Pelican Narrows Part 1

Throughout my previous blogs I have mentioned that we will be going on mission to Pelican Narrows, so I just want to go into what’s happening in Pelican, how it got to where it is now and what our mission will be in making a difference there. I’m sorry if this is a bit long winded but I will try to explain everything as much as I can.

Brief history:

Before white man came to North America, the Cree population of the Peter Ballentyne first nation people lived in Pelican Narrows. The Cree people were wilderness people or natives some may call them and they used to go about and around the lakes trading skins and furs with other bands and populations in that area. They also spoke their native language: Rock Cree. However in the 1600s they were interrupted by the Hudson Bay Company which brought new technology to them and traded guns and other metal equipment. Because you could get around easily by canoes there, Pelican became a trading post for southern and northern Canada, transporting goods up and down the rivers and lakes. This started the movement of the first missionaries coming to Pelican in the 1800s, these of which were Roman Catholic, of which they planted lots of churches and after about 30-50 years, the reserve population started to convert to Christianity.

In 1919 the Cree population were coming off badly due to the Canadian population moving in and bringing their technology and the English language. The government set up treaties which gave them money, yet they still came off badly and struggled. The Cree population is very proud of its heritage, therefore to take away its culture and language damaged their hearts massively.

After a while, some individuals running the Roman Catholic Church started residential boarding schools for the Cree kids in promising to give them a good education and a hope to gain jobs to better themselves. However when these kids arrived the staff mistreated them horrifically: They sexually assaulted them, physically and mentally abused them, they took their identity away from them giving them numbers which they are called by, they learnt everything including the Bible in English which meant they could not understand easily and their Cree language was taken from them. By the time they were 18 they were broken inside and out, with the expectation to go out and get good jobs and be successful. Well this didn’t happen, the young adults scared for life turned to drinking and drugs to try compromise and compensate the pain that they had constantly been suffering with in their childhood. This then made it very difficult for them to pass on good education and moral actions to their kids, as their kids would be brought up in drug ridden homes and violent alcoholic parents.

Fortunately the last residential school closed in 1992, but by that time has left a long lasting damaging impression on the Cree community, which has passed down generations to where we are today. Today a large percentage of adults are usually drunk or high, with fights breaking out regularly because of this. There are a number of gangs that operate in different parts of the town; the Bronx and the NNB (Notorious Native Brothers) are the main two that try to control what goes on. Luckily not everyone is in these gangs and as missionaries we can try to implement them and speak Gods word into their hearts.

The Cree Government:

The Narrows government or counsel is made up of 4 reserves coming together, including 1 Chief and 14 counsellors, 5 of which are from the reserve of Pelican. They do conduct themselves in a democratic manner; however some votes are won due to the surname, connections/relationships, therefore this can have complications in righteous decision making.

Main facts today:

• There is a population of around 4000 people living in Pelican
• The average age of the Cree population is 16.3 years old
• 53% of the population are over 15
• Unemployment is 75%
• 48% come from broken homes 
• 73% of the population do not have education over the age of 15

Canadian Governments Treaty:

The Canadian Government has tried to compensate the Cree First Nations people by giving them treaty money every 2 weeks, this is about $300. They also get their housing heating, electric and other maintenance bills all paid for, so that $300 is meant to be spent on food and any other costs. However this has had a negative influence on the people, as they do not know the value of money. They have no respect for the houses that they live in and too many times has news come through that there has yet been another person killed in house fires, caused accidentally or by arsenal [arson] attacks. It’s a strange different type of poverty compared to let’s say many African countries, as these are people who live very basically with limited housing, burning furniture and knocking down walls in their house for firewood, they have hardly any food in their houses and kids are running around with no jackets on or gloves in the minus temperatures; yet all the kids will have the latest iPhones and other technology and such things. This is because they have the money given to them by the government, but so many people just spend it on alcohol or drugs and leave their kids $10 to go down to the shops and buy themselves food for the day. Their food of which consists of sweets and chocolate, therefore many of them do not have teeth or metal teeth. Because of the way the treaty is set out, the people are getting more money than they would if they worked, therefore this makes an incentive for them not to work and stay at home drinking and not bothering to do anything as they can get more money from that compared to if they get a job.  

What Soul Edge will be doing:

Josh Erb’s twin brother Joel and his wife Joylyn are full time missionaries out there, therefore most of our instruction will be with them, helping them out in what they do. Our days will be packed full of mission work so when I’m out there I will give you a better understanding of what goes on.

1. Our time is divided into school work helping out with their PE sessions
2. Evangelism
3. Street ministry, going out onto the streets and meeting with people, praying and evangelising to them.
4. As we have been disciple for 3 months, we are encouraged to use that teaching and disciple others, building relationships and digging deep into their lives in the hope of revival to their lives and the community 
5. Serving Joel and Joylyn with any jobs they need doing. Logging and hauling will be a big part of our time, due to the place that we are staying has no central heating and will have to be kept warm by fires constantly, which means lots of wood needed!
6. We focus lots of our time also in kid’s ministry, specifically working and running the youth centre there, which can be home to up to 100 youth at a time. There we will be playing games with them, running stands and talking to them. This may be particularly hard as the kids haven’t been brought up with manners and much respect for property; therefore we need to continue the work of Joel and Joylyn in teaching them that. Many of the kids due to their broken families, come to Soul Edge to receive love, therefore we give that attention and love to them.
7. Community work: Cleaning graffiti off walls, fixing broken houses, installing smoke detectors and educating them on that.
8. Enjoying the experience, taking in the breath taking Northern Lights and what the great Canadian North has to offer!
9. Working in the Baby house, where a couple called Stephen and Katie are there on mission too. This involves looking after a number of toddlers and childcare duties.
10. We’re also gunna have fun ice fishing and we complete a 5 day canoe trip at the end of our time there which should be great fun in the rapids!
11. We will be also using Jesus as the main word for God, due to the Cree nations people have their own ancestry Gods and will often ask which God they are praying too if we mention God without relating it to Christianity

Our accommodation will be basic, living a life of simplicity. We have a house on the Narrows (the mountain range in which Pelican is set), no running water, central heating or wifi so unfortunately I will not be able to respond very often to emails or messages, this however will isolate me to simplicity and a heart of service, so in a way I’m not too bothered.

This is a population that needs our help to give them a positive influence and not just give them money, but love. Our mission is to “Come along side what God is already doing, 100% with a heart of love”. Because of the previous bad encounters with outside people, the Cree population are very sensitive to outsiders, making little eye contact. We need to give them that hope that many have seemed lost, that love that was rejected by their previous parents and residential schools, working within their community and show everyone everywhere that there is a light at the end of the tunnel for these people, that there is hope and these people can be saved, that they are Gods children and God does love them just as much as everyone else in this world. These people struggle the most because they are not in the headline news and do not have the big Christian UK or European charities working within them to help them out, this is why we are there as a life line to help them stand on their own feet with God.

I leave on April 2^nd and I’m there for a total of 8 weeks. After that we will be back in Herbert for a week and planning to stay in Calgary with the Unger family for a few days for debrief and preparation for going back to the UK. I will hopefully be posting another blog while I’m out in Pelican to share my experiences if I can get Wifi, but if not you will hear from me again in June, thanks everyone for keeping up with my blogs, supporting and praying with me on my mission, I’m sure God has a lot planned for all of us! 

Lethbridge

Being back in Herbert with an injured shoulder really sucks! However it’s been a good excuse to go off and pray by myself with no one around and really dig deep down into God, as this gave me more time out from the physical activities. The following weekend after Banff we travelled to Lethbridge, a city 5 hours south west of Herbert. Here is where a largely expanding church lives called the River of Life Church (ROL). During our time there we would be doing small jobs for them, getting involved into the youth there and really trying to gain as much knowledge as possible as they run a Bible school and had some great teachers. ROL is also where Josh Erbs mentor works; his name is Todd Atkinson, a simply amazing, out of this world human being who has such a passion for God that you can even feel it by him just being in the same room. Todd is a Bishop at ROL and he is responsible for moving the church into a Convergence movement, which combines all 3 of the church ‘styles’: Charismatic, Evangelic and Historic. He also makes sure that the church lives up to their vision, part of which is to bring the 5 Passions of Jesus Christ's life: Presence, Teaching, Community, Calling and Missions.

Because of this he is extremely busy and since he is such a powerful man of God with such knowledge and a great testimony, everyone wants to have ‘Bishop time’ with him and hear of his experiences and knowledge. Luckily we got a chance to have some ‘Bishop time’ with him and for an hour or so, as we could ask difficult long winded questions that maybe most others could not answer. This gave me a real insight into the church and its prospects and why the church and the Christian faith is the way it is today. On one of the days we went for a hike which as usual we had perfect weather, however as usual, avalanche high risk warnings allowed us to only venture a couple of miles into the mountains to a frozen waterfall where we stopped for lunch.

We also had time to pray healing upon myself and Josh’s shoulders. In fact between us plus Kiri and Lauren, we went into deep prayer all afternoon... 

And I mean all 6 hours of the afternoon! 

But thankfully my shoulder relaxed and I can start to have a range of movement and little pain which has helped me get back into the swing of the Soul Edge culture.

On Sunday after the service we were invited to sit in a lecture to Bible College students about Church History. This was surprisingly extremely interesting and gave me great insight as said previously to church growth and where the church may be going in the future. We were taught right from Pentecost and the disciples being sent out by Jesus, through Rome with Constantine, the Great Schism, Reformation and now the Convergence movement which ROL church are moving into and want to spread.

I think that my home church St.Marys, being Anglican, forms to a Historic church focusing more on liturgy with some Evangelism. Being Historic it keeps to a structure with reading the words out loud from a screen. I am most definitely not saying abandon all liturgy and sacraments and just ‘see what happens’ like the Charismatic Churches, as I find that liturgy, such as the Eucharistic Prayer and other sorts can be a reminder, setting in stone our beliefs and proclaiming them. I like to see more time for the Holy Spirit to move (not just 30 seconds after prayer) and through that, more teaching on how to do this so we can use that time wisely and empower us to grow in faith. I also think, from the perspective of a young person who has just recently left the youth that evangelism can be very inspiring and energising for us as young people, as this focuses on the word of Christ and can lead us into action.

So in a nutshell that is what I think, won’t go into too much more detail about it now but I guess what I’m trying to put across from what I’ve learnt at ROL church, is that our society is changing, however we don’t want our beliefs to change as a result of worldly changes. We need to go back to the roots, look to Jesus as a church and focus on him, too many churches and movements have gone off on tangents due to disagreements and that is the reason why there are more than 30,000 denominations in USA alone in the western church. If we study Jesus and what he does teaching on the 5 passions, as a faith we can send out strong, educated disciples who can shine light into the darkest of places and help strengthen and maintain mature Christians in our congregation.  

The week leading up to our mission, we completed ‘The Ranch Run’, a 8 mile run starting at 7am, running from the Town of Herbert to Josh Erbs parents ranch (where we do most of our activities). I was looking forward to this however my shoulder was giving me grief days before; therefore I needed to run in a sling which made it more difficult to get in the swing of things. Anyway I completed 12.5k in 1hr 26mins which I thought wasn’t too bad seeing as I hadn’t ran at all 3 weeks prior! We had breakfast at the ranch then went home to crash and resume sessions and man do I still ache days after!

Prayer Points:

• The full restoration of my shoulder, as ill be needed to do a lot of activities when I’m out in Pelican, logging every day, hauling and a 5 day canoe trip a the end.
  
  
• For the Team members and leaders that we all may be able to prepare for mission efficiently and not miss out any small logistics. 

Banff (Woo)

The prospect of going to Banff made me climb the walls due to the most amazing, stunning views that could be seen and what activities we would be doing there.

Day one as always was travelling nine hours west to Banff National Park, stopping off every few hours as usual for Subway Lunches and Tim Hortons coffee (I’m very addicted to the French Vanilla coffee and Cotton Candy ice cream!).

Day two we travelled to the ski resort Sunshine Village to snowboard for the day and put into practice what we learnt on the big slopes. Here I perfected my grabs and rotations and nailed a method. However I did damage my shin coming off a rail which left me with a second knee which wasn’t cool. The weather and slopes provided perfect conditions and we all had a great day. At the end of the day there is a route that you can board right down to the car park which lasts about 20 minutes, so was a nice cruise down as a cool down.

We planned to hike but because of the snow there was a severe risk of an avalanche (of which I do not want to repeat that experience again). Instead we went to a tubing slope which we bombed it down a 100m slide in a rubber ring. You could go down yourself or up to 8 people could join rings and go down together, however we ‘accidentally’ couldn’t hold on and bashed into each other which was fun. After lunch we trekked into the wilderness and set up our own abseiling ropes. I never thought much of abseiling but when you descend under your own accord it can be fun, fast and cool to try and jump n spin off the rock face.

It was during this time where Tom and I went out onto the frozen river to mess about and saw two coyotes trotting towards us, which was very uncommon due to coyotes usually tend to be shy. These were the first decent wild animals that I’ve seen since coming to Canada and was a relief to get a good sighting of them.

On day three we went cross country skiing near Lake Louise which was soo much fun and was slightly easier as there were previous tracks we used so our skis didn’t slip out as easily. As always throughout the week we were blessed with amazingly great weather, of which cameras could not do it justice. Banff is truly one of the most spectacular, breath taking environments I’ve come across, no surprise that’s it’s a tourist hotspot all year round!

Day four I had been looking forward to since arriving in Canada. Yes today was the day that I ICE CLIMBED!!! That morning we travelled to Johnston Canyon and caught sight on an Elk which was sick, as I had tasted an Elk burger two nights before. We then trekked a couple of km to a frozen waterfall where our mission was to climb a 20 metre high vertical slope. 

It was definitely harder than I thought as although the technique is to climb with your legs and support with your arms, due to the difficulty of the climb my forearms and hands were definitely destroyed afterwards and cramp set in on my first attempt. 

However my second try allowed me to persevere to the top. I even managed to attach a few GoPros which should come out with some decent footage. That evening we went to Banff Springs Hotel and went to the hot baths there. They also had 1940s swim suits that we could rent so after being peer pressured I gladly did.

Day five we travelled to Lake Louise to snowboard which was a great experience as world snowboarding and skiing competitions have been held there. I got the chance to switch from a solid board to a more flimsy flexible board to allow me to jump and spin better. The board I was using, to buy, would cost over 500 dollars so was great to use such a high performance board. However a disadvantage of having a flexible board for me is that I cannot turn and have control as easily; and as a result of going down a black diamond run I picked up too much speed and dislocated my shoulder in the process of bailing. 

Within a minute everyone was around me and Josh Erb relocated my shoulder. This made me out for the rest of the day snowboarding, the only benefit of which was to have an adventurous sleigh ride down to the bottom with first aid by a skidoo. After being checked out by a doctor I have my right arm in a sling for a minimum of three weeks before I can start rehab. It doesn’t ache too much and I should recover quickly. So that was the end of my time in Banff, sadly it didn’t end on a high note. I’ve come to realise that there is such a happy uplifting presence within the Soul Edge team and have a lot of people who are there for me in times of need, I’ve genuinely never felt happier and more at peace.

One small note to add in this blog, probably one of the biggest things I miss about the UK is the water, Herbert water is absolutely vile and stinks to high heaven! Plus the fact that instant coffee out here is also diabolical, I've converted myself to a tea drinker and my progress is great!

Kananaskis Country

Eight hours later from leaving our small town of Herbert we arrived at the base camp of Blue Brana, situated in the Rocky Mountains at the foot of Mt Armstrong. There we lived in small cabins which were basically sheds with prison type bunks inside.

Upon arriving in the evening we immediately carried out a night hike up to Cougar Ridge, a small mountain which took half an hour each way up and down. This was cool but there were strong winds and we couldn’t see a thing so it made it a bit less exciting. On the way down we had the chance to slide down half the mountain which was fun taking people out. 

On the first full day we hiked up into a mountain range with snow shoes. Snow shoes were essential as it allowed us to walk easily over powder and not sink knee deep after every step. We did a 17km loop reaching the summit of one of the mountains experiencing high winds when on the ridge up to 70km/h. Towards the top it was cool as we had to take off our snowshoes and physically climb up the last 100m on rock to the summit. The weather was amazing with clear blue skies and everyone’s spirits were high.

The second day was the first day of our snow camping experience. We hiked 9km climbing 5000ft up to where we found a small flat area within the forest to camp for the night. We chopped down trees for fire and used the stars as a blanket as we did not use any tents or roofs, just some tarp as a windbreaker and the fire to keep us warm. The morning after we broke camp and hiked another 4k uphill to the boarder of BC which was so sick as trudging up we experienced blizzard type weather and everyone was feeling drained in motivation and blistered up, however as we got to the border the clouds cleared, the sun was out and I for one felt determined to carry on and complete our hike. We were actually the first team to hike to BC as previously it hasn’t been reachable. It was then a nice descent of 13km down to where our cars were, which was great to take some snaps, although my shoulders and knees hurt a lot (poor me).

Day five was a slightly more relaxed day getting up at a later time of 8 o’clock compared to the 6:30 usual start. I lead worship for the first time on soul edge and Seb lead a talk speaking about Peter and identity. After this it was a good time for solitude and finding a quiet space around base camp with some spectacular views. In the late afternoon we went up to Cougar Ridge again but took another route and scrambled up. This was a great opportunity to exercise my previous bouldering experience and see for miles around the mountain range. That evening we had some great food and a chance for us to relax and drop knives from a height on ourselves to see if it hurt...

Our last day in K country we were meant to get up early, hike up to Cougar Ridge and watch the sun rise. However the leader’s alarms failed to go off and we woke up to the sun shining bright through our windows which sucked a bit. Because of that we packed up early, the other guys did a naked lap of the cabin in waist deep snow and we travelled the 8 hour journey back to Herbert.

During my time in K country I prayed for strength and determination many times, and God gave me the energy to carry on when i had nothing in the tank. Leading worship also gave me the drive to step out in confidence and start my leading experiences, so a pretty decent fun-filled week. 

Mission accomplished

This is an update to the post published in 5th February

I think one of the reasons they carry out the course in this isolated setting, apart from to do with the adventures, is to strip back all distractions from God and allow your heart and mind to focus on him and really open up.

My life is beginning to be transformed with the Holy Spirit and I think with the added use of meditation combined with solitude can be a great combination in gaining a better understanding of God. Quickly for those who don’t know: Meditation in the Christian translation is not like eastern religions where the aim is to empty the mind, but to fill the mind with Jesus and his power and really concentrate on him, listening to what he has to say. In the Bible Jesus also speaks of solitude, the act of sitting in complete silence and just hearing his word. We live in a world surrounded by noise and of a social media culture where ‘if you’re not always connected, you’re nothing’. So to most, acting in solitude can come across as a fear and a bad thing as many of us when stressed or in times of hardship, like to plug in their iPod and forget about the world. They don’t want to ‘own up’ and realise to any mistakes and it would mean that they may have to deal with them straight away and not let it prolong.

This is why Jesus calls us to act in both these days was you can set your eyes upon him and have a 1-2-1 relationship, not you, Jesus, phone, ipod, noise and distractions as well. My best advice if anyone were to try and gain a better understanding from him and to hear his word would be to try and find an hour a week out of your busy noisy schedules, to sit home alone, go for a walk in the park, even sitting in your car when in traffic as long as it’s just you and Jesus, I guarantee with practice and devotion you will hear him better than before.

So as some you may know from my last blog I carried out a fast from Monday to Friday last week and I must say it’s easier than you think. As said earlier, Jesus is the only one who can fully sustain us in every way and fill us up to overflowing. Because of this, I believe that he sustained me throughout those five days and I can certainly say I did not eat once. Sure it wasn’t easy, by day two I was struggling with trying to hold myself back from automatically grabbing a crisp every time I went into the kitchen. It also didn’t help that I was the only one doing it, therefore everyone else was eating in my face, however no one said it would be easy and there is no point in even doing this if you are not ready to want to commit to God more. I prayed for a list of things over those days, unlike others who tend to concentrate and blitz one topic. My main prayer that I prayed every time, however, was to meet with God and hear his voice and God revealed him to me in many ways. Building a better, stronger and more powerful relationship with God is key to living life to the full and living in his glory, you should never be satisfied in your relationship and should always seek his word.

Advice for fasting:

• If you’re thinking about fasting, I recommend a short 24/36hr to begin with so you can get a feel of what you’re getting yourself into and not fail at the first hurdle.
• Only fast for a long period of time E.G five days if you hear God calling you to, as it is God that sustains you, so fasting without being sustained by God can be more of a challenge.
• Before the start of the fast, most will think they need to have a huge meal in order to try and last longer. This simply does not work and can make it harder, so have lighter bites a day or two before the start.
• Get others to fast and pray with or for you too, as this can be beneficial to multiple people if you are going through fasting in some way together.
• Every time you hear your stomach rumbling, it is not you starving and wasting away, just your stomach used to at that time releasing digestive juices to process the food that would be there. To solve this, simply go away and pray and for me anyway, the hunger subsided and I felt better and more energized.
• On the note of hunger pains, hunger symbolises the daily habits you think you need to survive, when the voluntary denial of this is for the sake of intense spiritual activity which will sustain you. 
• Breaking the fast, start with a smaller portion than you would of soft foods such as fruit or vegetables, due to your stomach will have decreased in size and need to get used to taking food again. 
• Lastly, no one said it was going to be easy, if it was everyone would do it and it wouldn’t be valued as much. Keep pushing and praying for God’s presence and you will get the answers you need.

I hope this helps anyone who had any questions on this topic; I understand to some it may be a bit heavy. This course really engages you with all aspects of the Christian faith and allows you to grow in ways in which in the past you thought weren’t possible.

In other news, snowboarding once again was great, however it cooled down to lows of -28, therefore boarding wasn’t the best conditions. At the end of February we will be travelling to Banff park reserve in which we will hike, and snowboard in some of the most spectacular conditions and environments, because of this we are hitting the gym hard and improving in our boarding skills to be able to cope – It’s a hard life!

During free time we’re collectively thinking up of more creative games to play, the latest is ‘AlphaSheep’ where when said to another member, the two individuals will do a lap of the house, winning by any means necessary, can get every violent as usual and you don’t even wanna know what AlphaFlock is! We are also re-furbishing the church’s youth/kids room down in the basement, which involves moving furniture, and painting and decorating. We’re going for a beach seaside theme. I have got more involved within the youth at the church too, as kids club is every Thursday and I have volunteered every week in helping kids 8-13 learn and play. As the 6 Nations are on, our team did a sweep stake. The rewards and punishments go like the following: Every match the losing team’s representative has to do as many press-ups as the difference in score x10 E.G If my team lost 25-20; I would have to do 50 press-ups. Plus the winner gets to hit you with a duct tape rolled up newspaper. The overall loser of the 6 nations will get 3 wax strips to their legs, done by the winner. Josh has Scotland and I have Italy, therefore it will most definitely be one of us who gets waxed!

Next week we will be travelling to Kananaskis, a region west of Calgary to hike (as always) with snow shoes, snow camping and what I’m most looking for, ICE CLIMBING! I am leaving next Monday and coming back next Friday and should get some awesome pictures.

PS: BEWARE! On Saturday I passed my Gun/Firearms Safety exam, approach me with extreme caution I am having lots of fun with all sorts of weapons!  

Giving it all

Week 2 has come and I’m settling in well to a good routine, as only once have I woken up to a bottle of water thrown on me. On Monday (21^st Jan) Josh Erb did an amazing talk in our morning session about identity in who we are as Christians and what lies to we keep telling ourselves in order to get through a normal day/week. He identified areas in which we try and keep away from God and think we can do ok and great on our own, when in fact God wants all of us and we should hold nothing back from him, no matter what we’ve done in the past or present. This struck a chord in me and made me realise that I can bring any wrong doing to God and he can, through the blood of Jesus, set me free from those wrong doings and he can sustain me alone. 

Also that Monday evening, Josh and I challenged each other to an AlphaDog fight, this is mainly a men’s event, however Lauren seems to get caught up in it quite a bit. There is only one rule and that is you cannot refuse a challenge. Once you have accepted the two of you, or 3 or 4 or the whole team will wrestle and fight (with grace of course) until your opponent submits. Josh and I fought for 9 minutes and unfortunately I was the one to submit. My excuse is that Josh is around 15kg heavier than me, built of muscle and that I tried to do you proud, mum. 

On Wednesday following our spiritual disciplines, we carried out a team fast for 36 hours, breakfast to Thursday morning. When I heard we were doing this, thoughts ran through my head of how much I ate at home, clearing the fridges and asking for seconds... And thirds! Fasting however is more than meets the eye to me, as it shows us that all we need and should want is Jesus and that he can sustain us alone. Our physical bodies need a small amount of food to sustain us, however we also need God to feed and sustain is spiritually which is far greater than feeding our bodies with food. Therefore the time that we could be eating, we bring that to God ask him to speak to us in that time. I thought I was going to be dying at dinner crawling along the floor, but actually I never felt hungry in those 36 hours but felt fulfilled that I had used that time wisely to hear Gods word and the news he had for me. I think it’s important to still go about your daily life while fasting, as we were still allowed to drink. We still went for morning runs and still hit the gym and I haven’t felt tired or out of energy at all. Personally I think we should all give fasting a go and see what it entails for us and how much it can make us grow with God.

On Thursday the guys went off to the ranch to mess around on the quad and the girls stayed at home and hosted a small cell group for young teenage girls. Now when I heard that these girls were coming, a rush of sweetness, innocent-ness with a hint of immaturity came into my mind. Well I was completely wrong, these girls were animals! It seems that they finish their cell group early and set traps and pull pranks on us for when we return. This week they somehow climbed round the side of the house, through our bedroom window as we locked the door exiting the same way, and proceeded to take ALL our underwear and put them out in the snow. This in itself is not the worst, bit damp you may think, however our boxers were rock hard solid, I mean we could play Frisbee and hit each other with them, not impressed! 

On Friday we went snowboarding, my last post misspelt the resort as it is Elk Water, not Oak Water. The weather last week had seemed to have some warmth about it, reaching highs of -5, however this week it is back to normal temperature of -35C with wind chill.

I have began to realize that I need God to talk to me more, as in a good/bad way, I am pretty much the only person who doesn’t seem to have had a huge encounter or regular communication with Christ yet, even though it is still week 2/3 by now. However when I was praying on Saturday, I felt a strong thought pop into my head saying “Fast from Monday to Friday next week”. Now my initial reaction was ‘If this is you God are you having a laugh!? I managed one day for sure but 5 literally a few days after my first ever small fast!?’ However this seemed persistent and after a little argument with God I finally decided to eat nothing for five days. By the time this blog is up I will be on day 2 or 3, so in my next blog I will tell you how I have done, the struggles I faced, what God did to me and any advice I could give if anyone was planning on fasting. 

This is not a Democracy, this is a Dictatorship!

Saying goodbye to my friends and family was hard. I don’t usually share emotions or show them, but going away for 5 months with little contact was going to be a struggle and it definitely hit me as I got onto the plane. It was almost like saying goodbye to your loved ones forever, as so many events would happen while I would be away.

As I arrived at the airport I met Tom and Rachael and then met Josh, Dan (also known as Scott), Chris and Andrew through security. It was a weird sensation to attempt to make your best first impressions in being as cool as you can, as these would be the individuals who I would be living 24/7 with for 5 months, sharing pretty much everything about my faith and life back at home. Most of them are from the south west so their accents I had to get used to! 9 hours later we said hello to Calgary, a city situated in the province of Alberto Canada. There we met Seb our team leader, Lauren and Mac our other leaders and Josh Erb and Kiri Erb the Soul Edge founders and directors. The next few days were going to be busy as most of it was picking up gear from MEC an outdoor warehouse, a small 3 hour hike to see the start of the Rockies and travelling 6 hours to Herbert in Saskatchewan where we would be living for the first 3 months. Herbert is a small town on highway one with a population of about 1000 people. It only has one school and gas station etc, yet it's surprising how much goes on. There are loads of churches dotted on pretty much every block and trains that make 3 loud blasts of their horn on a regular basis as they go by. 

When we arrived all the leaders sat us down and went through what was going to be happening, daily routines and what was expected of us. Josh clearly explained that although it’s all British banter with Canadian accents here, this is not a Democracy, it’s a Dictatorship. If the leaders tell us to do something it will be for a good reason of safety and efficiency, therefore rightly so we have to follow or we’ll be out pretty soon!

So our week days go something like this: 

7:30 get up, shower, breakfast and then we have our Personal Devotion time, time to read the chapters and books we’re meant to learn and any other personal things we need to do to prepare us for the day ahead. 

9:30 starts with Josh Erb doing spontaneous worship to the group. I think this is a great way to really open up and be yourself with God and not let anyone judge you by the way you worship. We then pray and Josh does his morning session with us. In the first week we have been going through the inward spiritual disciplines which are great for me as I haven’t really dived deep into this matter up until now. 

At 11 we go for a 3km run in the snow (though we don’t if the temperature drops below -20) and then hit the gym. After lunch we have our afternoon session lead by Kiri. In the 1^st week Kiri explained how we could get the most out of the Bible, giving us some great detail into the way the Bible is structured, translated and contradicted through terms such as exegesis, hermeneutics, apodictic and casuistic law. She also went into more detail about creation and in Genesis where confusion and questions may be answered.

At about 3/4ish the team splits and half goes to work on the ranch where we do anything from moving and cutting logs to riding horses and hay bale wrestling. The other half cleans the house and cooks the evening meal. In the evening depending what day, we go to cell groups, have more Bible sessions or go to the local high school basket ball matches.

Fridays we go snowboarding in Oak water, a small resort in Alberto. This is great to go and mess around on the black runs and Freestyle Park and was great to see some of the beginners pick their skills up!

Every Saturday we have an excursion, this can entail hiking as what we did the first Saturday we came, it can be survival training, snow camping or anything else they think of. Sundays is our day off and unfortunately our only time to contact home and relax due to our packed days during the week. After going to church in the morning this time is dedicated to skyping family, my girlfriend Poppy and writing this of course, my blog. So a pretty packed and well worth hectic week I have. In the following blogs I will dive into my experiences with God and explaining the national sport of Soul Edge, Alphadog.

(If you have not already seen it – there is a link to the itinerary for my course on the right of this blog)

Ready to Go

In the next few days I will be on a journey that could quite possibly change my life forever. There will be challenges set testing my physical, mental and spiritual ability, but how they are over come will be what I learn from in the next 5 months. Please forgive my lack of grammar and punctuation over the next editions; I was always the less academic child between Lorna and myself.

I am travelling to Saskatchewan Canada with a team of 7 individuals on a discipleship training course called Soul Edge. This course is designed to test every ounce of ability I have within myself which will help me trust in my faith and learn more about ‘that guy in the sky’. Throughout the five months we will dive deep into the Bible going from Genesis to Revelations, learning about what God has in store for us. We will also be trained in ministry, public speaking and working within youth groups, enabling us to reach out to the communities and spread Gods word. Half way through we will head up north to Pelican Narrows, where the First Nation community live. We will mentor them and go about our big mission to minister to them and get them on the right track!  It will also incorporate adventure based activities within this course including skiing, snowboarding, ice climbing, canoeing, rock climbing, hiking and various others... So lots to be getting on with!

Within this blog I will be trying to give my best attempt in explaining my experiences, both in growing as a person and with God. I will go through in as much detail as I can what I will be learning through the course about all aspects of the Christian faith, but also share my day to day life encounters with the people I meet while I’m out there.

So here’s where I am at the moment: Just been shopping to collect the last of my kit list items (my Dad’s credit card is hurting!). Good quality Boots, gloves, rucksacks and outer clothing are seen to be essential to cope with the -30C I will be dropping myself into! Surprisingly I’m not nervous or anxious, but looking forward and feeling at ease with it all. I love meeting new people and experiencing new things while growing with God, therefore this is why the course originally appealed to me. I will have to bond with the people I will be living with and those bonds will be tested through the teaching and through the challenges set for us all. I have never met any of these people, only a few emails and a stalk once in a while of their facebook profile, so it will be nice to finally see them face to face. The only aspect I am nervous about however, is trying to compile the kit required and the struggle to packing it all within the given weight at the airport.