Picture time and reflections.

So I now have less than 2 weeks left here, which is something I've been processing for the last week. I don't know what it's going to be like to leave because it's a new thing for me.  So I'll just have to wait and see.
These past two weeks have been really good though.  Last weekend Allison came to visit me and we have a great time exploring Vancouver, Victoria, and Nanaimo. It was awesome to have her here and I'm glad I got to see a little more of BC.And we had great weather, which is more that can be said for this week - rain and clouds every day:( It's amazing how much the weather affects my mood, most of the days this week I felt like I never really full woke up.  But I kept busy with work and reading and movies.  Mostly this week I've been making a record of all the songs the church has for the praise teams. I had my last official visit at the hospital this Thursday. I had 1 1/2 hours and was planning on visiting 2-3 people but instead ended up spending it all with a woman named Eda. She obviously loves to talk and has a few stories she tells over and over, but it was great to just sit with her and listen.  Her mother grew up in Budapest which I think is really cool.  Next week I'll do another Hymn Sing on Wednesday and I'm looking forward to it. 
I love experiencing that transition of feeling really uncomfortable in a certain area or with certain people but then as you spend more time with them you're apprehensions start to fall away and you can begin to relax and interact one human to another.  I feel like I've been through that lesson so many times and will continue to learn it over and over again.  I had the same lesson while working with the food bank the church hosts each Monday.  I've been getting to know a few people that come each week and on Friday I was walking around downtown and ran into a few of them and it was so great to just stop and chat.  It's amazing how God continually strips away our judgements to bring out his love. I'm so thankful he hasn't given up on me yet.
This Sunday service went really well once again.  I was singing again and I got to watch the congregation come to life as they took streamers in their hands and began to worship God with their whole bodies.  I love seeing the kids run up and down, grabbing this streamer or that shaker and showing their sibling or parent.  There is such a great energy in each service.  There is no forth wall between the congregation and leaders but full communion where we can be our true selves together and praise God for it. It's a really beautiful thing to see and be a part of. 
The suns out!! I just turned around to look out the window and there it was! There's no blue sky but it's breaking through light clouds! Yay sun!
So I haven't posted any pictures yet so I'm going to make up for it now. Here they are:) 

View from Turkstra's house.

Downtown Harbor

In Vancouver watching game 6

Christ Community Church

The sanctuary, before July

My office:)

Visual for July 3, Cloud of Witnesses

July 10, Keep Your Eyes on Jesus

Emily in the wet suite and board I rented

Downtown market

Surfing....

I wrote this one a week ago so it's a bit out of date.  I was going to add pics but I don't have them yet.  I'll get them on here later:) 


So this weekend I went camping and attempted surfing. The camping was great but I'm not sure surfing is going to become a hobby of mine any time soon.  Not that it killed me or anything, I don't have any really amusing/embarrassing story, it just wasn't that fun.  I know that is often how it goes for first time surfers and it gets better as you go along, but I don't really feel like working on getting better.  It's so much work for such a short thrill. You finally get out to the waves, manage to turn your board over, get on it - hopefully while keeping it straight and not being too far up or back, and then you paddle and ride the wave in, which is fun, but then you're back at the shore and have to walk all the way back to the waves again, all the while spitting out the salt water that keeps getting into your mouth and tastes disgusting. And then there are the times when you don't ride the wave, but the wave rides you and you get thrown every which way while your board goes the other, not that much fun. I know I sound like I'm wining, but this is what my surfing experience was like so I'm sharing it with you.  And it's not like I regret trying it, not at all, I'm totally glad I gave it a shot, but I just probably won't give it another shot.
Unfortunately, my biggest mistake was forgetting to get a picture of myself in the wet suit with my board...sorry Nadine. So I'm just going to have to describe it to you. So close your eyes and imagine me wearing a back wet suit with a hood that fits tightly over my head and black booties.  Now imagine me holding a blue surf board that's 9 feet high and a little to wide for me to grab with one arm so I get to awkwardly carry it with two arms across the beach, every so often putting it down to readjust my grip, or lean it against my hip so the wind doesn't push against it.  Ok, now I'm in the water with my board beside me walking out and jumping over the waves that come past.  Now I'm out deep enough so I turn my board around, see a wave and get on it on my belly.  I start paddling, the wave comes, My board rides on top of it... but then I guess I'm too far up it or something so all of a sudden the top of my board noes dives into the wave right in front of the break and I go flying...haha, yay. As long as you can imagine all that, you won't need pictures.
So that was my surfing experience, again, not regretted, just probably won't be repeated. But overall the weekend was really great.  I had a great time camping with Kathleen, Nicole, Dan, Matt, Rob, Emily, and Matthys.  And I we saw a salmon run! Which is an area in a river where they are swimming up stream to spawn.  So there are hundreds all packed together in this little area and they are flinging themselves into the air trying to get over a fairly large rapid, which was so cool to see.
I came back from camping Saturday night because I had to be in church on Sunday for our first inter-generational service! I was really excited and nervous because this is one of the main things I had been working on and I was doing more in the service than I had before.  Overall it went really great! We had our first part of the visual up, which Isable and I had worked on all week, and I did the congregational prayer taking prayer request, which also went pretty good.  During the message I had people in the congregation come forward and hand me one of the Biblical figures while Turk talked about their faith story and Isable and I did a little demonstration of running a race to show how we need to stay focused in our walk/race with God.  At the end of the service we sang a re-done version of 500 Miles, which the Sunday school kids know really well as well as the Gems so I asked some of them to come forward to do the actions with Trish and I.  We had a great time just dancing and singing at the front with everyone else singing and dancing with us. It's something we're going to do at the end of every service and I think it's going to be a great each week.
So that was my weekend.  And now the Turkstras are gone on vacation for 2 weeks so I have the house to myself until Thursday when Allison fly's into Vancouver!! I'm going to meet her there and we're going to explore Vancouver and Victoria before heading back to Nanaimo for 2 days.  It's going to be soo great to have her here!!!