Arrival

Well I'm finally here! I've made it through one of the most stressful semesters and am at the place I've been looking forward to the entire time.   I was a little anxious on my way here Tuesday but as soon as Turk picked me up at the airport I was much more at ease.  The first thing that stood out to me: the trees and mountains - wow! I've never lived my mountains before and it is so gorgeous. Unfortunately it's been rainy since I got here, but it still makes the mountains look cool.  It's supposed to be sunny tomorrow so I'm really looking forward to that!  Today at 4:00 I'm going to the Gems year end retreat with Trish. We'll be at a beach house with the 20 girls that attend Gems and we'll walk on the beach, play games etc.  I haven't seen the ocean from the ground yet so another thing to look forward to!
 So far I've just been settling in at the church.  The first day I went to the church staff meeting, set up my office a bit - yea I have an office! - and that night there was a youth event for picking up garbage on the side of the road.  Turk and I had one street so we got that done and then went back to the church and I met a few of the people in youth group - I'm going to have a lot of names to learn!
Yesterday I worked with Trish on a devotional I'm going to do for the Gems and wrote my schedule out and read a little.  Since Turk has been here, he's started a focus on building faith at home.  It's a focus that is continually growing all over North America.  There are a few books about it written by Mark Holmen so I'm making my way through them.

So I'm taking my time writing this blog and I just got back from the Gems retreat and it was sooo great!!  The beach house was beautiful! It had two fully furnished cabins each with a kitchen, living room, bedroom, and bathroom.  The main house had a ton of room with three kitchens and everything was decorated so beautifully! It belongs to a member of the church and she lets people in her community use it for retreats etc.  It had a great view of the water and mainland mountains and was on a higher area of land so you had to walk down a bunch of steps to get the water.  We had campfires and went to the park and looked for shells when the tide was down and just hung out. It was so great to be outside and playing.  It was also a great way to meet more people because when you're busy doing things there isn't so much empty space to try and think of things to say, I could just become familiar with the community a bit more. 
So now I'm back and going to relax for the night.  I have to go to bed early because I'm singing in the praise team tomorrow and we're meeting at 7:45am to practice.  Things are going really great and I'm looking forward to meeting more people and doing more things!

Intro

So for those of you who don't know, a Nanaimo bar is a wonderful dessert/square made with chocolate, coconut, more chocolate and vanilla custard/icing.  While it may not sound all that temping, believe me, they are known for their awesomeness! They are very often the first to go off of the party platter, possibly only second to those awesome brownies that are half cocoa butter. This year I was surprised to learn that these wonderful treats are Canadian! Rumour has it they were invented in the city of Nanaimo, BC, on Vancouver Island, which is why I am writing this blog (no, I'm not going to be talking about squares of chocolate the whole time).  For 10 weeks this summer, I will have the amazing opportunity to be in Nanaimo doing an internship at Christ Community Church.  I am doing this through a Calvin program called the Jubilee Fellowship, which takes 12 junior students, has them in a class about ministry and then sends them all over North America to work in different churches. During my time in Nanaimo I will be learning and working in the areas of Worship Leading, Youth Ministry, and Pastoral Care. I am living with the pastor, Turk, and his wife Trish and their two sons David (15) and Nathan (11).  I actually am already in Nanaimo, but I'll write about that in my next post:)