The tears are falling

Definitely some tears shed today. We started off today with Guys/Girls group.  Guys go to Woodsys' and the girls met in the conference hall with Jade. Jade wanted us to take time and meditate on a scripture verse and listen to what God has to say and write it down. Romans 8:38-39 was our scripture. God's Love, we sat by ourselves with a pencil and paper, and listened for 20 min. Some girls drew pictures that God showed them, others wrote words, and some saw vivid pictures in their mind. Then we all came together to share, lots of prayer for specific girls followed and that's when the tears started falling. Morning Tea started at 10, we missed it completely, and prayed right through until 10:30. It was really fantastic and a lot of girls opened up. Also I finally have a mentor, its Cass. It came about really great too. Jade brought up the fact that half of the girls don't have mentors and then she asked Cass who she wanted to mentor and I was one of them! I had been thinking about asking her, but earlier she had been talking about how busy she was and I felt that it wasn't a good time to ask.

For workday I started out raking grass in the soccer field with John D, and then when it started pouring on us, we emptied our wheelbarrows in the paddock and ran to the shed. I was completely and uttered soaked. My next job, painting in Woodsys' flat. He apparently asked for someone who was really good at painting and Zack recommended me, because he figured I would be responsible and be able to figure it out. I was a little worried because Woodsy is kind of a perfectionist but he assured me that it wasn't too big of a deal if I made some mistakes. That took me the rest of workday and I touched up the walls and painted the baseboards. I really enjoyed myself and think that maybe I'll learn the proper technique when I get home.

After that I checked my computer and saw that my mom had emailed me numerous times, the one that really struck me was the death of Chelsea, a girl that I've worked with and whose siblings I know quite well. Tears flowed steadily there and it's still on my mind even though I've given it over to God.

All of a sudden the tragedy of it all will pop into my mind and I'll be brought close to tears. The guys at dinner really cheered me up though. They were trying to make me blush by giving me compliments like saying that they were getting lost in my eyes and couldn't eat, lol. Then they were telling us about Harvest Fest in Winkler Manitoba and that we need to all come out. I actually wouldn't mind going but if I stay for second semester I won't be able to. They have a band coming, carnival rides, a rodeo, and some other stuff. Its sounds fun and they made it sound like such a big deal! Also they were joking about setting Shelby and I up with their younger brothers which was funny because they are all more than three years younger than us.  

Tonight was family group. Shelby did a great job talking about how we need to hunger and thirst for God. I talked with Cass afterwards about Chelsea and had another good cry. She was such a beautiful girl, a smile always on her face, kind to everyone, just lovely overall. She will be missed, and her family is in my thoughts and prayers. I don't understand why this happened but I know that God has a plan and purpose, he sees the full picture when we can only see a tiny piece.

The Time

And sometimes I lose track of time.... not often, but it happens. Garth met today with each ministry and everyone was given a time slot, Rachel and I had 2:10-2:20pm. After lunch I went on the computer, wrote a letter then went to print out my outline, came back to my room, wrapped my secret sister gift. Then I sat down and looked at the time... 2:17pm. SHOOT! I jumped up and ran down the hallway, then realized I needed my laptop so I ran back, unplugged my computer and tried to bring it with me however my iPod was plugged in and tangled up with the other cord! I did make it to the meeting with a couple minutes to talk.... He told us that our group was at the top with the most praise, and close behind was the scripture team. He said that both Mark and Coby were impressed with us because we "roll with the punches" and always find something to do. The one comment was that I talked a lot and that Rachel didn't, Garth said maybe we could try and work on that. I know this is an area I need to improve on since I  like to fill the silence, and when a question is asked and no one answers.... I usually will. That's not really the problem, its more that I don't give time for others to answer or encourage them to, funny that this is also the area I got docked marks for on my Bible study. Perhaps God is trying to tell me something?

Well tonight Rachel and I are going to the Scottish Arms for dinner with the people from our church. This past Sunday, Nicole, Olivia, Kyle, Nathan, and Zach, came to The Fields. Since Kyle and Nathan have a ministry at Harbison Care, and get to choose which church they go to, they've picked ours! They liked it because Pastor Mark preaches to you, not at you, as well as the small community of people. Some of the other Capers students have expressed a desire to come to a Sunday service as well so we may get more people yet!

Also our camping spot is booked for this weekend, so we are praying for sunny weather since we will be by the beach!

A Sunny Day

Well this morning was definitely not the best, first bad morning I've had since being here. Olivia and I were 2 minutes late for set and serve breakfast this morning, so we had to do lunch privileges today as well. Then we went to serve breakfast and the porridge had been left on the stove by a staff member so it was all stuck to the bottom and still had to be dished out. The milk had also gone sour for the cereal. On top of that, the clock in the kitchen was off, so it looked like we were later for breakfast than we really were. The day got better, thankfully. Lectures were great. Our speaker is from Queensland and he is speaking on Abiding in God. He taught in the morning and after tea, Woodsy talked on The Gospel Driven Life.

Neil couldn't drive the van into town today because he had to pick up another board member from the airport. Therefore Woodsy had to. He moved our Hong Kong meeting into town and we sat at a cafe and went over fundraising and information. It went really good and we have two things that will be happening in the next few weeks. The first is Breakfast in Bed, the students will give 10, 20, or 50$ (depending on what they want to eat) and we will make them food and bring it to their room. The meal choices are: a ham and cheese croissant, fruit and yogurt, and finally a kangaroo steak with eggs. We're hoping that the other students will really support this and we will be announcing it on Friday, then taking money and orders on Monday to serve them the following Friday.  It's going to be a big job but I'm looking forward to it! The other idea is a Head Shave for the guys, to take place during SN @C. I like the idea of it although I don't really want to go to Hong Kong with a bunch of baldies.... :/. The good part is that my team members might not have to shave their heads. We're going to try and get a bunch of the other Capers guys to participate as well. We will have a basket and people at SN @ C will pay 10$ each time they put someone's' name in.  Then for every 100$ that is contributed, a name will be drawn from the basket, and their head will be shaved. We're probably going to invite other people that we know from church as well. The other thing we talked about at our meeting was parenting essentially. Woodsy discussed how the way a child is raised, effects their choices in life. So, the guys at New Man House need to learn everything that we would normally learn at 2, like what is right and wrong and how to use their judgement. It's going to be interesting, that's for sure!

When we got back from town, Olivia and I decided to go sunbathing on the bike path behind the Briars. The grass path from the briars to the bike path was super wet because of all the rain we've been getting. So we were walking through mud and puddles! We didn't stay out too long because the sun kept hiding behind the clouds, we saw a turtle and some bunny rabbits on our walk, as well as lots of bugs (a fuzzy caterpillar.)

Dinner was carrot soup and Swedish bread, it was....interesting. Olivia didn't eat anything, which reminded me of one of my sisters... you can probably guess who!

And then there were 5...

So Last night was rather interesting... So everyone student on campus save five of us went to Hillsong. I fell asleep right before they left and while I was sleeping, Brittany and Jamie were invited out for pizza. Jamie told me later that she had wrestled with the idea of waking me up and had even come in my room and watched me sleep for a few minutes hah. Anyway, by the time I woke up they were gone and had told Emma that they would come back and go with me to Krissys' later. So it was Emma and I at dinner, along with three staff members. The only Capernwray student that was on campus was Taylor S and he had broken his arm. I guess at 1:30 am Saturday he rolled out of bed (top bunk) because he was disoriented, and then Sally drove him into the hospital. He is scheduled in for surgery on Monday... its a bad break.

So Krissy was supposed to pick me up at 7:00, well that time came and went. Krissy didn't show nor did she answer her phone and Jamie and Brittany weren't back. Emma told me she would drive me so at 7:30 we left. I guess there was some miscommunication and Kim had heard from Woodsy that all the students were going to Hillsong so she told Krissy no one was coming over. They went into Sydney and Krissy didn't get my text until then.... we hung out anyways so it worked out!

I got back to the school at 11 pm, to learn that Hillsong was fun, however some were disappointed that they ended up in the Asian/ Fillipino service, with Asian food to follow ;). They were playing Stella Ella Ola when I came back haha. I definitely had a better dinner than everyone and didn't have to pay extra for it!!

I would call it a successful Saturday night! Today I'm teaching Sunday school and some of the Capernwray students are going to come to the Fields to see what its like.