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

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!

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