I'm Finally Here!

It seems like we've been here months, but in reality it's just over a week, and my how we've packed the days! The first four days were busy morning to evening with orientation, meetings and training. On Wednesday we got back from a grueling 3 day backpacking trip, the destination being the summit of Mt. Albert-Edwards.
The first Saturday night we were supposed to chose which church we would serve in for the entirety of the year. I thought, wow that's a little risky. What if I don't like my church? I agonized for the entire evening between two churches that appealed to me on paper. I met with the Kaleo leaders many times and still felt no peace with the choice I would be making. Then my friend offered some wise insight. You shouldn't choose the church that you want to go to, you should chose the one that needs you the most. My decision took 2 minutes after that. I ended up joining New Life Community Baptist Church (www.newlifechurch.bc.ca), neither of the two that I was considering before. So far it's been an excellent decision. I will be helping out in youth ministries on Friday nights.
This past weekend has been a hectic one, trying to balance serving, fun, and homework into the seemingly too-short nights. Since we are at camp (www.qwanoes.ca) there are many groups that use the facilities year-round. This weekend I was able to help out with the massive task of hosting the entire student leadership team of Trinity Western University, comprised of about 350 university students. Friday night saw a lot of kitchen and dishpit help. It was definitely hard to serve with a willing and joyful heart. Being around awesome people made it better, but it was still difficult to have a servants heart while cutting 400 pies and stacking a thousand dishes. It's interesting the attitude that comes when you're serving the church and you want to complain. There were many times that I express my dissatisfaction and say that the job is too exhausting, but I felt if I did so, that would cross the line between work, and serving Christ. Serving only comes with a servants heart. If you serve with a grudge in your heart, it is not serving, it is working without getting paid. The other area where I was able to serve this weekend was in the camp's challenge course. This consists of a 4 sided rock wall, a huge zipline, a few other lower "rides", and a massive, 80 foot swing. I was helping belay people up a tree and letting them jump (harnessed in) off it. I also helped unhook people from the zipline after they had screamed their pants off. It was fun being able to serve in a camp setting, although these campers were significantly over. I got a huge sense of accomplishment from sacrificing study and fun time to help this group get the most out of their weekend.
On Thursday we're taking off on a 100 foot wooden sailing ship to saunter around the Pacific ocean for 4 days. Hope you landlubbers have a great week back home!