Last Post

Well well well. Kaleo is finally coming to a close. Needless to say I have mixed feelings about this along with everyone else. It has been an incredible year and I have gotten so close with everyone here.

We had an awesome retreat at mount washington this week just to hangout and spend time with one another. I had an incredible time here. We also did an awesome solo time like we did at the beginning of the year for spiritual formation. I had an unbelievable time with this. Me and K-cey hiked partway up the mountain and did our solo time up there. I found it really difficult to focus at first and that my mind would wander about every 20 minutes. Once i bucked down and focused and remembered to pray every time I got distracted i got really into it. I prayed for a long time about my friends and going home and then just layed in the sun and read the bible until I was done. On the walk back down we got to slide on our bums, (it was really fun).

I feel excited and nervous to be going home. I am really pumped to see my friends and tell them all the sweet stuff that I have learned this year but I am also nervous about falling into old habits. I know I will have to be intentional if I am going to stay strong this summer. I have certainly taken a huge step in coming here to kaleo and I think that I am just about ready to get back into the world.

This is my last post now anyways. hope you enjoyed reading about all my kaleo adventures.

Lots O' Love, from John

April 5, 2010

HE IS RISEN!!!

This week we had our very last class, Christian worldview. I heard that a number of people did not enjoy it but I thought that it was a great class. I really liked the discussions that went on and a lot of questions that I have had about various things were answered. I really liked the proffesor too, Cal MacFarlane. I thought the besides being a hilarious guy he was a really good prof. I did not agree completely with all of his positions but I actually liked this because it forced me to thing and to shake up come ideas that I was probably getting too comfortable with.

We had an awesome passover meal with our kaleo fam after class as well. We had all the traditional foods to eat and followed the ceremony as best we could. We are on contract though so we couldnt have real wine. It was a really fun experience and some dashing young gents even went so far as to wear some traditional clothing (cough* james/john).

The most intense event of this week was when we watch The Passion of the Christ. I had watched this movie a long time ago but it never really meant that much to me back then. I found this time though that I was really deeply moved by it and I could tell that everyone else was as well. It was a powerful experience after everything we learned this year about our Lord and Savior.

HE IS RISEN INDEED!!!

March 27, 2010

This week was a really sweet time. We went on our second surf trip this week to Tofino. I had a really great time again just like last time. For sure these trips have been one of my favorite parts of kaleo. We got to do all the same stops that we did last time. One at that incredible forrest path with the massive trees. One at coombs with the goats on the roof (except the goats were not out this time). And one at the rapids spot where we ate lunch. I love this trip because it shows how big and incredible Gods creation is and how small insignificant we are in this huge world.

The surfing itself was really fun too. I didnt actaully do any surfing though just like last time. I tried to get up for about an hour and then just ditched my board and went to play in the huge waves. The waves are so huge and incredible there it just doesnt get old.

We had some really good chapels this trip too. Both nights there were some people from the community that came to hang out with us and see what we were doing. One of them was a youth group and we had the opportunity to pray for the kids in it. One of them me and matthew and jeremy got to pray for and it was a great time listening to his plans for his missions trip coming up.

This was an incredible week.

March 21, 2010

This week was really relaxing for me. After the intenseness of Gospels it was awesome to have a nice break. The only work that I really did all week was on my camp ministy paper. I thought this would be much more boring than it turned out to be. I actaully had a lot of fun interviewing Justin and writing on his position of CEO director.
The main event of the week for me was definantly the second Ditch The Girls night. I had an awesome time just hanging out with the guys. We had a big relay race kind of thing around the camp and then got to go to Jims and make our own steaks (always a nice break from camp food). We then came back to the PWL and made a massive fort in the lounge and played a big game of sardines in the pitch black. We had a really good talk as guys that night, encouraging and admonishing and helping each other to overcome things we noticed we were struggling with.
The next morning we all went to this indoor rock climping place and had a ton of fun monkeying around. Overall it was a really sweet event. I found that I had time to talk and have fun with people that I dont normally spend that much time with.

March 15, 2010

This week we had class pretty much the entire week. We got to take gospels with Wes Olmstead which was a very intense/hard but fun experience. This class taught me a lot of things. It was a ton of information and your brain hurt by the end of every day but I learned a ton of stuff that I would never have even thought of before. I really learned what it means to be a disciple of Jesus this week. I had always had a few preconcieved ideas about this but through the careful study of the gospels this week I found out what God actaully wants for me in this area.

I found myself thinking a lot about my friends back home and the way that Jesus wants me to stand out to them. Being a disciple means taking up your cross every day and standing apart from the rest of the world even if this means being looked down on by friends or even family.

I have been thinking about my friends back home more and more and I think that I am ready to minister to them the way I should always have been doing. I am praying a lot that God will give me the words to say to them and the courage to say it. I understand now Jims analogy of kaleo being a diving board to get you ready to jump into the world and be a light.

March 8, 2010

This week at kaleo we had reading break. We got back from the olympics and I had one day before I left to go home. We had a big debrief day with the mexico team and got to tell and re-tell all the stories that we had from both of the trips. it was really interesting to see what everyone had been doing, especially kristy, she is the coolest ever... when i went home on reading break it was really fun but also really challenging. The more that I learn here at kaleo and the closer I get with everyone here I feel like I have less and less in common with my friends back home. Some of the things that I used to be fine with seeing and hearing and doing are now really hard for me to deal with. But it was good becuase it made me appretiate everyone here at kaleo that much more. This wasnt the case with everyone back home and it was still really great to be able to see my closest friends. One thing that was really sweet was that I was able to give my friend Chloe the bible that I had been keeping for her. Since the only time she has read one has been with me I felt really good being able to give that to her so she could at least have it around when she needs it. This we have class with Wes Olmstead. Which is really hard and tiring because we are getting so much information but really good.

February 1, 2010

This last week at kaleo was not nearly as eventful as last week. It was good to have not a quite so crazy week though. We got a few days to relax which was awesome. We had two days of Jim Badke's camp ministry class this week. This class is a very fun class to have. It is not as dense as a lot of classes that we do but we still get a lot of applicable information. On friday night we had a big youth party thing at camp where a bunch of the youth groups from the surrounding churches that we attend came over to hang out and worship God and play some games. I really enjoy all the kids that are in my youth group. They are really crazy and wild kids but they have some awesome deep moments where I see some of the wisdom that God has given them. Thursday night was definantly the best night of the week for me. My dad came over from the mainland to hang out since he had a day off work. I love spending time with my dad so this was a really great time for me. We went out for dinner and saw a movie just had fun like we always do. We also got to have a really good talk on the way back to camp. I really appretiated my mom after our talk since one of our main topics was talking about how much of an awesome influence she is for us. I got to talk about a lot of stuff i have been learning and it was just really sweet being able to talk about my Kaleo life with my dad. We are now in Jim Paulsons theology class. This class is really interesting and is already answering a lot of questions that I have about God.

Last Weeks Blog, January 25, 2010

This week at kaleo was one of the most adventurous we have had in a while. We woke up at the crack of dawn on monday morning, got into the vans, and drove to Mount Washington for our ski and snowboard trip. The trip was incredible fun. I had never gone on any kind of snowboard or ski trip ever before so I was a little more that rusty for the first couple days. I chose to try snowboarding because it looked like it was easy but sadly i found this was only an illusion. I think that for the first few days I was flying face first into the snow or falling on my bum more than i was standing, except for the one scary fast run that I had where I almost killed a small child. He was allright though. On wednesday we went on the snowshoe adventure. I thought that this was such a fun day. Probably was the top 5 days I have had at kaleo so far. It was amazing running down steep hills and digging huge snow caves! Then later that day we got to go snow tubing! really an awesome day through and through. On thursday and friday we went back out on the slopes to snowboard some more. i still kinda sucked a lot on thursday but i was able to at least have a bit of fun. On friday I did a lot better though. I could go up to the top of the mountain and actaully board around for extended periods of time. I had a lot of fun on that day. The snowboarding was really great but one of the best things about this trip was our chapel times at night. They were really intense and actaully quite tiring but we had some awesome times where we could encourage each other. We had two days where we got to give each other new names, the names we thought that God would call our brothers and sisters by. This was a really great expereince. It helped me to appretiate a lot of people a lot more and also helped me to look at them more from the way that God would look at them. While we were on this trip I had a couple of pretty hard days where I was feeling pretty down. I learned during this time a lot better to rely on God to help me deal with problems in my life. I really realized how even though other people might not always be around to help or just not able to, God is alwyas there and always cares and supports me. Overall, this was a really intense but very fun week.

January 11, 2010

Finally back from winter break and then straight into classes. it was a crazy first week back for me at kaleo. The break was a very interesting experience. I had gone home a couple of times before for thanksgiving and for reading break but this was my first long period of time spent at home in a while. It was really good to see my friends and family again. However the first week was a real struggle for me. I found that I felt more distant from some people and I found myself being very suprised at some things my friends would do and say that would not have surprised me before. I had made it my mission during being home to talk to my friends about some of the awesome things God has been doing for me and talk to them about their relationship or lack thereof with Him. I have often found it a struggle to talk to my friends about God with my friends for some reason. They are the people who mean the most to me so it would seem like I would be eager to talk to them about God and salvation but for some reason i almost never do. It might be because i am affraid of hurting my relationship with them or turning them off God by witnessing wrong. I did get to see my only close christian friend i have not seen in a long time and talk to him about both of our relationships with God which was awesome. I also got to talk to my friends Chloe and Hala a bit about God. They had both been praying lately about crazy things in their lives and even though it seems like they dont have a desire for a relationship with God this really excited me. With my best friend Brandon I got to have a very long and deep talk about God. He told me that he has gotten a desire to get close to God and he is trying different things. I got to give him a few suggestions are read the Bible with him. It was a really good time of talking to my friends about my faith. I did find this time exhausting however and the last week of the break was hard. Coming back to kaleo I had a class right away which didnt help me to relax any. But it was still a good experience learning about Gods desire and plan for mission in our lives. Overall it has been a wild month and i am looking forward to maybe getting a little more rest these next few days. Anyways, until next week.