from the ceiling and washing the floor. We finally started a movie around 10:00. WE watched “The Promotion” which was very funny, but I was regretting it when I got to bed at 11:45, and even more this morning at 7:00 this morning.
Today is Tuesday October 21, 2008. It snowed this morning and it’s really cold. We had a really cool time of worship this morning with all staff and students on the base. Our first speaker was here today to lecture, too. Her name is Peggy Christiansen. She is about 75 years old, a little bit of a thing, but a powerhouse. We are really looking forward to this week. The topic is Intimacy with God. I am loving this profound subject to go along with this cozy and personal atmosphere. Our afternoon lecture was John Knoch, the director, on Prayer and Intersession. So, today we kind of got a taste for what the rest of the term is going to be like. The schedule is very flexible, though, which is cool. We have four book studies to complete as well as a weekly journal assignment, which will be stretching for all in one way or another. We have work duties each afternoon. Free time in the evenings, most of the time.
Luke is strumming on his guitar right now. We have both resolved to tap into our musical dreams this season. Now since we have time and access to many instruments, music and mentor.
I think we’re gonna hit up the hot tub tonight.
WE will try to write daily now, though it is a challenge. I am kinda back-tracking here, but we desire to give a bit of a glimpse into our daily life and what we are learning. Neither of us are really writers, but hopefully you enjoy our blog! If you have any questions, please comment.
Blessings!
Luke & Barbie
We arrived to the YWAM base at Eagle’s Nest Ranch Wednesday October 15, 2008 about 3:00 pm; A crisp, still day in the Cypress Hills country near Elkwater, Alberta. The road is winding and there are wild horses and deer in the rolling hills. As we pull into Eagle’s nest, a rush of adrenaline comes over me. I can’t believe we’re here. We reminisce for a moment of the five months past in preparation to this day.
The scenery is magnificent. The hills in the background look like a painting from an old Western film, wide open blue sky and the silhouette of the Montana Rockies. Taking in all there is to see, we pull up to the YWAM building, nestled in the trees; Just as I had imagined, rustic mountain lodge style, perfect.
We were greeted by Enoch, a true Korean cowboy, and Jen, his wife, who is expecting any day now. We’re led to our room-our new home for the next three months. Our own bathroom! (YAY! But, no water…yet) In no time we’re settled in and it’s feeling cozy. We set off to explore.
The staff is small and we soon have met everyone. So far, only one other student has arrived. Aime is a middle-aged gentleman from southern Manitoba. There are five more students to arrive yet. We met the Islanders during dinner of “poor mans’ steak & schwarties” which was delicious.
“The Islanders” are a group, called Island Breeze, from Samoa, a small island in the South Pacific. They are loud and crazy and hilarious. They are part of another DTS which began mid-September called New Waves. They do mostly evangelism through Polynesian Dance and story telling. It is quite something to watch!
We did a bit more socializing, and then turned in early. It’s so nice to be home.
Thursday was pretty relaxed. More students arrived, Shane & Nikki Fox and Christina Dyke. We did some team building exercises and visited a bit. Lectures don’t start until Tuesday.
Luke made a new friend- David Knoch, son of the YWAM director. David is 12 and loves to skateboard, so he and Luke rolled around the skate park for a while. I plunked out some chords on the old piano in the student lounge. I think it’s coming back to me?
Thursday night, there was a welcome dinner for the new DTS. We had a poem writing contest between each table. We began with a keyword, which was chosen at random.
Our table won for most creative. Our key word was Jalepeno. It was a love ballad. It was pretty much the best poem I’ve ever written. (I’m not sure what Jen did with our poem… but I’ll post it if I can find it!)
Friday morning we were up very, very early (due to a bit of a miscommunication). Once we got it figured out, we went back to sleep for a bit. We began the morning sharing our testimonies. We sat by a roaring fire drinking tea and sharing our hearts. It is always an emotional time with laughter and tears and prayer and vision. It was an awesome time. We went for lunch at about 12:30. Shane and Nikki and Christina left shortly after, back to Medicine Hat. Theirs is a bit of a special situation as they have children and arent’ living at the ranch. We have a neat dynamic. A typical DTS is young people age 18-21. We have two newly married couples, a young family, a mid thirties single mother of two teenage boys, and a retired business man. (We are also waiting on confirmation from a young man from Zambia) We are quite the melting pot, but family all the same.
Friday afternoon, a bunch of us climbed the hill to “Prayer Mountain”, a high point overlooking the entire valley. There is a beautiful, cozy gazebo up there with a wood burning heater. It was a beautiful afternoon, though the wind was strong, but warm. We shared some funny stories for couple of hours. Mostly about Bear and his many broken bones.
After dinner, Luke and I jammed it up with one of the DTS leaders, Jon, more popularly known as “Bear”. Jon on the electric guitar, Luke on the drums and I on the bongos, we played together for a couple of hours. It was so much fun.
We ended the evening playing a few rounds of dumb Dutchman with Aime and headed to bed.
Saturday morning, we finished sharing our testimonies. It was such a cool time of getting to know one another. Late afternoon, Bruce got a bunch of us together to go down the zip line. We got harnessed up and climbed the eighty foot pole, crossed the (very wobbly) rope ladder & waited to jump off the platform across the 200+ ft zip line. Luke dove off head first, but not with out a bit of hesitation. I just scooted off from a squatting position… the free-fall aspect always takes my breath away! It was so fun! I think the whole crew went down, except the littlest girls.
Sunday morning, Aime, Bear, Luke & I got in Aime’s truck and drove into the Hat to go to church. We went to the Link. We arrived about 25 minutes early, but many were already there. Just as I was wishing we had stopped at Starbuck’s, I saw they have a full-on coffee bar! We ordered a couple lattes and visited a bit. There were three baptisms that morning which were awesome and inspiring. The sermon was sweet and I got hooked up with a cousin of mine who I haven’t seen in a long time. (Kind of a neat story- I knew she was in the Hat, but I didn’t have her info. I got a bulletin for some reason. I sat down and noticed an ad for kitchen helpers and my cousin was the contact person. I looked for her but I didn’t see her. I emailed her, and now we’re going to have lunch this Sunday. Cool hey?)
We went to Shane & Nikki’s for lunch. I played Barbie’s with Sola, their daughter. We shopped the rest of the afternoon and headed back to the ranch around 4:30. We stopped in Elkwater on the way to check out Aime’s brothers “cabin” (which was amazingly lovely.) WE got a bit lost on the way back, as in we almost went to Saskatchewan, and then we almost went to Montana. We made it back, but too late for dinner. I wasn’t feeling great (car sick?) so I napped. At about 8:00 we were invited to Enoch and Jen’s for some food. They had prepared Korean salad rolls and they were amazing! Kind of make-your-own style. I finally know the perfect way to cook those finicky rice papers, too. The rolls were followed by a few heated rounds of Dutch Blitz. Around midnight, we decided we should go to bed.
Monday is our “day-off” so we slept in til 10 or so. We lazed around all day and didn’t really do anything. Luke and I went for a long walk down to the main road and talked about what we would do if we saw a cougar. We hung out in the classroom in the evening and had planned to watch a movie, but ended up re-wiring the sound system, mounting the projector from the ceiling and washing the floor. We finally started a movie around 10:00. WE watched “The Promotion” which was very funny, but I was regretting it when I got to bed at 11:45, and even more this morning at 7:00 this morning.
Today is Tuesday October 21, 2008. It snowed this morning and it’s really cold. We had a really cool time of worship this morning with all staff and students on the base. Our first speaker was here today to lecture, too. Her name is Peggy Christiansen. She is about 75 years old, a little bit of a thing, but a powerhouse. We are really looking forward to this week. The topic is Intimacy with God. I am loving this profound subject to go along with this cozy and personal atmosphere. Our afternoon lecture was John Knoch, the director, on Prayer and Intersession. So, today we kind of got a taste for what the rest of the term is going to be like. The schedule is very flexible, though, which is cool. We have four book studies to complete as well as a weekly journal assignment, which will be stretching for all in one way or another. We have work duties each afternoon. Free time in the evenings, most of the time.
Luke is strumming on his guitar right now. We have both resolved to tap into our musical dreams this season. Now since we have time and access to many instruments, music and mentor.
I think we’re gonna hit up the hot tub tonight.
WE will try to write daily now, though it is a challenge. I am kinda back-tracking here, but we desire to give a bit of a glimpse into our daily life and what we are learning. Neither of us are really writers, but hopefully you enjoy our blog! If you have any questions, please comment.
Blessings!
Luke & Barbie
Monday, October 13, 2008
The first couple days
We are on our way
Yeah we rolled up or down depending on what your view of the south is. I say it's up because it's warmer so it people say "if things go south" just think to your self "yeah! Warmth." Or you konw what ever.
We are currently at Barbie's dad's house. It's in Ft. Mc Leod. It's sweet. He, Murray, lives here with his wife, Judy, in a hundred year old house which is totally redone and it's very cool. We came for turkey on Saturday & Sunday. Another interesting fact about this house is that there are currently ten dogs that live here, too. Yeah that's what I said- there are TEN dogs. Nine of them are weiner dogs, Fletcher, Gimli, Lily & six are nameless, given that they are 4 week old baby weiners, which are megga cute (and for sale on kijiji.ca buy now). The other one is a blind, ragga-muffin called Jasper. (I don't know what kinda dog, cocker spaniel maybe?) . So ya, life is good we are really excited to go to the hat and seek the Lords will for us.
In a few hours we'll be off to the Hat to stay a couple of days before heading out to Eagle's Nest Ranch on Wednesday morning. We'll write more when we get there!
Sunday, October 5, 2008
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