Flips, Boards, and Text Books. What More Do You Need?

Well Folks, I have a very exciting post for all of you today. This week felt like one giant weekend. We did some pretty adventurous things this week and also spent a lot of time indoors with homework. At the beginning of the week we had our Gospels exam which was not near as bad as I thought it was going to be. Then we went into Ditch the Genders Round 2 on Tuesday. I can testify for the guys that we had a pretty amazing time. We did a bit of an amazing race/Manly challenges time with a slip n' slide, stairs climb, running around in the woods, building a boat, and mountain boarding. We ended it all by doing what all men like to do - Eat Steak! After Steak we headed back to the lodge where we proceeded to bring all our mattresses down to the lounge and beat each other with them and then decide to do flips over couches onto them. It was a good time, then it got even better when we built a huge fort that we were able to sleep in. Then in the morning we went Rock Climbing at a climbing gym in Nanaimo. We had some pretty sic adventure times and bonding times with conversation in the fort before bed.

After DTG was over most people got right to work on their Camp Ministry papers that were due on Friday. We had to make sure to get as much work done as we could so that we wouldn't need to worry about it on Thursday when we went.....SNOWBOARDING!! We had some pretty sweet times on the hill on Thursday. I chilled with Mark and Jess in the morning then an assortment of others in the afternoon. I even managed to catch some air while boarding too. I hit the jump, landed, said, "Yes! I landed it," then fell over :P It was still a good time though, my roommates (Bob and James) and I even got our room picture at the top of the mountain (It's at the end). Then did a room bonding t-shirt run.

I have spent quite a bit of time doing homework over the weekend and have learned what it feels like to write a paper in a single day. (I've done that twice over the course of 4 days). Besides that I've worked in the kitchen, gone to church, and went downtown to hang out with homeless people this weekend. My head feels very full tonight as I write and I am looking forward to the next couple days surfing and relaxing. Mostly being able to think. I read a very challenging book for my Gospels paper that I finished today. It's called "The Cost of Discipleship" by Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Two of the quotes from the book that I have been thinking about are, "Christianity without discipleship is always Christianity without Christ" and, "only he who believes is obedient, and only he who is obedient believes." Two very challenging statements that make me wonder if perhaps I've focused too much on grace and not enough on what it actually means to follow Christ. Jesus did say that we should count the cost of following him before jumping on board (Luke 14:28-30, 9:57-58) and that price is to give up everything to follow him.

Anyway, those are my weary thoughts after a long day of paper writing. If you've got questions for me I'd love to hear them. I think my question for you would be, what questions should I be asking myself as the end of Kaleo (the beginning of the rest of my life) is drawing near? Please pray earnestly for us as we discover more and more what it means to leave this green house that we have been in for the past 7 months and go back into the world.

God Bless,
nICK vANsNICK

PS Bonus points for anyone who can tell me something special about the first picture :)