Shred the Gnar!

As we woke up Monday morning this is what we saw....
If you can't see what it is, that's because what we saw was nothing, literally. The power was out. This led to a lot of fun for room 212 (my room), we just happened to have a 50 million candle power flashlight and a generator powered stereo. So not only did we have light, we had some sick tunes. It was pretty good until we had to load into the vans in the dark, rainy, windy weather that dampened our spirits, it was already early enough as it was (5AM). It didn't take long for all of us to fall asleep once again and this time we were greeted a lot nicer.....
It was kind of like that feeling when you wake up Christmas morning to find that it snowed the night before, except this time we knew that playing in this snow was going to involve some serious shredding of the gnar.
I must say I was not fully excited to be going out in the snow to snowboard. Josh if you read this you may remember our last adventure at Poley Mountain, it did not end well to say the least. So this time around I was definitely not stoked to bump and bruise my body all over again this week but I sucked in a gust of fresh air, grabbed my helmet and wrist guards and set out to try my best at this sport.
Boy was I glad that our God is a God who conquers fear. My experience snowboarding was by far one of the most amazing experiences I have had all year. I was not only able to stand on my snowboard, I have learned the art of shredding the gnar! And what an experience it is to fly down a hill with the cool air blowing in your face as you watch this.....

















While snowboarding was an experience in itself to see the scenery that surrounded us was another experience in itself. You almost forgot that you came to the top of the mountain to snowboard down because you were so enraptured by the views there.
Though all of our fun this week wasn't just snowboarding. We also had the opportunity to go snowshoeing.....














.....We also got to build snow caves while on our snowshoe excursion. It was a really sweet time and if you are able to tell, we built ours 6 feet deep before we started the actual tunnel portion.
Yeah, this trip had some pretty rad times but also some really good serious times. Each evening we had chapel and some of the special chapels we did were naming chapels. However the naming we did was special, we prayed and identified names for each other that characterized a little of who we are and also fit something into who we could grow into. It was a really good bonding experience for us as a Kaleo team and if you're interested in knowing all the names check out the main blog at http://kaleoseven.blogspot.com but for just a taste, mine is Pilgrim, one who journeys.

I'm feeling a little blank right now, with all the assignments that are coming up and being due along with everything else that has been going on I haven't had a whole lot of time to think so I hope this is enough for you to see into my world for this week. Please continue to pray for us as we prepare to go to the Olympics (2 weeks I think). For now I wish you all well and hope that each of you has your own opportunity to shred the gnar of your life.

Love ya,
Nick

An Eclectic Journey of Cougars, Homeless, and Camp

Well my friends, I simply must say that this week has been quite eclectic. We started with an Olympic meeting then had two days of class with an exam for our missions course squeezed in there. Then the week ended with all the full time staff leaving us Kaleo's and our Kaleo sitters (past Kaleo students Nikki Parker and Tyler Cassidy) all on our lonesome for the weekend. All the while we have been working feverishly (not) on our homework that is becoming more and more due as time goes by. So where to start my adventures.... I guess where most of my thoughts have been this week, camp.

For the two days of class we have had this week we have taken Camp Ministry with none other than our fearless leader, Jim Badke. I must say that I have been impressed to learn things such as camp being God's idea as well as the importance of having a well developed leadership/staff team. I could not help but think of my experiences this past summer at camp and relating every word Jim said in lecture to my experiences. Then again in our discussion groups I was able to gain more knowledge from my fellow students about their camps back home. Camp is truly an amazing place to be, but as we learned it is a place that cannot be lived in forever. It is a place of refueling or preparation for the rest of the world, kind of like a diving board. We do not build our house on the end of a diving board, we use it to launch ourselves into the rest of life. I must say that it was exciting to hear the words of wisdom from this camp veteran.

I want to briefly mention the awesome adventure Nikki Parker and I had as we went searching for Tyler on Friday night. You see, Tyler went to lock up the camp then about an hour later (12:30AM or so) we realized he wasn't back. Naturally, Nikki feared for his life. Another piece of background is that sometime last week, when a few of the girls went for a night walk, they saw a cougar who was apparently stalking them. So Nikki and I set out with Roscoe (Claire's dog) and a large umbrella as a weapon to search for Tyler. We searched and searched but no Tyler, so when we returned we just happened to think to check out the house behind the dorm and lo and behold he had been there the whole time. Oh well, I had fun cougar hunting, I mean looking for Tyler :P

Homeless ministry this evening was also another highlight. We ran into one of the guys that we have seen a few times. Dave is his name. It was good to catch up with him after being gone for the break. We asked him about the new shelter that was put up and he said that he managed to get a room in there. We were pleased to hear that. We were slightly disappointed that there weren't as many people out tonight to talk with but we were glad to get some prayer walking done too.
It was after our downtown session and headed back to Shane's house for a debrief that the mood got quite heavy. Shane brought up the idea that usually there are two types of people in the world. The first live for the moment and don't think too much about the future. The other is the opposite, always planning for the future. However there are problems with each stance, if we always are planning our days out, are we leaving room for God to do miracles in our life? On the other hand, if we are always living in the moment, how are we helping God set up our future? Just two thoughts to think about, I know that often I can think too much about the future and not live enough in the moment. It's funny that Shane brought this up because this is something I have been thinking about and wrestling with.
So I want to turn it over to you, where do stand? Are you planning out every step of your way or are you too loose with your plans each day? Where do you think the balance is?

Anyway, I hope that's enough food for thought for now. I know it is for me, I need to get some sleep because we have our big snowboarding/ski trip this week. That might be good for you to know, I won't be around this week because of that, send me your messages anyway and I'll look forward to reading them next weekend.

Love ya,
Nick

Beyond Our Own Personal Bubble....

Well it's been a while since I gave everyone an update. I apologize that I didn't at least wish you all a Merry Christmas, so I now wish you a belated Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. The reason for my absence was for nothing more than Christmas break in which I spent many lovely hours at home with my fam jam eating many glorious meals and baking many enjoyable delights. All in all I had a very restful Christmas and was ready to return to Kaleo with a fresh and rested state of mind.

Yet again I want to just dive into the action with you; it is always much better to just jump in the water than to slowly wade in, much less painful I find. We began the second half of our Kaleo journey with many trips to the airport and much rejoicing to see everyone yet again. I amazed even myself with the amount of joy that I had to see all of my friends once again. It affirmed how much we as a community are growing to love each other. I so wish I could convey that to you, but it is something that is really only known when felt. Reuniting is quite a beautiful thing, it makes me wonder what the great reunion at the end of this age will be like.... One day we will know.

Our first course of the semester was definitely the right way to start. It was Theology of Mission with Tim Stabell. I must say that I thought I knew what there was to know about missions, but I'm glad I was wrong. I've definitely had my world rocked by learning that mission originally began in the Old Testament with a promise to Abraham, "All the peoples of the earth will be blessed through you." (Genesis 12:3) It was in this promise that we can know that God will reach out to all peoples of the earth to redeem them. Not only was this a class where I had much learning, and there was much of that, but I really felt God's call into long-term mission. As we talked in class my heart broke to see that the number of long-term missionaries has not gone up over the past 40 years. To know that as the world's population increases, we are not sending more missionaries for the long haul is frightening, especially when there are people in the world who have never even heard of Jesus or even that there is a God out there who loves them. 27% of the world has never had the experience of hearing that. So I am excited to see in what capacity God is calling me and I'd love to discuss that more but I have one more thing to say and I don't want to talk your ear off just yet, so you'll just need to comment on this post :) :P

A final thing I would like to ask, and in the spirit of mission this is perfect, I would like you all to be praying for our mission trip that we as a Kaleo team are going on. Our mission is going to be volunteering at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics. This is a very exciting opportunity and you may ask how this is a mission trip. The Olympics is not allowing any religious or political group to be a part of their programs or sites. This means that they are essentially shutting out the Kingdom of God except if there are volunteers who come individually. While there we will be able to pray and serve in the name of Christ in a way that most others will not be able to. That is how this is a ministry trip. I would love if you would begin to pray for divine opportunities to share the good news of Christ and endurance in both the physical aspect and the spiritual aspect. We want God to move mightily through us and so I would ask that you pray God does big things, he is a big God so please ask Him to live up to His name while working through us.

Well if your eyes aren't bleeding by now from staring at a screen too long, I'm very glad. Thanks for continuing to support me in all my endeavors as I journey on this path called Kaleo. I look forward to yet again chatting with each of you so please send me a message if you need me to clarify anything, it really is hard to fit one and a half weeks in one page.

Love ya,
Nick

I Have A Dream....

Well to begin this post I just want to say that Foundations of Church Ministry was quite a pleasure this week, cheers to Dr. David Ernst our fine professor with a wealth of knowledge and experience. To outline the course we answered 5 main questions, What is the Church, What is the purpose of the Church, Who leads the Church, What is my contribution to the Church, and What if there are problems in my Church? If you have any questions about the course I'd be glad to answer them but for now I want to take a shift in direction and answer a question that was asked in response to my last post, "Have you had any more thoughts about what you would like to do after Kaleo"

I've given this just a bit of thought while being here and I want to tell you about a dream that has been placed in my heart. I would ask that you pray for me and where this dream has its place in my life. My dream is to walk through the world, not around it, but walk to many countries throughout the world. My why? To spend time with God, it'll be just me, Him, and His Word.

It's definitely a radical idea, one that wouldn't just take a few years. It would be a lifetime decision. I found a website about a person who did this to fulfill a childhood dream and he's looking at finishing in 18 years in the year 2010. It is a decision I don't want to make hastily and have taken about 10 weeks to mull it over since the original thought came to me on Mt. Albert-Edward. A lot of my thoughts have changed already and I am now looking at a few new questions. When I presented the idea to Jim I originally had thought that I would be an Apostle like Paul because not only would I be spending time with God but I would be telling as many people as I could about Jesus along my journey. However as Jim has taught me, an Apostle is not one who just gets up and goes but an Apostle is one who is sent.

It is thoughts such as these that are shaping where my thoughts are now drifting as I think of a world journey. Currently I am looking to answer two questions that Jim posed to me as well as doing research on people who have done something similar to what I would like to do. The first question is to find out why others have done it and the second is to find out if there are people who would send me. I'm not sure where this thought, this dream, is going to take me but I'm going to do the research, pray a whole lot, and ask you to partner with me in prayer. I would really love some feedback on this, my dream of a world journey. What are your thoughts? What are questions that you think I should be asking myself? Please join me in prayer and I can't wait to hear from you.

Love always, your dreamer,
Nick VanSnick

James Video

Here's the video that a group of us did when we studied the book of James for Hermeneutics, sorry it took so long to get up, we had a few technical difficulties.


Thanks to Katie, Jade, Ellie, Jess, Tim, and Mark for all their contributions to the group.

Mission Possible

If there was any week that we have had that had a specific mission I would say that this week was that week. The focus for our mission this week - Prayer. We had a 24/7 prayer week. We set aside a room in our lodge and at all hours this week there was someone from the Kaleo team praying.

As for the prayer that took place, I can say that there was quite a range of things. From all the notes to God or each other that were posted around the room there were hurts healed, encouragements shared, and praises poured out to God. I can't tell you what it was like to be in that room. The presence of God had a thickness about it there. It's kind of like when you walk into a fog, you can feel it. It was in here that my heart continually broke for the lost of this world. It began with a simple statement of, "Lord, please undo the works of the enemy in Duncan" then turned into full out tears for those that I know who do not have a hope in Jesus Christ. I'm not exactly sure to the full extent of what is going to take place because of this week but I do know one thing, prayer is powerful. So I would ask that you continue to pray for the homeless community in Duncan, partner with me in asking God to heal the brokenness there. If you feel uncertain on what to pray for, I'll keep you updated but check out my last post and keep at least Darrell in your prayers.

With prayer being our focus this week we also had a lot of 'free time'. However this time was spent mostly writing and researching for our Old Testament paper that was due on Friday. I must say that I thoroughly enjoyed this paper, however it did take me a little longer to do the research than I would have liked. My thesis this time was solid too which was really sweet. The only problem with taking so much time with my OT Paper was that I didn't quite get enough time for my Church Ministry pre-course work. The crunch hurt a little bit but I'm not too worried, I'm learning a great deal from the books I'm learning.

I'm super pumped for the Church Ministry course, we had our first class today and I must say it is quite amazing. So in light of my experience with both prayer and school work this week, I want to ask two questions of you. What has your experience with prayer been like? and What have you been learning this week?

Can't wait to hear from all of you, I love you guys lots,

Nick VanSnick

It's The Little Things That Mean So Much....

Tonight I want to do things a little differently with my blog. There's been a lot that has happened this week and I don't want to demean that in anyway, Old Testament Literature is a great course. But I want to let you guys into my heart this week and it begins with a quote from Darrell the homeless guy I met tonight, "It's the little things that mean so much."

As we set out tonight for our prayer walk in Duncan with the homeless ministry it was cold and raining. However I had my mind set on getting to the park that I have done my best to be faithful in praying for each week. There was one slight difference this time, there were three guys sitting under a shop's overhang out of the rain. So they said hi and we naturally stopped to chat. I was, and still am, amazed at the amount of joy that one of the guys, Darrell, had at the opportunity to just chat with someone. He said how so many people walk by all day and no one even stops to nod but we stopped just to talk for a few minutes. "It's the little things that mean so much." He kept on saying that, we started talking about other things and as soon as the topic was waning he would say it again. He was so full of joy in this small deed, this little thing that we wanted to talk to him. His joy made my day.

After these guys left, they had to catch the bus to the homeless shelter, we continued our prayer walk to the park all the while I couldn't get those 8 words out of my head. When we got the park and started praying again I felt so useless, so hopeless, that what I was doing didn't seem to have any impact. Then those words came to me again, "It's the little things that mean so much." I finally understood, maybe what I offer God isn't very much, how can it be when He is infinite, but it means so much.

Something we have been talking about after our time downtown prayer walking is this idea of being faithful. Sometimes we get to talk to people but since I've been going, about 6 weeks now and I have only had the chance to talk to people twice, and sometimes we don't. The fact is that we are being faithful in this small deed. Faithful in praying that God will undo the works of the enemy in Duncan and that God will come and reign there. It may not be much but God has given us an opportunity to be faithful to Him and we have stepped up to the challenge.

So I want to bring it back to you, what are some of the small things you have been faithful in? Is there anything small that you should begin to be faithful in? What are the little things that you can do that will mean so much?

Love your brother in Christ,
Nick VanSnick